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CHAPTER XXVIII.

ACADEMIC SCHOOLS OF ITALY IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES: THE NATURALISTI AND MACCHINISTI.

THE history of painting in Italy has been already brought down to the establishment of the Academic schools; it now only remains briefly to trace the course of these schools throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Cinquecento style was the last of essential development and progression; that of the Carracceschi the last of acquisition, and this in external qualities, and almost exclusively in light and shade, and in the treatment of accessories. Technical execution, as before observed, is the prominent characteristic of the art of the seventeenth century, and accordingly, as might be anticipated, its most excellent performances are in portraiture, whether of man or of any other object.

THE ROMAN SCHOOL.

A slight influence had been produced at Rome by the works of Barocci, who imitated the chaste effect of Correggio. colouring was too artificial; its tone is unpleasant, a violet hue prevailing throughout: in form he was less mannered. The Carracceschi, however, were the great revivers of art at Rome-Domenichino, Guido, Lanfranco, and their scholars; but above all Domenichino. These painters were the principal masters at Rome during the pontificates of Paul V., Gregory XV., and Urban VIII.; and what the painters of Bologna had borrowed from the school of Rome in the pontificate of Clement VII., the pupils of the Carracci returned with interest in that of Urban VIII.

As already observed, the school of the Carracci had a great effect upon portrait painting, this branch of art depending in a great degree on accuracy of delineation and competent execution. The excessive mannerism of the period had induced so much incapacity for individual detail, that the painters generally were utterly incompetent to portraiture, which therefore required a particular study and became almost a distinct profession. Not that there were not any eminent portrait-painters before the establishment of the Carracceschi in Rome: several have been already mentioned, and most of the great Italian painters executed occasionally very fine portraits; but portraiture was an accessory occupation rather than a profession. In the seventeenth century it became what it is now, a profession.

Among the principal of those who devoted themselves more especially to portrait-painting at Rome were the following:-ANTONIO DE' MONTI (about 1536-86), a Roman, who painted several portraits of Gregory XIII.: he was gored to death by a buffalo in the streets of Rome, during the pontificate of Sixtus V. PIETRO FACCHETTI (1535-1613), of Mantua, was particularly celebrated for his portraits of ladies, which were distinguished for their rich colouring: he died in Rome, where he had established himself during the pontificate of Gregory XIII.

ANTONIO SCALVATI (1559-1622), a Bolognese, who settled in Rome also in the time of Gregory XIII., painted Pope Clement VIII. several times, though his holiness never gave the painter a sitting. Scalvati painted Leo XI. and Paul V., under the same extraordinary circumstances, says Baglione.'

ANTIVEDUTO GRAMMATICA (1570-1626), president of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, was also greatly distinguished for his portraits. Grammatica had made enemies in the Academy; and an accusation, apparently founded on truth, was brought against him in 1624, of the intention of selling Raphael's picture of "St. Luke painting the Virgin," which was the property of the Academy, and substituting in its place in the church, a copy of his own. He was accordingly removed from the chair, by the sanction of the Pope, Urban VIII., and the Frenchman Simon Vouet was elected to succeed him. This disgrace hastened the painter's death, which happened about a year afterwards. Grammatica's copy is now in the church of San Luca, and the original of Raphael has been removed to the Academy.

The Cavaliere OTTAVIO LIONI (about 1575-1628), the son of Lodovico Lioni, of Padua, but born at Rome, was greatly distinguished for his portraits. He was president of the Academy of St. Luke, and brought on his death by a disease induced by too great application to etching. His own and other excellent portraits etched by Lioni were published at Rome in 1731, in a work entitled "Ritratti di alcuni celebri Pittori del Secolo XVII.," &c.

And lastly, BALDASSARE ALOISI (1578-1638), a Bolognese, called GALANINO, who succeeded to the position of the Cavaliere Lioni as portrait-painter at Rome, was so excellent in this department of art that he has been termed the Italian Vandyck.

Of the so-called historical painters, the following are the more eminent of those who acquired a reputation above the mass of those practising in Rome in the seventeenth century:-ANTONIO TEMPESTA, born at Florence in 1555, was the scholar of John Stradanus, a

1 "Vite de' Pittori, &c., dal Pontificato di Gregorio XIII. fino a' tempi di Urbano VIII., 4to., Naples, 1733.

battle-painter of Bruges, settled in Florence; and Tempesta's reputation was ultimately that of a battle-painter, though he executed other works for Gregory XIII., at Rome, where he died in 1630.1 ANTONIO RICCI, called BARBALUNGA, born at Messina in 1600, was the scholar and imitator of Domenichino and died at Rome, November 2nd, 1649. ANDREA CAMASSEI, born at Bevagna in 1602, also a scholar of Domenichino, and of Sacchi, was distinguished both as a painter in oil and in fresco, but died poor at Rome, notwithstanding, in 1648. FRANCESCO Cozza (1605-82), of Istilo, in Calabria, a scholar and friend of Domenichino completed some of the works left unfinished at that master's death. PIETRO DEL PO (1610-92), of Palermo, after acquiring considerable distinction at Rome, settled and died at Naples, where, however, he devoted himself chiefly to engraving. GIAMBATTISTA PASSERI (1610-79), a native Roman, lived with Domenichino at Frascati: he was more a genre and still-life, than historical painter, his purely figure-pieces being He was also poet and writer on art; and we owe to him one of the best of the Italian Art-biographies-" Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti che anno lavorato in Roma, morti dal 1641, fino al 1673,"-first published in Rome in 1772, in 4to. Passeri was president of the Roman Academy of St. Luke: he had a great veneration for Domenichino, and painted the portrait of that master, which is now in the Uffizj Gallery at Florence. LUIGI SCARAMUCCIA, called IL PERUGINO, from his birth-place, was born at Perugia in 1616, and died at Milan of apoplexy, while in the church of Sant' Antonio de' Teatini, on the 13th of August, 1680. He studied with Guido, and executed many good works at Perugia, Rome, Bologna, and Milan, where, after the death of Guido, Scaramuccia ultimately settled, married, and established a popular school. He was a member of the Academy of St. Luke at Rome, which possesses his portrait: he also was a writer on art, and published at Pavia, in 1674, a now interesting work in 4to., on the excellences of the Italian painters,

rare.

1 He is still better known for his numerous etchings. This painter must not be confounded with the notorious Cavaliere Pietro Tempesta, or Peter De Mulieribus, as he was called, from his many mistresses. His name was Peter Molyn; he was born at Haarlem in 1637, and was called Tempesta from his love of painting sea storms: he was also a good animal-painter, especially of wild animals, of a nature kindred with himself. From Calvinist he turned Papist and went to Rome, where he married the sister of his assistant, known as Tempestino. Taking a fancy to a Genoese lady, he hired an assassin to put his wife out of the way, and she was murdered at Sarzana. The crime was afterwards discovered, and the Cavaliere passed many years in prison at Genoa; he eventually got out, deserted his second wife, and notwithstanding his antecedents were known, became a very fashionable painter at Milan, where he died of a fever in 1701. His history is recorded by Pascoli: I have noticed both the Tempestas at some length in the "Penny Cyclopædia."

entitled "Le Finezze de' Penelli Italiani ammirate e studiate da Girupeno, sotto la scorta, e disciplina del genio di Raffaello d'Urbino." Girupeno is a mere anagram on the painter's agnomen of Perugino.

The most distinguished Roman master contemporary with the Carracceschi was ANDREA SACCHI, who in respect of pupilage may be reckoned among the Carracceschi himself; he was the scholar of Albani. He was born in the neighbourhood of Rome in 1598, was one of the best colourists and best designers of the Roman school, and was better versed in the theory of art than any of his contemporaries or immediate predecessors. There is a truth and breadth in the style of Sacchi, and a simplicity about his treatment of the subjects he illustrated, which place him on a level with any of the great masters of the Roman school. He was inferior to Julio Romano in invention, but in all other respects is inferior only to the great Caposcuola of his school, Raphael himself.

Sacchi was a devoted admirer of Raphael: when considerably advanced in life he visited Parma and other places in the north of Italy, and he was so much struck with the effective beauty of the Venetian and Lombard schools, that he expected to feel some want in the works of Raphael when he returned to Rome; but immediately he saw the Mass of Bolsena in the Vatican, he exclaimed-"Here I find not only Titian and Correggio, but Raphael also." He died at Rome, June 21st, 1661.

Sacchi's masterpiece is the St. Romualdo, now in the Vatican: the saint is relating a vision to five monks of his order; and though all are clad alike and in white, he has so well contrived the shadow of a tree in the picture, that the whole has a grand and sufficiently varied effect it is generally accounted one of the finest pictures in Rome.'

Carlo Maratti and Nicolas Poussin were both pupils of Sacchi.

PIETRO BERRETTINI DA CORTONA (1596-1669) was the chief rival of Sacchi at Rome; and though his style was attractive and calculated to secure many followers, it was superficial and incorrect, and he takes the lead in the class of painters termed machinists by the Italians. He was one of the most active agents of the decay of painting in Italy in the seventeenth century. Ready in invention, and rapid in execution, he attained a more brilliant than solid reputation, and is now almost forgotten. He painted the ceiling of the grand saloon in the Palazzo Barberini at Rome, and several of the frescoes of the Pitti Palace in Florence..

The followers of Cortona and Sacchi formed two rival factions of art which divided Rome: that of Sacchi was headed by CARLO

1 Passeri, "Vite de' Pittori," &c.; and the author's article SACCHI in the "Penny Cyclopædia."