The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume 2 (of 3). Fuseli Henry
given an air of paradox, he spoke relatively to fresco: it was a lash on the short-sighted insolence of Sebastian del Piombo, who wanted to persuade Paul III. to have the Last Judgement painted in oil. That he had a sense for the beauties of oil-colour, its glow, its juice, its richness, its pulp, the praises which he lavished on Titiano, whom he called the only painter, and his patronage of Frà Sebastian himself, evidently prove. When young, M. Angelo attempted oil-painting with success; the picture painted for Angelo Doni is an instance, and probably the only entire work of the kind that remains. The Lazarus, in the picture destined for the cathedral at Narbonne, rejects the claim of every other hand. The Leda, the cartoon of which, formerly in the palace of the Vecchietti at Florence, is now in the possession of W. Lock, Esq. was painted in distemper (a tempera); all small or large oil-pictures shown as his, are copies from his designs or cartoons, by Marcello Venusti, Giacopo da Pontormo, Battista Franco, and Sebastian of Venice.
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Raphael Sanzio, of Urbino, died at Rome 1520, at the age of 37.
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Giorgio Barbarelli, from his size and beauty called Giorgione, was born at Castel Franco, in the territory of Venice, 1478, and died at Venice, 1511.
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Titiano Vecelli, or, as the Venetians call him, Tiziàn, born at Cador in the Friulese, died at Venice, 1576, aged 99.
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The birth and life of Antonio Allegri, or, as he called himself, Læti, surnamed Correggio, is more involved in obscurity than the life of Apelles. Whether he was born in 1490 or 1494 is not ascertained; the time of his death in 1534 is more certain. The best account of him has undoubtedly been given by A. R. Mengs in his
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Pelegrino Tibaldi died at Milano in 1592, aged 70.
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Sebastiano, afterwards called Del Piombo from the office of the papal signet, died at Rome in 1547, aged 62.
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Daniel Ricciarelli, of Volterra, died in 1566, aged 57.
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Now the first ornament of the exquisite collection of J. J. Angerstein, Esq. – Since purchased for the National Gallery. – Editor.
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Giorgio Vasari, of Arezzo, died in 1584, aged 68.
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Julio Pipi, called Romano, died at Mantoua in 1546, aged 54.
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Francesco Primaticcio, made Abbé de St. Martin de Troyes, by Francis, I., died in France 1570, aged 80.
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Polydoro Caldara da Caravaggio was assassinated at Messina in 1543, aged 51.
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Michael Angelo Amerigi, surnamed Il Caravaggi, knight of Malta, died 1609, aged 40.
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Nicolas Poussin, of Andely, died at Rome 1665, aged 71.
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Salvator Rosa, surnamed Salvatoriello, died at Rome 1673, aged 59.
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Of the portraits which Raphael in fresco scattered over the compositions of the Vatican, we shall find an opportunity to speak. But in oil the real style of portrait began at Venice with Giorgione, flourished in Sebastian del Piombo, and was carried to perfection by Titiano, who filled the masses of the first without entangling himself in the minute details of the second. Tintoretto, Bassan, and Paolo of Verona, followed the principle of Titiano. After these, it migrated from Italy to reside with the Spaniard Diego Velasquez; from whom Rubens and Vandyck attempted to transplant it to Flanders, France, and England, with unequal success. France seized less on the delicacy than on the affectation of Vandyck, and soon turned the art of representing men and women into a mere remembrancer of fashions and airs. England had possessed Holbein, but it was reserved for the German Lely, and his successor Kneller, to lay the foundation of a manner, which, by pretending to unite portrait with history, gave a retrograde direction for near a century to both. A mob of shepherds and shepherdesses in flowing wigs and dressed curls, ruffled Endymions, humble Junos, withered Hebes, surly Allegroes, and smirking Pensierosas, usurped the place of truth, propriety and character. Even the lamented powers of the greatest painter whom this country and perhaps our age produced, long vainly struggled, and scarcely in the eve of life succeeded to emancipate us from this dastard taste.