The History of Painting in Italy. Luigi Lanzi

They reckon him the scholar of their Mino, and certainly he derived much from the large fresco before noticed: but as he retouched it himself we cannot put much faith on the resemblance. His colouring is more vivid than that of the followers of Giotto, and in floridness it seems a prelude to Baroccio. But if he was not the scholar of Giotto, he may have assisted him in some of his works, or, perhaps, studied him closely, as many eminent painters have often done with the best masters. This may account for his imitating Giotto so admirably in S. Peter's at Rome; a merit which procured him an invitation to the papal court at Avignon, where he died. The picture of the Vatican has perished; but some of his other works still exist in Italy; and they are not so numerous at Siena as in Pisa and Florence. In the Campo Santo of Pisa we find various actions of S. Ranieri, and the celebrated Assumption of the Virgin, amid a choir of angels, who seem actually floating in the air, and celebrating the triumph. Memmi was excellent in this species of composition, as I believe, from the numerous pictures of this subject which he painted at Siena, where there is one at the church of S. John, which is more copious but not more beautiful than that at Pisa. Some of his larger works may be seen in the chapter house of the Spanish Friars at Florence; several histories of Christ, of S. Domenico, and of S. Peter Martyr; and there the Order of the Preaching Friars are poetically represented as engaged in the service of the church, in rejecting innovators, and in luring souls to paradise. Vasari, to whom the inventions of Memmi appear "not those of a master of that age, but of a most excellent modern artist," especially praises the last: and, indeed, it might be supposed that it was suggested by Petrarch, did not a comparison of dates refute such an idea. The picture was painted in 1332, and Simone went not to France till 1336; what is said about the portrait of Laura in the chapterhouse is a mere fable. Taddeo Gaddi, an undoubted pupil of the improved and dignified school of Giotto, was there his competitor; and as far surpassed Memmi in the qualities of that school, as he was excelled by the latter in spirit, in variety of the heads and attitudes, in fancy of the draperies, and in originality of composition. Simone paved the way to more complex pictures, and extended them over a whole façade, so as to be taken in at one glance of the eye; whereas Giotto used to divide a large surface into many compartments, in each of which he painted an historical picture.

      Although I do not usually dwell on miniature painting, I cannot resist mentioning one which is to be seen in the Ambrosian library at Milan, which appears to me a singular production. In that place, there is a manuscript of Virgil, with the commentary of Servius, which formerly belonged to Petrarca. In the frontispiece is a miniature that is reasonably conjectured to have been suggested to Simone by the poet, who has subjoined the following verses:

      Mantua Virgilium qui talia carmina finxit, Sena tulit Simonem digito qui talia pinxit.

The artist has represented Virgil sitting in the attitude of writing, and with his eyes raised to heaven, invoking the favour of the Muses. Æneas is before him in the garb and with the demeanour of a warrior, and, pointing with his sword, intimates the subject of the Æneid. The Bucolics are represented by a shepherd, and the Georgics by a husbandman; both of whom are on a lower foreground of the piece, and appear listening to the strain. Servius, in the mean time, appears drawing aside a veil of great delicacy and transparency, to intimate that his readings unveil what would otherwise have remained obscure and doubtful to the reader of that divine poet. An account of this picture is contained in a letter of the secretary Ab. Carlo Bianconi,[266] where the author praises the originality of the idea, the colouring and harmony of the picture, the propriety and variety in the costume according with the subject. He also remarks a little rudeness in the design, more of truth than of beauty in the heads, and the largeness of the hands; that usually, indeed, were the characteristics of every school at this period.

Simone had a relation named Lippo Memmi, whom he himself instructed in the art. Although he was not equal in genius to Simone, he succeeded admirably in imitating his manner, and, aided by his designs, produced pictures that might have passed for the work of the former, had he not inscribed them with his name. When he wrought without such assistance there is a manifest mediocrity in his invention and design; but he is still a good colourist. A picture executed by them both is preserved in S. Ansano di Castelvecchio of Siena.[267] In Ancona, Assisi, and other places, pictures existed that were begun by the former, and finished by the latter. There is a picture wholly the work of Lippo in Siena; and the author of the Description of Pisa records one at the church of S. Paul in that place, which is not without merit. In my first edition, implicitly following the writers of chronicles, I mentioned a Cecco di Martino as the brother of Simone. But on considering that he flourished about 1380, and that there was a less celebrated Simon Martino, in Siena, about 1350, mentioned by Cittadini, I do not judge it right to follow their authority.

      An artist named Lorenzo, and familiarly Lorenzetto, was the father of another family of painters: he had a son named Ambrogio, who is surnamed Lorenzetti by historians. A large picture by this artist, on which he subscribes himself Ambrosius Laurentii, is to be seen in the public palace, and may be designated a poem of moral precepts. The vices of a bad government are there represented under different aspects, and with appropriate symbols; accompanied by verses explanatory of their nature and consequences. The Virtues, too, are there personified with suitable emblems: and the whole is adapted to form governors and politicians for the republic, animated by the spirit of genuine patriotism alone. Had there been a greater variety in the countenances of the figures, and a superior arrangement in the piece, it would have been little inferior to the finest pictures in the Campo Santo of Pisa. Siena possesses many of his frescos and large pictures; but they are not so surprising as his smaller works, in which he appears as the forerunner of B. Angelico, whom we have commended in another place. I have observed nothing similar in his contemporaries; and it possesses a nationality of character that prevents his being confounded with the followers of Giotto: the ideas, the colouring, and the draperies, are wholly different. In a similar taste is a picture in the possession of Sig. Abate Ciaccheri, librarian to the university of Siena, where Ambrogio painted some very original works, in which he very far surpassed the Orcagni. His style was admired in Florence; where, to please his friends, who were desirous of seeing a specimen of his art, he painted several pieces from the life of S. Nicholas, in the church of S. Proculus, that were afterwards transferred to the abbey.

      Another son of Lorenzo was called Pietro, and, in conjunction with his brother, painted the Presentation, and Nuptials of Our Lady, in the hospital of Siena, on which the following inscription was legible: Hoc opus fecit Petrus Laurentii et Ambrosius ejus frater, 1335. The inscription is preserved by Cav. Pecci, who in 1720, when the painting was destroyed, transcribed it most opportunely for correcting Vasari, who had read Petrus Laurati instead of Laurentii in another inscription; from which he concluded this artist not to be the brother of Ambrogio; and from some similarity between his style and that of Giotto, had concluded that he was the disciple of the latter: but it is highly improbable that with such a father and such a brother, Pietro would have gone from home for instruction. Vasari gives, however, a most favourable opinion of this illustrious Sienese, which may suffice to vindicate his impartiality. He says of one of his pictures, "that it was executed with a better design and in a superior manner to any thing that Tuscany had then seen;" and in another place he asserts, that Pietro "became a better master than either Cimabue or Giotto." What could he have said further? might it have been asserted that he was, if not the disciple of Giotto, at least his fellow student in the school of F. Mino? (Vasari, tom. ii. p. 78. ed. Sen.) But granting that Giotto was not his master, how are we to believe him his fellow student? The first pictures of Giotto are traced to 1295; those of Pietro to 1327. And where, when, or to whom did F. Mino teach painting? Pietro's historical picture of the Fathers dell' Eremo remains in the Campo Santo of Pisa, where, in conformity with ecclesiastical history, he has painted the various discipline of those recluses. This picture, if I am not mistaken, is richer in ideas, more original, and better conceived than any one in that place. In the ducal gallery there is a copy of this picture, if not a duplicate by the artist himself: the taste of the colouring certainly belongs not to the Florentine, but to the Sienese school, of that period.

After painting had attained so high a degree of excellence in Siena, it was liable to decline, both from the usual