Iconographic Encyclopedia of Science, Literature, and Art. (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1860. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Were we to institute a comparison between Batoni and Mengs, the two restorers of painting in Rome, we could not do better than adopt the words of Chevalier Boni, who says: "Mengs was made a painter by philosophy, and Batoni by nature. Batoni had a natural taste which led him to the beautiful without effort; Mengs attained the same object by reflection and study. The gifts of the Muses belonged by nature to Batoni, as they formerly had to Apelles; while the highest attainments of art were allotted to Mengs, as in former days to Protogenes. The former perhaps was more of a painter than a thinker, the latter more of a thinker than a painter. The one perhaps was more perfect in his art, but more studied; the other was less profound, but more natural." It is but justice to add, however, that Mengs's mannerism and unnatural coloring place him much below the first artists of the present day. h. The Florentine School. Cimabue was looked upon by the Florentines as a prodigy when he ventured to lay aside the Byzantine manner and give more movement to his figures. At the time when king Charles, the brother of St. Louis, was crowned king of Sicily, he was shown as a great curiosity the picture on which Cimabue was then engaged, a Madonna and Child accompanied by six angels. This picture is still preserved in the church of Sta. Maria Novella. Among the contemporaries of Cimabue deserving of notice are Ugolino of Siena and Gaddo Gaddi, from whose school proceeded a great number of painters. Here too belongs Giotto, born in Vespignano in the year 1276. A sheep which he had drawn on a flat stone while tending his flock had attracted the attention of Cimabue; the latter took him home to educate him as a painter, and so rapid was his progress that the pupil soon surpassed his master ...