DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63509#0025
GIOVANNI LANFRANCO.
Stator®,
DIED 1647. AGED 66.
Animated by the works of Corregio, particularly the cupola at Parma,
Lanfranco’s ideas rose to enthusiasm. He exerted all his energies to arrive
at similar excellence, and his paintings at Rome and Naples evince a genius
of the first order.
He delighted in grand compositions. In the cupola of St. Andrea della
Valle, which he adorned with a painting of the Saints in Glory, some of the
figures are twenty feet high. This was esteemed his most capital perform-
ance, and displays striking effects of fore-shortening, and a profound know-
ledge of perspective.
He was a native of Parma, born in 1581, and entered very young into the
service of Count Scotti at Piacenza. That nobleman observed him frequent-
ly designing on the walls with charcoal, and generously determined to en-
courage his talents by procuring him the instructions of Agostino Caracci,
during whose life young Lanfranco remained with him, and afterwards be-
came the disciple of Annibale. Under his direction he improved rapidly,
and being entrusted with the execution of several designs in the Spanish
church of St. Jago, and the Farnese palace at Rome, he so faithfully imitated
the manner of his instructor, that his work cannot be distinguished from that
of Annibale.
In his evident attempts to combine the grace of Corregio with the firm
design of Caracci, his success was but moderate: the former, a quality which
is never acquired, eluded his grasp; and for the latter, his patience was in-
sufficient. Nor was his colouring well studied; his shadows, according to
De Piles, being too black, and his carnations untrue; and though he fre-
quently practised the chiaro-scuro, he had no theoretical knowledge of its
Stator®,
DIED 1647. AGED 66.
Animated by the works of Corregio, particularly the cupola at Parma,
Lanfranco’s ideas rose to enthusiasm. He exerted all his energies to arrive
at similar excellence, and his paintings at Rome and Naples evince a genius
of the first order.
He delighted in grand compositions. In the cupola of St. Andrea della
Valle, which he adorned with a painting of the Saints in Glory, some of the
figures are twenty feet high. This was esteemed his most capital perform-
ance, and displays striking effects of fore-shortening, and a profound know-
ledge of perspective.
He was a native of Parma, born in 1581, and entered very young into the
service of Count Scotti at Piacenza. That nobleman observed him frequent-
ly designing on the walls with charcoal, and generously determined to en-
courage his talents by procuring him the instructions of Agostino Caracci,
during whose life young Lanfranco remained with him, and afterwards be-
came the disciple of Annibale. Under his direction he improved rapidly,
and being entrusted with the execution of several designs in the Spanish
church of St. Jago, and the Farnese palace at Rome, he so faithfully imitated
the manner of his instructor, that his work cannot be distinguished from that
of Annibale.
In his evident attempts to combine the grace of Corregio with the firm
design of Caracci, his success was but moderate: the former, a quality which
is never acquired, eluded his grasp; and for the latter, his patience was in-
sufficient. Nor was his colouring well studied; his shadows, according to
De Piles, being too black, and his carnations untrue; and though he fre-
quently practised the chiaro-scuro, he had no theoretical knowledge of its