DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0212
208
EAKLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
him into the use of colours, &c. However this
may be, his earliest picture is dated 1490, when he
was in his fortieth year. It exists at present in the
gallery at Bologna, and represents his favourite
subject, so often repeated, a Madonna and Child,
enthroned, and surrounded by saints and martyrs.-
This picture, which, if it be a first production,
may well be termed wonderful as well as beautiful,
excited so much admiration, that Giovanni Benti-
voglio, then lord of Bologna, desired him to paint
an altar-piece for his family chapel in the church
of San Giacomo. This second essay of his powers
excited in the strongest degree the enthusiasm of
his fellow-citizens. The people of Bologna were
distinguished among the other states of Italy for
their patronage of native talent; they now exulted
in having produced an artist who might vie with
those of Florence, or Perugia, or Venice.
The vocation of Francia was henceforth deter-
mined : he abandoned his former employment of
goldsmith and niello-worker, and became a painter
by choice and by profession. During the next ten
years he improved progressively in composition
and in colour, still retaining the simple and beau-
tiful sentiment which had from the first distin-
guished his works. His earliest pictures are in
oil; but his success encouraged him to attempt
fresco, and in this style, which required a grandeur
of conception and a breadth and rapidity of ex-
EAKLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
him into the use of colours, &c. However this
may be, his earliest picture is dated 1490, when he
was in his fortieth year. It exists at present in the
gallery at Bologna, and represents his favourite
subject, so often repeated, a Madonna and Child,
enthroned, and surrounded by saints and martyrs.-
This picture, which, if it be a first production,
may well be termed wonderful as well as beautiful,
excited so much admiration, that Giovanni Benti-
voglio, then lord of Bologna, desired him to paint
an altar-piece for his family chapel in the church
of San Giacomo. This second essay of his powers
excited in the strongest degree the enthusiasm of
his fellow-citizens. The people of Bologna were
distinguished among the other states of Italy for
their patronage of native talent; they now exulted
in having produced an artist who might vie with
those of Florence, or Perugia, or Venice.
The vocation of Francia was henceforth deter-
mined : he abandoned his former employment of
goldsmith and niello-worker, and became a painter
by choice and by profession. During the next ten
years he improved progressively in composition
and in colour, still retaining the simple and beau-
tiful sentiment which had from the first distin-
guished his works. His earliest pictures are in
oil; but his success encouraged him to attempt
fresco, and in this style, which required a grandeur
of conception and a breadth and rapidity of ex-