The Venetian School of Painting Part 17

She and the other artists of her circle lived the merry, busy life of the worker, and found in their art the antidote to the evil living and the dissipation of the gay world which provided sitters and patrons.

Rosalba's _milieu_ is a type of others of its cla.s.s. She lives with her mother and sisters, an honest, cheerful, industrious existence. They are fond of old friends and old books, and indulge in music and simple pleasures. Her sisters help Rosalba by preparing the groundwork of her paintings. She pays visits, and writes rhymes, and plays on the harpsichord. She receives great men without much ceremony, and the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Mecklenburg, Frederick, King of Norway, and Maximilian, King of Bavaria, come to her to order miniatures of their reigning beauties. Then she goes off to Paris where she has plenty of commissions, and the frequently occurring names of English patrons in her fragmentary diaries, tell how much her work was admired by English travellers. She did more than anybody else to promote the fas.h.i.+on for pastels, and her delightful art may be seen at its best in the pastel room of the Dresden Gallery.

Henrietta, Countess of Pomfret, has left us a charming description of a party of English travellers, which included Horace Walpole, arriving in Venice in 1741, strolling about in mask and _bauta_, and visiting the famous pastellist in her studio. It is in such guise that Rosalba has painted Walpole, and has left one of the most interesting examples of her art.

SOME EXAMPLES

_Francesco da Ponte._

Venice. Ducal Palace: Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Four pictures on ceiling (second from the four corners of the sala). On left as you face the Paradiso: 1. Pope Alexander III. giving the Stocco, or Sword, to the Doge as he enters a Galley to command the Army against Ferrara; 2. Victory against the Milanese; 3. Victory against Imperial Troops at Cadore; 4. Victory under Carmagnola, over Visconti. These four are all very rich in colour.

Chiesetta: Circ.u.mcision; Way to Calvary.

Sala dell' Scrutino: Padua taken by Night from the Carraresi.

_Leandro da Ponte._

Venice. Sala del Maggior Consiglio: The Patriarch giving a Blessed Candle to the Doge.

Sala of Council of Ten: Meeting of Alexander III. and Doge Ziani. A fine decorative picture, running the whole of one side of the sala.

Sala of Archeological Museum: Virgin in Glory, with the Avogadori Family.

_Palma Giovine._

Dresden. Presentation of the Virgin.

Florence. Uffizi: S. Margaret.

Munich. Deposition; Nativity; Ecce h.o.m.o; Flagellation.

Venice. Academy: Scenes from the Apocalypse; S. Francis.

Ducal Palace: The Last Judgment.

Vienna. Cain and Abel; Daughter of Herodias; Pieta; Immaculate Conception.

_Il Padovanino._

Florence. Uffizi: Lucretia.

London. Cornelia and her Children.

Paris. Venus and Cupid.

Rome. Villa Borghese: Toilet of Minerva.

Venice. Academy: The Marriage of Cana; Madonna in Glory; Vanity, Orpheus, and Eurydice; Rape of Proserpine; Virgin in Glory.

Verona. Man and Woman playing Chess; Triumph of Bacchus.

Vienna. Woman taken in Adultery; Holy Family.

_Pietro Liberi._

Venice. Ducal Palace: Battle of the Dardanelles.

_Andrea Vicentino._

Venice. Museo Civico: The Marriage of a Dogaressa.

_G. A. Fumiani._

Venice. San Pantaleone: Ceiling.

Church of the Carita: Christ disputing with the Doctors.

_A. Balestra._

Verona. S. Tomaso: Annunciation.

_G. Lazzarini._

Venice. S. Pietro in Castello.

The Charity of S. Lorenzo Giustiniani.

_Sebastiano Ricci._

Venice. S. Rocco: The Glorification of the Cross.

Gesuati: Pope Pius V. and Saints.

London. Royal Hospital, Chelsea: Half-dome.

_G. B. Pittoni._

Vicenza. The Bath of Diana.

_G. B. Piazetta._

Venice. Chiesa della Fava: Madonna and S. Philip Neri.

Academy: Crucifixion; The Fortune-Teller.

_Rosalba Carriera._

Venice. Academy: pastels.

Dresden. Pastels.

CHAPTER XXIX

TIEPOLO