Coreggio. Different statements.-Chiaroscuro.

so at the expense of the rest: distance is compensated by action; the centre leads to all, as all lead to the centre. That the great restorer of light and shade sacrificed the effects and charms of chiaroscuro at the shrine of character, raised him at once above his future competitors, changes admiration to sympathy, and makes us partners of the feast."

COREGGIO.

Antonio Allegri, commonly called Coreggio, from the place of his birth, was born, according to the most authentic accounts, in 1493. By some, says Opie, we are told that he was born, bred, and lived in poverty and wretchedness, and that he died at the age of forty, from the fatigue of carrying home a sack of halfpence, or copper money, paid to him for one of his grandest works.

On the other hand, Mengs, his most devoted admirer, who made every possible inquiry concerning him, contends that he was of a good family, and lived in opulence; that he had every advantage of education, both general and professional; that he had been at Rome and Florence, and had, consequently, seen the works of Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, and Raphael; that he studied philosophy, mathematics, painting, sculpture, and architecture, and conversed familiarly with the most famous professors of his time.

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"Of chiaroscuro on the grandest scale, as it extends to the ulation of the whole of a work, he was certainly the inventor. Antecedently to him, no painter had attempted, or even imagined, the magic effect of this principle, which is strikingly predominant in all that remains of Coreggio, from his widely-extended cupolas to the smallest of his oil paintings: its sway was uncontrollable;

Practice described.-Coreggiesque.-Defects.

parts were enlightened, extended, curtailed, obscured, or buried in the deepest shade; even correctness of form, propriety of action, and characteristic attitude, were occasionally sacrificed. To describe his practice, will be in a great degree to repeat general observations on chiaroscuro in its enlarged sense. By classing his colours, and judiciously dividing them into few and large masses of bright and obscure, gently rounding off his light, and passing, by imperceptible degrees, through pellucid demi-tints and warm reflections, into broad, deep, and transparent shade, he artfully connected the fiercest extremes of light and shadow, harmonized the most intense opposition of colours, and combined the greatest possible effect with the sweetest and softest repose imaginable. The same principle of easy gradation seems to have operated as his guide in respect to design, as well as in colouring and chiaroscuro. By avoiding straight lines, sharp angles, all abrupt breaks, sudden transitions, and petty inflexions, and running by gentle degrees from convex to concave, and vice versa, together with the adoption of such forms and such attitudes as admitted this practice in the highest degree, he gave his figures that ease, elegance, and flexibility, that inimitable grace, which, in honour of the inventor, has since obtained the appellation of Coreggiesque."

This rare union of grace, harmony, and effect, forms the skill of Coreggio, which, while it operates, suspends judgment and disarms criticism. Entranced and overcome by pleasing sensation, the spectator is often compelled to forget incorrectness of drawing, and deficiency of expression and character. These defects, however, it has already been observed, are but occasional; and though, in comparing him with Raphael, it may justly be said, that the one painted best the effects of body, and the other those of mind, it must also be acknowledged that modesty, sweetness, and the

Il Notte.-Emanation of light from the child.

effusions of maternal tenderness, have never been more forcibly expressed than by the pencil of Coreggio.

The turn of his thoughts, also, in regard to particular subjects, was often in the highest degree poetical and uncommon: of which it will be sufficient to give, as an instance, his celebrated Notte, or painting of the Nativity of Christ, in which the circumstance of his making all the light of the picture emanate from the child, striking upward from the beautiful face of the mother, and in all directions, on the surrounding objects, may challenge comparison with any invention in the whole circle of art, both for the splendor and sweetness of the effect, which nothing can exceed, and for its happy appropriation to the person of Him who was born to dispel the clouds of ignorance, and diffuse the light of truth over a darkened world!

This circumstance, at once sublime, beautiful, and picturesque, is one of those rare instances of supreme felicity by which a man may be said to be lost in his own glory. The thought has been seized with such avidity, and produced so many imitations, that no one is accused of plagiarism. The real author is forgotten; and the public, habituated to consider the incident as a part of the subject, have long ceased to inquire when or by whom it was invented.

The harmony and the grace of Coreggio are proverbial: the medium which, by breadth of gradation, unites two opposite principles, the coalition of light and darkness, by imperceptible transition, are the element of his style. This inspires his figures with grace, to this, their grace is subordinate: the most appropriate, the most elegant attitudes were adopted, rejected, perhaps sacrificed to the most awkward ones, in compliance with this imperious principle, parts vanished, were absorbed, or emerged in obedience to it. This unison of the whole predominates over

Harmony of Coreggio.-Picture of St. Jerome.

all that remains of him, nor have his imitators attained the same effect. The harmony of Coreggio, though assisted by exquisite hues, was entirely independent of colour; his great organ was chiaroscuro in its most extensive sense: compared with the expanse in which he floats, the effects of Leonardo da Vinci are little more than the dying ray of evening, and the concentrated flash of Giorgione, discordant abruptness. The bland central light of a globe, imperceptibly gliding through lucid demi-tints into rich reflected shades, composes the spell of Coreggio, and affects us with the soft emotions of a delicious dream.

Though, perhaps, we should be nearer the truth by ascribing the cause of Coreggio's magic to the happy conformation of his organs, and his calm serenity of mind, than to Platonic ecstasies, a poet might at least be allowed to say, "that his soul, absorbed by the contemplation of infinity, soared above the sphere of measurable powers, knowing that every object whose limits can be distinctly perceived by the mind, must be within its grasp; and, however grand, magnificent, beautiful, or terrific, fall short of the conception itself, and be less than sublime." In this, from whatever cause, consists the real spell of Coreggio. He is, no doubt, in the whole of his character, one of those very few artists of the first class; and, not to mention any other of his admirable works, his picture of St. Jerome, in the academy of Parma, is, as far as it goes, and for an agreeable union of all the parts of the art, perhaps superior to any other picture in the world.

In the invention of this work, which exhibits St. Jerome presenting his translation of the Scriptures by the hand of an angel, to the infant seated in the lap of the Madonna, the patron of the piece is sacrificed in place to the angelic group which occupies the middle. The figure that chiefly attracts, and has, by its suavity

Fra Bartolomeo.-Il Frate.-Instruction of Raphael.

for centuries attracted, and still absorbs the general eye, is that charming one of the Magdalen, in a half-kneeling, half-recumbent posture, pressing the foot of the infant Jesus to her lips. By doing this, the painter has, undoubtedly, offered to the Graces the boldest and most enamoured sacrifice which they ever received from art.

FRA BARTOLOMEO DI ST. MARCO.

Fra Bartolomeo di St. Marco, (or Baccio Della Porta,) was born in the territory of Savignano, near Florence, in 1469. At an early age he was placed under Cosimo Roselli, at Florence, who happening to live near the gate of St. Peter, his pupil received the name of Baccio Della Porta. Here he continued for some years, studying the works of his master, and those of Leonardo da Vinci, whose grandeur of relief and chiaroscuro he greatly admired.

His early performances were small, but exquisitely finished. He gave a noble proof of his powers in the Last Judgment, painted in fresco, for the chapel of St. Maria Nuova. About this time he contracted an intimacy with the famous monk, Jerome Savanarola, who afterwards suffered at the stake, which circumstance so much affected the painter that he took the habit of St. Dominic, in 1500, and was afterwards called Il Frate.

In 1504, he became acquainted with Raphael, who instructed him in colouring, for which he received in return some lessons in perspective. Soon after this he went to Rome, where the works of Michael Angelo and Raphael both astonished and depressed him so much, that he was almost ready to abandon his art in despair. While here he only painted the two figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, which were long preserved in the Quirinal Palace.