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mind was always sprightly and gay. He was never out of humour, nor dull; and had he borrowed more time from his mirth to give to his studies, he had certainly been an honour to his country. However, he lives still in the memory of his acquaintance, with the character of an honest man, and a great master in his art, His pieces are scattered up and down, chiefly in London; and the best and most of them were lately in the hands of Mr. Le Piper, his brother, a merchant in that city.'

PIPPI (JULIO), called more frequently JULIO Romano, a very eminent painter, was born in 1492, and was the principal disciple of Raphael, his heir, the continuator of his works, and himself at the head of a school. Whilst a pupil, he imbibed all his master's energy of character, and chiefly signalized himself in subjects of war and battles, which he represented with equal spirit and erudition. As a designer, he commands the whole mechanism of the human body; and, without fear of error, turns and winds it about to serve his purposes; but sometimes oversteps the modesty of nature. Vasari prefers his drawings to his pictures, as the original fire which distinguishes his conception was apt to evaporate, in the longer process of finish and some have, with more reason, objected to the character of his physiognomies, as less simple than vulgar; and often dismal and horrid, without being terrible. In colour, whether fresco or oil, his hand was as expeditious, and his touch, especially in the former, as decided, as his eye and choice were ungenial: bricky lights, violet demitints, black shades, compose, in general, the raw opaque tone of his oil-pictures. The style of his draperies is classic, but the management of the folds generally arbitrary and mannered; the hair and head-dresses of his women are always fanciful and luxurious, but not always arranged by taste, whilst those of the men frequently border on the grotesque.

He came to Mantua, and there found antique treasures, of which the statues, busts, and basso-relievos, at present in the academy, are but insignificant remains. To the stores of the Gonzaghi he added his own, rich in designs of Raphael, and studies and plans from the antique; for no designer ever possessed such industry with so much fire, so much consideration with such fecundity, or com

1 Walpole's Anecdotes.—But this article was much enlarged, we know not by whom, in the last edition of this Dictionary.

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bined with equal rapidity such correctness, and with great recondite knowledge in mythology and history, that popularity and ease in treating it. The increased practice, and the authority derived from the superintendance of the works left unfinished by his master, established his reliance on himself, and the call of the Gonzaghi roused that loftiness of conception, and gave birth to those magnificent plans, from which Mantua and the wonders of the palace del T. as it was called, rose, as from enchantment. This palace furnishes specimens in every class of picturesque imagery. Whatever be the dimension, the subject, or the scenery, minute or colossal, simple or complex, terrible or pleasing, we trace a mind bent to surprise or to dazzle by poetic splendor: but, sure to strike by the originality of his conception, he often neglects propriety in the conduct of his subjects, considered as a series, and in the arrangement or choice of the connecting parts; hurried into extremes by the torrent of a fancy more lyric than epic, he disdains to fill the intermediate chasms, and too often leaves the task of connexion to the spectator.

In the palace del T. Julio adopted the method of his master. He prepared the cartoons; they were executed by his pupils; and he thoroughly retouched, corrected, and gave the last finish to the pictures: but unfortunately his master-strokes have been covered again by modern pencils; and the fable of Psyche, the Allegories of Human Life, the Giants storming Heaven, exhibit now, indeed, his composition and design, but not his hand: this is better preserved in the paintings of the old palace, or, as it is now called, the Corte of Mantua: they are in fresco, and chiefly relate histories of the Trojan war. They have the same beauties and the same defects as those of the palace del T. Each, singly considered, is a proof of the poetic spirit and the practic powers of the master; as a cyclus, they want connection and evidence. Helen sleeping, Vulcan forging arms for Achilles, are beautiful; and Minerva in the act of slaying Ajax, the son of Oileus, sublime. Nor is his versatility less admirable in the Bacchic or amorous subjects, the capricci and grotesque conceits with which he decorated the small cabinets of the same palace.

The altar-pieces of Julio are not numerous. He did not live to finish those which he had begun for the cathedral of Mantua. The most remarkable of those which he finished with his own hand, are the three frescoes at S. Marco; and

in the church of S. Christoforo, the athletic figure of that saint, groaning under the weight of the Divine Infant on his shoulders. They are, however, far inferior, for genuine pathos and classic execution, to the Martyrdom of St. Stephen on the head altar of the church di S. Stephano alle porte dell' arco, at Genoa. He died at Mantua, in 1546.1

PIRANESI (JOHN BAPTIST), a very celebrated architect and engraver, was a native of Venice, but resident for the greater part of his life at Rome. The time of his birth is not known here, but it must have been about 1711. He was remarkable for a bold and free style of etching; which, in general, he drew upon the plate at once, without any, or with very little previous sketch. He worked with such rapidity and diligence, that the magnitude and number of his plates almost exceed belief; and they are executed with a spirit and genius which are altogether peculiar to him. The earliest of his works appear to have been published in 1743, and consist of designs invented by himself, in a very grand style; with views of ruins, chiefly the work of imagination, and strongly characterizing the magnificence of his ideas. These are sometimes found in a volume, collected by Bourchard, in 1750: with views of Roman antiquities, not in Rome, among which are several of Pola, in Istria. The dedication to these views is dated 1748. Considering these as forming his first work, we may enunerate the rest from a catalogue print, published by himself many years after. 2. "Antichita Romane," or Roman Antiquities, comprised in 218 plates of atlas paper, commencing by a topographical view of ancient Rome, made out from the fragments of a most curious antique plan of that city, found in the pavement of the temple of Romulus, and now preserved in the Museum at the Capitol. These, with the descriptions in Italian, form four volumies in folio. 3. "Fasti consulares triumphalesque Romanorum, ab urbe conditâ, usque ad Tiberium Cæsarem." 4. Del Castello dell' acqua Giulia, e della maniera in cui anticamente si concedevano e distribuivano le acque," 21 folio plates. 5. Antichità d'Albano, e di Castel Gandolfo," 55 plates. 6. 6. "Campus Martius Antiquæ urbis," with descriptions in Italian and Latin, 54 plates. 7. “Archi trionfali antichi, Tempi, ed Anfiteatri, esistenti in Roma, ed in altre parti d'Italia," 31 plates. 8. "Trofei d'Ottaviano

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Pilkington, by Fuseli, principally.-Sir Joshua Reynolds's Works. See Index.-D'Argenville, vol. I,

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Augusto," &c. 10 plates. 9. "Della Magnificenza ed Architettura de' Romani," 44 plates, with above 200 pages of letter-press, in Italian and Latin. This great work appears to have been occasioned, in great measure, by some dialogues published in London in 1755, but now forgotten here, and entitled, "The Investigator." These, containing many foolish calumnies against the ancient Romans, had been interpreted to Piranesi, and inflamed his ardent spirit to this mode of vindication. 10. "Architetture diverse," 27 plates. 11. "Carceri d'inventione," 16 plates, full of the most wild, but picturesque conceptions. 12. About 130 separate views of Rome, in its present state; in the grandest style of design, and the boldest manner of etching. Besides these, there is also extant, in very few hands (as it was not published, but only given to particular friends), a small work of this author, containing letters of justification to lord Charlemont; in which he assigns the reasons why he did not dedicate his Roman antiquities to that nobleman, as had been intended. Piranesi here appears. extremely irritated against his lordship, and his agents, for neglect and ill-treatment; but the most curious part of the work is, that he has taken the pains to etch, in a small quarto size, and with the utmost neatness, yet with all his accustomed freedom, exact copies of the four original frontispieces, in which the name of his intended patron was to have been immortalized; with views of the inscriptions reengraved as they now stand; as if the first inscriptions had been cut out of the stones, and the new ones inserted on small pieces let into them, as the ancients sometimes practised. In this form they still remain in his frontispieces; a peculiarity which would not be understood without this key. There are also head-pieces and tail-pieces, all full of imagination, and alluding to the matters and persons involved in the dispute. This work is dated in 1757. Piranesi was well known to most of the English artists who studied at Rome; among others, to Mr. Mylne, the architect of Blackfriars-bridge, with whom he corresponded for several years, and for whom he engraved a fine view of that structure, in its unfinished state; representing, with precision, the parts subservient to its construction; such as the centres of the arches, &c. for the sake of preserving a memorial of them. Some of his works are dedicated to another British architect, Robert Adam; and as Piranesi was an honorary member of the Society of Antiquaries in

London, he always carefully subjoined that title to his name. He was also a member of the academy of the Arcadi, by the name of Salcindio Tiseio, as he has given it in one of his frontispieces, according to the fantastic custom of that society, of giving new names to the persons admitted. All who knew him agree that he was of a fiery and impetuous temper, but full of genius. He left a son, who has been employed in a diplomatic line. The exact time of his death we have not been able to learn; but it is supposed to have happened in or near the year 1780*. Piranesi has been accused, and not without reason, of suffering his imagination to embellish even the designs that were given as real views. He was employed, as an architect, to ornament a part of the priory of Malta, in Rome; in which place his son has erected a statue of him. It is thus mentioned by baron Stolberg, in his Travels: "Here is a fine statue of the architect Piranesi, as large as life, placed there by his son." It is the work of the living artist Angolini; and though it certainly cannot be compared with the best antiques, it still possesses real merit." His portrait, engraved by Polanzani, in 1750, is in the style of a mutilated statue, and is very spirited. It is prefixed to some of his works.1

PIROMALLI (PAUL), a celebrated Dominican of the seventeenth century, was a native of Calabria. Having acquired a knowledge of the Eastern languages, he was employed in the missions to the East, resided for a considerable time in Armenia, where he gained several converts, particularly the patriarch, by whom he had at first been opposed. He went also into Georgia, and Persia, and afterwards into Poland, as nuncio from pope Urban VIII. to appease the troubles which the Armenians, who were very numerous there, occasioned by their disputes. Having re-united all parties, and embarked for Italy, he was taken in his voyage by some corsairs, and carried to Tunis; but his ransom being paid, he went to Rome, and having given an account of his mission, received the most public marks of esteem from the pope, who sent him back to the East, where, in 1655, he was made bishop of Nacksivan, in Armenia. After governing this church nine years, he returned to his native country, was entrusted with the

*The Dict. Hist. fixes his birth in 1721, aud his death in 1778.
! From last edition of this Dictionary.-Dict. Hist.

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