IN the Florentine and Roman schools the Decadence may be said to have begun with the death of Raphael in 1520. With the exception of the Venetian school, in which art did not languish until after the death of Tintoretto in 1594, painting rapidly degenerated during the second half of the sixteenth century. Paintings were, of course, produced in great profusion in every art centre of Italy, but form and subject were not in true harmony. To a great extent local traditions were abandoned, the earlier types varied, and three distinctive movements developed—the “Mannerists,” the “Eclectics,” and the “Naturalists.”

THE “MANNERISTS”

Giulio Romano (1492?–1546) was content to imitate the works of Raphael; and Daniele da Volterra (1509–1566) tried, as we have seen in his David overcoming Goliath (No. 1462), to reproduce the swelling muscles of Michelangelo. Baroccio (1526–1612) in his Circumcision (No. 1149), which is signed and dated 1570, and in his Virgin in Glory, with St. Anthony and St. Lucy (No. 1150), sought to reproduce the ineffable grace of Correggio; while others endeavoured to repeat the enigmatic smile, the “greyhound” eye, and the mysterious chiaroscuro of Leonardo da Vinci.

Although the “Mannerists” were to be met with in most of the centres of painting in the sixteenth century, they made Rome the centre of their operations. Domenico Feti (1589–1624) is represented in the Louvre by four canvases, Nero (No. 1286), Life in the Country (No. 1287), Melancholy (No. 1288), and The Guardian Angel (No. 1289), the subjects being highly significant.

In the Holy Family (No. 1493) by Sassoferrato (1605–1685) are shown the shallowness and empty formalism which produced the fair-haired, blue-eyed, hyper-sentimental Madonnas with which his name is associated. Carlo Dolci is not represented in the Louvre.

One of the more estimable artists in the Late Roman school is Carlo Maratta (1625–1713), who may be judged by the unsigned Portrait of Marie Madeleine Rospigliosi (No. 1379) and His Own Portrait (No. 1380).

Two paintings of Fruit (Nos. 1254, 1255) stand to the credit of M. A. Cerquozzi (1602–1660), and the art of G. B. Castiglione, of Genoa (1616–1670), is seen in his Abraham and Melchizedek (No. 1250) and Animals and Utensils (No. 1252).

THE “ECLECTICS”

A revolt against the methods of the “Mannerists” was made by the Carracci when they opened their school of art at Bologna in 1589. These “Eclectics” (“Pickers and Choosers”) advocated a careful study of “the drawing of Rome, the Venetian shadow, the terrific force of Michelangelo’s manner, the natural truth of Titian, the pure and sovereign style of Correggio, the true symmetry of Raphael, the dignity and principle of Tibaldi, the invention of the learned Primaticcio, together with a little of the grace of Parmigianino”! It is not surprising that they in their turn soon sank into mere academic mediocrity.

The Louvre is notoriously rich in representative examples of the “Eclectic” painters’ art. The name of Lodovico Carracci (1555–1619), the founder of this school at Bologna, is included in the official Catalogue, but neither of his two pictures is at present exhibited. Lodovico had as cousins, Agostino (1557?–1602) and Annibale (1560?–1609), who also worked in Rome. Six of Annibale Carracci’s fifteen pictures in this collection are now exhibited. The Madonna of the Cherries (No. 1217) and the Sleeping Child Jesus (No. 1218) are characteristic, while his huge canvas of The Virgin appearing to St. Luke and St. Catherine (No. 1219) in every way exemplifies the art of this painter and his school. It is inscribed:

Pictures of this type were much sought after and prized in the eighteenth century, when this one was seized by Napoleon in Italy, but to-day a higher standard of Æsthetics has deservedly ruled them out of fashion. On the other hand, sufficient attention is not now paid to some of the landscape pictures which the “Eclectics” painted; Annibale’s Fishing (No. 1233) and Hunting (No. 1232) are worth the attention of the student. Antonio Carracci (1583–1618), a less-known member of this family, is the author of a large canvas depicting The Deluge (No. 1235).

Guido Reni, after working under Denis Calvaert at Bologna, entered the school of the Carracci. This fitful sentimentalist indulged in idealised abstractions that were neither human nor divine, as may be seen from his David and Goliath (No. 1439) and St. Sebastian (No. 1450) on the one hand, and his Ecce Homo (No. 1447) and Mary Magdalene (No. 1448) on the other. Four of his large mythological paintings (Nos. 1453, 1454, 1455, 1457) show some technical ability.

Francesco Albani (1578–1660) was influenced by the Carracci and Guido Reni. The Diana and Actaeon (No. 1111) may be selected out of his nine productions mentioned in the Catalogue. Domenichino (1581–1641), a pupil of the Carracci, the assistant of Annibale and a friend of Guido Reni in Rome, was a sentimentalist of the most pronounced order. His hard execution and unpleasant colouring can be judged in his St. Cecilia (No. 1613),—her features are singularly ill-proportioned,—but nine of his other pictures do not take up any of the valuable wall space.

The self-taught artist and insipid Guercino (“The Squintling”) (1591–1666), after working in Rome, settled in 1642 at Bologna, where he died in affluent circumstances. His Raising of Lazarus (No. 1139), the large Patron Saints of Modena (No. 1143), together with a Circe (No. 1147) and The Painters Own Portrait (No. 1148), are now exhibited. These and such pictures as were painted by G. A. Donducci (1575–1655), G. F. Grimaldi (1606–1680), S. Cantarini (1612–1648), and G. M. Crespi (1665–1747), provoked a fresh reaction.

THE “NATURALISTS”

A natural reaction against the selective methods of the “Eclectics” gave rise to the “Naturalists,” who, headed by Michelangelo Caravaggio (1569–1609), made Naples the centre of their operations. The utterly repulsive picture entitled The Death of the Virgin (No. 1121), by Caravaggio, is merely large. Neither The Fortune Teller (No. 1122) nor the Concert of Nine Musicians (No. 1123) can be compared with the really striking and well-painted Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt, Grand-Master of Malta (No. 1124).

Salvator Rosa (1615–1675) is represented by Tobias and the Angel (No. 1477) and a Vision of Saul to Samuel (No. 1478). His Landscape (No. 1480) shows that he delighted in “ideas of desolation, solitude and danger, impenetrable forests, rocky and storm-lashed shores, in lonely dells leading to dens and caverns of banditti, alpine ridges, trees blasted by lightning or sapped by time.” His Battle (No. 1479) is a strange production.

Caravaggio was the master of Ribera (1588–1656), who is also called Spagnoletto, and is included in the Catalogue among the Spanish artists. This “Naturalist” school of Naples also included Luca Giordano (1632–1705), who lived in Spain at one period.

The aim of the “Naturalists” is displayed in the prominence they gave to all that was vulgar, coarse, and vile. With them art in Italy came to an ignominious end, although in technical accomplishment, in mere craftsmanship, they can hold their own with painters of much higher rank.