Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/129

 98 MAEIA— MASACCIO. of that master so ably that even Guido was so far deceived as to finish a copy by Ercolino of an unfinished work which had been substituted for the original, without being aware of the change. He was distinguished only as a copyist, but he died young. His copies afi^ Guido passed for originals, even in Bologna, already, in Malvasia's time. He painted some time in Bome, and was created Gavaliere by Urban vni. MAEIA, Fbancebco di, b, at Naples, 1623, d, 1690. Neapotitan School. A pupil of Domenichino. He excelled in portraits, and painted also good historical pictures, of which some have occasionally been mistaken for, or passed as, the works of Domenichino. {^Dominici,) MARIANI, Giovanni Maria, of AscoU, painted 1650. Genoese School. A pupil of Domenico Fiasella. He painted at Rome and at Genoa, in con- junction with Valerie Castelli, in fresco and in oils, for whom he executed the architecture, and other ornamental parti, in the oratory of San Jacopo, in Genoa. Mariani represented the Bap- tism of that saint, where he is in com- petition with, and has surpassed, the principal Genoese painters. At Flo- rence, in the Gallery of the Uffisg, is a picture of the Rape of the Sabine Women; a similar and larger picture is in the Palazzo Brignole at Genoa. Mariani was a member of the Roman Academy. ( Lanzi. ) MARINARI, Onorio, b, at Florence, 1625-7, rf. 1715. Tuscan School. The cousin and pupil of Carlo Dolci. Al- though some of his earlier pictures hare been mistaken for the works of Carlo Dolci, his maturer manner is somewhat different: he shows more freedom of execution, and a larger style. Some of his pictures are in England. In Florence his best works are in the churches of Santa Maria Maggiore, and San Simone. Of his earUer works the Badia, and Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, contain the best. {Reaie Oalleria di Firenze.) MARTIS, or MARTINI, Ottaviano, of Gubbio, painted from 1400 to 1444. Umbrian School. In Santa Maria Nuova, at Gubbio, is a fresco of the Virgin and Child, with Saints, painted in 1403, by this artist, remarkable for the colour, delicacy of the execution, and the refined expression, notwith- standing its dry and meagre design and composition. It is inscribed, Odavius Martis Eugubinus fnnxit^ Anno M.CCCC.III. {Manotti, Gaye,) MASACCIO, or TOMMASO, di Sah Giovanni, &. 1402, d, 1443. Tuscan School. Tommaso Guidi, commonly called Masaccio, from his slovenliness, was, it is said, the scholar of his con- temporary, Masolino da Panicale. Bmnelleschi also gave him some in- struction in perspective ; and, during a visit at Rome, about 1530-4, he devoted himself to the study of the antique. Masaccio gave a most important im- pulse to the development of painting; attaining about the same degree of excellence in his forms as was reached by the sculptors Donatello and Ghi- berti, who, however, though older men, survived Masaccio many years. We find in his works a more careful study of individuality of form than in those of any earlier master, well exemplified in his great frescoes in the Brancacd chapel of the Carmine, at Florence. His drawing of the nude is both mas- terly in style, and in the detail of the modelling; his figures have great na- tural ease as well as truth ; in his heads the individuality of expression and originality of treatment are even more prominent, and his draperies hang in natural and simple folds ; the whole displaying a genuine dramatic power of representation. The frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel constituted tlie era