Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/130

Rh of a new epoch of art, they are the work of three men—Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio, and Filippino Lippi. The last completed the works intermpted by the death of Masaccio, after an interval of upwards of forty years; an interval itself almost sufficient to ex- plain the more perfect development displayed in the frescoes of Filippino. The great service of Masaccio was not the perfecting of the art, so much as freeing it from the trammels of pre- vious conventionalisms; he altogether forsook traditionary style, led the artist directly to life, and, as an original observer, vindicated the objective, from its hitherto complete dependence on the subjective, view of nature; in so far Masaccio was the first to open the paths to naturalism in modem historic art. The results of recent criticism have, how- ever, considerably diminished the glory of Masaccio, in definitively awarding the various frescoes of this celebrated chapel, which was the great school of the Florentine painters of the fifteenth century, to their respective masters; and that which was commonly considered the most perfect work of the series—St. Peter and St. Paul before Nero—is now distinctly proved to have been the work of Filippino; even the celebrated figure of St. Paul, in the fresco of that Saint visiting St. Peter in prison, which was adopted by Raphael, in his cartoon of Paul Preaching at Athens, is also now attributed to Filippino. This is, how- ever, still doubtful, notwithstanding Yasari attributes the fresco to Filippino in his first edition: Gaye still attributes this work to Masaccio. [See the re- marks in the notice of Filippino.] Should, however, the comparison of handling, ultimately give this work also to Fnippino, there is still sufficient remaining to Masaccio, independent of the great example afforded by his works to Filippino, to entitle him to the high- est praise, and, as regards style, we may, perhaps, still say with Sir Joshua Reynolds (Disc, xii), "He appears to be the first who discovered the path that leads to every excellence to which the art afterwards arrived, and may, therefore, be justly considered as one of the great fathers of modem art."

Works, Rome, San Clemente, cha- pel of Santa Caterina, Scenes from the Life of St. Catherine. Florence, fres- coes of the Brancacd Chapel of the Carmelite Church—the Expulsion from Paradise; St. Paul visiting St Peter in Prison; the Tribute Money; Peter Baptizing; the Apostles restoring the Youth to Life ; Ananias ; and the De- formed cured by the shadow of Peter : Uffizj, the Head of an Old Man: the Academy, a Madonna and Child sitting in the lap of Sant' Anna (tempera), (Vasari, Gaye.)

MASCAGNI, Donato, called Frate Arsenio, from the year 1606, when he entered the order of the Servi, b. 1579, d. 1636. Tuscan School. An able scholar of Jacopo Ligozzi. Some of his works are in the churches at Florence, in the Nunziata, and the Convent dei Servi. In the library of the Monastery of Yallambrosa is a large picture by Mascagni, of the Countess Matilda presenting the Ferrarese State to the Pope. (Baldinucci.)

MASSARI, Lucio, b. 1569, d. 1633. Bolognese School. Pupil of Bartolo- meo Passarotti, and he copied and imitated the works of Annibale Car- racci, in the Faraese. Some of his pictures also resemble in style and gracefulness those of Albani, with whom he lived in Rome.

Works. Bologna, San Benedetto, Marriage of St. Catherine: San Michele in Bosco, three subjects in the cloisters: church of the Theatines, San Gaetano: Certosa, Christ bearing his Cross. (Malvasia.)

MASTELLETTA, Il, or Giovanni Andrea Donducci, b. at Bologna, 1575,