Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/174

 RAZZI— RIBEBA. Ii8 great merit, especially the Visitatioii and the Assumption. Rumobr pre- fers Bazzi's earliest works, at Monte Oliyeto, for their simple dignity of character; his later prodaotions are generally admitted to be miworthy of him. Lanzi, in alluding to this de- cline, observes — *^ still in all his pio- tnres yon see traces of the able master, who, though not willing to paint well, did not know how to paint badly." From Yasari's account of Bazzi, we leam that he was a man of such eccentric habits and fancies, that he acquired the nick-name of Mattaccio, or Areh-Fool, from the monks of Oliveto. But Vasari has been accused of injustice in this instance, or was misled. However, Bazzi squandered away all his property, and ended his days in the great hospital of Siena. Bat his reputation was great in spite of his fortunes: Paolo Giovio com- pares it 'With that of BaphaeL His pictures are rare in galleries. Works^ in addition to the above mentioned: — Borne, the Famesina, in an apartment of the upper story, the Marriage of Alexander with Boxana ; and Alexander in the tent of Darius : Borghese Palace, a Madonna. Siena, Town-hall, Chapel, Holy Family : San Francesco, the Deposition from the Gross (1513), according to Speth, Bazzi's master-piece: Sant' Agostino, an Adoration of Kings : Academy, the Scourging of Christ Florence, the UflSi^, St. Sebastian. Naples, the Stu^j Gallery, the Besurrection of Christ (1634). Pisa, chapel of the Gampo Santo, the Sacrifice of Abra- ham. Munich Gallery, Madonna and Child. Beriin Gallery, a Christ bear- ing his Cross; and Christ crowned with thorns. Engler mentions a Lu- cretia, in the possession of the late M. Kestner, as worthy of Bapbael. ( Va- Morif Lanzi, Speth, Rumohr, Oaye.) BIBEBA, Cav, GxussFFE, com- monly called Lo Spaonoletto (the Little Spaniard), h, at Xativa, near Valencia, in Spain, Jan. 12, 1588, d. about 1656. Dominici claims Bibera as a Neapolitan, though of Spanish descent He was first a pupil of Fran- CISCO Bibalta, in Valencia. He sub- sequently went to Italy, where he studied for some time in Bome; and he was in the first instance attracted by the frescoes of Bapbael and Anni- bal Carracd ;; but he eventually formed his style from the works of Michel- angelo da Caravaggio. On leaving Bome for a time, he visited Modeoa and Parma, where he studied the works of Correggio. He finally settled in Naples, and married there the daugh- ter of a rich picture-dealer. By the position he thus acquired, he was enabled to perform a more conspicuous than amiable part in the art annals of his adopted home, during the last twenty years of his life. Bibera was one of the most remarkable of the Italian Naturalisti, the successful rival of Caravaggio himself. Though his forms are coarse, his drawing is always vigorous, and commonly cor- rect, and his colouring is often intense and brilliant, but his shadows are excessive. Some of his sacred sub- jects, however, are noble in concep- tion, as well as powerful in execution, as the Pieta, or Deposition from the Cross, in the sacristy of San Martino, at Naples, a masterly work ; and like- wise the admirable Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Louvre, at Paris, a late work (1650). But Bibera, in har- mony with the jealous impatience of his disposition, possessed a wild and extravagant fancy, and the subjects best suited to his taste were execu- tions, or martyrdoms distinguished for their torments, even of the most re- volting description; such scenes he painted occasionally with a horrible fidelity to the story, in dramatic energy.