Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/178

 RIDOLFI— ROMANELLI. 147 tian ScbooL A scholar of Antonio Yassilacchi ; be painted liistorical sub- jects and portraits. His works are less mannered than those of many of his contemporaries. He was employed by Innocent X. at Rome. The Visita- tion, in the church of Ognissanti at Venice is considered his master-piece. He is distinguished as a writer on art His Lives of the Venetian Painters, displays, says Lanzi, fidelity and judg- ment ; he is precise and just, correct, and well informed on the subjects of pictures. This work, notwithstanding, is very imperfect ; it first appeared in Venice in 1648, in two volumes quarto, with portraits, under the title Le JUaraviglie deW Arte owero, Le Vite degU lUuttri Pittori Veneti e dello Siato. A new edition, in two yoIs. octavo, appeared in Padua in 1835, but the promised notes and additions are still to come. Ridolfi was the Venetian Vasari, and his defects have been well supplied by later writers, as Boschini, Zanetti, Lanzi, Cadorin, <&o. BIDOLFI, Claudio, b. at Verona, 1560, d. at Corinaldo, 1644. Roman School. He studied under Dario Pozzo and Paul Veronese. He after- wards settled in Urbim», and seems to have been much influenced by the works of Federigo Barocci with whom he lived on terms of intimacy; but Ridolfi finally established himself in Corinaldo in the March of Ancona. Lanzi commends him for the graceful expression in the air of his heads, and his beautiful colouring. He painted portraits as well as historical subjects. At Urbino, in Santa Lucia, is the Birth of the Baptist; and in Santo Spirito the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple : in Rimini is the Deposition from the Gross; and in Padua, in Santa Giustina, St. Benedict present- ing the Rules to the principal Bene- dictines. {Ridolfi,) BIMINALDI, Obazio, 6. at Pisa, 1586, d, December 10, 1631. Tuscan School. He studied first under Ra- nieri Alberghetti, then under Aurelio Lomi, and with Gentileschi at Rome. He was a follower at one time of Michelangelo da Caravaggio, and after- wards with more constancy of Domeni- chino. He painted at Rome; but chiefly for the churches, and the cathe- dral, of Pisa. One of his principal works, the Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, has been placed in the Pitti Palace at Florence ; there is a copy of it by Do- menico Gabbiani in Santa Caterina at Pisa. In the cathedral are the Brazen Serpent; Samson slayiug the Philis- tines (both about 1626 ; there is a c^py of the first in the Florentine Gallery) ; and his chief and last work, the As- sumption of the Virgin, in oil, in the cupola, finished by his brother Giro- lamo, and for which the family received 5000 scudi. {Morrona.) ROBUSTI. [Tintoretto.] ROMANELLI, Gio. Francesco, 6. at Viterbo, about 1610, d. 1662. Ro- man School. He first studied with a relative at Rome, L'Incamatini ; then under Domeuichino, and subsequently under Pietro da Gortona, whose man- ner he followed. His works are vigor- ous, and chiefly ornamental only, but are sometimes pleasing, though not free from the mannerism of the Ma- chinists, He was much patronised by Bernini, who pitted him against Carlo Maratta, Andrea Sacchi, and pietro da Cortona himself. One of his principal works is the Deposition from the Cross, in Sant* Ambrogio della Massima ; in St. Peter's is a Presentation in the Temple, in mosaic. Romanelli showed more delicacy of execution, but less power than Pietro da Cortona. Ro- manelli resided eight years in France, where, through his patron the Cardinal Barberini he was much employed by the Cardinal Mazarin. He decorated some of the apartments in the old L 2