Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/196

SERVANDONI—SIENA. Scholar of P. Panini. He painted landscapes, architectural ruins, and decorations for theatres. Servandoni was much employed in Portugal, and in France: he was one of the architects to Louis XV., and was elected a member of the French Academy. He also visited this country and Germany. In the Louvre is a picture of ancient ruins by him, painted for the Academy in 1781 as his reception piece.

SESTO, Cesare da, sometimes called, from his birthplace near Milan, Cesare Milanese, d. about 1524. Milanese School. Scholar of Leonardo da Vinci. The early works of this painter resemble those of his master; they are simply and beautifully painted, and the expression of his heads, in accordance with his school, is mild and unaffected. He subsequently studied under Raphael at Rome, and adopted some of the peculiarities of the Roman School. One of the largest pictures he executed at this period, formerly in a church of Messina, now in the Studj Gallery in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, shows the combined influences of the schools : it represents an Adoration of the Kings; the Madonna and Child are after Leonardo, the other figures after Raphael. Cesare was one of Lomazzo's heroes, who says of him that he never allowed a work to pass from his hands that was not perfect. Like Gaudenzio Ferrari, Gesare da Sesto was excellent in cangianti, or shot-colours. His master-piece is considered San Roceo, painted for the church of that saint at Milan, but now in the Melzi collection at Milan.

Works. Milan, Brera, Virgin and Child; Virgin and Child, with Saints; and a portrait : Ambrosian Library, the Head of an old Man : in the Palazzo Scotti, a Baptism of Christ (the landscape is by Bernazzano). Venice, Manfrini Gallery, two Madonnas, one painted in the Roman, the other in the Milanese style. Naples, Museo Borbonico, a Madonna, with Saints. (Lomazzo, Lanzi.)

SGUAZZELLA, Andrea, painted in 1510-37. Tuscan SchooL A scholar and imitator, and assistant of Andrea del Sarto, with whom he visited France. He remained some time in France after Andrea's return, and was much patronised by the Court of Francis I. In the Louvre there is an Entombment by him. (Vasari.)

SIENA, Guodo da, painted 1221. Sienese School. The oldest known painter of this school. There is a large picture of the Madonna by Guide in the convent church of San Domenico at Siena, with a Latin inscription and the date 1221, and it is assumed to be the oldest Sienese picture. Quite Greek in its technical qualities, says Rumohr, it is as much beyond the meagre Byzantine types as it is inferior to the full round forms of Cimate. The attitude of the Virgin is certainly dignified, that of the Child, small but not without grace of expression, is purely conventional, with its hand in the act of benediction, and with the Latin position of the fingers, a circumstance almost of itself sufficient to show the absence of Greek influences.

The inscription is —

(Rumohr, Rosini.)

SIENA, Matte di Giovanui da, painted from 1462 to 1491. Sienese School. According to Lanzi this painter was called the Masaccio of his school, as his works form the transition from the old to the new manner of the fifteenth century; that is, from convention to individuality; the same transition that we see in the works of Benozzo Gozzoli in the Campo Santo at Pisa, as compared with those of his