Page:Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters.djvu/223

 192 VANNUCCI— VASARI. VANNUCCI. [Pebxjgino, Pietbo.] YAROTAKI, AiiESSANDBO, called II Padoyaiuno, h. at Padaa, in 1500, d, 1650. Paduan and Venetian Schools. He was the son of Dario Yarotari, a distinguished painter and architect, and from him Alessandro received the earliest instruction in this art He visited Venice in 1614, and studied and copied, with the greatest assiduity, the works of TiUan, and is considered one of the most successful followers and imitators of that great master, in fireedom of touch, in mellowness and gradation of tints, and in simplicity of composition. His figures are beautiful and graceful, and have sometimes a noble expression ; as, for instance, in his picture of a Saint in deacon's or- ders, in the Academy at Venice. He excelled chiefly in women and children, in which his rich curvations produce a charming effect ; his outlines are not sufficiently pronounced for subjects of a sterner class. Zanetti described Varotari's style by quoting a line of Ariosto : — <* Le Donne, i Cavalier, I'arme, gli Amori." His Marriage of Cana, in the Academy at Venice, is generally considered his principal work ; it was formerly in the monastery of San Giovanni di Verdara, at Padua. His pictures are rarely found out of Venice or Padua. Varotari ex- celled in portraits, and was altogether the most distinguished Venetian painter of his time. Varotari's scholars copied his works with so much ability, that some of these imitations have been mistaken for originals. Bartolomeo Scaligeri was his principal follower. His sister, Chiara Varotari (1582-1639), excelled in portraits ; her own, by her- self, is among the painters' portraits of the Florentine Gallery. Works, Venice, Santa Maria Mag- giore, a Miracle of the Virgin ; a Battle ; and other works: San Pantaleone^ a Pieta: Academy, the Marriage of Cana; a Saint in deacon's orders. Bergamo, church of Sant' Andrea, a ceiling. Berlin Gallery, an Ecce Homo. Louvre, Venus and Love. {Ridolfi, Zanetii.) VASARI, Cav, Gioboio, b, at Arezzo in 1512, d. at Florence, June 27, 1574. Tuscan School. He studied under his father Antonio Vasari, GugUelmo da Marcillat, Michelangelo, and Andrea del Sarto. He visited Florence in 1 524 ; lost his father in 1528 ; and already, in 1529, he was of considerable assist- ance to his family: he accompanied Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici to Rome, who introduced him to Pope Clement VII. He was an architect and jeweller, as YfAl as painter, historical and orna- mental ; he superintended the decora- tion of several public buildings in Flo- rence. He undertook a great number of extensive works, and executed them with extraordinary rapidity, and his compositions are accordingly in gene- ral very unsatisfactory paintings; his design is mannered, and his colooring is cold and feeble. " We paint," says Vasari, '* six pictures in a year, while the earlier masters took six years to paint one picture." In his Life of Raphael, Vasari censures his fellow students for contenting themselves with being mere imitators of Michel- angelo, and for having acquired a hard, laboured manner, destitute of beauty, and possessed neither of originality of conception nor attraction of colouring. This censure is well applicable to Va- sari himself, and applies to most of his works. He painted, however, some excellent portraits; as that of Lorenzo de' Medici in the Uffizj Gallery. Few painters have been more successitd in point of patronage, or have executed more works than Vasari. His pictures have no remarkable excellence, bat his figures are generally well drawn, and