Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/118

 108 F E E F E E district at the junction of the Po di Volano with several minor branches of the complex water-system of lower Lombardy. At the times of greatest inundation the river rises about 7 or 8 feet above the level of the castle court, but the statement that it sometimes even reaches above the level of the roofs is an exaggeration, and the city affords an asylum to the people of the surrounding country when the district is under water. The distance from Bologna by rail is about 29 miles, and from Venice 70. As it long occupied an important strategical position as a frontier post of the papal states, Ferrara is strongly fortified by walls, bastions, ditches, and a pentagonal citadel. Within the circuit of its defences, which extend for nearly 5 miles, a large part of the area is unoccupied. In the very centre of the city stands the old ducal castle or palace, surrounded by a moat, and crowned with heavy machicolations and battlements. During the papal period it was the residence of the legate, and it is now the seat of the local authorities. The cathedral of San Paolo is a large building originally dating from the 12th century, but gutted and restored in the 17th. The west front, of which a view is given in Mr Street s Brick and Marble Architecture, is a great screen with &quot;three gables of about equal height covered with arcading, which increases in depth and richness of moulding and shadow to the top, where there are very fine open arched galleries.&quot; Of the other churches it is sufficient to mention S. Francesco, S. Benedetto, S. Domenico, and S. Maria del Vado, which contain paintings by Garofalo, Dosso Dossi, Bonone, and other native artists. The palaces are for the most part of small architectural interest : the Palazzo de Diamanti owes its name merely to the facets into which the stones of the front are carved. The theatre is one of the largest in Italy ; and the university, or Studio PtiUico, has a rich numismatic collection and a library of 100,000 volumes and 1100 MSS., numbering among its curiosities autographic portions of Ariosto s Orlando Furioso, letters of Tasso, and the original of Guarini s Pastor Fido. The house of the first of these poets is still shown in a street which bears his name ; and the hospital of S. Anna is regularly visited as the scene of Tasso s incarceration. Almost all the interest of the city lies in its past, but it shows signs of revival since the unification of Italy. A large factory for scutching and spinning hemp was established in 1874; there are two foundries and a small establishment for the manufacture of brass instruments; and the preserving of peaches is a fairly important industry. A local bank was founded in 1862 with a nominal capital of 83,000. Besides the university, which is free, the educational establishments comprise an industrial and professional institute, a technical school, a communal gymnasium, a lyceum named after Ariosto, and a gymnasium and lyceum attached to the archi- episcopal seminary. The population in 1871 was 28,509, or, including the suburbs of San Luca and San Giorgio, 33,327. Ferrara possibly owes its existence to the in vasion of Italy by Attila, and the destruction of Aquilea. It was walled by the exarch of Ravenna in 585, and be came the seat of a bishop in 657. In the beginning of the 13th century, it passed into the hands of the Este family, which continued to hold it, sometimes under the pope and sometimes as independent lords, till the extinction of the main line by the death of Alphonso II. in 1597. During the latter part of this period Ferrara was the seat of one of the most cultured of the Italian courts, and its name has become for ever associated with the history of Italian literature. Its population is said to have amounted to 80,000. In 1598 it was incorporated with the papal states by Clement VII. During the period of the French supremacy in Italy, it formed part, first of the Cisalpine republic, and secondly of the kingdom of Italy ; but ths treaty of Vienna restored it to the pope, and granted the Austrians the right of maintaining a garrison. In 1859 it was incorporated in the general kingdom of Italy. FERRARI GAUDENZIO (1484-1549), a celebrated painter of the Milanese, or more strictly the Piedmontese, school, was born at Valduggia, Piedmont, and learned the elements of painting at Vercelli from Girolamo Giovannone. He next studied in Milan, in the school of Scotto, and some say of Luni ; towards 1504 he proceeded to Florence, and afterwards to Rome. His pictorial style may be considered as derived mainly from the old Milanese school, with a considerable tinge of the influence of Da Vinci, and later on of Raphael ; in his personal manner there was something of the demonstrative and fantastic. The gentler qualities diminished, and the stronger intensified, as he progressed. Ferrari was again in Rome towards the close of Raphael s life, and is believed to have aided him in the works of Torre Borgia. By 1524 he was at Varallo in Piedmont, and here, in the chapel of the Sacro Monte, the sanctuary of the Piedmontese pilgrims, he executed his most memor able work. This is a fresco of the Crucifixion, with a multitude of figures, no less than twenty-six of them being modelled in actual relief, and coloured ; on the vaulted ceiling are eighteen lamenting angels, powerful in expres sion. Other leading examples are the following. In the Royal Gallery, Turin, a Pieta, an able early work. In the Brera Gallery, Milan, St Katharine miraculously preserved from the Torture of the Wheel, a very characteristic example, hard and forcible in colour, thronged in composi tion, turbulent in emotion ; also several frescoes, chiefly from the church of Santa Maria della Pace, three of them being from the history of Joachim and Anna. In the cathedral of Vercelli, the choir, the Virgin with Angels and Saints under an Orange-Tree. In the refectory of San Paolo, the Last Supper. In the Louvre, St Paul Meditat ing. In Varallo, convent of the Minorites (1507), a Presentation in the Temple, and Christ among the Doctors ; and (after 1510) the History of Christ, in twenty-one sub jects; also an ancona in six compartments, named the Ancona di San Gaudenzio. In Santa Maria di Loreto, near Varallo (after 1527), an Adoration. In the church of San Cristoforo, the transept (in 1532-35), a series of paintings in which Ferrari s scholar Lanini assisted him ; by Ferrari himself are the Birth of the Virgin, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Adoration of the Shepherds and Kings, the Crucifixion, the Assumption of the Virgin, all full of life and decided character, though somewhat mannered. In the church of Saronno, near Milan, the cupola (1535), a Glory of Angels, in which the beauty of the school of Da Vinci alternates with bravura of foreshorten ings in the mode of Correggio. In Milan, Santa Maria delle Grazie (1542), the Scourging of Christ, an Ecce Homo, and a Crucifixion. The Scourging, or else a Last Supper, in the Passione of Milan, is regarded as Ferrari s latest work. He was a very prolific painter, distinguished by strong expression, animation and fulness of composition, and abundant invention ; he was skilful in painting horses, and his decisive rather hard colour is marked by a partiality for shot tints in drapery. In general character, his work appertains more to the 15th than the 16th century. His subjects were always of the sacred order. Ferrari s death took place in Milan. Besides Lanini, already mentioned, Andrea Solario. Giambattista della Cerva, and Fermo Stella were three of his principal scholars. He is represented to us as a good man, attached to his country and his art, jovial and sometimes facetious, but an enemy of scandal. The reputation which he enjoyed soon after his death was very great, but it has not fully stood the test of time. Lomazzo went so far as to place him seventh among the seven prime painters of Italy.