vapour and vain-glory, as was the case with Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo,[1] Amico of Bologna,[2] Girolamo da Codignuola and Innocenzio da Imola, all painters who, living in Bologna at the same period, were so bitterly envious of each other, that nothing worse could well be imagined.[3] Nay, what is yet more, the pride and self-sufficiency of these artists, not being founded on the possession of great abilities, seduced them from that true path which does eventually lead all those to immortality who labour in the hope of doing well, rather than with the purpose of merely becoming victors in the struggle. But from this their defect, it resulted that these painters did not in the end attain to that excellence of which the commencement they had made warranted the expectation, seeing that they too lightly presumed themselves to be masters, and were thus turned from the true and safe way.
Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo arrived in Rome at the time when Raffaello da Urbino was in that city,[4] proposing to give evidence by his works of that perfection which he believed himself endowed with the power of attaining. Having as a youth acquired some reputation in Bologna, certain hopes had been conceived respecting him, and he was appointed to execute a work in the church of the Pace; this was a picture in the first chapel on the right hand of the principal entrance, and which is immediately above the chapel of the Sienese Baldassare Peruzzi.[5] But as he did not appear to have produced so good an effect as he had
- ↑ The family name of this artist was Ramenghi; Bagnacavallo was the place of his birth. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, repeats the account hero given by Vasari, with few additions, but with a manifest disposition to attribute every mistake of our author to evil intention. For minute details respecting this artist, the reader is referred to Vaccolini, Della Vita di B. Ramenghi, &c., Lugo, 1835.
- ↑ Amico Aspertini, already alluded to in the life of Properzia de’ Rossi.
- ↑ Here Vasari has somewhat unjustly attributed to four artists a vice with which, according to good authorities, one only of their number, Amico Aspertini namely, was truly chargeable.
- ↑ Bagnacavallo was a disciple of Francia, and was employed by Raphael in the fresco painting of the Vatican.— Förster.
- ↑ The pictures of Baldassare still remain in the Church of the Pace, but there are none by Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo, It has even been conjectured that the chapel called della Pace, in the church of San Petronio, in Bologna, is the place here meant.
