for the castles and villas without the city and for the neighbourhood around it. Among other places he worked at Boldeno, where he produced a picture on panel representing the Resurrection of Christ: he also painted the Refectory of Sant’ Andrea in fresco, and here he displayed exceedingly rich invention, with much power of fancy, the numerous figures of the work being intended to signify and set forth the connexion between the Old Testament and the New.[1]
But since the works of this master are almost innumerable, so it shall suffice me to have mentioned such of them as are to be considered the best.[2]
Girolamo da Carpi received his first instructions in painting from Benvenuto Garofalo, as will be related in his life, and together they depicted certain subjects in imitation of bronze, on the façade of the house of the Muzzarelli family, which is situate in the Borgo Nuovo. They also painted, in like manner together, both the interior and the outside of the palace of Copara, a place of recreation belonging to the Duke of Ferrara, for whom Benvenuto executed many other works, some alone, and some in the company of other painters.
Now Benvenuto had long lived in the determination to take no wife, but after he had lost the society of his brother, he became tired of living alone, and in the fortieth year of
- ↑ This great picture in fresco is still in existence, although much injured in various parts. In the year 1341, the painter Pellegrino Succi was sent to Ferrara by the Pope (then Gregory XVI.) with a commission from that Pontiff to transfer the fresco to canvas, that the work might thus be saved from destruction. The invention is so quaint and singular a one, that we will' endeavour to give our readers some idea of its principal features. In the centre is Our Saviour Christ on the Cross; he has the New Testament on his right hand, the Old on his left, the last represented as placed on an Ass. From the Cross of Our Lord proceed Arms, which place a Crown on the head of the New Testament: they also hold the keys of Paradise, deliver the Patriarchs from Hell, and slay the Old Testament. Through the hands of a figure representing Religion flow streams of blood, which fall on the three principal Sacraments, and opposite to these are seen the Sacrifices of the Old Testament: Solomon’s Temple has also a place in this composition, and opposite to it is the preaching of St. Paul. Over the whole is a figure of the Almighty Father seated on a Rock.
- ↑ "The City of Ferrara,” observes a grieving compatriot of our author, "has at various periods been deprived of many valuable paintings. In 1617, Pope Urban VIII. took many of those executed by her most distinguished masters from the churches, and others were carried away under the reign of Napoleon.”
