John.[1] Another picture by Cesare da Sesto is the halflength figure of Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist in a Charger, which is also executed with admirable ability; and furthermore this artist depicted an altar-piece in the church of San Rocco, which is situate without the Porta Romana; the subject of that work likewise being St. John the Baptist, but represented as a child; to say nothing of many other paintings by the same hand, all of which are much admired.[2]
The Milanese painter, Guadenzio, was also considered in his lifetime to be an able artist;[3] he painted the picture for the high altar in the church of San Celso,[4] and in Santa Maria delie Grazie he painted a chapel in fresco, the subject chosen being the Passion of Our Saviour Christ, represented by figures the size of life, these last exhibiting singular movement and animation in the attitudes.[5] After this Guadenzio painted a picture on panel in the same chapel, and in rivalry of Titian;[6] but although he made great efforts,
- ↑ This most admirable picture is now at Milan, in the possession of the noble family of Scotti-Galanti. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8. It was engraved by Fumagalli, in the Scuola di Leonardo, 1821.
- ↑ This work came into the possession of the Melzi family.—Ibid. From a note to the German Translation of our author we learn that one of the finest, if not the very best, picture of Cesare da Sesto was painted for the High Altar of the Church of San Niccolò in Messina, and is now at Naples (in the Museo Borbonico). See also Passavant, in loc. cit., p. 277.
- ↑ Guadenzio Ferrari, who was born in 1484 at Valduggia, near Novara, in the Sardinian States, for which cause the Piedmontese account him to be one of their school. See Della Valle, Introduction to vol. x. of the Sienese Edition of our author. Orlandi calls him a disciple of Perugino, and he is said by some writers to have painted in the Farnesina with Raphael. Guadenzio was a sculptor and architect, as well as painter. See the Marchese R. d’Azeglio, who gives details respecting this master, in his richly illustrated work on the Royal Gallery of Turin. Guadenzio Ferrari died in the year 1550, and while occupied with the Last Supper, still to be seen in Santa Maria della Grazie, at Milan.
- ↑ There is no work by Guadenzio at San Celso, but in the Church of the Blessed Virgin, which is very near it, there is a Baptism of Our Lord by St. John. — Masselli.
- ↑ The subject of this work is the Flagellation and Crucifixion of Our Saviour Christ, and is still in fair preservation. —Ibid.
- ↑ The subject of the work here in question is the figure of St. Paul the Apostle, represented in an attitude of meditation, and in the distance is seen the story of his conversion. It was painted, according to the authorities, in the year 1543, and is now in the Louvre, together with that
