BOLOGNESE SCHOOL OF PAINTING. Franco, who was commended by Dante for superiority in missal-painting, and who has been called the Giotto of his school, is the supposed founder of the style of the Bolognese'painters of the 14th cen tury. Many of their now fading works exist in the church di Mezzaratta, a gallery. as it were, of ancient specimens. which is to this era of the Bolognese school what the Campo Santo at Pisa is to that of the Florentines. About 1400, the most pro!.tinent name is Lippo Dalmasio, sonic of whose works remain. 3Ialvasin relates, with refer ence to one in the church of S. Procolo, that he heard Guido extol its purity and gran deur of expression, and assert that no modern painter could infuse so holy a feeling into similar subjects. Francesco Francia, who was contemporary with Raphael, and sur vived him some years, is celebrated as a painter who succeeded beyond most others in giving an expression of sanctity and purity to his madonnas. and a letter of Itaphners is extant in which this merit is particularly alluded to. Ills eulogists, however, have vainly endeavored to exalt him to a level with Raphael or Titian. Niccolo dell' Abate is associated with the Bolognese painters by some works at Bologna, by his joint labors with Primaticcio at Fontainebleau, and by the extravagant compliment paid to him in a sonnet by Agostino Caracci as uniting in himself all the excellences of all the great masters. Pelligrino Tibiddi, a pupil of Michael Angelo, is another celebrated natne. The Carucci, of whom we shall soon speak, honored him with the appellation of "the reformed Michael Angelo." Baroccio led the way. about 1565, in including Correggio among the great models to be imitated, and we find that Lrdovieo Carneci, and his younger cousins Agostino and Annibale Caracci united their efforts to introduce it new stylp patterned in some respects after that great master. They fiinnded a school of
instruction which exerted a great influence. The fame of the Carucci was soon estab lished by their works; hut the opposition of the abettors of the old school was not silenced until the frescos in the Palazzo Magnani were executed. The constant refer ence of these masters to nature was the point of objection ou the part of the old school. Annibale Cursed painted in various churches in Rome; but his great work, the monu ment of his powers and the spechnen of the school most frequently quoted, and in which Agostino assisted, is the series of frescos in the Earnest: palace. The followers of Ludovico at Bologna were true to the founder of the school, and posterity seems to have decided that he was more original than Annibale. Sir Joshua Reynolds praised " his unaffected breadth of light and shadow, the simplicity of the coloring," and "the solemn twilight diffused-over his pictures, as corresponding better with grave and dignified subjects "than the more artificial brilliancy of sunshine which enlightens the it of Titian." Indeed, the principles and practice of these Bolognese masters and their scholars superseded for a time every other style in Italy. Among the numerous sAolars of the Caracci, Domeuichino holds the first rank. Ile was declared by Poussin to be the greatest painter after Raphael, and by some modern critics he has been pre ferred to the Caracci themselves. Among the other eminent painters of the Bolognese school are Guercino, Lanfranco, Tiarrini, Lionello Spada, Cavedone, and Carlo Cig nani. During the present century the school has lost something of its former high rank. The British national gallery contains more than twenty pictures by artists of this school.