The life and times of Salvator Rosa

Front matter

THE

OF

SALVATOR ROSA.

Preface To The New Edition

It is the desire of the Publisher of this new edition of my Works, that I should prefix a few introductory lines to the first volume of the Series, “ The Life and Times of Salvator Bosa.” But the great Artist will speak best for himself to the present generation, as he has done to so many others in the course of those two centuries of his triumphs which have swept on to

“ The years beyond the flood.”

Painter, Poet, Musician, Philosopher, and Patriot, he combined in his fine organisation the supreme elements of high art, with the noblest instincts of intellectual humanity. He worked through his great vocation with a spirit of independence that never quailed, and with unflinching resistance to the persecutions of despotism and the intrigues of professional rivalry. His moral dignity refused to pander to the licentious tastes of the profligate times in which he flourished, and, in this respect superior to many of his great predecessors, he left not one picture that,

“ — dying, be might blush to own,”

while he exhibited in his great historical compositions, “ The Death of Begulus” and “The Conspiracy of Catiline,” a graphic eloquence which Herodotus and Gibbon have scarcely surpassed.

The story of Modern Italy writhing under foreign rule, he depicted in those groups of outlawed gentlemen and an

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outraged people, wlio, being denied all law, lived lawlessly, and, driven into crime by necessity, peopled the savage scenery of tbe Abrnzzi, or sought refuge in the caves of Calabria, where Salvator found and painted them, as the moral results of political misrule. But these fuori citti, these condottieri of romantic history, whose graceful forms and noble bearing bespoke their high caste, natural and social, were capable of chivalrous deeds and generous sympathies,— unlike those banded serfs of modern warfare, of low instinct and Tartar aspect, who, with “ the sword in their hands, and the cross in their hearts,” strike down their foe to murder him at leisure, as palpitating life moves one muscle more to impede the plunder of some bosom gem, the gift of love or maternal affection.

As the poet of liberty, Salvator takes his place among the high priests of her altars in Italy — Dante, Petrarch, Tasso, Pilacajia. He rendered even philosophy familiar to the eye, when, by the double despotism of Church and State, its truths were prohibited from meeting the understanding ; and while Gralileo was condemned to death for proving that the earth moved, Salvator, unsuspected and unpunished, painted, in allegories of artistic excellence, theories at least as dangerous.

Did Salvator live now, one might fancy him joining the ranks of the gallant defenders of national independence and civilisation ; standing but, like one of his own bold figures, upon the heights of Balaklava, pencil in hand and revolver in belt, realising for the homage of posterity the grand battle raging below, till, borne away by his kindling sympathies, he flings down his pencil, and, plunging into the melee, meets a glorious death or shares a not less glorious triumph.

With respect to the Authorship of the “ Life of Salvator Bosa,” it was written con amove in the prime of the Author’s life, and of her enthusiasm for Italy.

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Of the principle whicb. animates it, time lias not “ bated one jot,” nor quenched one sympathy.

The style in which it was written may now, perhaps, be deemed rococo , by the censors of the modern free-and-easy school, who write that those who run may read. Such as it is, it was the style with which the Author won her spurs, under the command of Field Marshal “ O’Donnel” and other heroes, native and foreign, who “championed” to their utmost the sublime cause of right and their country’s independence. If, however, with the conceit of other veterans, she now

“ Shoulders her crutch and shows how fields were won,”

she pleads that she served, though only as a subaltern, in times of the greatest literary enterprise and mental competitorship that British genius ever produced since the Augustan ages of Elizabeth and Anne !

SYDNEY MOEGrAN.

London, William Street, Albert Gate,

Preface To The First Edition

Should it be deemed worthy of inquiry, why I selected the life of Salvator Rosa as a subject of biographical memoir, in preference to that of any other illustrious painter of the Italian Schools, I answer, that I was influenced in my preference more by the peculiar character of the man, than the extraordinary merits of the artist. For, admiring the works of the great Neapolitan master, with an enthusiasm unknown, perhaps, to the sobriety of professed virtu, I estimated still more highly the qualities of the Italian patriot, who, stepping boldly in advance of a degraded age, stood in the foreground of his times, like one of his own spirited and graceful figures, when all around him was timid mannerism and grovelling subserviency !

Struck, as I had always been, with the philosophical tone and poetical conception of Salvator’s greater pictures, even to the feeling a degree of personal interest in favour of their creator, I took the opportunity of my residence in Italy to make some verbal inquiries as to the private character and story of a man, whose powerful intellect and deep feeling, no less than his wild and gloomy imagination, came forth even in his most petulant sketches and careless designs.

From tradition, little is to be obtained in a land where it is equally perilous to indulge in the memory of the past, or the hope of the future : but it was also evident, that over the name of Salvator Rosa there hung some spell, dark as one of his own incantations. For though in answer to my applications on this subject I was, in one or two instances, referred for information to the Parnasso Italiano, in none

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was I directed to those contemporary sources from whence the most impartial accounts were to be derived. The Parnasso Italiano is one of the few modern works in Italy sanctioned by the constituted authorities, and published, as its licence asserts, “ with the full approbation of the Grand Inquisitor of the Holy Office.” In its consecrated pages I found Salvator Hosa described as being “ of low birth and indigent circumstances — of a subtle organisation and an unregulated mind; — one whose life had been disorderly, and whose associates had been chosen among musicians and buffoons.” This discrepancy between the man and his works, though authenticated by the seal of the “ Holy Office,” awakened suspicions, which led to further inquiry and deeper research. It was then I discovered, that the sublime painter of the Saul and the Job was in fact precisely the reverse, in life and character, of all that he had been represented by the hired literary agents of those bad institutions, which he had so boldly and so ably attacked both by his pencil and his pen; for he was not “ subtile,” but uncompromising; not “unregulated,” but concentrated; not “one living with buffoons,” but with sages. It was equally evident, that the cause which covered the memory of one of the greatest painters and most philosophical poets of Italy with obloquy, was not the vice of the man, but the moral independence and political principle of the patriot ! I found Salvator Hosa standing in the gap of time between Michael Angelo the patriot artist, and Filicaja the poet of Liberty. The inheritor of much of the genius and all the good old Italian spirit of the first, he was also the precursor of the political free breathings of the last, — compared to whom he appears, like his own Desert-prophet in the Colonna palace, lonely indeed and wild, but not uninspired. As I found, so have I represented him ; and if (led by a natural sympathy to make common cause with all who suffer by misrepresentation) I have been the first (my only merit) to light a taper at the long-neglected shrine, and to raise the veil of calumny from the splendid image of slandered genius, I trust it is still reserved for some compatriot hand to restore the memory of Salvator Hosa to all its “original brightness,” as when the muse of the Arno was exclusively occupied in singing his praises. Many minute details and interesting facts of this extraordinary

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IX man may yet doubtless be obtained by a native of Italy, which it was difficult or impossible for a foreigner, and one writing at so remote a distance, to procure. The verbal information which I have extorted, has been in truth but scanty. Of the number of distinguished friends I had made and left in that country (the lustre of whose blue skies has not yet faded from my imagination), few now reside there, and fewer still are in a situation to give me any assistance. Many have been condemned to death ! the greatest number have saved life by perilous evasion and indigent exile ; and some, at the moment I write, uncertain of their fate, are wearing out their prime of existence in solitary confinement, cut off from all human intercourse, save what they hold (if that may be called human) with their gaolers and inquisitors.

From the general intimidation which prevails throughout Italy, little was to be hoped from the contributions of mere acquaintances. The proscription of my work on that country by the King of Sardinia, the Emperor of Austria, and the Pope, rendered it dangerous even to receive my letters or to answer them.* An English lady of high rank and unbounded influence in Home, who, in any other cause but in that of two such notorious Carbonari, must have been eminently successful, exerted herself to the utmost for me and my Salvator ; all, however, that her inexhaustible kindness (for such it has been) could effect, was to procure me a catalogue of Salvator’s pictures now remaining in Home, and in this catalogue the “Prometheus” (one of the most celebrated) was omitted. By far the greater number of Salvator’s works are in Great Britain ; and from many of their possessors and other lovers of the arts, I have received information wherever I have applied for it. I beg more particularly to offer my acknowledgments to the Earl of Darnley, Earl Grosvenor, Earl Cowper, Earl of Miltown, the Honourable William Ponsonby, Bichard Power, Esq., General Cockburn, Weld Hartstrong, Esq., — Heley, Esq., her Grace the Duchess of

* The Count Gonfaloniere and Sylvio Pellico, the most illustrious victims of Austrian tyranny, were at this epoch in carcere duro in the dungeons of Spilsburgh, from whence, after twenty years’ confinement, they were released under a total depression of intellect.

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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Devonshire, the Marchioness Dowager of Lansdowne, and to the Baron Denon. I now dismiss my first attempt at biographical writing with more of hope than apprehension ; and commit it to the indulgence of that public, which is the sole umpire for whose suffrage an author should be solicitous, as it is the only tribunal from whose decision there is no appeal.

Sydney Morgan.

Kildare-street,

Dublin, October 1st, 1823.

Chapter I

Influential causes of the progress and perfection of the Art of Painting during the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries — Importance of the early Masters of the Italian School — National Virtu — Influence of the Reformation on the Art and its Pi'ofessors — Decline of the Art — The Ritrattisti and Limners of the Seventeenth Century — Patronage of the Stuarts and the Bourbons, and its effects — The State of the Art at the close of the Seventeenth Century — The two last great Italian Masters, Carlo Maratti and Salvator Rosa Page 1

Chapter II

Political and Social State of Italy, and more particularly of Naples, in the Seventeenth Century — The family of Rosa — Birth of Salvator — He receives the diminutive appellation of Salvatoriello — Parental speculations — Salvator’s domestic education — Peculiarity of temperament, and early indications of genius — Flagellation in the Monastery of the Certosa — Departure for the Collegio della Congregazione Somasca — Rapid progress in the Humanities. The School of Philosophy then in vogue in the Italian Universities, neglected by Salvator — He acquires skill upon several musical instruments — Returns to the village of Renella .......... 8

Chapter III

Salvator studies Music scientifically — State of Music at that period in Italy — Flourishes in Naples — Salvator’s Lyrics — Judgment of a foreign Critic — Specimen of his amatory poetry — Marriage of his eldest sister with Francesco Francanzani the painter — Salvator commences painting in the work-room of Francanzani — Giro of the Italian painters — Salvator leaves Naples, and strikes out a new course of study for himself — His wanderings in Apulia, Calabria, and the Abruzzi — Character of these regions, and of their inhabitants — Description of the Banditti of the Abruzzi in the Seventeenth Century — Their power and influence — Salvator becomes associated with

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one of their bands — The influence of this event on his genius and works — Salvator returns to Naples — The misery and indigence of his family — Efforts to succour them unavailing — Death of his Father — He works at the lowest prices for the Rivenditori of Naples — State of the Neapolitan School at that epoch — A School of mannerists — Caravaggio, his singular character and story — His influence on the Neapolitan School — His disciples Giuseppe Ribera (lo Spagnuoletto) and his associates Corenzio and Caracciolo — School of Spagnuoletto, a ferocious faction — Its persecution of the great Roman masters, particularly Guido and Domenicliino, when invited by the Cavalieri Deputati to paint the Duomo — Arrival of the celebrated Lanfranco in Naples — He unites all suffrages — His letter — His admiration of the picture of Hagar in the Desert , by Salvator, which he purchases — Introduction of Salvator to Ancillo Falcone— Studies in his School— Unable to procure work — His sufferings and despondency .... Page 29

Chapter IV. 1634— 1635

Departure of Salvator for Rome — Milton’s arrival there about the same period — Social and political state of Rome favourable to the Arts — Virtu and patronage of the Barberini family — Urban VIII. — Lorenzo Bernini, architect of the Vatican — His character and influence — Position of the surviving pupils of the School of the Caracci on the arrival of Salvator in Rome — The Ultramontane School — Its vogue and peculiar characteristics— Anecdotes of its leading members — Opposition between the Flemish and Italian Schools — Salvator stands aloof from both — His solitary wanderings in the Campagna — Works for a miserable remuneration for the Rivenditori of the Piazza Navona — His obscurity and poverty described in a Cantata composed by himself — Infected by the Malaria, obliged to return to Naples for the recovery of his health . . 69

Chapter V. 1635— 1639

Arrival of Salvator in Naples — State in which he finds his family — Resumes his profession, and is opposed by the Neapolitan School — Fails in procuring work — Reduced to despair — Is relieved by the friendship of Girolamo Mercuri, Maestro di Casa to Cardinal Brancaccia — By his invitation, Salvator revisits Rome — Is sheltered in the palace of the Cardinal Brancaccia — Pursues his art under discouraging circumstances — Neglects entering into any of the reigning Schools — Studies in the Sistine

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Chapel — Impediments to liis success, both natural and national — Journey of the Cardinal Brancaccia to Viterbo — Rosa taken in his train — Paints the Loggia of the Episcopal Palace — Receives an order from the Cardinal to execute an altar-piece for the Chiesa della Morte — Subject of the picture — Becomes acquainted with the poet Antonio Abbati — Salvator disgusted with his position in the Cardinal’s family — Returns to Naples — Well received by Ancillo Falcone — Paints his celebrated picture of “ The Prometheus ” — Account of that picture — It is received into the annual exhibition at the Pantheon, held on the festival of San Giovanni Decollato — Its brilliant success — Salvator, at the instigation of Mercuri and Simonelli, returns to Rome — Rejected by the Academy of Saint Luke — Takes a house in the Via Babbuina — Improvement of his fortune — Opens a new path to notoriety in the Carnival of 1639 — His talents and success as an actor and improvvisatore — Becomes the fashion — Universally sought after for his social talents — Private theatricals in Rome — the old Italian Drama — Sketch of the Sette Maschere d’ Italia — The modern Drama — Theatre opened at the Vatican by Bernini — Theatre opened in the Vigna di Mignanelli by Salvator Rosa — Attacks the absurdities of Bernini — Vengeance taken by Ottaviano Castelli in the theatre of the Borgo Vecchio — The results — Feeling of the public, and conduct of Salvator upon this occasion Page 84

Chapter VI. 1639— 1647

Rosa applies himself to his profession with increasing success — Cabal raised against his historical pictures — School of landscape — When first opened in Rome — Its first masters — Claude Lorraine and Gaspar Poussin — Their characters, genius, and manner— Salvator Rosa opposed to both — Becomes the favourite painter of the Roman people — His manner of living — His Lyrics — His conversazioni — Mode of recitation — His friends and associates — Their rank and talents — Musical composers — Salvator’s attack upon the Modern School of Music, and upon the morals of its professors — Extract from his Satire on Music — He increases the number of his enemies — His first great Battle-piece — His Sorceress for the Casa Rossi — His poem of the Incantation composed at the same time — Character of his poetic genius — His Prodigal Son, and other works— Altar-pieces for Milan — His Purgatory — His professional dignity — Refuses all dictation — Anecdote of the Roman Prince ! ■— Friendship of the Prince Don Mario Ghigi — Anecdote — Salvator takes up the cause of an amateur rejected by the Academy

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of St. Luke — Calumnies of kis enemies — Historical pictures — Pindar and Pan, painted for the Ghigi Palace . Page 112

Chapter VII. 1647—1657

Death of Pope Urban VIII. — Its influence on the Arts — Innocent X. (Pamfili) — Public works consigned to Bernini — Influence of the civil wars of France and England upon Italy — Popular discontents at Naples — Masaniello — Neapolitan Revolution — Masaniello declared Captain-General of the people — Salvator Rosa arrives in Naples — Is received into the councils of Masaniello— Joins the standard of La Compagnia della Morte under Falcone — Treachery of the Viceroy — Interview between the Due d’ Arcos and Masaniello — The wisdom and justice of Masaniello— He is supposed to be poisoned by the Viceroy — Loses his reason — His assassination in the Convent del Carmine 144

CHAPTER Vm.

1647—1657.

Flight of Aniello Falcone to France — Salvator Rosa escapes to Rome — State of society in that city favours his safety — His “ Babilonia ” — His two singular pictures, L’ Umana Fragility, and La Fortuna — Persecution excited against him — Threatened with the Inquisition ! — Escapes from Rome in the train of the Prince Carlo Giovanni de’ Medici — Arrives in Florence — His splendid reception by the Court and the Florentine Nobility — Engages with the Grand Duke to paint for the Palace Pitti — Entertains the Cavaliers of the Court at his own house — Changes his society — Is surrounded by the Literati of Florence — Founds an academy of his own by the name of the Percossi — Private Theatricals at the Casino di San Marco — Messire Agli of Bologna enters the dramatic lists with Salvator — The Simposi, or classic suppers of Salvator Rosa — His professional labours — His Battle-piece for the Grand Duke — Other historical pictures — His own portrait — His friendship with Lorenzo Lippi, the author of the Malmantile — Urges him to compose that poem — Assists Lippi in his pictures — His portrait by Lippi — The “beautiful Lucrezia” becomes the govern ante of Salvator Rosa — He retires with her from Florence to Volterra and to the villas of his friends, the Maffei — His manner of living during his retreat — His pictorial and poetical compositions — His departure with Lucrezia from Tuscany . . . .163 v

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Chapter IX

Departure of Rosa celebrated by the Tuscan poets — He arrives in Rome, and establishes himself on the Monte Pincio — Scenery of the Pincio at that epoch — Salvator attacked by his professional rivals and political enemies — Refuses to paint for the public, and executes pictures for his own gallery — Again receives orders, and executes several great works — Paints for the Constable Colonna, for the King of Denmark, and for the Venetian Ambassador — Paints his great battle-piece as a present from the Court of Rome to Louis XIV. — His generosity — Birth of his son Agosto — His splendid position in Rome — His walks on the Monte Pincio — Fresh persecutions — Attack on his historical pictures — He refuses to paint small pictures and landscapes— Attacks on his poetical works — His unhappy state of mind — Accepts an invitation to attend the royal nuptials of Cosmo III. at Florence, for the purpose of changing the scene —Resides at the house of Paolo Minucci, and at Strozzavolpe — Refuses an invitation from the Archduke Ferdinand — Refuses to paint during his visit to Florence — His engravings — His Filosofo Negro — Madonna Anna Gaetano — The Portrait — Return of Salvator to Rome — He makes a journey to Loretto — His enthusiasm for romantic scenery — His return to Rome — Resumes his professional and ordinary habits . Page 200

Chapter X

Salvator executes three great pictures for the exhibition of San Giovanni , on his return to Rome in the year 1663 — He exhibits his Catiline Conspiracy in the Pantheon — Its composition, and success — His depression of spirits and disgust with his art — Exhibition in the Pantheon, 1664 — His Saul and the Witch of Endor — Continued persecutions of his enemies — Obtains the distinction of painting an altar-piece at Rome, his first and last — Its subject — Anecdotes — His projects for the Porta Flaminia — Friendship of Carlo Rossi — His chapel in the Cliiesa di Santa Maria del Santo Monte — Decline of Salvator’s health and spirits — His letter to Ricciardi on the subject — Undertakes a series of caricatures at the request of his friends — Is unable to finish them — His decline — Opinion of his physicians— Is given over — His singular conduct — The last day of his life — His funeral in the Chiesa di Santa Maria degli Angioli alle Terme — His tomb and epitaph .... 224

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Chapter XI

Description of Salvator’s person — His style of conversation — His vogue — His School — Bartolommeo Torrigiani — Gio. Ghesolfi — Agosto Rosa — Pietro Montanini — Harry Cook — His Imitators — The Cavaliere Fidenza of Rome — Salvator’s domestic character and manner — His sons and descendants — His property at the time of his death — His merits as a Painter (opinions of the most celebrated Masters) — as an Engraver — as a Musical composer — His social talents — His erudition — His poetry — State of Italian literature in the seventeenth century — State of the Press — Marini, his followers in Italy and in England — Satirical and burlesque poets of Italy — Satires of Salvator Rosa — Their character and tendency — Cause of the diatribes of contemporary critics — Their calumnies — Reputation of Salvator’s poetry in Italy in the present day Page 248

LETTERS.

Letters of Salvator Rosa to Doctor Baptista Ricciardi, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Pisa, from the year 1652 to the year 1669 265

Appendix

Cantata — List of Pictures by Salvator Rosa .

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SALYATOR ROSA.