been able to procure the portrait of Garofalo,[1] I have placed at the commencement of this series of Lombard painters that of Girolamo Carpi, whose Life I am now about to write.
Girolamo, then, who was called Da Carpi,[2] f and who was a Ferrarese, and disciple of Benvenuto Garofalo, passed his earlier years in the work-shops of his father Tommaso, who was a painter of shields, and who employed him to decorate cotfers, seats, frames, and other matters of similar character. Girolamo, having subsequently made some progress under the discipline of Benvenuto, expected that his father would set him free from the necessity of executing those mechanical works, but as Tommaso, desirous of gain, would do nothing of the kind, his son resolved to leave him, come what might thereof.
He thereupon departed from Ferrara and repaired to Bologna, where he found much favour with the gentlemen of that city: wherefore having taken certain portraits, which were found to be very fair likenesses, he acquired so good a reputation that he made large gains, and was able to gain more for his father by his abode in Bologna than he had done while in Ferrara.
Now at that time there had been a work by the hand of Antonio Correggio transported to Bologna and deposited in the house of the Counts Ereoiani. The subject of the
- ↑ There are two portraits in the Louvre which are believed to be of this artist, but principally because they hold a clove pink or gilliflower in the hand: that which Manolessi believed himself to have discovered, is considered by Lanzi to be the portrait of Giovan Battista Benvenuti, called L’Ortolano.
- ↑ Superbi, Apparato degli nomini illustri di Ferrara, calls him de’ Carpi, but the dispute on what Lanzi has well called the frivolous question thus arising, has been set at rest by Baruffaldi, Vite de’ Pittori Ferraresi, who cites authentic documents to show that his name was Girolamo Bianchi, and that he was as Vasari—who having been his friend, was a highly competent authority'—has said, “called Da Carpi.” In some of the later editions of our author his life is separated from that of Benvenuto, &c., but we adhere to the text as arranged by Vasari himself in the edition of 1560.
Vatican. Lanzi speaks of one in the Chigi Palace, and Bottari mentions another as in the Corsini, but the present writer cannot remember to have seen either of these examples. The two in our own National Gallery, the Vision of St. Augustine and a Holy Family namely, need no mention here.
