tier, and was most essentially benefited by the competition of the above-named masters, was Bernardo de’ Gatti, called Il Soiaro,[1] of whom we have already spoken. Some declare this artist to have been a native of Verzelli, while others affirm that he belonged to Cremona; but be that as it may, and let him have come from whithersoever they will, he painted a very beautiful picture for the high altar of San Piero, a church of the Canons Regular; and in their refectory he also depicted the story, or rather miracle, which Our Saviour Christ performed, when he satisfied the hunger of an infinite multitude with five loaves and two fishes: but this last Bernardo retouched to such extent, a secco, that it has lost all its beauty.[2] In the church of San Gismondo, which is situate, as we have said, without the city of Cremona, Il Soiaro painted the Ascension of Our Saviour Christ into heaven; this work, which is beneath one of the vaulted arches, is a very graceful performance, and admirably coloured.
In the church of Santa Maria di Campagna, at Piacenza, Il Soiaro painted a fresco in competition with Pordenone, and opposite to the Sant’ Agostino, of which we have before spoken.
The subject of this work is San Giorgio, he is on horseback, in full armour, and is in the act of Destroying the Dragon, the figure displaying much boldness and animation, with admirable relief. Having finished that work, El Soiaro was commissioned to complete the Tribune of the Church, which had been left unfinished by Pordenone, and in which he depicted all the Life of the Madonna, in fresco; and although the Prophets and Sybils, with Angels in the form of Children, which had previously been painted in that apsis by Pordenone, are beautiful, yet 11 Soiaro has acquitted
- ↑ Sojaro or Sogliaro. This in the Cremonese dialect means a cooper, of which trade was the father of Bernardo. There are two pictures by his hand in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, an Ecce Homo and a Crucifixion; of the last, a German writer, Hirt, hath deposed in such sort as to merit the most special ear of my reader; his magniloquent words are as follow:—“It is composed with the discretion of Leonardo, designed with the learning of Michael Angelo, inspired [unless the reader will have the original, besouled] with the spirit-giving breath of Raphael, coloured with the fresh tone of Titian, and transfused with the clear-obscure of Correggio.”
- ↑ Let the reader consult Vidoni, La Pittura Cremonese, as above cited, where there is no inconsiderable part of the work given in two plates, with the addition of valuable remarks: see p. 57, et seq.
