Brusciata; the subject of this work was the funeral procession of the Saints Faustino and Jovita,[1] with groups of figures following the remains of those Saints, all exceedingly well executed in fresco. In San Nazzaro, which is also in Brescia, there are certain works by the hand of Moretto, with others in San Celso,[2] which have considerable merit; and one in San Piero at Oliveto, which is an exceedingly graceful and beautiful performance. At the house of the Mint in Milan also there is a picture by Alessandro Moretto which represents the Conversion of Saint Paul and in which are many heads of great life and animation; the draperies and habiliments are likewise perfectly well done. This artist was indeed particularly fond of depicting vestments in cloth of gold and silver, with 'velvets, damasks, and other textures of all kinds, which he also arranged about his figures with infinite care.
The faces of Alessandro Moretto are full of animation and have somewhat of the manner of Raffaello da Urbino; nay, they would without doubt have had much more thereof, had Moretto not always dwelt at so great a distance from that master. The Brescian painter Lattanzio Gambara, who as we have before said, acquired his art under the Cremonese Giulio Campo, was the son-in-law of Alessandro,[3] and is now the best painter in Brescia. The picture of the High Altar in the Monastery of the Black Friars of San Faustino, is by the hand of Lattanzio, as are paintings in fresco on the walls and vaulting of that edifice, with other pictures in the same edifice. On the high altar of the Church of San Lorenzo likewise, is a picture by this artist, with two stories on the walls; all those of the vaulting, moreover, which are in fresco,
- ↑ For the little that is to be told of these saints, who were brothers, our readers are referred to Mrs. Jameson, as so frequently cited.
- ↑ The Church of S.S. Nazzaro and Celso are one and the same.— Förster.
- ↑ “Lattanzio was not the son-in-law of Alessandro Moretto, but of Romanino,” remarks an Italian commentator; but the information of Vasari appears to have been derived from so good a source, that we may fairly suppose him to have been correct. Lattanzio may have married twice and been son-in-law to both these artists.
Gallery at Bergamo. The fellow citizens of this master erected two monuments to his memory some few years since, and about the same time his bust was placed in the Capitol at Rome.—Kunstblatt for 1844, p. 160. See also Zamboni, Memorie intorno alle Fabbriche di Brescia.
