Among the Bolognese pupils of Guido, Domenico Maria Canuti obtained great celebrity. He was employed by the Padri Olivetani, (an order the most distinguished for its patronage of first rate artists,) in several monasteries, more particularly at Rome, Padua, and Bologna, whose library and church he decorated with numerous paintings. One of these, the Taking down from the Cross by torch-light, is greatly admired, several copies of which are met with, in general called the Night of Canuti; also a St. Michael, painted in part within the arch, and in part on the exterior, is considered a rare triumph of the power of perspective. His entire work in that library was afterwards described and printed by the Manolessi. He left immense works also in two halls of the Pepoli palace, in the Colonna gallery at Rome, in the ducal palace at Mantua, and elsewhere, being esteemed one of the best fresco painters of his time. His fertility and vivacity please more than his colouring, while his individual figures are, perhaps, more attractive than the general effect of the picture. He was excellent too in oil, and succeeded admirably in copying Guido, whose Magdalen of the Barberini was taken so exactly, that it appears the best among all the copies seen at S. Michele in Bosco. Canuti opened school at Bologna; but his pupils, during his tour to Rome, attached themselves chiefly to Pasinelli, in whose school, or in that of Cignani, they will be found included during the last epoch.

Other of Guido's scholars are indicated by Malvasia, among whom he highly extols Michele Sobleo, or Desubleo, from Flanders, though resident at Bologna. But he left little in public there, and that is a mixture of Guercino and of Guido. Several churches at Venice were decorated by his hand, and the altar-piece at the Carmelite friars, representing also various saints of that order, is among his most celebrated works. From the same country was Enrico Fiammingo, whom we must not confound with Arrigo Fiammingo, an artist made known to us by Baglione. Both fixed their abode in Italy, and the follower of Guido, formerly pupil to Ribera, painted some pictures at S. Barbaziano in Bologna, that may compete with those of Gessi, were it not for the fleshes being of a darker tinge. A few pictures by another foreigner are preserved at the Capuccini and elsewhere; his name, Pietro Lauri, or rather De Laurier, a Frenchman, whose crayons were frequently retouched by Guido, and whose oil pictures also shew traces of the same hand. Respecting another, whose name only remains, it will be sufficient to mention an altar-piece of the Magdalen, placed in the oratory of S. Carlo, at Volterra, relating to which is a letter of Guido to the Cav. Francesco Incontri, stating that he had retouched it, particularly in the head; but that, with the aid of Guido's design, it was painted by the Signor Camillo. He is said to have been a member of that noble family, of whom memorials have been preserved by his house.

The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. V (of 6) — Part 74