Cotignola, whom Bonoli, in his history of Lugo, and that of Cotignola, as well as the describer of the Parmese paintings, agree in surnaming Marchesi, while in the Guide to Ravenna, he is denominated Zaganelli. Vasari commends him, as a very pleasing colourist; although inferior to Rondinello in point of design, and still more of composition. In this he was not happy, if we except his celebrated Resurrection of Lazarus, which is to be seen at Classe; his extremely beautiful baptism of Jesus Christ, at Faenza, and a few other histories, where he checks his ardour, and more carefully disposes his figures, for the most part fine and well draped; occasionally whimsical, and in proportions less than life. One of his most extraordinary productions is a large altar-piece at the church of the Osservanti, in Parma, where he represented the Virgin between several Saints, enlivened by several portraits in the background. He never, in my opinion, produced any work more solid in conception, nor more harmoniously disposed, nor more ingenious in the colonnade, and the other accessary parts. Here he preserved the most moderate tints, contrary to his usual practice, which was glowing and highly animated, and distributed more in the manner of Mantegna, than of any other master. He had a brother named Bernardino, with whom, in 1504, he painted a very celebrated altar-piece, representing the Virgin between S. Francesco and the Baptist, placed in the interior chapel of the Padri Osservanti, in Ravenna; and another to be seen at Imola, in the church of the Riformati, with the date 1509. Bernardino, likewise, displayed tolerable ability alone, and among the paintings at Pavia, there is one at the Carmine, inscribed with his name; a fact that may correct an error of Crespi, who names the elder brother Francesco Bernardino, making the two into one artist.

Contemporary with him, Baldassare Carrari was employed at Ravenna along with his son Matteo, both natives of that state. They painted for San Domenico the celebrated altar-piece of S. Bartolommeo, with the grado, containing very elegant histories of the Holy Apostle. Such is its merit, as hardly to yield to the gracefulness of Luca Longhi, who placed one of his own pictures near it. It was one of the earliest which was painted in oil in Ravenna; and it deserved the eulogium bestowed by Pope Julius II., who on beholding it, in 1511, declared, that the altars of Rome could boast no pieces which surpassed it in point of beauty. The painter there left his portrait in the figure of S. Pietro, and that of Rondinello in the S. Bartolommeo, somewhat older; an observance shewn in those times by the pupils towards their masters. Yet I should not here pronounce it such, as Vasari is not only wholly silent as to his school, but omits even his name.

At Rimini, where the Malatesti spared no expense to attract the best masters, the art of painting flourished. It was at this time that the church of San Francesco, one of the wonders of the age, was nobly erected, and as richly decorated. A number of artists at Rimini had succeeded Giotto in his school; and it is to them the author of the Guide ascribes the histories of the B. Michelina, which Vasari conceived were from Giotto's own hand.[7] At a later period one Bitino, whose name I am happy to rescue from oblivion, was employed at the same place; an artist not perhaps excelled in Italy, about the year 1407, when he painted an altar-piece of the titular saint, for the church of S. Giuliano. Around it he represented the discovery of his body, and other facts relating to the subject; extremely pleasing in point of invention, architecture, countenances, draperies, and colouring.[8] Another noble production is a S. Sigismondo, at whose feet appears Sigismondo Malatesta, with the inscription, Franciscus de Burgo, f. 1446; and by the same hand there is the Scourging of our Saviour. Both these paintings are seen on the wall of S. Francesco; abounding in perspectives and capricci, with character approaching so nearly to the taste of Pietro della Francesca, then living, as to induce me to believe, that they are either by him, and that he has thus Latinized the name of his house, or by some one of his pupils, whose name has perished. Not such has been the fate of Benedetto Coda, of Ferrara, who flourished at Rimini, as well as his son Bartolommeo, where they left a number of their works. Vasari, in his life of Gio. Bellini, makes brief mention of them, describing Benedetto as Bellini's pupil, "though he derived small advantage from it." Yet the altar-piece representing the Marriage of the Virgin, which he placed in the cathedral, with the inscription of Opus Benedicti, is a very respectable production; while that of the Rosary, in possession of the Dominicans, is even in better taste, though not yet modern. This, however, cannot be said of the son, one of whose pictures I saw at S. Rocco da Pesaro, painted in 1528, with such excellent method, as almost to remind us of the golden age. It represents the titular saint of the church along with S. Sebastiano, standing round the throne of the Virgin, with the addition of playful and beautiful cherubs. Another pupil of Gio. Bellini is noticed by Ridolfi. Lattanzio da Rimino, or Lattanzio della Marca, referred by others to the school of Pietro Perugino, which, perhaps too, produced Gio. da Rimino, one of whose pictures, bearing his signature, belongs to the grand Ercolani collection at Bologna.[9]

Forli, as far as I can learn, boasts no artist earlier than Guglielmo da Forli, a pupil of Giotto. His paintings in fresco, conducted at the Francescani, no longer survive, nor in the church of that order could I meet with any specimen of the thirteenth century, besides a Crucifix by some unknown hand. From that period, perhaps, a succession of artists appeared, there being no scarcity of anonymous paintings from which to conjecture such a fact; but history is silent until the time of Ansovino di Forli, who has already been included among the pupils of Squarcione. I have my doubts whether this artist could be the master of Melozzo, a name venerated by artists, inasmuch as he was the first who applied the art of foreshortening, the most difficult and the most severe, to the painting of vaulted ceilings. Considerable progress was made in perspective after the time of Paolo Uccello, with the aid of Piero della Francesca, a celebrated geometrician, and of a few Lombards. But the ornamenting of ceilings with that pleasing art and illusion, which afterwards appeared, was reserved for Melozzo. It is observed by Scannelli, and followed by Orlandi, that in order to acquire the art he studied the works of the best ancient artists, and though born to fortune, he did not refuse to lodge with the masters of his times, in quality of attendant and compounder of their colours. Some writers give him as a pupil to Pietro della Francesca. It is at least probable, that Melozzo was acquainted with him and with Agostino Bramantino, when they were employed at Rome by Nicholas V., towards the year 1455. However this may be, Melozzo painted on the