His works
are well composed and painted, but excessive in sentiment and overdone
in pathos. Albani (1578-1660) ran to elegance and a porcelain-like
prettiness. Guercino (1591-1666) was originally of the Eclectic School
at Bologna, but later took up with the methods of the Naturalists at
Naples. He was a painter of far more than the average ability.
Sassoferrato (1605-1685) and Carlo Dolci (1616-1686) were so
super-saturated with sentimentality that often their skill as painters
is overlooked or forgotten. In spirit they were about the weakest of
the century. There were other eclectic schools started throughout
Italy--at Milan, Cremona, Ferrara--but they produced little worth
recording. At Rome certain painters like Cristofano Allori
(1577-1621), an exceptionally strong man for the time, Berrettini
(1596-1669), and Maratta (1625-1713), manufactured a facile kind of
painting from what was attractive in the various schools, but it was
never other than meretricious work.
[Illustration: FIG.
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