Resolute, then, in his purpose, after having studied the best native artists in Bologna, he proceeded to do the same under Titian and Tintoretto at Venice. Thence he passed to Florence, and improved his taste from the pictures of Andrea, and the instructions of Passignano. At that period, the school of the Florentines had attained to that crisis, described in treating of its fourth epoch. Nothing could be more advantageous to young Lodovico than to observe there the competition between the partizans of the old and the new style; nor could there be better means of ascertaining the causes of the decline, and of the revival of the art. Such a scene was assuredly of the greatest use to him, though hitherto not much noticed, in attempting the reform of painting, and carrying it to a higher degree of perfection. The most eminent Florentines, with the view of improving the languid colouring of their masters, turned to the models of Coreggio and his followers; and their example, I am of opinion, induced Lodovico to leave Florence for Parma, where, observes his historian, he wholly devoted himself to that master and to Parmigianino. On his return to Bologna, although well received and esteemed as a good artist, he soon became aware that a single individual, so reserved and cautious as he was, could ill compete with an entire school; unless, following the example of Cigoli at Florence, he were to form a party among the rising pupils at Bologna.
In the first instance, he sought support in his own relatives. His brother Paolo cultivated the art, but was deficient both in judgment and in ability, and calculated only to execute with mediocrity the designs of others. On him he placed no reliance, but a good deal on two of his cousins. He had a paternal uncle named Antonio, by profession a tailor, who educated his two sons, Agostino and Annibale, at home. Such was their genius for design, that Lodovico was accustomed to say in his old age, that he had never had, during his whole professional career, a single pupil to equal them. The first devoted his attention to the goldsmith's art--always the school of the best engravers; the second was at once the pupil and assistant of his father in his calling. Though brothers, their dispositions were so opposite, as to render their society insufferable to each other, and they were little less than enemies. Accomplished in letters, Agostino always sought the company of learned men; there was no science on which he could not speak; at once a philosopher, a geometrician, and a poet; of refined manners, ready wit, and averse to the pursuits of the crowd. Annibale, on the contrary, neglected letters, beyond the mere power of reading and writing, while a natural bluntness of manner inclined him to taciturnity, and when compelled to speak, it was mostly in a satirical, contemptuous, or disputing tone.