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Giorgio Vasari

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see also:
Giorgio Vasari
"Lives of the Most Eminent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects"
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Giorgio Vasari
Italian artist and author
born July 30, 1511, Arezzo [Italy]
died June 27, 1574, Florence
Main
Italian painter, architect, and writer who is best known for his
important biographies of Italian Renaissance artists.
When still a child, Vasari was the pupil of Guglielmo de Marcillat,
but his decisive training was in Florence, where he enjoyed the
friendship and patronage of the Medici family, trained within the circle
of Andrea del Sarto, and became a lifelong admirer of Michelangelo. As
an artist Vasari was both studious and prolific. His painting is best
represented by the fresco cycles in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and
by the so-called 100-days fresco, which depicts scenes from the life of
Pope Paul III, in the Cancelleria in Rome. Vasari’s paintings, often
produced with the help of a team of assistants, are in the style of the
Tuscan Mannerists and have often been criticized as being facile,
superficial, and lacking a sense of colour. Contemporary scholars regard
Vasari more highly as an architect than as a painter. His best-known
buildings are the Uffizi in Florence, begun in 1560 for Cosimo I de’
Medici, and the church, monastery, and palace created for the Cavalieri
di San Stefano in Pisa. These designs show the influence of Michelangelo
and are outstanding examples of the Tuscan Mannerist style of
architecture.
Vasari’s fame rests on his massive book Le Vite de’ più eccellenti
architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani… (1550, 2nd ed., 1568; Lives
of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, 1850–52, trans.
of the 2nd ed.), which was dedicated to Cosimo de’ Medici. In it Vasari
offers his own critical history of Western art through several prefaces
and a lengthy series of artist biographies. These discussions present
three periods of artistic development: according to Vasari, the
excellence of the art of classical antiquity was followed by a decline
of quality during the Dark Ages, which was in turn reversed by a
renaissance of the arts in Tuscany in the 14th century, initiated by
Cimabue and Giotto and culminating in the works of Michelangelo. A
second and much-enlarged edition of Lives, which added the biographies
of a number of artists then living, as well as Vasari’s own
autobiography, is now much better known than the first edition and has
been widely translated.
Vasari’s writing style in the Lives is anecdotal and eminently
readable. When facts were scarce, however, he did not hesitate to fill
in the gaps with information of questionable veracity. His bias toward
Italian (and more specifically Tuscan) art is also undeniable. Despite
these flaws, Vasari’s work in Lives represents the first grandiose
example of modern historiography and has proven to be hugely
influential. The canon of Italian Renaissance artists he established in
the book endures as the standard to this day. Moreover, the trajectory
of art history he presented has formed the conceptual basis for
Renaissance scholarship and continues to influence popular perceptions
of the history of Western painting.
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"Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects"
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PART I
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Cimabue |
Arnolfo di
Lapo (di Cambio) |
Nicola Pisano |
Giovanni
Pisano |
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Andrea Tafi |
Gaddo Gaddi |
Margaritone |
Giotto
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Agostino and
Agnolo |
Stefano and
Ugolino |
Pietro
Lorenzetti |
Andrea Pisano |
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Buonamico
Buffalmacco |
Ambrogio
Lorenzetti |
Pietro
Cavallini |
Simone Martini
and Lippo Memmi |
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Taddeo Gaddi |
Andrea di
Cione Orcagna |
Tommaso called
Giottino |
Giovanni dal
Ponte |
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Agnolo Gaddi |
Barna da Siena |
Duccio |
Antonio
Veneziano |
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Jacopo da
Casentino |
Spinello
Aretino |
Gherardo
Starnina |
Lippo |
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Lorenzo Monaco |
Taddeo di
Bartolo |
Lorenzo di
Bicci |
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CIMABUE (circa
1240-circa 1302)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
THE GREAT FLOOD of
misfortunes, by which poor Italy had been afflicted
and overwhelmed, had not only reduced to ruins all
buildings of note throughout the land, but what was
of far more importance, had caused an utter lack of
the very artists themselves. At this time, when the
supply seemed entirely exhausted, in the year 1240,
by the will of God, there was born in the city of
Florence, Giovanni, surnamed Cimabue, of the noble
family of that name, who was to shed the first light
on the art of painting. He, as he grew, being judged
by his father and others to possess a fine acute
intellect, was sent to Santa Maria Novella to be
instructed in letters by a relative of his who
taught grammar to the novices of that convent.
But instead of
attending to his lessons, Cimabue spent all the day
in painting on his books and papers,men, horses,
houses, and such things. To this natural inclination
fortune was favorable, for certain painters of
Greece, who had been summoned by the rulers of
Florence to restore the almost forgotten art of
painting in the city, began at this time to work in
the chapel of the Gondi in Santa Maria Novella; and
Cimabue would often escape from school and stand all
day watching them, until his father and the painters
themselves judging that he was apt for painting, he
was placed under their instruction. Nature, however,
aided by constant practice, enabled him greatly to
surpass both in design and coloring the masters who
had taught him. For they, never caring to advance in
their art, did everything not in the good manner of
ancient Greece, but after the rude manner of those
times.
He painted in
churches both in Florence and Pisa, and made the
name of Cimabue famous everywhere, on which account
he was summoned to Assisi, a city of Umbria, to
paint in company with some Greek masters the lower
church of S. Francis. For in those times the order
of the Minor Friars of S. Francis having been
confirmed by Pope Innocent III, both the devotion
and the numbers of the friars grew so great not only
in Italy, but in all parts of the world, that there
was scarcely a city of any account which did not
build for them churches and convents at great
expense. Two years before the death of St. Francis,
while that saint was absent preaching, Fra Elia was
prior in Assisi, and built a church for Our Lady;
but when St. Francis was dead, and all Christendom
was coming to visit the body of a saint who in life
and death was known by all to have been the friend
of God, and every man at the holy spot was making
gifts according to his power, it was ordained that
the church begun by Fra Eli should be made much
larger and more magnificent. But there being a
scarcity of good architects, and the work needing an
excellent one, for it was necessary to build on a
very steep hill at the roots of which runs a torrent
called Tescio, after much consideration they brought
to Assisi, as the best architect that could then be
found, one Master Jacopo Tedesco. He having
considered the site, and heard the will of the
Fathers, who held a chapter-general for the purpose
in Assisi, designed a very fine church and convent,
making in the model three storeys, one below ground,
and two churches, one of which on the first slope
should serve as the vestibule, having a very large
colonnade round it, and the other for the sanctuary.
And he arranged that you should go up from the first
to the second by a most convenient order of stairs,
which wound round the larger chapel, dividing into
two, to enter the second church. To this he gave the
form of a T, making it five times as long as it was
wide.
In the larger
chapel of the lower church was placed the altar, and
below it, when it was finished, was laid with solemn
ceremonies the body of St. Francis. And because the
tomb which encloses the body of the glorious saint
is in the first, that is the lowest church, which no
one ever enters, the doors of it are walled up, and
around the altar are gratings of iron, with rich
ornaments of marble and mosaic. This work was
brought to a conclusion in the space of four years,
and no more, by the skill of Master Jacopo and the
careful labors of Fra Elia. After his death there
were made round the lower church twelve fine towers,
and in each of them a staircase from the ground to
the top, and in time there were added many chapels
and many rich ornaments. As for Master Jacopo, by
this work he acquired such fame through all Italy
that he was called to Florence, and received there
with the greatest honor possible,although according
to the habit the Florentines have (and used to have
still more) of shortening names, they called him not
Jacopo but Lapo all the days of his life.
So in the lower
church Cimabue painted in company with the Greeks,
and greatly surpassed the Greek painters. Therefore,
his courage rising, he began to paint by himself in
fresco in the upper church, and painted many things,
especially the ascent of the Virgin into heaven, and
the Holy Spirit descending upon the apostles. This
work, being truly very great and rich and well
executed, must in my judgment have astonished the
world in those days, painting having been so long in
such darkness, and to myself, who saw it in the year
1563, it appeared most beautiful, and I marvelled
how Cimabue could have had such light in the midst
of such heavy gloom. Being called to Florence,
however, Cimabue did not continue his labors, but
they were finished many years after by Giotto, as we
will tell in its place.
After his return to
Florence he made for the church of S. Maria Novella
a picture of our Lady, which work was of larger size
than those that had been made before that time, and
the angels that stand round, although they are in
the Greek manner, yet show something of the modern
style. Therefore this work caused such marvel to the
people of that time, never having seen a better,
that it was borne in solemn procession with trumpets
and great rejoicing from the house of Cimabue to the
church, and he himself received great honours and
rewards. It is said, and you may read it in certain
records of old pictures, that while Cimabue was
painting this picture, King Charles of Anjou passed
through Florence, and among other entertainments
provided for him by the people of the city, they
took him to see Cimabue's picture; and as no one had
seen it before it was shown to the king, there was a
great concourse of all the men and women of Florence
to see it, with the greatest rejoicing and running
together in the world. From the gladness of the
whole neighborhood that part was called Borgo
Allegri, the Joyful Quarter, and though it is now
within the walls of the city, it has always
preserved the same name.
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ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO
(1232 or 1245-1310)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
THERE WERE BUILT,
then, in the time of Lapo and of Arnolfo his son,
many edifices of importance both in Italy and
abroad, whereof I have not been able to find the
architects, such as the Abbey of Monreale in Sicily,
the Piscopio of Naples, the Certosa of Pavia, the
Duomo of Milan, S. Pietro and S. Petronio in
Bologna, and many others which are seen throughout
all Italy, built at incredible cost. (Having seen
all these buildings for myself and studied them, and
likewise many sculptures of those times,
particularly in Ravenna, and not having ever found,
I do not say any memorials of the masters, but even
many times the date when they were built, I cannot
but marvel at the rudeness and little desire for
glory of the men of that age. But returning to our
subject; after the buildings named above, there
began at last to arise men of a more exalted spirit,
who, if they did not find, sought at least to find
something of the good. The first was Buono, of whom
I know neither the country nor the surname, for the
reason that in making record of himself in some of
his works he put nothing but simply his name. He,
being both sculptor and architect, first made many
palaces and churches and some sculptures in Ravenna,
in the year of our salvation 1152; and having become
known by reason of these works, he was called to
Naples, where he founded (although they were
finished by others, as will be told) the Castel
Capoano and the Castel dell' Uovo; and afterwards,
in the time of Domenico Morosini, Doge of Venice, he
founded the Campanile of S. Marco with much
consideration and judgment, having caused the
foundation of that tower to be so well fixed with
piles that it has never moved a hair's breadth, as
many buildings constructed in that city before his
day have been seen and still are seen to have done.
And from him,
perchance, the Venetians learnt to found, in the
manner in which they do it today, the very beautiful
and very rich edifices that every day are being
built so magnificently in that most noble city. It
is true, indeed, that this tower has nothing else
good in it, neither manner, nor ornament, nor, in
short, anything that might be worthy of much praise.
It was finished under Anastasius IV and Adrian IV,
Pontiffs, in the year 1154. In architecture,
likewise, Buono made the Church of S. Andrea in
Pistoia, and in sculpture he made an architrave of
marble that is over the door, full of figures made
in the manner of the Goths, on which architrave his
name is carved, with the date when this work was
made by him, which was the year 1166. Next, being
summoned to Florence, he gave the design for
enlarging, as was done, the Church of S. Maria
Maggiore, which was then without the city, and held
in great veneration for the reason that Pope
Pelagius had consecrated it many years before, and
because, as to size and manner, it was a very fair
body of a church.
Being then summoned
by the Aretines to their city, Buono built the old
habitation of the Lords of Arezzo. namely, a palace
in the manner of the Goths, and beside it a
belltower. This edifice, which for that manner was
good enough, was thrown to the ground, because it
was opposite and very near to the fortress of that
city, in the year 1533. Afterwards, the art making
some little improvement through the works of one
Guglielmo, German (I believe) in origin, there were
built certain edifices of the greatest cost and in a
slightly better manner; for this Guglielmo, so it is
said, in the year 1174, together with Bonanno a
sculptor, founded in Pisa, th^ fiaimffi"'!? 9l.jJ?.g
..DW MT V*- [SIC] where there are certain words
carved that say: A.D. MCLXXIV, CAMPANILE HOC FUIT
FUNDATUM, MENSE AUG. But these two architects not
having much practice of founding in Pisa and
therefore not supporting the platform with piles, as
they ought, before they had gone halfway with that
building it inclined to one side and bent over to
the weakest part, in a manner that the said
campanile leans six and a half braccia [The braccio
is a very variable standard of measurement. As used
by Vasari, it may be taken to denote about 23
inches.] out of the straight, according as the
foundation sank on this side; and although in the
lower part this is not much, up above it shows clear
enough to make men stand fast in a marvel how it can
be that it has not fallen down and has not thrown
out cracks. The reason is that this edifice is round
both without and within and built in the shape of a
hollow well, and bound together with the stones in a
manner that it is well-nigh impossible that it
should fall; and it is assisted, above all, by the
foundations, which have an outwork three braccia
wide outside the tower, made, as it is seen, after
the sinking of the campanile, in order to support
it. I am convinced that if it had been square it
would not have been standing today, for the reason
that the corner stones of the square sides, as is
often seen to happen, would have forced them out in
a manner that it would have fallen down. And if the
Garisenda, a tower in Bologna, although square,
leans and does not fall, that comes to pass because
it is slender and does not lean so much, not being
burdened by so great a weight, by a great measure,
as is this campanile, which is praised, not because
it has in it any design or beautiful manner, but
simply for its extravagance, it appearing impossible
to anyone who sees it that it can in any wise keep
standing. And the same Bonanno, while the said
campanile was building, made, in the year 1182, the
royal door of bronze for the said Duomo of Pisa,
wherein are seen these letters:
EGO BONANNUS PIS.
MEA ARTE HANC PORTAM UNO ANNO PERFECI,
TEMPORE BENEDICTI OPERARII.
Next, from the
walls that were made from ancient spoils at S.
Giovanni Laterano in Rome, under Lucius III and
Urban III, Pontiffs, when the Emperor Frederick was
crowned by this Urban, it is seen that the art was
going on continually improving, because certain
little temples and chapels, built, as has been said,
of spoils, have passing good design and certain
things in them worthy of consideration, and among
others this, that in order not to overburden the
walls of these buildings the vaulting was made of
small tubes and with partitions of stucco,'
praiseworthy enough for these times. And from the
mouldings and other parts it is seen that the
craftsmen were going on striving in order to find
the good way.
Innocent III afterwards caused two palaces to be
built on the Vatican Hill, which were passing good,
in so far as it has been possible to discover; but
since they were destroyed by other Popes, and in
particular by Nicholas V, who pulled down and
rebuilt the greater part of one palace, there will
be nothing said of them but this, that a part of
them is to be seen in the great Round Tower and part
in the old sacristy of S. Pietro. This Innocent III,
who ruled for nineteen years and took much delight
in building, made many edifices in Rome; and in
particular, with the design of Marchionne Aretino,
both architect and sculptor, the Conti Tower, so
called from his own surname, seeing that he was of
that family. The same Marchionne, in the year when
Innocent III died, finished the building of the
Pieve of Arezzo and likewise the campanile, making
in sculpture, for the facade of the said church,
three rows of columns one above the other, with
great variety not only in the fashion of the
capitals and the bases but also in the shafts of the
columns, some among them being, some slender, some
joined together two by two, and others four by four.
In like manner there are some twined in the manner
of vines, and some made in the shape of figures
acting as supports, with diverse carvings. He also
made therein many animals of diverse sorts that
support on the middle of their backs the weights of
those columns, and all with the most strange and
extravagant inventions that can possibly be
imagined, and not only wide of the good order of the
ancients but almost wide of all just and reasonable
proportion. But with all this, whosoever sets out
well to consider the whole sees that he went on
striving to do well, and thought peradventure to
have found it in that method of working and in that
whimsical variety. The same man made in sculpture,
ony the arch that is over the door of the said
church, in barbaric manner, a God the Father with
certain angels, in half-relief and rather large; and
in the arch he carved the twelve months, placing his
own name underneath in round letters, as was the
custom, and the date namely, the year 1216. It is
said that Marchionne built in the Borgo Vecchio in
Rome, for the same Pope Innocent III, the ancient
edifice of the Hospital and Church of S. Spirito in
Sassia, where there is still seen something of the
old; and the ancient church was still standing in
our own day, when it was rebuilt in modern fashion,
with greater ornament and design, by Pope Paul III
of the house of Farnese.
And in S. Maria
Maggiore, also in Rome, he built the marble chapel
where there is the Manger of Jesus Christ; here he
portrayed from the life Pope Honorius III, whose
tomb, also, he made, with ornaments some little
better than and different enough from the manner
that was then in universal use throughout all Italy.
About the same time Marchionne also made the side
door of S. Pietro in Bologna, which was truly for
those times a work of the greatest mastery, by
reason of the many carvings that are seen therein,
such as lions in the round that sustain columns, and
men in the use of porters, and other animals that
support weights; and in the arch above he made the
twelve months in full relief, with various fancies,
and for each month its celestial sign; which work
must have been held marvellous in those times.
About the same time
there was founded the Order of the Friars Minor of
S. Francis, which was confirmed by the said Innocent
III, Pontiff, in the year 1206; and there came such
growth, not only in Italy but in all the other parts
of the world, both to the devoutness and to the
number of the Friars, that there was scarce a city
of account that did not erect for them churches and
convents of the greatest cost, each according to its
power. Wherefore, Frate Elia having erected, two
years before the death of S. Francis (while the
Saint himself, as General, was abroad preaching, and
he, Prior in Assisi), a church with the title of Our
Lady, and S. Francis having died, and all
Christendom flocking together to visit the body of
the Saint, who, in life and in death, had been known
as so much the friend of God, and every man making
offering to the holy place according to his power,
it was ordained that the said church begun by Frate
Elia should be built much greater and more
magnificent. But there being a dearth of good
architects, and the work which was to be done having
need of an excellent one, seeing that it had to be
built upon a very high hill at the foot of which
there runs a torrent called Tescio, there was
brought to Assisi, after much consideration, as the
best of all that were then to be found, one Maestro
Jacopo Tedesco. He, having considered the site and
grasped the wishes of the fathers, who held
thereunto a general Chapter in Assisi, designed a
very beautiful body of a church and convent, making
in the model three tiers, one to be made underground
and the others for two churches, one of which, on
the lower level, should serve as a court, with a
fairly large portico round it, and the other for a
church; planning that from the first one should
climb to the second by a most convenient flight of
steps. which should wind round the principal chapel,
opening out into two parts in order to lead more
easily into the second church, to which he gave the
form of a T, making it five times as long as it is
broad and dividing one bay from another with great
piers of stone, on which he afterwards threw very
bold arches, with groined vaulting between one and
another.
From a model so
made, then, was built this truly very great edifice,
and it was followed in every part, save in the
buttresses above that had to surround the apse and
the principal chapel, and in making the vaulting
groined, because they did not make it as has been
said, but barrel shaped, in order that it might be
stronger. Next, in front of the principal chapel of
the lower church, they placed the altar, and under
that, when it was finished, they laid, with most
solemn translation, the body of S. Francis. And
because the true sepulchre which holds the body of
the glorious Saint is in the first that is, in the
lowest church where no one ever goes, and the doors
are walled up, round the said altar there are very
large gratings of iron, with rich ornaments in
marble and mosaic, that look down therein. This
building is flanked on one of the sides by two
sacristies, and by a very high campanile, namely,
five times as high as it is broad. It had on top a
very high octagonal spire, but this was removed
because it threatened to fall. This whole work was
brought to a finish in the space of four years, and
no more, by the genius of Maestro Jacopo Tedesco and
by the solicitude of Frate Elia, after whose death,
to the end that such a pile might never through any
lapse of time fall into ruin, there were built round
the lower church twelve very stout towers, and in
each of these a spiral staircase that climbs from
the ground up to the summit. And in time,
afterwards, there were made therein many chapels and
other very rich ornaments, whereof there is no need
to discourse further, since this is enough on this
subject for the present, and above all because
everyone can see how much of the useful, the
ornamental, and the beautiful has been added to this
beginning of Maestro Jacopo's by many supreme
Pontiffs, Cardinals, Princes, and other people of
importance throughout all Europe.
Now, to return to
Maestro Jacopo; by means of this work he acquired so
great fame throughout all Italy that he was summoned
by; those who then governed the city of Florence,
and afterwards received with the greatest possible
friendliness; although, according to the use that
the Florentines have, and had still more in ancient
times, of abbreviating names, he was called not
Jacopo but Lapo throughout all the course of his
life; for he dwelt ever with his whole family in
that city. And although he went at diverse times to
erect many buildings throughout Tuscany, such as the
Palace of Poppi in the Casentino, for that Count who
had had for wife the beautiful Gualdrada, and for
her dower, the Casentino; and for the Aretines, the
Vescovado, [Vescovado includes both the Cathedral
and the Episcopal buildings of Arezzo. Vasari
generally uses it to denote the Cathedral.] and the
Palazzo Vecchio of the Lords of Pietramala ; none
the less his home was always in Florence, where,
having founded in the year 1218 the piers of the
Ponte alia Carraja, which was then called the Ponte
Nuovo, he delivered them finished in two years; and
a little time afterwards the rest was finished of
wood, as was then the custom. And in the year 1221
he gave the design for the Church of S.Salvadore del
Vescovado, which was begun under his direction, and
that of S. Michele in Piazza Padella, where there
are certain sculptures in the manner of those times.
Next, having given the design for draining the
waters of the city, having caused the Piazza di S.
Giovanni to be raised, having built, in the time of
Messer Rubaconte da Mandella, a Milanese, the bridge
that retains the same man's name, and having
discovered that most useful method of paving
streets, which before were covered with bricks, he
made the model of the Palace, today of the Podesta,
which was then built for the Anziani. And finally,
having sent the model of a tomb to Sicily, to the
Abbey of Monreale, for the Emperor Frederick and by
order of Manfred, he died, leaving Arnolfo, his son,
heir no less to the talent than to the wealth of his
father.
This Arnolfo, from
whose talent architecture gained no less betterment
than painting had gained from that of Cimabue, being
born in the year 1242, was thirty years of age when
his father died, and was held in very great esteem,
for the reason that, having not only learnt from his
father all that he knew, but having also given
attention under Cimabue to design in order to make
use of it in sculpture, he was held by so much the
best architect in Tuscany, that not only did the
Florentines found the last circle of the walls of
their city under his direction, in the year 1284,
and make after his design the Loggia and the piers
of Or San Michele, where the grain was sold,
building them of bricks and with a simple roof
above, but by his counsel, in the same year when the
Poggio de' Magnuoli collapsed, on the brow of S.
Giorgio above S. Lucia in the Via de' Bardi, they
determined by means of a public decree that there
should be no more building on the said spot, nor
should any edifice be ever made, seeing that by the
sinking of the stones, which have water trickling
under them, there would be always danger in
whatsoever edifice might be made there. That this is
true has been seen in our own day from the ruin of
many buildings and magnificent houses of noblemen.
In the next year, 1285, he founded the Loggia and
Piazza de' Priori, and built the principal chapel of
the Badia of Florence, and the two that are on
either side of it, renovating the church and the
choir, which at first had been made much smaller by
Count Ugo, founder of that abbey; and for Cardinal
Giovanni degli Orsini, Legate of the Pope in
Tuscany, he built the campanile of the said church,
which," according to the works of those times, was
much praised, although it did not have its
completion of greystone until afterwards, in the
year 1330.
After this there
was founded with his design, in the year 120^,[SIC]
the Church of S. Croce, where the Friars Minor have
their seat. What with the middle nave and the two
lesser ones Arnolfo constructed this so wide, that,
being unable to make the vaulting below the roof by
reason of the too great space, he, with much
judgment, caused arches to be made from pier to
pier, and upon these he placed the roofs on a slope,
building stone gutters over the said arches in order
to carry away the rainwater, and giving them so much
fall as to make the roofs secure, as they are, from
the danger of rotting; which device was not only new
and ingenious then, but is equally useful and worthy
of being considered today. He then gave the design
for the first cloisters of the old convent of that
church, and a little time after he caused to be
removed from round the Church of S. Giovanni, on the
outer side, all the arches and tombs of marble and
greystone that were there, and had part of them
placed behind the campanile on the fagade of the
Canon's house, beside the Company of S. Zanobi; and
then he incrusted with black marble from Prato all
the eight outer walls of the said S. Giovanni,
removing the greystone that there had been before
between these ancient marbles. The Florentines, in
the meanwhile, wishing to build walls in the
Valdarno di Sopra round Castello di San Giovanni and
Castel Franco, for the convenience of the city and
of their victualling by means of the markets,
Arnolfo made the design for them in the year 1295,
and satisfied them in such a manner, as well in this
as he had done in the other works, that he was made
citizen of Florence.
After these works,
the Florentines determined, as Giovanni Villani
relates in his History, to build a principal church
in their city, and to build it such that in point of
greatness and magnificence there could be desired
none larger or more beautiful from the industry and
knowledge of men; and Arnolfo made the design and
the model of the never to be sufficiently praised
Church of S. Maria del Fiore, ordering that it
should be all incrusted, without, with polished
marbles and with the so many cornices, pilasters,
columns, carved foliage, figures, and other
ornaments, with which to-day it is seen brought, if
not to the whole, to a great part at least of its
perfection. And what was marvellous therein above
everything else was this, that incorporating,
besides S. Reparata, other small churches and houses
that were round it, in making the site, which is
most beautiful, he showed so great diligence and
judgment in causing the foundations of so great a
fabric to be made broad and deep, filling them with
good material namely, with gravel and lime and with
great stones below wherefore the square is still
called "Lungo i Fondamenti," that they have been
very well able, as is to be seen to-day, to support
the weight of the great mass of the cupola which
Filippo di Ser Brunellesco raised over them.
The laying of such
foundations for so great a church was celebrated
with much solemnity, for on the day of the Nativity
of Our Lady, in 1298, the first stone was laid by
the Cardinal Legate of the Pope, in the presence not
only of many Bishops and of all the clergy, but of
the Podesta as well, the Captains, Priors, and other
magistrates of the city, nay, of the whole people of
Florence, calling it S. Maria del Fiore. And because
it was estimated that the expenses of this fabric
must be very great, as they afterwards were, there
was imposed a tax at the Chamber of the Commune of
four danari in the lira on everything that was put
out at interest, and two soldi per head per annum;
not to mention that the Pope and the Legate granted
very great indulgences to those who should make them
offerings thereunto. I will not forbear to say,
moreover, that besides the foundations, very broad
and fifteen braccia deep, much consideration was
shown in making those buttresses of masonry at every
angle of the eight sides, seeing that it was these
afterwards that emboldened the mind of Brunellesco
to superimpose a much greater weight than that which
Arnolfo, perchance, had thought to impose thereon.
It is said that
while the two first side-doors of S. Maria del Fiore
were being begun in marble Arnolfo caused some fig
leaves to be carved on a frieze, these being the
arms of himself and of Maestro Lapo, his father, and
that therefore it may be believed that from him the
family of the Lapi had its origin, today a noble
family in Florence. Others say, likewise, that from
the descendants of Arnolfo there descended Filippo
di Ser Brunellesco. But leaving this, seeing that
others believe that the Lapi came from Ficaruolo, a
township on the mouth of the Po, and returning to
our Arnolfo, I say that by reason of the greatness
of this work he deserves infinite praise and an
eternal name, above all because he caused it to be
all incrusted, without, with marbles of many colors,
and within, with hard stone, and made even the
smallest corners of that same stone. But in order
that everyone may know the exact size of this
marvellous fabric, I say that from the door up to
the end of the Chapel of S. Zanobi the length is 260
braccia, and the breadth across the transepts 166;
across the three naves it is 66 braccia. The middle
nave alone is 72 braccia in height; and the other
two lesser naves, 48 braccia. The external circuit
of the whole church is 1,280 braccia. The cupola,
from the ground up to the base of the lantern, is
154 braccia; the lantern, without the ball, is 36
braccia in height; the ball, 4 braccia in height;
the cross, 8 braccia in height. The whole cupola,
from the ground up to the summit of the cross, is
202 braccia.
But returning to
Arnolfo, I say that being held, as he was,
excellent, he had acquired so great trust that
nothing of importance was determined without his
counsel; wherefore, in the same year, the Commune of
Florence having finished the foundation of the last
circle of the walls of the city, even as it was said
above that they were formerly begun, and so too the
towers of the gates, and all being in great part
well advanced, he made a beginning for the Palace of
the Signori, designing it in resemblance to that
which his father Lapo had built in the Casentino for
the Counts of Poppi. But yet, however magnificent
and great he designed it, he could not give it that
perfection which his art and his judgment required,
for the following reason: the houses of the Uberti,
Ghibellines and rebels against the people of
Florence, had been pulled down and thrown to the
ground, and a square had been made on the site, and
the stupid obstinacy of certain men prevailed so
greatly that Arnolfo could not bring it about,
through whatsoever arguments he might urge
thereunto, that it should be granted to him to put
the Palace on a square base, because the governors
had refused that the Palace should have its
foundations in any way whatsoever on the ground of
the rebel Uberti. And they brought it about that the
northern aisle of S. Pietro Scheraggio should be
thrown to the ground, rather than let him work in
the middle of the square with his own measurements;
not to mention that they insisted, moreover, that
there should be united and incorporated with the
Palace the Tower of the Foraboschi, called the
"Torre della Vacca," in height fifty braccia, for
the use of the great bell, and together with it some
houses bought by the Commune for this edifice. For
which reasons no one must marvel if the foundation
of the Palace is awry and out of the square, it
having been necessary, in order to incorporate the
tower in the middle and to render it stronger, to
bind it round with the walls of the Palace; which
walls, having been laid open in the year i6i [SIC]
by Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect, were found
excellent. Arnolfo, then, having filled up the said
tower with good material, it was afterwards easy for
other masters to make thereon the very high
campanile that is to be seen there today; for within
the limits of two years he finished only the Palace,
which has subsequently received from time to time
those improvements which give it today that
greatness and majesty that are to be seen.
After all these
works and many more that Arnolfo made, no less
convenient and useful than beautiful, he died at the
age of seventy, in 1300, at the very time when
Giovanni Villani began to write the Universal
History of his times. And because he not only left
S. Maria del Fiore founded, but its three principal
tribunes, which are under the cupola, vaulted, to
his own great glory, he well deserved that there
should be made a memorial of him on the corner of
the church opposite the Campanile, with these verses
carved in marble in round letters:
ANNIS . MILLENIS .
CENTUM . BIS . OCTO . NOGENIS .
VENIT . LEGATUS . ROMA . BONITATE . DOTATUS .
QUI . LAPIDEM . FIXIT . FUNDO . SIMUL . ET .
BENEDIXIT .
PR^ESULE . FRANCISCO . GESTANTE . PONTIFICATUM .
ISTUD . AB . ARNOLFO . TEMPLUM . FUIT . .EDIFICATUM
.
HOC . OPUS . INSIGNE . DECORANS . FLORENTIA . DIGNE
.
REGIN.E . CCELI . CONSTRUXIT . MENTE . FIDELI .
QUAM . TU . VIRGO . PIA . SEMPER . DEFENDE . MARIA.
Of this Arnolfo we
have written the Life, with the greatest brevity
that has been possible, for the reason that,
although his works do not approach by a great
measure the perfection of the things of today, he
deserves, none the less, to be celebrated with
loving memory, having shown amid so great darkness,
to those who lived after him, the way to walk to
perfection. The portrait of Arnolfo, by the hand of
Giotto, is to be seen in S. Croce, beside the
principal chapel, at the beginning of the story,
where the friars are weeping for the death of S.
Francis, in one of two men that are talking
together. And the picture of the Church of S. Maria
del Fiore namely, of the outer side with the cupola
by the hand of Simone Sanese, is to be seen in the
Chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella, copied from the
original in wood that Arnolfo made; wherein it is
noticeable that he had thought to raise the dome
immediately over the walls, at the edge of the first
cornice, whereas Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, in
order to relieve them of weight and to make it more
graceful, added thereto, before he began to raise
it, all that height wherein today are the round
windows; which circumstance would be even clearer
than it is, if the little care and diligence of
those who have directed the Works of S. Maria del
Fiore in the years past had not left the very model
that Arnolfo made to go to ruin, and afterwards
those of Brunellesco and of the others.
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NICOLA PISANO
(active circa 1250-1278)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
[N. B. : Because of
the length of the Lives of Nicola and Giovanni
Pisano, they have been split into two sites.]
HAVING DISCOURSED
of design and of painting in the Life of Cimabue and
of architecture in that of Arnolfo di Lapo, in this
one concerning Nicola and Giovanni of Pisa we will
treat of sculpture, and also of the most important
buildings that they made, for the reason that their
works in sculpture and in architecture truly deserve
to be celebrated, not only as being large and
magnificent but also well enough conceived, since
both in working marble and in building they swept
away in great part that old Greek manner, rude and
void of proportion, showing better invention in
their stories and giving better attitudes to their
figures.
Nicola Pisano,
then, chancing to be under certain Greek sculptors
who were working the figures and other carved
ornaments of the duomo of Pisa and of the Church of
San Giovanni, and there being, among many marble
spoils brought by the fleet of the Pisans, certain
ancient sarcophagi that are today in the Camposanto
of that city, there was one of them, most beautiful
among them all, whereon there was carved the Chase
of Meleager after the Calydonian Boar, in very
beautiful manner, seeing that both the nude figures
and the draped were wrought with much mastery and
with most perfect design. This sarcophagus was
placed by the Pisans, by reason of its beauty, in
the side of the Duomo opposite San Rocco, beside the
principal side-door, and it served for the body of
the Countess Matilda, if indeed these words are true
that are to be read carved in the marble:
A.D. MCXVI. IX KAL.
AUG. OBIIT D. MATILDA FELICIS MEMORIAE
COMITISSA,
QUAE PRO ANIMA GENETRICIS SUAE DOMINAE BEATRICIS
COMITISSAE VENER-
ABILIS, IN HAC TUMBA HONORABILI QUIESCENTIS, IN
MULTIS PARTIBUS
MIRIFICE HANC DOTAVIT ECCLESIAM; QUARUM ANIMAE
REQUIESCANT IN PACE
And then:
A.D. MCCCIII, SUB
DIGNISSIMO OPERARIO D. BURGUNDIO TADI, OCCA-
SIONE GRADUUM FIENDORUM PER IPSUM CIRCA ECCLESIAM,
SUPRADICTA
TUMBA SUPERIUS NOTATA BIS TRANSLATA FUIT, TUNC DI
SEDIBUS
PRIMIS IN ECCLESIAM, NUNC DE ECCLESIA IN HUNC LOCUM,
UT CERNITIS,
EXCELLENTEM.
Nicola, pondering
over the beauty of this work and being greatly
pleased therewith, put so much study and diligence
into imitating this manner and some other good
sculptures that were in these other ancient
sarcophagi, that he was judged, after no long time,
the best sculptor of his day; there being in Tuscany
in those times, after Arnolfo, no other sculptor of
repute save Fuccio, an architect and sculptor of
Florence, who made Santa Maria sopra Arno in
Florence, in the year 1229, placing his name there,
over a door, and in the Church of San Francesco in
Assisi he made the marble tomb of the Queen of
Cyprus, with many figures, and in particular a
portrait of her sitting on a lion, in order to show
the strength of her soul; which Queen, after her
death, left a great sum of money to the end that
this fabric might be finished. Nicola, then, having
made himself known as a much better master than was
Fuccio, was summoned to Bologna in the year 1225,
after the death of San Domenico Calagora, first
founder of the Order of Preaching Friars, in order
to make a marble tomb for the said Saint; wherefore,
after agreement with those who had the charge of it,
he made it full of figures in that manner wherein it
is to be seen today, and delivered it finished in
the year 1231 with much credit to himself, for it
was held something remarkable, and the best of all
the works that had been wrought in sculpture up to
that time. He made, likewise, the model of that
church and of a great part of the convent.
Afterwards, Nicola,
returning to Tuscany, found that Fuccio had departed
from Florence and had gone to Rome in those days
when the Emperor Frederick was crowned by Honorius,
and from Rome with Frederick to Naples, where he
finished the Castel di Capoana, today called the
Vicaria, wherein are all the tribunals of that
kingdom, and likewise the Castel dell'Uovo; and
where he likewise founded the towers he also made
the gates over the River Volturno for the city of
Capua, and a park girt with walls, for fowling, near
Gravina, and another for sport in winter at Melfi;
besides many other things that are not related, for
the sake of brevity.
Nicola, meanwhile,
busying himself in Florence, was going on exercising
himself not only in sculpture but in architecture as
well, by means of the buildings that were going on
being made with some little goodness of design
throughout all Italy, and in particular in Tuscany;
wherefore he occupied himself not a little with the
building of the Abbey of Settimo, which had not been
finished by the executors of Count Ugo of
Brandenburg, like the other six, as was said above,
And although it is read in a marble epitaph on the
campanile of the said abbey, GUGLIELM. ME FECIT, it
is known, nevertheless, by the manner, that it was
directed with the counsel of Nicola. About the same
time he made the Palazzo Vecchio of the Anziani in
Pisa, pulled down in our day by Duke Cosimo, in
order to make the magnificent Palace and Convent of
the Knights of St. Stephen on the same sport, using
some part of the old, from the design and model of
Giorgio Vasari, painter and architect of Arezzo, who
has accommodated them into the new. Nicola made,
likewise in Pisa, many other palaces and churches,
and the was the first, since the loss of the good
method of building, who made it the custom to found
edifices in Pisa on piers, and on these to raise
arches, piles having first been sunk under the said
piers; because, with any other method, the solid
base of the foundation cracked and the walls always
collapsed, whereas the sinking of piles renders the
edifice absolutely safe, even as experience shows.
With his design, also, was made the Church of San
Michele in Borgo for the Monks of Camaldoli.
But the most
beautiful, and the most ingenious, and the most
whimsical work of architecture that Nicola ever made
was the Campanile of San Niccola in Pisa, where is
the seat of the Friars of St. Augustine, for the
reason that it is octagonal on the outer side and
round within, with stairs that wind in a spiral and
lead to the summit, leaving the hollow space in the
middle free, in the shape of a well, and on every
fourth step are columns that have the arches above
them on a slant and wind round and round; wherefore,
the spring of the vaulting resting on the said
arches, one goes climbing to the summit in a manner
that he who is on the ground always sees those who
are climbing, those who are climbing see those who
are on the ground, and those who are halfway up see
both the first and the second--that its, those who
are above and those who are below. This fanciful
invention, with better method and more just
proportions, and with more adornment, was afterwards
put into execution by the architect Bramante in the
Belvedere in Rome, for Pope Julius II, and by
Antonio da Sangallo in the well that is at Orvieto,
by order of Pope Clement VII, as will be told when
the time comes.
But returning to
Nicola, who was no less excellent as sculptor than
as architect; in the facade of the Church of San
Martino in Lucca, under the portico that is above
the lesser door, on the left as one enters into the
church, where there is seen a Christ Deposed from
the Cross, he made a marble scene in half-relief,
all full of figures wrought with much diligence,
having hollowed out the marble and finished the
whole in a manner that gave hope to those who were
previously working at the art with very great
difficulty, that there soon should come one, who,
with more facility, would give them better
assistance, The same Nicola, in the year 1240, gave
the design for the Church of San Jacopo in Pistoia,
and put to work there in mosaic certain Tuscan
masters who made the vaulting of the choir niche,
which, although in those times it was held as
something difficult and of great cost, moves us
today rather to laughter and to compassion than to
marvel, and all the more because such confusion,
which comes from lack of design, existed not only in
Tuscany but throughout all Italy; where many
buildings and other works, that were being wrought
without method and without design, give us to know
no less the poverty of their talents than the
unmeasured riches wasted by the men of those times,
by reason of their having had no masters who might
execute in a good manner any work that they might
do.
Nicola, then, by
means of the works that he was making in sculpture
and in architecture, was going on ever acquiring a
greater name than the sculptors and architects who
were then working in Romagna, as can be seen in
SantUIppolito and San Giovanni of Faenza, in the
Duomo of Ravenna, in San Francesco, in the houses of
the Traversari, and in the Church of Porto; and at
Rimini, in the fabric of the public buildings, in
the houses of the Malatesti, and in other buildings,
which are all much worse than the old edifices made
about the same time in Tuscany. And what has been
said of Romagna can be also said with truth of a
part of Lombardy. A glance at the Duomo of Ferrara,
and at the other buildings made by the Marquis Azzo,
will give us to know that this is the truth and how
different they are from the Santo of Padua, made
with the model of Nicola, and from the Church of the
Friars Minor in Venice, both magnificent and honored
buildings. Many, in the time of Nicola, moved by
laudable envy, applied themselves with more zeal to
sculpture than they had done before and particularly
in Milan, whither there assembled for the building
of the Duomo many Lombards and Germans, who
afterwards scattered throughout Italy by reason of
the discords that arose between the Milanese and the
Emperor Frederick. And so these craftsmen, beginning
to compete among themselves both in marble and in
building, found some little of the good. The same
came to pass in Florence after the works of Arnolfo
and Nicola had been seen; and the latter, while the
little Church of the Misericordia was being erected
from his design in the Piazza di San Giovanni, made
therein in marble, with his own hand, a Madonna with
St. Dominic and another Saint, one on either side of
her, which may still be seen on the outer facade of
the said church.
The Florentines had
begun, in the time of Nicola to throw to the ground
many towers made formerly in barbaric manner
throughout the whole city, in order that the people
might be less hurt by reason of these in the brawls
that were often taking place between the Guelphs and
the Ghibellines, or in order that there might be
greater security for the Site, and it appeared to
them that it would be very difficult to pull down
the Tower of Guardamorto, which was in the Piazza di
San Giovanni, because the walls had been made so
stoutly that they could not be pulled to pieces with
pickaxes, and all the more because it was very high.
Wherefore, Nicola causing the foot of the tower to
be cut away on one side and supporting it with
wooden props a braccio and a half in length, and
then setting fire to them, as soon as the props were
burnt away it fell and was almost entirely
shattered; which was held something so ingenious and
useful for such affairs that later it passed into
use, insomuch that, when there is need, any building
is destroyed in very little time with this most easy
method. Niccola was present at the first foundation
of the Duomo of Siena, and designed the Church of
San Giovanni in the same city; then, having returned
to Florence i the same year that the Guelphs
returned, he designed the Church of Santa Trinita,
and the Convent of the Nuns of Faenza, destroyed in
our day in order to make the citadel. Being next
summoned to Naples, in order not to desert the work
in Tuscany he sent thither Maglione, his pupil, a
sculptor and architect, who afterwards made, in the
time of Conradin, the Church of San Lorenzo in
Naples, finished part of the Piscopio, and made
there certain tombs, wherein he imitated closely the
manner of Nicola, his master.
Nicola, meanwhile,
being summoned by the people of Volterra, in the
year 1254 (when they came under the power of the
Florentines), in order that their Duomo, which was
small, might be enlarged, he brought it to better
form, although it was very irregular, and made it
more magnificent that it was before. Then, having
returned finally to Pisa, he made the pulpit of San
Giovanni, in marble, putting therein all diligence
in order to leave a memorial of himself to his
country; and among other things, carving in it the
Universal Judgment, he made therein many figures, if
not with perfect design, at least with infinite
patience and diligence, as can be seen. And because
it appeared to him, as was true, that he had done a
work worthy of praise, he carved at the foot of it
these verses:
ANNO MILLENO BIS
CENTUM BISQUE TRIDENO
HOC OPUS INSIGNE SCULPSIT NICOLA PISANUS
The people of
Siena, moved by the fame of this work, which greatly
pleased not only the Pisans but everyone who saw it,
gave to Nicola the making of the pulpit of their
Duomo, in which there is sung the Gospel; Guglielmo
Mariscotti being Praeter. In this Nicola made many
stories of Jesus Christ, with much credit to
himself, by reason of the figures that are there
wrought and with great difficulty almost wholly
detached from the marble. Nicola likewise made the
design of the Church and Convent of San Domenico in
Arezzo for the Lords of Pietramala, who erected it.
And at the entreaty of Bishop Ubertini he restored
the Pieve of Cortona, and founded the Church of
Santa Margherita for the Friars of St. Francis, on
the highest point of that city.
Wherefore, the fame
of Nicola ever growing greater by reason of so great
works, he was summoned in the year 1267, by Pope
Clement IV, to Viterbo, where, besides many other
works, he restored the Church and Convent of the
Preaching Friars, From Viterbo he went to Naples to
King Charles I, who, having routed and slain
Conradin on the plain of Tagliacozzo, caused to be
made on that spot a very rich church and abbey,
burying therein the infinite number of bodies slain
on that day, and ordaining afterwards that there
should be prayers offered by many monks, day and
night, for their souls; in which building King
Charles was so well pleased with the work of Nicola
that he honored and rewarded him very greatly.
Returning from Naples to Tuscany, Nicola stayed in
Orvieto for the building of Santa Maria, and working
there in company with some Germans, he made in
marble, for the facade of that church, certain
figures in the round, and in particular two scenes
of the Universal Judgment containing Paradise and
Hell; and even as he strove, in the Paradise, to
give the greatest beauty that he knew to the souls
of the blessed, restored to their bodies, so too in
the Hell he made the strangest forms of devils that
can possibly be seen, most intent on tormenting the
souls of the damned; and in this work he surpassed
not merely the Germans who were working there but
even his own self, to his own great credit. And for
the reason that he made therein a great number of
figures and endured much fatigue, it has been
nothing but praised up to our own times by those who
have had no more judgment than this much in
sculpture.
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GIOVANNI PISANO
(circa 1250-1314)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
NICOLA HAD, AMONG
OTHERS, a son called Giovanni, who, because he ever
followed his father and applied himself under his
teaching to sculpture and to architecture, in a few
years became not only equal to his father but in
some ways superior; wherefore Nicola, being now old,
retired to Pisa, and living there quietly left the
management of everything to his son. Pope Urban IV
having died at that time in Perugia, a summons was
sent to Giovanni, who, having gone there, made a
tomb of marble for that Pontiff, which, together
with that of Pope Martin IV, was afterwards thrown
to the ground when the people of Perugia enlarged
their Vescovado [bishopric], in a manner that there
are seen only a few relics of it scattered
throughout the church. And the people of Perugia, at
the same time, having brought a very great body of
water through leaden pipes from the hill of
Pacciano, two miles distant from the city, by means
of the genius and industry of a friar of the
Silvestrines, it was given to Giovanni Pisano to
make all the ornaments of the fountain, both in
bronze and in marble; wherefore he put his hand
thereto and made three tiers of basins, two of
marble and one of bronze. The first is placed above
twelve rows of steps, each with twelve sides; the
other on some columns that stand on the lowest level
of the first basin--that is, in the middle; and the
third, which is of bronze, rests on three figures
and has in the middle certain griffins, also of
bronze, that pour water on every side; and because
it appeared to Giovanni that he had done very well
in this work, he put on it his name.
About the year
1560, the arches and the conduits of this fountain
(which cost 160,000 ducats of gold) having become in
great part spoilt and ruined, Vincenzio Danti, a
sculptor of Perugia, without rebuilding the arches,
which would have been a thing of the greatest cost,
very ingeniously reconducted the water to the
fountain in the way it was before, with no small
credit to himself.
This work finished,
Giovanni, desiring to see again his old and ailing
father, departed from Perugia in order to return to
Pisa; but, passing through Florence, he was forced
to stay, to the end that he might apply himself,
together with others, to the work of the Mills on
the Arno, which were being made at San Gregorio near
the Piazza de'Mozzi. But finally, having had news
that his father Nicola was dead, he went to Pisa,
where, by reason of his worth, he was received by
the whole city with great honor, every man rejoicing
that after the loss of Nicola there still remained
Giovanni, as heir both of his talents and of his
wealth. And the occasion having come of making proof
of him, their opinion was in no way disappointed,
because, there being certain things to do in the
small but most ornate Church of Santa Maria della
Spina, they were given to Giovanni to do, and he,
putting his hand thereunto, with the help of some of
his boys brought many ornaments in that oratory to
that perfection that is seen today; which work, in
so far as we can judge, must have been held
miraculous in those times, and all the more that he
made in one figure the portrait of Nicola from
nature, as best he knew.
Seeing this, the
Pisans, who long before had had the idea and the
wish to make a place of burial for all the
inhabitants of the city, both noble and plebeian,
either in order not to fill the Duomo with graves or
for some other reasons, caused Giovanni to make the
edifice of the Camposanto, which is on the Piazza
del Duomo, towards the walls; wherefore he, with
good design and with much judgment, made it in that
manner and with those ornaments of marble and of
that size which are to be seen; and because there
was no consideration of expense, the roof was made
of lead. And outside the principal door there are
seen these words carved in marble:
A.D. MCCLXXVII.
TEMPORE DOMINI FREDERIGI ARCHIEPISCOPI PISANO, ET
DOMINI TARLATI POTESTATIS, OPERARIO ORLANDO
SARDELLA, JOHANE
MAGISTRO AEDIFICANTE.
This work finished,
in the same year, 1283, Giovanni went to Naples,
where, for King Charles, he made the Castel Nuovo of
Naples; and in order to have room and to make it
stronger he was forced to pull down many houses and
churches, and in particular a convento of Friars of
St. Francis, which was afterwards rebuilt no little
larger and more magnificent than it was before, far
from the castle and under the title of Santa Maria
della Nuova. These buildings being begun and
considerably advanced, Giovanni departed from
Naples, in order to return to Tuscany; but arriving
at Siena, without being allowed to go on farther he
was caused to make the model of the facade of the
Duomo of that city, and afterwards the said facade
was made very rich and magnificent from this model.
Next, in the year 1286, when the Vescovado
[bishopric] of Arezzo was building with the design
of Margaritone, architect of Arezzo, Giovanni was
brought from Siena to Arezzo by Guglielmino
Ubertini, Bishop of that city, where he made in
marble the panel of the high altar, all filled with
carvings of figures, of foliage, and other
ornaments, distributing throughout the whole work
certain things in delicate mosaic, and enamels laid
on plates of silver, let into the marble with much
diligence. In the middle is a Madonna with the Child
in her arms, and on one side St. Gregory the Pope,
whose face is the portrait from life of Pope
Honorius IV; and on the other side is St. Donatus,
Bishop and Protector of that city, whose body, with
those of St. Antilla and of other Saints, is laid
under that same altar. And because the said altar
stands out by itself, round it and on the sides
there are small scenes in low relief from the life
of St. Donatus, and the crown of the whole work are
certain tabernacles full of marble figures in the
round, wrought with much subtlety. On the breast of
the said Madonna is a bezel-shaped setting of gold,
wherein, of it is said, were jewels of much value,
which have been carried away in the wars, so it is
thought, by soldiers, who have no respect, very
often, even for the most holy Sacrament, together
with some little figures in the round that were on
the top of and around that work; on which the
Aretines spent altogether, according to what is
found in certain records, 30,000 florins of gold.
Nor does this seem anything great, seeing that at
that time it was something as precious and rare as
it could well be; wherefore Frederick Barbarossa,
returning from Rome, where he had been crowned, and
passing through Arezzo, many years after it had been
made, praised it, nay, admired it infinitely; and in
truth with great reason, seeing that, besides
everything else, the joinings of this work, made of
innumerable pieces, are cemented and put together so
well that the whole work is easily judged, by anyone
who has not much practice in the matters of the art,
to be all of one piece.
In the same church
Giovanni made the Chapel of the Ubertini, a most
noble family, and lords of castles, as they still
are today and were formerly even more; with many
ornaments of marble, which today have been covered
over with other ornaments of grey-stone, many and
fine, which were set up in that place with the
design of Giorgio Vasari in the year 1535, for the
supporting of an organ of extraordinary excellence
and beauty that stands thereon.
Giovanni Pisano
likewise made the design of the Church of Santa
Maria de'Servi, which today has been destroyed,
together with many palaces of the most noble
families of the city, for the reasons mentioned
above. I will not forbear to say that Giovanni made
use, in working on the said marble altar, of certain
Germans who had apprenticed themselves to him rather
for learning than for gain; and under his teaching
they became such that, having gone after this work
to Rome, they served Boniface VIII in many works of
sculpture for San Pietro, and in architecture when
he made Civita Castellana. Besides this, they were
sent by the same man to Santa Maria in Orvieto,
where, for its facade, they made many figures in
marble which were passing good for those times.
But among others
who assisted Giovanni in the work of the Vescovado
in Arezzo, Agostino and Agnolo, sculptors and
architects of Siena, surpassed in time all the
others, as will be told in the proper place. But
returning to Giovanni; having departed from Orvieto,
he came to Florence, in order to see the fabric of
Santa Maria del Fiore that Arnolfo was making, and
likewise to see Giotto, of whom he had heard great
things spoken abroad; and no sooner had he arrived
in Florence than he was charged by the Wardens of
the said fabric of Santa Maria del Fiore to make the
Madonna which is over that door of the church that
leads to the CanonUs house, between two little
angels; which work was then much praised. Next, he
made the little baptismal font of San Giovanni,
wherein are certain scenes in half-relief from the
life of that Saint. Having then gone to Bologna, he
directed the building of the principal chapel of the
Church of San Domenico, wherein he was charged by
Bishop Teodorigo Borgognoni of Lucca, a friar of
that Order, to make an altar of marble; and in the
same place he afterwards made, in the year 1298, the
marble panel wherein are the Madonna and eight other
figures, reasonably good.
In the year 1300,
Niccola da Prato, Cardinal Legate of the Pope, being
in Florence in order to accommodate the dissensions
of the Florentines, caused him to make a convent of
nuns in Prato, which is called San Niccola from his
name, and to restore in the same territory the
Convent of San Domenico, and so too that of Pistoia;
in both the one and the other of which there are
still seen the arms of the said Cardinal. And
because the people of Pistoia held in veneration the
name of Nicola, father of Giovanni, by reason of
that which he had wrought in that city with his
talent, they caused Giovanni himself to make a
pulpit of marble for the Church of Sant'Andrea, like
to the one which he had made in the Duomo of Siena;
and this he did in order to compete with one which
had been made a little before in the Church of San
Giovanni Evangelista by a German, who was therefore
much praised. Giovanni, then, delivered his finished
in four years, having divided this work into five
scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, and having
made therein, besides this, a Universal Judgment,
with the greatest diligence that he knew, in order
to equal or perchance to surpass the one of Orvieto,
the so greatly renowned. And round the said pulpit,
on the architrave, over some columns that support
it, thinking (as was the truth, according to the
knowledge of that age) that he had done a great and
beautiful work, he carved these verses:
HOC OPUS SCULPSIT
JOANNES, QUI RES NON EGIT INANES,
NICOLI NATUS.....MELIORA BEATUS,
QUEM GENUIT PISA, DOCTUM SUPER OMNIA VISA.
At the same time
Giovanni made the holy water font, in marble, of the
Church of San Giovanni Evangelista in the same city,
with three figures that support it--Temperance,
Prudence, and Justice; which work, by reason of its
having then been held very beautiful, was placed in
the center of that church as something remarkable.
And before he departed from Pistoia, although the
work had not up to then been begun, he made the
model of the Campanile of San Jacopo, the principal
church of that city; on which campanile, which is on
the square of the said San Jacopo and beside the
church, there is this date: A.D. 1301.
Afterwards, Pope
Benedict IX having died in Perugia, a summons was
sent to Giovanni, who, having gone to Perugia, made
a tomb of marble for that Pontiff in the old Church
of San Domenico, belonging to the Preaching Friars;
the Pope, portrayed from nature and robed in his
pontifical habits, is lying at full lenth on the
bier, with two angels, one on either side, that are
holding up a curtain, and above there is a Madonna
with two saints in relief, one on either side of
her; and many other ornaments are carved round that
tomb. In like maner, in the new church of the said
Preaching Friars he made the tomb of Messer Niccolo
Guidalotti of Perugia, Bishop of Recanati, who was
founder of the Sapienza Nuova of Perugia. In this
new church, which had been founded before this by
others, he executed the central nave, which was
founded by him with much better method than he
remainder of the church had been; for on one side it
leans and threatens to fall down, by reason of
having been badly founded. And in truth, he who puts
his hand to building and to doing anything of
importance should ever take counsel, not from him
who knows little but from the best, in order not to
have to repent after the act, with loss and shame,
that where he most needed good counsel he took the
bad.
Giovanni, having
dispatch his business in Perugia, wished to go to
Rome, in order to learn from those few ancient
things that were to be seen there, even as his
father had done; but being hindered by good reasons,
this his desire did not take effect, and the rather
as he heard that the Court had just gone to Avignon.
Returning, then, to Pisa, Nello di Giovanni Falconi,
Warden, caused him to make the great pulpit of the
Duomo, which is on the right hand going towards the
high altar, attached to the choir; and having made a
beginning with this and with many figures in the
round, three braccia high, that were to serve for
it, little by little he brought them to that form
that is seen today, placing the pulpit partly on the
said figures and partly on some columns sustained by
lions; ad on the sides he made some scenes from the
life of Christ. It is a pity, truly, that so great
cost, so great diligence, and so great labor should
not have been accompanied by good design, and should
be wanting in perfection and in excellence of
invention, grace, and manner, such as any work of
our own times would show, even if made with much
less cost and labor. None the less, it must have
caused no small marvel to the men of those times,
used to seeing only the rudest works. This work was
finished in the year 1320, as appears in certain
verses that are round the said pulpit, which run
thus:
LAUDO DEUM VERUM,
PER QUEM SUNT OPTIMA RERUM,
QUI DEDIT HAS PURAS HOMINEM FORMARE FIGURAS;
HOC OPUS HIS ANNIS DOMINI SCULPSERE JOHANNIS
ARTE MAUS SOLE QUONDAM, NATIQUE NICOLE,
CURSIS VENTENIS TERCENTUM MILLEQUE PLENIS;
with other thirteen
verses, which are not written, in order not to weary
the reader, and because these are enough not only to
bear witness that the said pulpit is by the hand of
Giovanni, but also that the men of these times were
in all things made thus. A Madonna of marble, also,
that is seen between St. John the Baptist and
another Saint, over the principal door of the Duomo,
is by the hand of Giovanni; and he who is at the
feet of the Madonna, on his knees is said to be
Piero Gambacorti, Warden of Works. However this may
be, on the base whereon stands the image of Our Lady
there are carved these words:
SUB PETRI CURA HAEC
PIA FUIT SCULPTA FIGURA,
NICOLI NATO SCULPTORE JOHANNE VOCATO.
In like manner,
over the side door that is opposite the campanile,
there is a Madonna of marble by the hand of
Giovanni, having on one side a woman kneeling with
two babies, representing Pisa, and on the other the
Emperor Henry. On the base whereon stands the
Madonna are these words: AVE GRATIA PLEA, DOMINUS
TECUM; and beside them:
NOBILIS ARTE MANUS
SCULPSIT JOHANNES PISANUS/ SCULPSIT SUB BURGUNDIO
TADI
BENIGNO...
and around the base
of Pisa:
VIRGINIS ANCILLA
SUM PISA QUIETA SUB ILLA.
And around the base
of Henry:
IMPERAT HENRICUS
QUI CHRISTO FERTUR AMICUS.
In the old Pieve of
the territory of Prato, under the altar of the
principal chapel, there had been kept for many years
the Girdle of Our Lady, which Michele da Prato,
returning from the Holy Land, had brought to his
country in the year 1141 and consiged to Uberto,
Provost of that church, who placed it where it has
been said, and where it had been ever held in great
veneration; and in the year 1312 an attempt was made
to steal it by a man of Prato, a fellow of the
basest sort, and, as it were, another Ser
Ciappelletto; but having been discovered, he was put
to death for sacrilege by the hand of justice. Moved
by this, the people of Prato determined to make a
strong and suitable resting place, in order to hold
the said Girdle more securely; wherefore, having
summoned Giovanni, who was now old, they made with
his counsel, in the greater church, the chapel
wherein there is now preserved the said Girdle of
Our Lady.
And next, with the
same man's design, they made the said church much
larger than it was before, and encrusted it with
white and black marbles, and likewise the campanile,
as may be seen. Finally, being now very old,
Giovanni died in the year 1320, after having made,
besides those that have been mentioned, many other
works in sculpture and in architecture. And in truth
there is much owed to him and to his father Nicola,
seeing that, in times void of all goodness of
design, they gave in so great darkness no small
light to the matters of these arts, wherein they
were, for that age, truly excellent. Giovanni was
buried in the Camposanto, with great honor, in the
same grave wherein had bee laid Nicola, his father.
There were as disciples of Giovanni many who
flourished after him, but in particular Lino,
sculptor and architect of Siena, who made in the
Duomo of Pisa the chapel all adorned with marble
wherein is the body of San Ranieri, and likewise the
baptismal font that is in the said Duomo, with his
name.
Nor let anyone
marvel that Nicola and Giovanni did so many works,
because, not to mention that they lived very long,
being the first masters that were in Europe at that
time, there was nothing done of any importance in
which they did not have hand, as can be seen in many
inscriptions besides those that have been mentioned.
And seeing that, while touching on these two
sculptors and architects, there has been something
said of matters in Pisa, I will not forbear to say
that on the top of the steps in front of the new
hospital, round the base that supports a lion and
the vase that rests o the porphyry column, are these
words:
THIS IS THE MEASURE
WHICH THE EMPEROR CAESAR GAVE TO PISA, WHEREWITH
THERE THIS COLUMN AND LION, IN THE TIME OF GIOVANNI
ROSSO, WARDEN OF THE WORKS WAS MEASURED THE TRIBUTE
THAT WAS PAID TO HIM; WHICH HAS BEEN SET UP OVER OF
S. MARIA MAGGIORE IN PISA, A.D. MCCCXIII., IN THE
SECOND INDICTION, IN MARCH.
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ANDREA TAFI (active
1300 - 1325)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
EVEN AS THE WORKS
of Cimabue awakened no small marvel (he having given
better design and form to the art of painting) in
the men of those times, used to seeing nothing save
works done after the Greek manner, even so the works
in mosaic of Andrea Tafi, who lived in the same
times, were admired, and he thereby held excellent,
nay, divine; these people not thinking, being unused
to see anything else, that better work could be done
in such an art. But not being in truth the most able
man in the world, and having considered that mosaic,
by reason of its long life, was held in estimation
more than all the other forms of painting, he went
from Florence to Venice, where some Greek painters
were working in S. Marco in mosaic; and becoming
intimate with them, with entreaties, with money, and
with promises he contrived in such a manner that he
brought to Florence Maestro Apollonio, a Greek
painter, who taught him to fuse the glass for mosaic
and to make the cement for putting it together; and
in his company he wrought the upper part of the
tribune of S. Giovanni, where there are the Powers,
the Thrones, and the Dominions; in which place
Andrea, when more practised, afterwards made, as
will be said below, the Christ that is over the side
of the principal chapel. But, having made mention of
S. Giovanni, I will not pass by in silence that this
ancient temple is all wrought, both without and
within, with marbles of the Corinthian Order, and
that it is not only designed and executed perfectly
in all its parts and with all its proportions, but
also very well adorned with doors and with windows,
and enriched with two columns of granite on each
wallface, each eleven braccia high, in order to make
the three spaces over which are the architraves,
that rest on the said columns in order to support
the whole mass of the double vaulted roof, which has
been praised by modern architects as something
remarkable, and deservedly, for the reason that it
showed the good which that art already had in itself
to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, to Donatello, and to
the other masters of those times, who learnt the art
by means of this work and of the Church of S.
Apostolo in Florence, a work so good in manner that
it casts back to the true ancient goodness, having
all the columns in sections, as it has been said
above, measured and put together with so great
diligence that much can be learnt by studying it in
all its parts.
But to be silent
about many things that could be said about the good
architecture of this church, I will say only that
there was a great departure from this example and
from this good method of working when the facade of
S. Miniato sul Monte without Florence was rebuilt in
marble, in honor of the conversion of the Blessed S.
Giovanni Gualberto, citizen of Florence and founder
of the Order of the Monks of Vallombrosa; because
that and many other works that were made later were
in no way similar in beauty to those mentioned. The
same, in like manner, came to pass in the works of
sculpture, for all those that were made in Italy by
the masters of that age, as has been said in the
Preface to the Lives, were very rude, as can be seen
in many places, and in particular in S. Bartolommeo
at Pistoia, a church of the Canons Regular, where,
in a pulpit very rudely made by Guido da Como, there
is the beginning of the life of Jesus Christ, with
these words carved thereon by the craftsman himself
in the year 1199:
SCULPTOR LAUDATUR,
QUOD DOCTUS IN ARTE PROBATUR,
GUIDO DE COMO ME CUNCTIS CARMINE PROMO.
But to return to
the Church of S. Giovanni; forbearing to relate its
origin, by reason of its having been described by
Giovanni Villani by other writers, and having
already said that from this church there came the
good architecture that is today in use, I will add
that the tribune was made later, so far as it is
known, and that at the time when Alesso
Baldovinetti, succeeding Lippo, a painter of
Florence, restored those mosaics, it was seen that
it had been in the past painted with designs in red,
and all worked on stucco.
Andrea Tafi and
Apollonius the Greek, then, in order to cover this
tribune with mosaics, made therein a number of
compartments, which, narrow at the top beside the
lantern, went on widening as far as the level of the
cornice below; and they divided the upper part into
circles of various scenes. In the first are all the
ministers and executors of the Divine Will, namely,
the Angels, the Archangels, the Cherubim, the
Seraphim, the Powers, the Thrones, and the
Dominions. In the second row, also in mosaic, and
after the Greek manner, are the principal works done
by God, from the creation of light down to the
Flood. In the circle that is below these, which goes
on widening with the eight sides of that tribune,
are all the acts of Joseph and of his twelve
brethren. Below these, then, there follow as many
other spaces of the same size that circle in like
manner onward, wherein there is the life of Jesus
Christ, also in mosaic, from the time when He was
conceived in Mary's womb up to the Ascension into
Heaven. Then, resuming the same order, under the
three friezes there is the life of S. John the
Baptist, beginning with the appearing of the Angel
to Zacharias the priest, up to his beheading and to
the burial that his disciples gave him.
All these works,
being rude, without design and without art, I do not
absolutely praise; but of a truth, having regard to
the method of working of that age and to the
imperfection that the art of painting then showed,
not to mention that the work is solid and that the
pieces of the mosaic are very well put together, the
end of this work is much better or to speak more
exactly, less bad than is the beginning, although
the whole, with respect to the work of today, moves
us rather to laughter than to pleasure or marvel.
Finally, over the side of the principal chapel in
the said tribune, Andrea made by himself and without
the help of Apollonius, to his own great credit, the
Christ that is still seen there today, seven braccia
high. Becoming famous for these works throughout all
Italy, and being reputed in his own country as
excellent, he well deserved to be largely honored
and rewarded. It was truly very great good fortune,
that of Andrea to be born at a time when, all work
being rudely done, there was great esteem even for
that which deserved to be esteemed very little, or
rather not at all. This same thing befell Fra Jagppo
da Turrita, of the Order of S. Francis, seeing that,
having made the works in mosaic that are in the
recess behind the altar of the said S. Giovanni,
notwithstanding that they were little worthy of
praise he was remunerated for them with
extraordinary rewards, and afterwards, as an
excellent master, summoned to Rome, where he wrought
certain things in the chapel of the high altar of S.
Giovanni Laterano, and in that of S. Maria Maggiore.
Next, being summoned to Pisa, he made the
Evangelists in the principal apse of the Duomo, with
other works that are there, assisted by Andrea Tafi
and by Gaddo Gaddi, and using the same manner
wherein he had done his other works; but he left
them little less than wholly imperfect, and they
were afterwards finished by Vicino.
The works of these
men, then, were prized for some time; but when the
works of Giotto, as will be said in its own place,
were set in comparison with those of Andrea, of
Cimabue, and of the others, people recognized in
part the perfection of the art, seeing the
difference that there was between the early manner
of Cimabue and that of Giotto, the figures of the
one and of the other and in those that their
disciples and imitators made. From this beginning
the others sought step by step to follow in the path
of the best masters, surpassing one another happily
from one day to another, so that from such depths
these arts have; been raised, as is seen, to the
height of their perfection.
Andrea lived
eighty-one years, and died before Cimabue, in 1294.
And by reason of the reputation and the honor that
he gained with his mosaic, seeing that he, before
any other man, introduced and taught it in better
manner to the men of Tuscany, he was the cause that
Gaddo Gaddi, Giotto, and the others afterwards made
the most excellent works of that craft which have
acquired for them fame and an eternal name. After
the death of Andrea there was not wanting one to
magnify him with this inscription: QUI GIACE ANDREA,
CH' OPRE LEGGIADRE E BELLE FECE IN TUTTA TOSCANA, ED
ORA E ITO A FAR VAGO LO REGNO DELLE STELLE.
A disciple of
Andrea was Buonamico Buffalmacco, who, being very
young, played him many tricks, and had from him the
portrait of Pope Celestine IV, a Milanese, and that
of Innocent IV, both one and the other of whom he
portrayed afterwards in the pictures that he made in
S. Paolo a Ripa d' Arno in Pisa. A disciple and
perhaps a son of the same man was Antonio d' Andrea
Tafi, who was a passing good painter; but I have not
been able to find any work by his hand. There is
only mention made of him in the old book of the
Company of the Men of Design.
Deservedly, then,
did Andrea Tafi gain much praise among the early
masters, for the reason that, although he learnt the
principles of mosaic from those whom he brought from
Venice to Florence, he added nevertheless so much of
the good to the art, putting the pieces together
with much diligence and executing the work smooth as
a table, which is of the greatest importance in
mosaic, that he opened the way to good work to
Giotto, among others, as will be told in his Life;
and not only to Giotto, but to all those who have
exercised themselves in this sort of painting from
his day up to our own times. Wherefore it can be
truly affirmed that those marvellous works which are
being made today in S. Marco at Venice, and in other
places, had their first beginning from Andrea Tafi.
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GADDO (c.1260-
c.1333) and
TADDEO GADDI (c. 1300-1366)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
GADDO, PAINTER OF
FLORENCE, displayed at this same time more design in
his works, wrought after the Greek manner, than did
Andrea Tafi and the other painters that were before
him, and this perchance arose from the intimate
friendship and intercourse that he held with
Cimabue, seeing that, by reason either of their
conformity of blood or of the goodness of their
minds, finding themselves united one to the other by
a strait affection, from the frequent converse that
they had together and from their discoursing
lovingly very often about the difficulties of the
arts there were born in their minds conceptions very
beautiful and grand; and this came to pass for them
the more easily inasmuch as they were assisted by
the subtlety of the air of Florence, which is wont
to produce spirits both ingenious and subtle,
removing continually from round them that little of
rust and grossness that most times nature is not
able to remove, together with the emulation and with
the precepts that the good craftsmen provide in
every age. And it is seen clearly that works
concerted between those who, in their friendship,
are not veiled with the mask of duplicity (although
few so made are to be found), arrive at much
perfection; and the same men, conferring on the
difficulties of the sciences that they are learning,
purge them and render them so clear and easy that
the greatest praise comes therefrom. Whereas some,
on the contrary, diabolically working with
profession of friendship, and using the cloak of
truth and of lovingness to conceal their envy and
malice, rob them of their conceptions, in a manner
that the arts do not so soon attain to that
excellence which they would if love embraced the
minds of the gracious spirits; as it truly bound
together Gaddo and Cimabue, and in like manner
Andrea Tafi and Gaddo, who was taken by Andrea into
company with himself in order to finish the mosaics
of S. Giovanni, where that Gaddo learnt so much that
afterwards he made by himself the Prophets that are
seen round that church in the square spaces beneath
the windows; and having wrought these by his own
self and with much better manner, they brought him
very great fame. Wherefore, growing in courage and
being disposed to work by himself, he applied
himself continually to studying the Greek manner
together with that of Cimabue. Whence, after no long
time, having become excellent in the art, there was
allotted to him by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria
del Fiore the lunette over the principal door within
the church, wherein he wrought in mosaic the
Coronation of Our Lady; which work, when finished,
was judged by all the masters, both foreign and
native, the most beautiful that had yet been seen in
all Italy in that craft, there being recognized
therein more design, more judgment, and more
diligence than in all the rest of the works in
mosaic that were then to be found in Italy.
Wherefore, the fame
of this work spreading, Gaddo was called to Rome in
the year 1308 (which was the year after the fire
that burnt down the Church and the Palaces of the
Lateran) by Clemently, for whom he finished certain
works in mosaic left imperfect by Fra Jacopo da
Turrita. He then wrought certain works, also in
mosaic, in the Church of S. Pietro, both in the
principal chapel and throughout the church, and in
particular a large God the Father, with many other
figures, on the facade; and helping to finish some
scenes in mosaic that are in the facade of S. Maria
Maggiore, he somewhat improved the manner, and
departed also a little from that manner of the
Greeks, which had in it nothing whatever of the
good.
Next, having
returned to Tuscany, he wrought in the Duomo Vecchio
without the city of Arezzo, for the Tarlati, Lords
of Pietramala, certain works in mosaic on a vault
that was all made of sponge-stone and served for
roof to the middle part of that church, which, being
too much burdened by the ancient vault of stone,
fell down in the time of Bishop Gentile of Urbino,
who had it afterwards all rebuilt with bricks.
Departing from Arezzo, Gaddo went to Pisa, where, in
the niche over the Chapel of the Incoronata in the
Duomo, he made a Madonna who is ascending into
Heaven, and, above, a Jesus Christ who is awaiting
her and has a rich chair prepared as a seat for her;
which work, for those times, was wrought so well and
with so great diligence that it has been very well
preserved, even to our own day. After this Gaddo
returned to Florence, in mind to rest; wherefore,
undertaking to make little panels in mosaic, he
executed some with egg shells, with incredible
diligence and patience, as can be seen, among
others, in some that are still today in the Church
of S. Giovanni in Florence. It is read, also, that
he made two of them for King Robert, but nothing
more is known of these. And let this be enough to
have said of Gaddo Gaddi with regard to work in
mosaic.
In painting he made
many panels, and among others that which is in S.
Maria Novella, in the tramezzo of the church, in the
Chapel of the Minerbetti, and many others that were
sent into diverse parts of Tuscany. And working
thus, now in mosaic and now in painting, he made
both in the one and in the other exercise many
passing good works, which maintained him ever in
good credit and reputation. I could here enlarge
further in discoursing of Gaddo, but seeing that the
manners of the painters of those times cannot, for
the most part, render great assistance to the
craftsmen, I will pass this over in silence,
reserving myself to be longer in the Lives of those
who, having improved the arts, can give some measure
of assistance.
Gaddo lived
seventy-three years, and died in 1312, and was given
honorable burial in S. Croce by his son Taddeo. And
although he had other sons, Taddeo alone, who was
held at the baptismal font by Giotto, applied
himself to painting, learning at first the
principles from his father and then the rest from
Giotto. A disciple of Gaddo, besides Taddeo his son,
was Vicino, a painter of Pisa, who wrought very well
certain works in mosaic in the principal apse of the
Duomo of Pisa, as these words demonstrate, that are
still seen in that apse:
TEMPORE DOMINI
JOANNIS ROSSI, OPERARII ISTIUS ECCLESLffi, VICINUS
PICTOR INCEPIT ET PERFECIT HANC IMAGINEM BEAT.E
MARINE ; SED
MAJESTATIS, ET EVANGELISTS, PER ALIOS INCEPTS, IPSE
COMPLEVIT ET
PERFECIT, A.D. 1321, DE MENSE SEPTEMBRIS. BENEDICTUM
SIT NOMEN
DOMINI DEI NOSTRI JESU CHRISTI. AMEN.
In the Chapel of
the Baroncelli, in the same Church of S. Croce,
there is a portrait of Gaddo by the hand of his son
Taddeo, in a Marriage of Our Lady, and beside him is
Andrea Tan. And in our aforesaid book there is a
drawing by the hand of Gaddo, made in miniature,
like that of Cimabue, wherein it is seen how strong
he was in draughtsmanship.
Now, seeing that in
an old book, from which I have drawn these few facts
that have been related about Gaddo Gaddi, there is
also an account of the building of S. Maria Novella,
the Church of the Preaching Friars in Florence, a
building truly magnificent and highly honored, I
will not pass by in silence by whom and at what time
it was built. I say, then, that the Blessed Dominic
being in Bologna, and there being conceded to him
the property of Ripoli without Florence, he sent
thither twelve friars under the care of the Blessed
Giovanni da Salerno; and not many years afterwards
these friars came to Florence to occupy the church
and precincts of S. Pancrazio, and they were settled
there, when Dominic himself came to Florence,
whereupon they left that place and went to settle in
the Church of S. Paolo, according to his pleasure.
Later there being conceded to the said Blessed
Giovanni the precincts of S. Maria Novella, with all
its wealth, by the Legate of the Pope and by the
Bishop of the city, they were put in possession and
began to occupy the said precincts on the last day
of October, 1221. And because the said church was
passing small and faced westward, with its entrance
on the Piazza Vecchia, the friars, being now grown
to a good number and having great repute in the
city, began to think of increasing the said church
and convent. Wherefore, having got together a very
great sum of money, and having many in the city who
were promising every assistance, they began the
building of the new church on St. Luke's Day, in
1278; the first stone of the foundations being most
solemnly laid by Cardinal Latino degli Orsini,
Legate of Pope Nicholas III to the Florentines.
The architects of
the said church were Fra Giovanni, a Florentine, and
Fra Ristoro da Campi, lay brothers of the same
Order, who rebuilt the Ponte alia Carraja and that
of S. Trinita, destroyed by the flood of 1264 on
October 1. The greater part of the site of the said
church and convent was presented to the friars by
the heirs of Messer Jacopo, Cavaliere de'
Tornaquinci. The cost, as has been said, was met
partly by alms and partly by the money of diverse
persons who assisted gallantly, and in particular
with the assistance of Frate Aldobrandino
Cavalcanti, who was afterwards Bishop of Arezzo and
is buried over the door of the Virgin. Some say
that, besides everything else, he got together by
his own industry all the labor and material that
went into the said church, which was finished when
the Prior of this convent was Fra Jacopo Passavanti,
who was therefore deemed worthy of a marble tomb in
front of the principal chapel, on the left hand.
This church was consecrated in the year 1420, by
Pope Martin V, as is seen in an inscription on
marble on the righthand pillar of the principal
chapel, which runs thus:
A.D. I42O. DIE
SEPTIMA SEPTEMBRIS, DOMINUS MARTINUS DIVINA
PROVIDENTIA PAPA V.
PERSONALITER HANG ECCLESIAM CONSECRAVIT, ET
MAGNAS INDULGENTIAS
CONTULIT VISITANTIBUS EANDEM.
Of all these things
and of many others there is an account in a
chronicle of the building of the said church, which
is in the hands of the fathers of S. Maria Novella,
and in the History of Giovanni Villani likewise; and
I have not wished to withhold these few facts
regarding this church and convent, both because it
is one of the most important and most beautiful
churches in Florence, and also because they have
therein, as will be said below, many excellent works
made by the most famous crafts- men that have lived
in the years past.
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LIFE OF MARGARITONE
(active c. 1250-1290)
PAINTER, SCULPTOR, AND ARCHITECT OF AREZZO
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
AMONG THE OLD
PAINTERS who were much alarmed by the praises
rightly given by men to Cimabue and to his disciple
Giotto, whose good work in painting was making their
glory shine throughout all Italy, was one
Margaritone, painter of Arezzo, who, with the others
who in that unhappy century were holding the highest
rank in painting, recognized that their works were
little less than wholly obscuring his own fame.
Margaritone, then, being held excellent among the
other painters of these times who were working after
the Greek manner, wrought many panels in distemper
at Arezzo, and he painted in fresco in even more
pictures, but in a long time and with much fatigue
almost the whole Church of S. Clemente, Abbey of the
Order of Camaldoli, which is today all in ruins and
thrown down, together with many other buildings and
a strong fortress called S. Chimenti, for the reason
that Duke Cosimo de' Medici, not only on that spot
but right round that city, pulled down many
buildings and the old walls (which were restored by
Guido Pietramalesco, formerly Bishop and Patron of
that city); in order to rebuild the latter with
connecting wings and bastions, much stronger and
smaller than they were, and in consequence more easy
to guard and with few men. There were, in the said
pictures, many figures both small and great, and
although they were wrought after the Greek manner,
it was recognized, none the less, that they had been
made with good judgment and lovingly; to which
witness is borne by works by the same man's hand
which have survived in that city, and above all a
panel that is now in S. Francesco, in the Chapel of
the Conception, with a modern frame, wherein is a
Madonna held by these friars in great veneration.
He made in the same
church, also after the Greek manner, a great
crucifix which is now placed in that chapel where
there is the Office of the Wardens of Works; this is
wrought on the planking, with the Cross outlined,
and of this sort he made many in that city. For the
Nuns of S. Margherita he wrought a work that is
today set up against the tramezzo of the church
namely, a canvas fixed on a panel, wherein are
scenes with small figures from the life of Our Lady
and of S. John the Baptist, in considerably better
manner than the large, and executed with more
diligence and grace. This work is notable, not only
because the said small figures are so well made that
they look like miniatures, but also because it is a
marvel to see that a work on canvas has been
preserved for three hundred years. He made
throughout the whole city an infinity of pictures,
and at Sargiano, a convent of the Frati de' Zoccoli,
a S. Francis portrayed from nature on a panel,
whereon he placed his name, as on a work, in his
judgment, wrought better than was his wont. Next,
having made a large Crucifix on wood, painted after
the Greek manner, he sent it to Florence to Messer
Farinata degli Uberti, a most famous citizen, for
the reason that he had, among other noble deeds,
freed his country from imminent ruin and peril. This
Crucifix is today in S. Croce, between the Chapel of
the Peruzzi and that of the Giugni. In S. Domenico
in Arezzo, a church and convent built by the Lords
of Pietramala in the year 1275, as their arms still
prove, he wrought many works, and then returned to
Rome (where he had already been held very dear by
Pope Urban IV), to the end that he might do certain
works in fresco at his commission in the portico of
S. Pietro; these were in the Greek manner, and
passing good for those times.
Next, having made a
S . Francis on a panel at Ganghereto, a place above
Terra Nuova in Valdarno, his spirit grew exalted and
he gave himself to sculpture, and that with so much
zeal that he succeeded much better than he had done
in painting, because, although his first sculptures
were in Greek manner, as four wooden figures show
that are in a Deposition from the Cross in the
Prieve, and some other figures in the round placed
in the Chapel of S. Francesco over the baptismal
font, none the less he adopted a better manner after
he had seen in Florence the works of Arnolfo and of
the other then most famous sculptors. Wherefore,
having returned to Arezzo in the year 1275, in the
wake of the Court of Pope Gregory, who passed
through Florence on his return from Avignon to Rome,
there came to him opportunity to make himself more
known, for the reason that this Pope died in Arezzo,
after having presented thirty thousand crowns to the
Commune to the end that there might be finished the
building of the Vescovado, formerly begun by Maestro
Lapo and little advanced, and the Aretines, besides
making the Chapel of S. Gregorio (where Margaritone
afterwards made a panel) in the Vescovado, in memory
of the said Pontiff, also ordained that a tomb of
marble should be made for him by the same man in the
said Vescovado. Putting his hand to the work, he
brought it to completion, including therein the
portrait of the Pope from nature, done both in
marble and in painting, in a manner that it was held
the best work that he had ever yet made. Next, work
being resumed on the building of the Vescovado,
Margaritone carried it very far on, following the
design of Lapo; but he did not, however, deliver it
finished, because a few years later, in the year
1289, the wars between the Florentines and the
Aretines were renewed, by the fault of Guglielmino
Ubertini, Bishop and Lord of Arezzo, assisted by the
Tarlati da Pietramala and by the Pazzi di Valdarno,
although evil came to them thereby, for they were
routed and slain at Campaldino; and there was spent
in that war all the money left by the Pope for the
building of the Vescovado. And therefore the
Aretines ordained that in place of this there should
serve the impost paid by the district (thus do they
call a tax), as a particular revenue for that work;
which impost has lasted up to our own day, and
continues to last.
Now returning to
Margaritone: from what is seen in his works, as
regards painting, he was the first who considered
what a man must do when he works on panels of wood,
to the end that they may stay firm in the joinings,
and that they may not show fissures and cracks
opening out after they have been painted; for he was
used to put over the whole surface of the panels a
canvas of linen cloth, attached with a strong glue
made from shreds of parchment and boiled over a fire
and then over the said canvas he spread gesso, as is
seen in many panels by him and by others. He
wrought, besides, on gesso mingled with the same
glue, friezes and diadems in relief and other
ornaments in the round; and he was the inventor of
the method of applying Armenian bole, and of
spreading gold-leaf thereon and burnishing it. All
these things, never seen before, are seen in many of
his works, and in particular in the Pieve of Arezzo,
in an altar front wherein are stories of S. Donatus,
and in S. Agnesa and S. Niccolo in the same city.
Finally, he wrought
many works in his own country, which went abroad;
some of which are at Rome, in S. Giovanni and in S.
Pietro, and some at Pisa, in S. Caterina, where, in
the tramezzo of the church, there is set up over an
altar a panel with S. Catherine on it, and many
scenes from her life with little figures, and a S.
Francis with many scenes on a panel, on a ground of
gold. And in the upper Church of S. Francesco d'
Assisi there is a Crucifix by his hand, painted in
the Greek manner, on a beam that crosses the church.
All which works were in great esteem among the
people of that age, although today by us they are
not esteemed save as old things, good when art was
not, as it is today, at its height. And seeing that
Margaritone applied himself also to architecture,
although I have not made mention of any buildings
made with his design, because they are not of
importance, I will yet not forbear to say that he,
according to what I find, made the design and model
of the Palazzo de' Governatori in the city of
Ancona, after the Greek manner, in the year 1270;
and what is more, he made in sculpture, on the
principal front, eight windows, whereof each one
has, in the space in the middle, two columns that
support in the middle two arches, over which each
window has a scene in half-relief that reaches from
the said small arches up to the top of the window; a
scene, I say, from the Old Testament, carved in a
kind of stone that is found in that district. Under
the said windows, on the fagade, there are certain
words that are understood rather at discretion than
because they are either in good form or rightly
written, wherein there is read the date and in whose
time this work was made. By the hand of the same
man, also, was the design of the Church of S.
Ciriaco in Ancona. Margaritone died at the age of
seventy-seven, disgusted, so it is said, to have
lived so long, seeing the age changed and the honors
with the new craftsmen. He was buried in the Duomo
Vecchio without Arezzo, in a tomb of travertine, now
gone to ruin in the destruction of that church; and
there was made for him this epitaph:
HIC JACET ILLE
BONUS PICTURA MARGARITONUS,
CUI REQUIEM DOMINUS TRADAT UBIQUE PIUS.
The portrait of
Margaritone, by the hand of Spinello, is in the
Story of the Magi, in the said Duomo, and was copied
by me before that church was pulled down.
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GIOTTO (1267-1337)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
NOW IN THE YEAR
1276, in the country of Florence, about fourteen
miles from the city, in the village of Vespignano,
there was born to a simple peasant named Bondone a
son, to whom he gave the name of Giotto, and whom he
brought up according to his station. And when he had
reached the age of ten years, showing in all his
ways though still childish an extraordinary vivacity
and quickness of mind, which made him beloved not
only by his father but by all who knew him, Bondone
gave him the care of some sheep. And he leading them
for pasture, now to one spot and now to another,was
constantly driven by his natural inclination to draw
on the stones or the ground some object in nature,
or something that came into his mind. One day
Cimabue, going on business from Florence to
Vespignano, found Giotto, while his sheep were
feeding, drawing a sheep from nature upon a smooth
and solid rock with a pointed stone, having never
learnt from any one but nature. Cimabue, marvelling
at him, stopped and asked him if he would go and be
with him. And the boy answered that if his father
were content he would gladly go. Then Cimabue asked
Bondone for him, and he gave him up to him, and was
content that he should take him to Florence.
There in a little
time, by the aid of nature and the teaching of
Cimabue, the boy not only equalled his master, but
freed himself from the rude manner ofthe Greeks, and
brought back to life the true art of painting,
introducing the drawing from nature of living
persons, which had not been practised for two
hundred years; or at least if some had tried it,
they had not succeeded very happily. Giotto painted
among others, as may be seen to this day in the
chapel of the Podestà's Palace at Florence, Dante
Alighieri, his contemporary and great friend, and no
less famous a poet than Giotto was a painter.
After this he was
called to Assisi by Fra Giovanni di Muro, at that
time general of the order of S. Francis, and painted
in fresco in the upper church thirty-two stories
from the life and deeds of S. Francis, which brought
him great fame. It is no wonder therefore that Pope
Benedict sent one of his courtiers into Tuscany to
see what sort of a man he was and what his works
were like, for the Pope was planning to have some
paintings made in S. Peter's. This courtier, on his
way to see Giotto and to find out what other masters
of painting and mosaic there were in Florence, spoke
with many masters in Sienna, and then, having
received some drawings from them, he came to
Florence. And one morning going into the workshop of
Giotto, who was nat his labours, he showed him the
mind of the Pope, and at last asked him to give him
a little drawing to send to his Holiness. Giotto,
who was a man of courteous manners,immediately took
a sheet of paper, and with a pen dipped in red,
fixing his arm firmly against his side to make a
compass of it, with a turn of his hand he made a
circle so perfect that it was a marvel to see it
Having done it, he turned smiling to the courtier
and said, "Here is the drawing.". But he, thinking
he was being laughed at, asked, "Am I to have no
other drawing than this?" "This is enough and too
much," replied Giotto, "send it with the others and
see if it will be understood." The messenger, seeing
that he could get nothing else, departed ill
pleased, not doubting that he had been made a fool
of. However, sending the other drawings to the Pope
with the names of those who had made them, he sent
also Giotto's, relating how he had made the circle
without moving his arm and without compasses, which
when the Pope and many of his courtiers understood,
they saw that Giotto must surpass greatly all the
other painters of his time. This thing being told,
there arose from it a proverb which is still used
about men of coarse clay, "You are rounder than the
O of Giotto," which proverb is not only good because
of the occasion from which it sprang, but also still
more for its significance, which consists in its
ambiguity, tondo, "round," meaning in Tuscany not
only a perfect circle, but also slowness and
heaviness of mind.
So the Pope made
him come to Rome, and he painted for him in
S.Peter's, and there never left his hands work
better finished; wherefore the Pope, esteeming
himself well served, gave him six hundred ducats of
gold, besides having shown him so many favours that
it was spoken of through all Italy.
After Giotto was
returned to Florence, Robert, King of Naples, wrote
to his eldest son, Charles, King of Calabria, who
was at that time in Florence, that he must by some
means or other send him Giotto to Naples. Giotto,
hearing himself called by a king so famous and so
much praised, went very willingly to serve him, and
did many works which pleased the king greatly. And
he was so much beloved by him that the king would
often visit him, and took pleasure in watching him
and listening to his conversation, and Giotto, who
had always some jest or some witty answer ready,
would converse with him while going on with his
painting. So one day the king saying to him that he
would make him the first man in Naples, Giotto
answered, "And that is why I am lodged at the Porta
Reale, that I may be the first man in Naples." And
another time the king saying to him, " Giotto, if I
were you, now that it is hot, I would give up
painting a little." He answered, "And so would I,
certainly, if I were you."
So pleasing the
king well, he painted him a good number of pictures,
and the portraits of many famous men, Giotto himself
among them; and one day the king, as a caprice,
asked him to paint his kingdom. Giotto, it is said,
painted a laden ass with a new load lying at his
feet, which while it refused it seemed to desire,
and both on the new and old burden was the royal
crown and sceptre of power. And when Giotto was
asked by the king what the picture signified, he
replied, "Such must be the subjects and such the
kingdom which every day desired a new lord."
There are many
other stories remaining of the witty sayings of
Giotto, and besides those that are told by
Boccaccio, Franco Sacchetti tells many good ones,
some of which I will give in Franco's own words.
How a man of low
station gives Giotto the great painter a shield to
paint.
"Every one must
have heard of Giotto, who was a great painter above
any other. A rough workman, hearing of his fame,
came to Giotto's workshop followed by one carrying
his shield. Arrived there, he found Giotto, and
said, 'God save you, master, I want you to paint my
arms on this shield.' Giotto, considering the man
and his manner of speech, said nothing but, 'When do
you want it?' And he told him. Giotto said, 'Leave
me to do it;' so he went away. And Giotto, left
alone, said to himself, 'What did he mean? Has some
sent him for a joke? I never had a shield to paint
before. And this man was a simple fellow, and bade
me paint his arms as if he were of the royal house
of France. Certainly I shall have to make him some
new arms.' So considering the matter, he put the
shield before him and made a design and bade one of
his pupils paint it, and so it was done. There was a
helmet, a gorget, a pair of iron gloves, a cuirass,
and cuisses, a sword, dagger, and lancc. So the
worthy man came again and said, 'Master, is my
shield painted?' Giotto answered, 'Certainly, bring
it down.' But when it came the would-be gentleman
looked at it and said, 'What is this you have been
painting ? I won't pay four farthings for it.'
Giotto said, 'What did you tell me to paint?' And he
answered, 'My arms.' ' Are not they all here?' asked
Giotto; 'what is wanting? Nay, you are a great fool,
for if any one were to ask you who you are, you
would hardly know what to answer; and you come here
and say, Paint me my arms. What arms do you bear?
Whence are you? Who were your ancestors? I have
painted all your armour on the shield, and if there
is anything else, tell me and I will add it.' But
the other answered, 'You are giving me vile words,
and have spoilt my shield.' And he went away and
summoned Giotto before the justice. Giotto appeared,
and on his side summoned him, demanding two florins
for his painting. And when the court had heard the
matter, they gave sentence that the man should take
his shield so painted, and pay six lire to Giotto."
It is said that
when Giotto was only a boy with Cimabue, he once
painted a fly on the nose of a face that Cimabue had
drawn, so naturally that the master returning to his
work tried more than once to drive it away with his
hand, thinking it was real. And I might tell you of
many other jests played by Giotto, but of this
enough.
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AGOSTINO AND AGNOLO
OF SIENA,
SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
AMONG OTHERS who exercised themselves in the school
of the sculptors Giovanni and Niccola of Pisa,
Agostino and Agnolo, sculptors of Siena, of whom we
are at present about to write the Life, became very
excellent for those times. These, according to what
I find, were born from a father and mother of Siena,
and their forefathers were architects, seeing that
in the year iiqo, under the rule of the three
Consuls, they brought to perfection the Fontebranda,
and afterwards, in the following year, under the
same Consulate, the Customs-house of that city and
other buildings. And in truth it is clear that very
often the seeds of talent germinate in the houses
where they have lain for some time, and throw out
shoots which afterwards produce greater and better
fruits than the first plants had done. Agostino and
Agnolo, then, adding great betterment to the manner
of Giovanni and Niccola of Pisa, enriched the art
with better' design and invention, as their works
clearly demonstrate. It is said that the aforesaid
Giovanni, returning from Naples to Pisa in the year
1284, stayed in Siena in order to make the design
and foundation for the facade of the Duomo, wherein
are the three principal doors, to the end that it
might be all adorned very richly with marbles ; and
that then Agostino, being no more than fifteen years
of age, went to be with him in order to apply
himself to sculpture, whereof he had learnt the
first principles, being no less inclined to this art
than to the matters of architecture. And so, under
the teaching of Giovanni, by means of continual
study he surpassed all his fellow disciples in
design, grace, and manner, so greatly that it was
said by all that he was the right eye of his master.
And because, between people who love each other,
there is no gift, whether of nature, or of soul, or
of fortune, that is mutually desired so much as
excellence, which alone makes men great and noble,
and what is more, most happy both in this life and
in the other, therefore Agostino, seizing this
occasion of assistance from Giovanni, drew his
brother Agnolo into the same pursuit. Nor was it a
great labour for him to do this, seeing that the
intercourse of Agnolo with Agostino and with the
other sculptors had already, as he saw the honor and
profit that they were drawing from such an art,
fired his mind with extreme eagerness and desire to
apply himself to sculpture; nay, before Agostino had
given a thought to this, Agnolo had wrought certain
works in secret.
Agostino, then,
being engaged in working with Giovanni on the marble
panel of the high-altar in the Vescovado of Arezzo,
whereof there has been mention above, contrived to
bring there the said Agnolo, his brother, who
acquitted himself in this work in such a manner that
when it was finished he was found to have equalled
Agostino in the excellence of his art. Which
circumstance, becoming known to Giovanni, was the
reason that after this work he made use of both one
and the other in many other works of his that he
wrought in Pistoia, in Pisa, and in other places.
And seeing that he applied himself not only to
sculpture but to architecture as well, no long time
passed before, under the rule of the Nine in Siena,
Agostino made the design of their Palace in
Malborghetto, which was in the year 1308. In the
making of this he acquired so great a name in his
country, that, returning to Siena after the death of
Giovanni, they were made, both one and the other,
architects to the State; wherefore afterwards, in
the year 1317, there was made under their direction
the front of the Duomo that faces towards the north,
and in the year 1321, with the design of the same
men, there was begun the construction of the Porta
Romana in that manner wherein it stands today, and
it was finished in the year 1326; which gate was
first called Porta S. Martino. They rebuilt, also,
the Porta a Tun, which at first was called Porta di
S. Agata all' Arco. In the same year, with the
design of the same Agostino and Agnolo, there was
begun the Church and Convent of S. Francesco, in the
presence of Cardinal di Gaeta, Apostolic Legate. No
long time after, by the action of some of the
Tolomei who were living as exiles at Orvieto,
Agostino and Agnolo were summoned to make certain
sculptures for the work of S. Maria in that city;
wherefore, going there, they carved some prophets in
marble which are now, in comparison with the other
statues in that facade, the finest and best
proportioned in that so greatly renowned work.
Now it came to pass
in the year 1326, as it has been said in his Life,
that Giotto was called by means of Charles, Duke of
Calabria, who was then staying in Florence, to
Naples, in order to make some things for King Robert
in S. Chiara and other places in that city;
wherefore Giotto, passing by way of Orvieto on his
way to Naples, in order to see the works that had
been made and were still being made there by so many
men, wished to see everything minutely. And because
the prophets of Agostino and Agnolo of Siena pleased
him more than all the other sculptures, it came
about therefore that Giotto not only commended them
and held them, much to their contentment, among his
friends, but also presented them to Piero Saccone da
Pietramala as the best of all the sculptors then
living, for the making of the tomb of Bishop Guido,
Lord and Bishop of Arezzo, which has been mentioned
in the Life of Giotto himself. And so then Giotto
having seen in Orvieto the works of many sculptors
and having judged the best to be those of Agostino
and Agnolo of Siena, this was the reason that the
said tomb was given to them to make in that manner,
however, wherein he had designed it, and according
to the model which he himself had sent to the said
Piero Saccone. Agostino and Agnolo finished this
tomb in the space of three years, executing it with
much diligence, and built it into the Church of the
Vescovado of Arezzo, in the Chapel of the Sacrament.
Over the sarcophagus, which rests on certain great
consoles carved more than passing well, there is
stretched the body of that Bishop in marble, and at
the sides are some angels that are drawing back
certain curtains very gracefully. Besides this,
there are carved in half-relief, in compartments,
twelve scenes from the life and actions of that
Bishop, with an infinite number of little figures. I
will not grudge the labor of describing the]
contents of these scenes, to the end that it may be
seen with what great patience they were wrought, and
how zealously these sculptors sought the good
manner.
In the first is the
scene when, assisted by the Ghibelline party of
Milan, which sent him money and four hundred masons,
he is rebuilding the walls of Arezzo all anew,
making them much longer than they were and giving
them the form of a galley. In the second is the
taking of Lucignano di Valdichiana. In the third,
that of Chiusi. In the fourth, that of Fronzoli,
then a strong castle above Poppi, and held by the
sons of the Count of Battifolle. The fifth is when
the Castle of Rondine, after having been many months
besieged by the Aretines, is surrendering finally to
the Bishop. In the sixth is the taking of the Castle
of Bucine in Valdarno. The seventh is when he is
taking by storm the fortress of Caprese, which
belonged to the Count of Romena, after having
maintained the siege for several months. In the
eighth the Bishop is having the Castle of Laterino
pulled down and the hill that rises above it cut
into the shape of a cross, to the end that it may no
longer be possible to build a fortress thereon. In
the ninth he is seen destroying Monte Sansovino and
putting it to fire and flames, chasing from it all
the inhabitants. In the eleventh is his coronation,
wherein are to be seen many beautiful costumes of
soldiers on foot and on horseback, and of other
people. In the twelfth, finally, his men are seen
carrying him from Montenero, where he fell sick, to
Massa, and thence afterwards, now dead, to Arezzo.
Round this tomb, also, in many places, are the
Ghibelline insignia, and the arms of the Bishop,
which are six square stones "or," on a field "
azure," in the same ordering as are the six balls in
the arms of the Medici; which arms of the house of
the Bishop were described by Frate Guittone,
chevalier and poet of Arezzo, when he said, writing
of the site of the Castle of Pietramala, whence that
family had its origin:
Dove si scontra il
Giglion con la Chiassa
Ivi furono i miei
antecessori,
Che in campo azurro
d'or portan sei sassa.
Agnolo and Agostino
of Siena, then, executed this work with better art
and invention and with more diligence than there had
been shown in any work executed in their times. And
in truth they deserve nothing but infinite praise,
having made therein so many figures and so great a
variety of sites, places, towers, horses, men, and
other things, that it is indeed a marvel. And
although this tomb was in great part destroyed by
the Frenchmen of the Duke of Anjou, who sacked the
greater part of that city in order to take revenge
on the hostile party for certain affronts received,
none the less it shows that it was wrought with very
good judgment by the said Agostino and Agnolo, who
cut on it, in rather large letters, these words :
HOC OPUS FECIT
MAGISTER AUGUSTINUS ET MAGISTER ANGELUS DE SENIS.
After this, in the
year 1329, they wrought an altar panel of marble for
the Church of S. Francesco at Bologna, in a passing
good manner; and therein, besides the carved
ornamentation, which is very rich, they made a
Christ who is crowning Our Lady, and on each side
three similar figures S. Francis, S. James, S.
Dominic, S. Anthony of Padua, S. Petronius, and S.
John the Evangelist, with figures one braccio and a
half in height. Below each of the said figures is
carved a scene in low-relief from the life of the
Saint that is above; and in all these scenes is an
infinite number of half-length figures, which make a
rich and beautiful adornment, according to the
custom of those times. It is seen clearly that
Agostino and Agnolo endured very great fatigue in
this work, and that they put into it all diligence
and study in order to make it, as it truly was, a
work worthy of praise; and although they are half
eaten away, yet there are to be read thereon their
names and the date, by means of which, it being
known when they began it, it isj seen that they
laboured eight whole years in completing it. It is
true, indeed, that in that same time they wrought
many other small works in diverse places and for
various people.
Now, while they
were working in Bologna, that city, by the mediation
of a Legate of the Pope, gave herself absolutely
over to the Church; and the Pope, in return,
promised that he would go to settle with his Court
in Bologna, saying that he wished to erect a castle
there, or truly a fortress, for his own security.
This being conceded to him by the Bolognese, it was
immediately built under the direction and design of
Agostino and Agnolo, but it had a very short life,
for the reason that the Bolognese, having found that
the many promises of the Pope were wholly vain,
pulled down and destroyed the said fortress, with
much greater promptness than it had been built.
It is said that
while these two sculptors were staying in Bologna
the Po issued in furious flood from its bed and laid
waste the whole country round for many miles, doing
incredible damage to the territory of Mantua and
Ferrara and slaying more than ten thousand persons;
and that they, being called on for this reason as
ingenious and able men, found a way to put this
terrible river back into its course, confining it
with dikes and other most useful barriers; which was
greatly to their credit and profit, because, besides
acquiring fame thereby, they were recompensed by the
Lords of Mantua and by the D' Este family with most
honorable rewards.
After this they
returned to Siena, and in the year 1338, with their
direction and design, there was made the new Church
of S. Maria, near the Duomo Vecchio, towards Piazza
Manetti; and no long time after, the people of
Siena, remaining much satisfied with all the works
that these men were making, determined with an
occasion so apt to put into effect that which had
been discussed many times, but up to then in vain
namely, the making of a public fountain on the
principal square, opposite the Palagio della
Signoria. Wherefore, this being entrusted to
Agostino and Agnolo, they brought the waters of that
fountain through pipes of lead and of clay, which
was very difficult, and it began to play in the year
1343, on the first day of June, with much pleasure
and contentment to' the whole city, which remained
thereby much indebted to the talent of these its two
citizens.
About the same time
there was made the Great Council Chamber in the
Municipal Palace; and so too, with the direction and
design of the same men, there was brought to its
completion the tower of the said Palace, in the year
1344, and there were placed thereon two great bells,
whereof they had one from Grosseto and the other was
made in Siena. Finally, while Agnolo chanced to be
in the city of Assisi, where he made a chapel and a
tomb in marble in the lower Church of S. Francesco
for a brother of Napoleone Orsino, a Cardinal and a
friar of S. Francis, who had died in that place
Agostino, who had remained in Siena in the service
of the State, died while he was busy making the
design for the adornments of the said fountain in
the square, and was honorably buried in the Duomo. I
have not yet found, and cannot therefore say
anything about the matter, either how or when Agnolo
died, or even any other works of importance by their
hand; and therefore let this be the end of their
Life. >P>Now, seeing that it would be without doubt
an error, in following the order of time, not to
make mention of some who, although they have not
wrought so many works that it is possible to write
their whole life, have none the less contributed
betterment and beauty to art and to the world, I
will say, taking occasion from that which has been
said above about the Vescovado of Arezzo and about
the Pieve, that Pietrp and Paolo, goldsmiths of
Arezzo, who learnt design from Agnolo and Agostino
of Siena, were the first who wrought large works of
some excellence with the chasing tool, since, for an
arch-priest of the said Pieve of Arezzo, they
executed a head in silver as large as life, wherein
was placed the head of S. Donatus, Bishop and
Protector of that city; which work was worthy of
nothing but praise, both because they made therein
some very beautiful figures in enamel and other
ornaments, and because it was one of the first
works, as it has been said, that were wrought with
the chasing tool.
About the same
time, the Guild of Calimara in Florence caused
Maestro Cione, an excellent goldsmith, to make the
greater part, if not the whole, of the silver altar
of S. Giovanni Battista, wherein are many scenes
from the life of that Saint embossed on a plate of
silver, with passing good figures in half-relief;
which work, both by reason of its size and of its
being something new, was held marvellous by all who
saw it. In the year 1330, after the body of S.
Zanobi had been found beneath the vaults of S.
Reparata, the same Maestro Cione made a head of
silver to contain a piece of the head of that Saint,
which is still preserved today in the same head of
silver and is borne in processions; which head was
then held something very beautiful and gave a great
name to its craftsman, who died no long time after,
rich and in great repute.
Maestro Cione left
many disciples, and among others Forzore di Spinello
of Arezzo, who wrought every kind of chasing very
well but was particularly excellent in making scenes
in silver enamelled over fire, to which witness is
borne by a mitre with most beautiful adornments in
enamel, and a very beautiful pastoral staff of
silver, which are in the Vescovado of Arezzo. The
same man wrought for Cardinal Galeotto da Pietramala
many works in silver that remained after his death
with the friars of La Vernia, where he wished to be
buried. There, besides the wall that was erected in
that place by Count Orlando, Lord of Chiusi, a small
town below La Vernia, the Cardinal built the church,
together with many rooms in the convent and
throughout that whole place, without putting his
arms there or leaving any other memorial. A disciple
of Maestro Cione, also, was Leonardo di Ser
Giovanni, a Florentine, who wrought many works in
chasing and soldering, with better design than the
others before him had shown, and in particular the
altar and panel of silver in S. Jacopo at Pistoia;
in which work, besides the scenes, which are
numerous, there was much praise given to a figure in
the round that he made in the middle, representing
S. James, more than one braccio in height, and
wrought with so great finish that it appears rather
to have been made by casting than by chasing. This
figure is set in the midst of the said scenes on the
panel of the altar, round which is a frieze of
letters in enamel, that run thus:
AD HONOREM DEI ET
SANCTI JACOBI APOSTOLI, HOC OPUS FACTUM
FUIT TEMPORE DOMINI
FRANC. PAGNI DICTjE OPERiE OPERARII SUB
ANNO 1371 PER ME
LEONARDUM SER JO. DE FLOREN. AURIFIC.
MV
Now, returning to
Agostino and Agnolo: they had many disciples who,
after their death, wrought many works of
architecture and of sculpture in Lombardy and other
parts of Italy, and among others Maestro Jacopo
Lanfrani of Venice, who founded S. Francesco of
Imola and wrought the principal door in sculpture,
where he carved his name and the date, which was the
year 1343. And at Bologna, in the Church of S.
Domenico, the same Maestro Jacopo made a tomb in
marble for Giovanni Andrea Calduino, Doctor of Laws
and Secretary to Pope Clement VI; and another, also
in marble and in the said church, very well wrought,
for Taddeo Peppoli, Conservator of the people and of
Justice in Bologna. And in the same year, which was
the year 1347, or a little before, this tomb being
finished, Maestro Jacopo went to his native city of
Venice and founded the Church of S. Antonio, which
was previously of wood, at the request of a
Florentine Abbot of the ancient family of the Abati,
the Doge being Messer Andrea Dandolo. This church
was finished in the year 1349. Jacobello and Pietro
Paolo, also, Venetians and disciples of Agostino and
Agnolo, made a tomb in marble for Messer Giovanni da
Lignano, Doctor of Laws, in the year 1383, in the
Church of S. Domenico at Bologna.
All these and many
other sculptors went on for a long space of time
following one and the same method, in a manner that
with it they filled all Italy. It is believed, also,
that the Pesarese, who, besides many other works,
built the Church of S. Domenico in his native city,
and made in sculpture the marble door with the three
figures in the round, God the Father, S. John the
Baptist, and S. Mark, was a disciple of Agostino and
Agnolo; and to this the manner bears witness. This
work was finished in the year 1385. But, seeing that
it would take too long if I were to make mention
minutely of the works that were wrought by many
masters of those times in that manner, I wish that
this, that I have said of them thus in general,
should suffice me for the present, and above all
because there is not any benefit of much account for
our arts from such works. Of the aforesaid it has
seemed to me proper to make mention, because, if
they do not deserve to be discussed at length, yet,
on the other hand, they were not such as to need to
be passed over completely in silence.
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LIVES OF OF
(1301-1350), PAINTER OF FLORENCE
AND OF UGOLINO SANESE [UGOLINO DA SIENA]; [UGOLINO
DI NERIO] (active 1317, d. 1339/49)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
STEFANO, PAINTER OF FLORENCE and disciple of Giotto,
was so excellent, that he not only surpassed all the
others who had labored in the art before him, but
outstripped his own master himself by so much that
he was held, and deservedly, the best of all the
painters who had lived up to that time, as his works
clearly demonstrate. He painted in fresco the
Madonna of the Campo Santo in Pisa, which is no
little better in design and in coloring than the
work of Giotto; and in Florence, in the cloister of
S. Spirito, he painted three little arches in
fresco. In the first of these, wherein is the
Transfiguration of Christ with Moses and Elias,
imagining how great must have been the splendor that
dazzled them, he fashioned the three Disciples with
extraordinary and beautiful attitudes, and enveloped
in draperies in a manner that it is seen that he
went on trying to do something that had never been
done before namely, to suggest the nude form of the
figures below new kinds of folds, which, as I have
said, had not been thought of even by Giotto.
Under this arch,
wherein he made a Christ delivering the woman
possessed, he drew a building in perspective,
perfectly and in a manner then little known,
executing it in good form and with better knowledge;
and in it, working with very great judgment in
modern fashion, he showed so great art and so great
invention and proportion in the columns, in the
doors, in the windows, and in the cornices, and so
great diversity from the other masters in his method
of working, that it appears that there was begin-
ning to be seen a certain glimmer of the good and
perfect manner of the moderns. He invented, among
other ingenious ideas, a flight of steps very
difficult to make, which, both in painting and built
out in relief wrought in either way, in fact is so
rich in design and variety, and so useful and
convenient in invention, that the elder Lorenzo de'
Medici, the Magnificent, availed himself of it in
making the outer staircase of the Palace of Poggio a
Cajano, now the principal villa of the most
Illustrious Lord Duke.
In the other little
arch is a story of Christ when he is delivering S.
Peter from shipwreck, so well done that one seems to
hear the voice of Peter saying: "Domine, salva nos,
perimus." This work is judged much more beautiful
than the others, because, besides the softness of
the draperies, there are seen sweetness in the air
of the heads and terror in the perils of the sea,
and because the Apostles, shaken by diverse motions
and by phantoms of the sea, have been represented in
attitudes very appropriate and all most beautiful.
And although time has eaten away in part the labors
that Stefano put into this work, it may be seen,
although but dimly, that the Apostles are defending
themselves from the fury of the winds and from the
waves of the sea with great energy; which work,
being very highly praised among the moderns, must
have certainly appeared a miracle in all Tuscany in
the time of him who wrought it. After this he
painted a S. Thomas Aquinas beside a door in the
first cloister of S. Maria Novella, where he also
made a Crucifix, which was afterwards executed in a
bad manner by other painters in restoring it. In
like manner he left a chapel in the church begun and
not finished, which has been much eaten away by
time, wherein the angels are seen raining down in
diverse forms by reason of the pride of Lucifer;
where it is to be noticed that the figures, with the
arms, trunks, and legs foreshortened much better
than any foreshortenings that had been made before,
give us to know that Stefano began to understand and
to demonstrate in part the difficulties that those
men had to reduce to excellence, who afterwards,
with greater science, showed them to us, as they
have done, in perfection; wherefore the surname of
"The Ape of Nature" was given him by the other
craftsmen.
Next, being
summoned to Milan, Stefano made a beginning for many
works for Matteo Visconti, but was not able to
finish them, because, having fallen sick by reason
of the change of air, he was forced to return to
Florence. There, having regained his health, he made
in fresco, in the tramezzo of the Church of S.
Croce, in the Chapel of the Asini, the story of the
martyrdom of S. Mark, when he was dragged to death,
with many figures that have something of the good.
Being then summoned to Rome by reason of having been
a disciple of Giotto, he made some stories of Christ
in S. Pietro, in he principal chapel wherein is the
altar of the said Saint, between the windows that
are in the great choir niche, with so much diligence
that it is seen that he approached closely to the
modern manner, surpassing his master Giotto
considerably in draughtsmanship and in other
respects.
After this, on a
pillar on the left-hand side of the principal chapel
of the Aracoeli, he made a S. Louis in fresco, which
is much praised, because it has in it a vivacity
never displayed up to that time even by Giotto. And
in truth Stefano had great facility in
draughtsmanship, as can be seen in our said book in
a drawing by his hand, wherein is drawn the
Transfiguration (which he painted in the cloister of
S. Spirito), in such a manner that in my judgment he
drew much better than Giotto.
Having gone, next,
to Assisi, he began in fresco a scene of the
Celestial Glory in the niche of the principal chapel
of the lower Church of S. Francesco, where the choir
is; and although he did not finish it, it is seen
from what he did that he used so great diligence
that no greater could be desired. In this work there
is seen begun a circle of saints, both male and
female, with so beautiful variety in the faces of
the young, the men of middle age, and the old, that
nothing better could be desired. And there is seen a
very sweet manner in these blessed spirits, with
such great harmony that it appears almost impossible
that it could have been done in those times by
Stefano, who indeed did do it; although there is/
nothing of the figures in this circle finished save
the heads, over which is a choir of angels who are
hovering playfully about in various attitudes,
appropriately carrying theological symbols in their
hands, and all turned towards a Christ on the Cross,
who is in the middle of this work, over the head of
a S. Francis, who is in the midst of an infinity of
saints.
Besides this, in
the border of the whole work, he made some angels,
each of whom is holding in his hand one of those
Churches that S. John the Evangelist described in
the Apocalypse; and these angels are executed with
so much grace that I am amazed how in that age there
was_to be found one who knew so much. Stefano began
this work with a view to bringing it to the fullest
perfection, and he would have succeeded, but he was
forced to leave it imperfect and to return to
Florence by some important affairs of his own.
During that time,
then, that he stayed for this purpose in Florence,
in order to lose no time he painted for the
Gianfigliazzi, by the side of the Arno, between
their houses and the Ponte alia Carraja, a little
shrine on a corner that is there, wherein he
depicted a Madonna sewing, to whom a boy dressed and
seated is handing a bird, with such diligence that
the work, small as it is, deserves to be praised no
less than do the works that he wrought on a larger
and more masterly scale.
This shrine
finished and his affairs dispatched, being called to
Pistoia by its Lords in the year 1346, he was made
to paint the Chapel of S. Jacopo, on the vaulting of
which he made a God the Father with some Apostles,
and on the walls the stories of that Saint, and in
particular when his mother, wife of Zebedee, asks
Jesus Christ to consent to place her two sons, one
on His right hand and the other on His left hand, in
the Kingdom of the Father. Close to this is the
beheading of the said Saint, a very beautiful work.
It is reputed that
Maso, called Giottino, of whom there will be mention
below, was the son of this Stefano; and although
many, by reason of the suggestiveness of the name,
hold him the son of Giotto, I, by reason of certain
records that I have seen, and of certain memoirs of
good authority written by Lorenzo Ghiberti and by
Domenico del Ghirlandajo, hold it as true that he
was rather the son of Stefano than of Giotto. ; Be
this as it may, returning to Stefano, it can be
credited to him that he did more than anyone after
Giotto to improve painting, for, besides being more
varied in invention, he was also more harmonious,
more mellow, and better blended in coloring than all
the others; and above all he had no peer in
diligence. And as for those foreshortenings that he
made, although, as I have said, he showed a faulty
manner in them by reason of the difficulty of making
them, none the less he who is the pioneer in the
difficulties of any exercise deserves a much greater
name than those who follow with a somewhat more
ordered and regular manner. Truly great, therefore,
is the debt that should be acknowledged to Stefano,
because he who walks in darkness and gives heart to
others, by showing them the way, brings it about
that its difficult steps are made easy, so that with
lapse of time men leave the false road and attain to
the desired goal. At Perugia, too, in the Church of
S. Domenico, he began in fresco the Chapel of S.
Caterina, which remained unfinished.
There lived about
the same time as Stefano a man of passing good
repute, Ugolino, painter of Siena, very much his
friend, who painted many panels and chapels
throughout all Italy, although he held ever in great
part to the Greek manner, as one who, grown old
therein, had wished by reason of a certain obstinacy
in himself to hold rather to the manner of Cimabue
than to that of Giotto, which was so greatly
revered. By the hand of Ugolino, then, is the panel
of the high altar of S. Croce, on a ground all of
gold, and also a panel which stood many years on the
high altar of S. Maria Novella and is today in the
Chapterhouse, where the Spanish nation every year
holds most solemn festival on the day of S. James,
with other offices and funeral ceremonies of its
own. Besides these, he wrought many other works with
good skill, without departing, however, from the
manner of his master. The same man made, on a brick
pier in the Loggia that Lapo had built on the Piazza
d' Orsanmichele, that Madonna which worked so many
miracles, not many years later, that the Loggia was
for a long time full of images, and is still held in
the greatest veneration. Finally, in the Chapel of
Messer Ridolfo de' Bardi, which is in S. Croce,
where Giotto painted the life of S. Francis, he
painted a Crucifix in distemper on the altar panel,
with a Magdalene and a S. John weeping, and two
friars, one on either side. Ugolino passed away from
this life, being old, in the year 1349, and was
buried with honor in Siena, his native city.
But returning to
Stefano, of whom they say that he was also a good
architect, which is proved by what has been said
above, he died, so it is said, in the year when
there began the jubilee, 1350, at the age of
forty-nine, and was laid to rest in the tomb of his
fathers, in S. Spirito, with this epitaph: STEPHANO
FLORENTINO PICTORI, FACIUNDIS IMAGINIBUS AC
COLORANDIS FIGURIS NULLI UNQUAM INFERIORI, AFFINES
MOESTISS. POS. VIX. AN. XXXXIX.
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PIETRO LORENZETTI
(1280-1348)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
PIETRO LAURATI
[LORENZETTI], an excellent painter of Siena, proved
in his life how great is the contentment of the
truly able, who feel that their works are prized
both at home and abroad, and who see themselves
sought after by all men, for the reason that in the
course of his life he was sent for and held dear
throughout all Tuscany, having first become known
through the scenes that he painted in fresco for the
Scala, a hospital in Siena, wherein he imitated in
such wise the manner of Giotto, then spread
throughout all Tuscany, that it was believed with
great reason that he was destined, as afterwards
came to pass, to become a better master than Cimabue
and Giotto and the others had been; for the figures
that represent the Virgin ascending the steps of the
Temple, accompanied by Joachim and Anna, and
received by the priest, and then in the Marriage,
are so beautifully adorned, so well draped, and so
simply wrapped in their garments, that they show
majesty in the air of the heads, and a most
beautiful manner in their bearing. By reason of this
work, which was the first introduction into Siena of
the good method of painting, given light to the many
beautiful intellects which have flourished in that
city in every age, Pietro was invited to Monte
Oliveto di Chiusuri, where he painted a panel in
distemper that is placed today in the portico below
the church. In Florence, next, opposite to the
lefthand door of the Church of Santo Spirito, on the
corner where today there is a butcher, he painted a
shrine which, by reason of the softness of the heads
and of the sweetness that is seen in it, deserved
the highest praise from every discerning craftsman.
Going from Florence
to Pisa, he wrought in the Campo Santo, on the wall
that is beside the principal door, all the lives of
the Holy Fathers, with expressions so lively and
attitudes so beautiful that he equaled Giotto and
gained thereby very great praise, having expressed
in certain heads, both with drawing and with color,
all that vivacity that the manner of those times was
able to show. From Pisa he went to Pistoia, where he
made a Madonna with some angels round her, very well
grouped, on a panel in distemper, for the Church of
San Francesco; and in the predella that ran below
this panel, in certain scenes, he made certain
little figures so lively and so vivid that in those
times it was something marvelous; wherefore, since
they satisfied himself no less than others, he
thought fit to place thereon his name, with these
words: PETRUS LAURATI DE SENIS.
Pietro was
summoned, next, in the year 1355 [sic], by Messer
Guglielmo, arch priest, and by the Wardens of Works
of the Pieve of Arezzo, who were then Margarito
Boschi and others; and in that church, built long
before with better design and manner than any other
that had been made in Tuscany up to that time, and
all adorned with squared stone and with carvings, as
it has been said, by the hand of Margaritone, he
painted in fresco the apse and the whole great niche
of the chapel of the high altar, making there twelve
scenes from the life of Our Lady with figures large
as life, beginning with the expulsion of Joachim
from the Temple, up to the Nativity of Jesus Christ.
In these scenes, wrought in fresco, may be
recognized almost the same inventions (the
lineaments, the air of the heads, and the attitudes
of the figures) which had been characteristic of and
peculiar to Giotto, his master. And although all
this works is beautiful, what he painted on the
vaulting of this niche is without doubt better than
all the rest, for in representing the Madonna
ascending into Heaven, besides making the Apostles
each four braccia high, wherein he showed greatness
of spirit and was the first to try to give grandness
to the manner, he gave so beautiful an air to the
heads and so great loveliness to the vestments that
in those times nothing more could have been desired.
Likewise, in the
faces of a choir of angels who are flying in the air
round the Madonna, dancing with graceful movements,
and appearing to sing, he painted a gladness truly
angelic and divine, above all because he made the
angels sounding diverse instruments, with their eyes
all fixed and intent on another choir of angels,
who, supported by a cloud in the form of an almond,
are bearing the Madonna to Heaven, with beautiful
attitudes and all surrounded by rainbows. This work,
seeing that it rightly gave pleasure, was the reason
that he was commissioned to make in tempera the the
panel for the high altar of the aforesaid Pieve;
wherein, in five parts, with figures as far as the
knees and large as life, he made Our Lady with the
Child in her arms, and St. John the Baptist and St.
Matthew on the one side, and on the other the
Evangelist and St. Donatus, with many little figures
in the predella and in the border of the panel
above, all truly beautiful and executed in very good
manner.
This panel, after I
had rebuilt the high altar of the aforesaid Pieve
completely anew, at my own expense and with my own
hand, was set up over the altar of San Cristofano at
the foot of the church. Nor do I wish to grudge the
labor of saying in this place, with this occasion
and not wide of the subject, that I, moved by
Christian piety and by the affection that I bear
towards this venerable and ancient collegiate
church, and for the reason that in it, in my
earliest childhood, I learnt my first lessons, and
that it contains the remains of my fathers: moved, I
say, by these reasons, and by it appearing to me
that it was wellnigh deserted, I have restored it in
a manner that it can be said that it has returned
from death to life; for besides changing it from a
dark to a well-lit church by increasing the windows
that were there before and by making others, I have
also removed the choir, which, being in front, used
to occupy a great part of the church, and to the
great satisfaction of those reverend canons I have
placed it behind the high altar.
This new altar,
standing by itself, has on the panel in front a
Christ calling Peter and Andrew from their nets, and
on the side towards the choir it has, on another
panel, St. George slaying the Dragon. On the sides
are four pictures, and in each of these are two
saints as large as life. Then above, and below in
the predella, there is an infinity of other figures,
which, for brevityUs sake, are not enumerated. The
ornamental frame of this altar is thirteen braccia
high, and the predella is two braccia high. And
because within it is hollow, and one ascends to it
by a staircase through an iron wicket very
conveniently arranged, there are preserved in t many
venerable relics, which can be seen from without
through two gratings that are in the front part; and
among others there is the head of St. Donatus,
Bishop and Protector of that city, and in a coffer
of variegated marble, three braccia long, which I
have had restored, are the bones of four Saints. And
the predella of the altar, which surrounds it all
right round in due proportion, has in front of it
the tabernacle, or rather ciborium, of the
Sacrament, made of carved wood and all gilt, about
three braccia high; which tabernacle is quite round
and can be seen as well from the side of the choir
as from in front. And because I have spared no labor
and no expense, considering myself bound to act thus
in honor of God, this work, in my judgment, has in
all those ornaments of gold, of carvings, of
paintings, of marbles, of travertines, of variegated
marbles, of porphyries, and of other stones, the
best that could be got together by me in that place.
But returning now
to Pietro Laurati; that panel finished whereof there
has been talk above, he wrought in San Pietro in
Rome many works which were afterwards destroyed in
making the new building of San Pietro. He also
wrought some works in Cortona and in Arezzo, besides
those that have been mentioned, and some others in
the church of Sante Fiora e Lucilla, a monastery of
Black Friars, and in particular, in a chapel, a St.
Thomas who is putting his hand on the wound in the
breast of Christ.
A disciple of
Pietro was Bartolommeo Bolognini of Siena, who
wrought many panels in Siena and other places in
Italy, and in Florence there is one by his hand on
the altar of the Chapel of San Silvestro in Santa
Croce. The pictures of these men date about the year
of our salvation 1350; and in my book, so many times
cited, there is seen a drawing by the hand of
Pietro, wherein a shoemaker who is sewing, with a
simple but very natural lineaments, shows very great
expression and the characteristic manner of Pietro,
the portrait of whom, by the hand of Bartolommeo
Bologhini, was in a panel in Siena, when I copied it
from the original in the manner that is seen above.
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ANDREA PISANO
(active circa 1290-1349)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
THE ART OF PAINTING
never flourished at any time without the sculptors
also pursuing their exercise with excellence, and to
this the works of all ages bear witness for the
close observer, because these two arts are truly
sisters, born at one and the same time, and fostered
and governed by one and the same soul. This is seen
in Andrea Pisano, who, practicing sculpture in the
time of Giotto, made so great improvement in this
art, that both in practice and in theory he was
esteemed the greatest man that the Tuscans had had
up to his times in this profession, and above all in
casting in bronze. Wherefore his works were honored
and rewarded in such a manner by all who knew him,
and above all by the Florentines, that it was no
hardship to him to change country, relatives,
property and friends. He received much assistance
from the difficulties experienced in sculpture by
the masters who had lived before him, whose
sculptures were so uncouth and worthless that
whosoever saw them in comparison with those of this
man judged the last a miracle. And that these early
works were rude, witness is borne, as it has been
said elsewhere, by some that are over the principal
door of San Paolo in Florence and some in stone that
are in the Church of Ognissanti, which are so made
that they move those who view them rather to
laughter than to any marvel or pleasure. And it is
certain that the art of sculpture can recover itself
much better, in the event of the essence of statuary
being lost (since men have the living and the
natural model, which is wholly rounded, as that art
requires), than can the art of painting; it being
not so easy and simple to recover the beautiful
outlines and the good manner, in order to bring the
art to the light, for these are the elements that
produce majesty, beauty, grace, and adornment in the
works that the painters make.
In one respect
fortune was favorable to the labors of Andrea,
because there had been brought to Pisa, as it has
been said elsewhere, by means of the many victories
that the Pisans had at sea, many antiquities and
sarcophagi that are still round the Duomo and the
Camposanto, and these brought him such great
assistance and gave him such great light as could
not be obtained by Giotto, for the reason that the
ancient paintings had not been preserved as much as
the sculptures. And although statues are often
destroyed by fires and by the ruin and fury of war,
and buried or transported to diverse places,
nevertheless it is easy for the experienced to
recognize the difference in the manner of all
countries; as, for example, the Egyptian is slender
and lengthy in its figures, the Greek is scientific
and shows much study in the nudes, while the heads
have almost all the same expression, ad the most
ancient Tuscan is labored in the hair and somewhat
uncouth. That of the Romans (I call Romans, for the
most part, those who, after the subjugation of
Greece, betook themselves to Rome, whither all that
there was of the good and of the beautiful i the
world was carried)--that, I say, is so beautiful, by
reason of the expressions, the attitudes, and the
movements both of the nude and of the draped
figures, that it may be said that they wrested the
beautiful from all the other provinces and moulded
it into one single manner, to the end that it might
be, as it is, the best--nay, the most divine of all.
All these beautiful
manners and arts being spent in the time of Andrea,
that alone was in use which had been brought by the
Goths and by the uncivilized Greeks into Tuscany.
Wherefore he, having studied the new method of
design of Giotto and those few antiquities that were
known to him, refined in great part the grossness of
so miserable a manner with his judgment, in such
wise that he began to work better and to give much
greater beauty to statuary than any other had yet
done in that art up to his times. Therefore, his
genius and his good skill and dexterity becoming
know, he was assisted by many n his country, and
while still young he was commissioned to make for
Santa Maria a Ponte some little figures in marble,
which brought him so good a name that he was sought
out with great insistence to come to work in
Florence for the Office of Works of Santa Maria del
Fiore, which, after a beginning had been made with
the facade containing the three doors, was suffering
from a dearth of masters to make the scenes that
Giotto had designed for the beginning of the said
fabric.
Andrea, then,
betook himself to Florence for the service of the
said Office of Works. And because the Florentines
desired at that time to gain the friendship and love
of Pope Boniface VIII, who was then Supreme Pontiff
of the Church of God, they wished that, before
anything else, Andrea should make a portrait in
marble of the said Pontiff, from the life.
Wherefore, putting his hand to this work, he did not
rest until he had finished the figure of the Pope,
with a St. Peter and a St. Paul who are one on
either side of him; which three figures were placed
in the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore, where they
still are. Andrea then made certain little figures
of prophets for the middle door of the said church,
in some shrines or rather niches, from which it is
seen that he had brought great betterment to the
art, and that he was in advance both in excellence
and in design, of all those who had worked up to
then on the said fabric. Wherefore it was resolved
that all the works of importance should be given to
him to do, and not to others; and so, no long time
after, he was commissioned to make the four statues
of the principal Doctors of the Church, St. Jerome,
St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory. And
these being finished and acquiring for him favor and
fame with the Wardens of Works--nay, with the whole
city--he was commissioned to make two other figures
in marble of the same size, which were St. Stephen
and St. Laurence, now standing in the said facade of
Santa Maria del Fiore, at the outermost corners.
By the hand of
Andrea, likewise, is the Madonna in marble, three
braccia and a half high, with the Child in her arms,
which stands on the altar of the little Church of
the Company of the Misericordia, on the Piazza di
San Giovanni in Florence; which was a work much
praised in those times, and above all because he
accompanied it with two angels, one on either side,
each two braccia and a half high. Round this work
there has been made in our own day a frame of wood,
very well wrought by Maestro Antonio, called Il
Carota; and below, a predella full of most beautiful
figures colored in oil by Ridolfo, son of Domenico
Ghirlandaio. In like manner, that half-length
Madonna in marble that is over the side door of the
same Misericordia, in the facade of the Cialdonai,
is by the hand of Andrea, and it was much praised,
because he imitated therein the good ancient manner,
contrary to his wont, which was ever far distant
from it, as some drawings testify that are in our
book, wrought by his hand, wherein are drawn all the
stories of the Apocalypse.
Now, seeing that
Andrea had applied himself in his youth to the study
of architecture, there came occasion for him to be
employed in this by the Commune of Florence; for
Arnolfo being dead and Giotto absent, he was
commissioned to make the design of the Castle of
Scarperia, which is in the Mugello, at the foot of
the mountains. Some say, although I would not indeed
vouch for it as true, that Andrea stayed a year in
Venice,a and there wrought, in sculpture, some
little figures in marble that are in the facade of
San Marco, and that at the time of Messer Piero
Gradenigo, Doge of that Republic, he made the design
of the Arsenal; but seeing that I know nothing about
it save that which I find to have been written by
some without authority, I leave each one to think in
his own way about this matter. Andrea having
returned from Venice to Florence, the city, fearful
of the coming of the Emperor, caused a part of the
walls to be raised with lime post-haste to the
height of eight braccia, employing in this Andrea,
in that portion that is between San Gallo and the
Porta al Prato; and in other places he made
bastions, stockades, and other ramparts of earth and
of wood, very strong.
Now because, three
years before, he had shown himself to his own great
credit to be an able man in the casting of bronze,
having sent to the Pope in Avignon, by means of
Giotto, his very great friend, who was then staying
at that Court, a very beautiful cross cast in
bronze, he was commissioned to complete in bronze
one of the doors of the Church of San Giovanni, for
which Giotto had already made a very beautiful
design, this was given o him, I say, to complete, by
reason of his having been judged, among so many who
had worked up to then, the most able, the most
practiced and the most judicious master not only of
Tuscany but of all Italy. Wherefore, putting his
hand to this, with a mind determined not to consent
to spare either time, or labor, or diligence in
executing a work of so great importance, fortune was
so propitious to him in the casting, for those times
when the secrets were not known that are known
today, that within the space of twenty-two years he
brought it to that perfection which is seen; and
what is more, he also made during that same time not
only the shrine for he high altar of San Giovanni,
with two angels, one on either side of it, that were
held something very beautiful, but also, after the
design of Giotto, those little figures in marble
that act as adornment for the door of the Campanile
of Santa Maria del Fiore, and round the same
Campanile, in certain oval spaces, the seven
planets, the seven virtues, and the seven works of
mercy, little figures in half-relief that were then
much praised.
He also made during
the same time the three figures, each four braccia
high, that were set up in the niches of the said
Campanile, beneath the windows that face the spot
where the Orphans now are--that is, towards the
south; which figures were thought at that time more
than passing good. But to return to where I left
off: I say that in the said bronze door are little
scenes in low relief of the life of St. John the
Baptist, that is, from his birth up to his
death,wrought happily and with much diligence. And
although it seems to many that in these scenes there
do not appear that beautiful design and that great
art which are now put into figures, yet Andrea
deserves nothing but the greatest praise, in that he
was the first to put his hand to the complete
execution of such a work, which afterwards enabled
the others who lived after him to make whatever of
the beautiful, of the difficult and of the good is
to be seen at the present day in the other two doors
and in the external ornaments. This work was placed
in the middle door of that church, and stood there
until the time when Lorenzo Ghiberti made that one
which is there at the present day; for then it was
removed and placed opposite the Misericordia, where
it still stands. I will not forbear to say that
Andrea was assisted in making this door by Nino, his
son, who was afterwards a much better master than
his father had been, and that it was completely
finished in the year 1339, that is, not only made
smooth and polished all over, but also gilded by
fire; and it is believed that it was cast in metal
by some Venetian masters, very expert in the
founding of metals, and of this there is found
record in the books of the Guild of the Merchants of
Calimara, Wardens of the Works of San Giovanni.
While the said door
was making Andrea made not only the other works
aforesaid but also many others, and in particular
the model of the Church of San Giovanni in Pistoia,
which was founded in the year 1337. In that same
year, on January 25, in excavating the foundations
of this church, there was found the body of the
Blessed Atto, once Bishop of that city, who had been
buried in that place one hundred and thirty-seven
years. The architecture, then, of this church, which
is round, was passing good for those times. In the
principal church of the said city of Pistoia there
is also a tomb of marble by the hand of Andrea, with
the body of the sarcophagus full of little figures,
and some larger figures above; in which tomb is laid
to rest the body of Messer Cino d'Anibolgi, Doctor
of Laws, and a very famous scholar in his time, as
Messer Francesco Petrarca testifies in that sonnet:
"Piangete, donne, e con voi pianga Amore"; and also
in the fourth chapter of the Triumph of Love, where
he says: "Ecco Cino da Pistoia, Guitton d'Arezzo, /
Che di non esser primo par ch'ira aggia." In that
tomb there is seen the portrait of Messer Cino
himself in marble, by the hand of Andrea; he is
teaching a number of his scholars, who are round
him, with an attitude and manner so beautiful that,
although today it might not be prized, in those days
it must have been a marvelous thing.
Andrea was also
made use of in matters of architecture by Gualtieri,
Duke of Athens and Tyrant of the Florentines, who
made him enlarge the square, and caused him, in
order to safeguard himself in his palace, to secure
all the lower windows on the first floor (where
today is the Sala del Dugento) with iron bars,
square and very strong. The said Duke also added,
opposite San Pietro Scheraggio, the walls of rustic
work that are beside the palace, in order to enlarge
it; and in the thickness of the wall he made a
secret staircase, in order to ascend and descend
unseen. And at the foot of the said wall of rustic
work he made a great door which serves today for the
Customs house, and above that his arms, and all with
the design and counsel of Andrea; and although these
arms were chiseled out by the Council of Twelve,
which took paints to efface every memorial of that
Duke, there remained none the less in the square
shield the form of the lion rampant with two tails,
as anyone can see who examines it with diligence.
For the same Duke Andrea built many towers round the
walls of the city, and he not only made a
magnificent beginning for the Porta a San Friano and
brought it to the completion that is seen, but also
made the walls for the vestibules of all the gates
of the city, and the lesser gates for the
convenience of the people. And because the Duke had
it in his mind to make a fortress on the Costa di
San Giorgio, Andrea made the model for it, which
afterwards was not used, for the reason that the
work was never given a beginning, the Duke having
been driven out in the year 1343.
Nevertheless, there
was effected in great part the desire of that Duke
to bring the palace to the form of a strong castle,
because, to that which had been made originally, he
added the great mass which is seen today, enclosing
within its circuit the houses of the Filipetri, the
tower and the houses of the Amidei and Mancini, and
those of the Bellalberti. And because, having made a
beginning with so great a fabric and with the thick
walls and barbicans, he had not all the material
that was essential equally in readiness, he held
back the construction of the Ponte Vecchio, which
was being worked on with all haste as a work of
necessity, and availed himself of the stone hewn and
the wood prepared for it, without the least scruple.
And although Taddeo Gaddi was not perhaps inferior
in the matters of architecture to Andrea Pisano, the
Duke would not avail himself of him in these
buildings, by reason of his being a Florentine, but
only of Andrea. The same Duke Gualtieri wished to
pull down Santa Cecilia, in order to see from his
palace the Strada Romana and the Mercato Nuovo, and
likewise to destroy San Pietro Scheraggio for his
own convenience, but he had not leave to do this
from the Pope; and meanwhile, as it has been said
above, he was driven out by the fury of the people.
Deservedly then did
Andrea gain, by the honorable labors of so many
years, not only very great rewards but also the
citizenship; for he was made a citizen of Florence
by the Signoria, and was given offices and
magistracies in the city, and his works were
esteemed both while he lived and after his death,
there being found no one who could surpass him in
working, until there came Niccolo Aretino, Jacopo
della Quercia of Siena, Donatello, Filippo di Ser
Brunellesco, and Lorenzo Ghiberti, who executed the
sculptures and other works that they made in such a
manner that people recognized in how great error
they had lived up to that time; for these men
recovered with their works that excellence which had
been hidden and little known by men for many and
many a year. The works of Andrea date about the year
of our salvation 1340.
Andrea left many
disciples; among others, Tommaso Pisano, architect
and sculptor, who finished the Chapel of the
Camposanto and added the finishing touch tot he
Campanile of the Duomo--namely, that final part
wherein are the bells. Tommaso is believed to have
been the son of Andrea, this being found written in
the panel of the high altar of San Francesco in
Pisa, wherein there is, carved in half-relief, a
Madonna, with other Saints made by him, and below
these his name and that of his father.
Andrea was survived
by Nino, his son, who applied himself to sculpture;
and his first work was in Santa Maria Novella, where
he finished a Madonna in Marble begun by his father,
which is within the side door, beside the Chapel of
the Minerbetti. Next, having gone to Pisa, he made
in the Spina a half-length figure in marble of Our
Lady, who is suckling an infant Jesus Christ wrapped
in certain delicate draperies. For this Madonna an
ornamental frame of marble was made in the year
1522, by the agency of Messer Jacopo Corbini, and
another frame, much greater and more beautiful, was
made then for another Madonna of marble, which was
of full length and by the hand of the same Nino; in
the attitude of which Madonna the mother is seen
handing a rose with much grace to her Son, who is
taking it in a childlike manner, so beautiful that
it may be said that Nino was beginning to rob the
stone of its hardness and to reduce it to the
softness of flesh, giving it lustre by means of the
highest polish. This figure is between a St. John
and a St. Peter in marble, the head of the latter
being portrait of Andrea from the life. Besides
this, for an altar in Santa Caterina, also in Pisa,
Nino made two statues of Marble--that is, a Madonna,
and an Angel who is bringing her the Annunciation,
wrought, like his other works, with so great a
diligence that it can be said that they are the best
that were made in those times. Below this Madonna
receiving the Annunciation Nino carved these words
on the base: ON THE FIRST DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1370; and
below the Angel: THESE FIGURES NINO MADE, THE SON OF
ANDREA PISANO. He also made other works in that city
and in Naples, whereof it is not needful to make
mention. Andrea died at the age of seventy-five, in
the year 1345, and was buried by Nino in Santa Maria
del Fiore, with this epitaph:
INGENTI ANDREAS
JACET HIC PISANUS IN URNA,
MARMORE QUI POTUIT SPIRANTES DUCERE VULTUS,
ET SIMULACRA DEUM MEDIIS IMPONERE TEMPLIS
EX AERE, EX AURO CANDENTI, ET PULCRO ELEPHANTO.
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LIFE OF OF
BUONAMICO BUFFALMACCO (active 1315-1336)
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
BUONAMICO DI
CRISTOFANO, called Buffalmacco, painter of Florence,
who was a disciple of Andrea Tafi, and celebrated
for his jokes by Messer Giovanni Boccaccio in his
Decameron, was, as is known, a very dear companion
of Bruno and Calandrino, painters equally humorous
and gay; and as may be seen in his works, scattered
throughout all Tuscany, he was a man of passing good
judgment in his art of painting. Franco Sacchetti
relates in his three hundred Stories (to begin with
the things that this man did while still youthful),
that Buffalmacco lived, while he was a lad, with
Andrea, and that this master of his used to make it
a custom, when the nights were long, to get up
before daylight to labor, and to call the lads to
night work. This being displeasing to Buonamico, who
was made to rise out of his soundest sleep, he began
to think of finding a way whereby Andrea might give
up rising so much before daylight to work, and he
succeeded; for having found thirty large
cockroaches, or rather blackbeetles, in a badly
swept cellar, with certain fine and short needles he
fixed a little taper on the back of each of the said
cockroaches, and, the hour coming when Andrea was
wont to rise, he lit the tapers and put the animals
one by one into the room of Andrea, through a chink
in the door. He, awaking at the very hour when he
was wont to call Buffalmacco, and seeing those
little lights, all full of fear began to tremble and
in great terror to recommend himself under his
breath to God, like the old gaffer that he was, and
to say his prayers or psalms; and finally, putting
his head below the bedclothes, he made no attempt
for that night to call Buffalmacco, but stayed as he
was, ever trembling with fear, up to daylight. In
the morning, then, having risen, he asked Buonamico
if he had seen, as he had himself, more than a
thousand demons; whereupon Buonamico said he had
not, because he had kept his eyes closed, and was
marvelling that he had not been called to night
work. "To night work!" said Tafo, "I have had
something else to think of besides painting, and I
am resolved at all costs to go and live in another
house." The following night, although Buonamico put
only three of them into the said room of Tafo, none
the less, what with terror of the past night and of
those few devils that he saw, he slept not a wink;
nay, no sooner was it daylight than he rushed from
the house, meaning never to return, and a great
business it was to make him change his mind.
At last Buonamico
brought the parish priest, who consoled him the best
that he could. Later, Tafo and Buonamico discoursing
over the affair, Buonamico said: "I have ever heard
tell that the greatest enemies of God are the
demons, and that in consequence they must also be
the most capital adversaries of painters; because,
besides that we make them ever most hideous, what is
worse, we never attend to aught else than to making
saints, male and female, on walls and panels, and to
making men more devout and more upright thereby, to
the despite of the demons; wherefore, these demons
having a grudge against us for this, as beings that
have greater power by night than by day they come
and play us these tricks, and worse tricks will they
play if this use of rising for night work is not
given up completely." With these and many other
speeches Buffalmacco knew so well how to manage the
business, being borne out by what Sir Priest kept
saying, that Tafo gave over rising for night work,
and the devils ceased going through the house at
night with little lights. But Tafo beginning again,
for the love of gain, not many months afterwards,
having almost forgotten all fear, to rise once more
to work in the night and to call Buffalmacco, the
cockroaches too began again to wander about;
wherefore he was forced by fear to give up the habit
entirely, being above all advised to do this by the
priest. Afterwards this affair, spreading throughout
the city, brought it about that for a time neither
Tafo nor other painters made a practice of rising to
work at night. Later, and no long time after this,
Buffalmacco, having become a passing good master,
took leave of Tafo, as the same Franco relates, and
began to work for himself; and he never lacked for
something to do.
Now, Buffalmacco
having taken a house, to work in and to live in as
well, that had next door a passing rich woolworker,
who, being a simpleton, was called Capodoca
(Goosehead), the wife of this man would rise every
night very early, precisely when Buffalmacco, having
up to then been working, would go to lie down; and
sitting at her wheel, which by misadventure she had
planted opposite to the bed of Buffalmacco, she
would spend the whole night spinning her thread;
wherefore Buonamico, being able to get scarce a wink
of sleep, began to think and think how he could
remedy this nuisance. Nor was it long before he
noticed that behind a wall of brickwork, that
divided his house from Capodoca's, was the hearth of
his uncomfortable neighbor, and that through a hole
it was possible to see what she was doing over the
fire. Having therefore thought of a new trick, he
bored a hole with a long gimlet through a cane, and,
watching for a moment when the wife of Capodoca was
not at the fire, he pushed it more than once through
the aforesaid hole in the wall and put as much salt
as he wished into his neighbour's pot; wherefore
Capodoca, returning either for dinner or for supper,
more often than not could not eat or even taste
either broth or meat, so bitter was everything
through the great quantity of salt. For once or
twice he had patience and only made a little noise
about it; but after he saw that words were not
enough, he gave blows many a time for this to the
poor woman, who was in despair, it appearing to her
that she was more than careful in salting her
cooking. She, one time among others that her husband
was beating her for this, began to try to excuse
herself, wherefore Capodoca, falling into even
greater rage, set himself to thrash her again in a
manner that the woman screamed with all her might,
and the whole neighborhood ran up at the noise; and
among others there came up Buffalmacco, who, having
heard of what Capodoca was accusing his wife and in
what way she was excusing herself, said to Capodoca:
"I' faith, comrade, this calls for a little reason;
thou dost complain that the pot, morning and
evening, is too much salted, and I marvel that this
good woman of thine can do anything well. I, for my
part, know not how, by day, she keeps on her feet,
considering that the whole night she sits up over
that wheel of hers, and sleeps not, to my belief, an
hour. Make her give up this rising at midnight, and
them wilt see that, having her fill of sleep, she
will have her wits about her by day and will not
fall into such blunders."
Then, turning to
the other neighbors, he convinced them so well of
the grave import of the matter, that they all said
to Capodoca that Buonamico was speaking the truth
and that it must be done as he advised. He,
therefore, believing that it was so, commanded her
not to rise in the night, and the pot was then
reasonably salted, save when perchance the woman on
occasion rose early, for then Buffalmacco would
return to his remedy, which finally brought it about
that Capodoca made her give it up completely.
Buffalmacco, then, among the first works that he
made, painted with his own hand the whole church of
the Convent of the Nuns of Faenza, which stood in
Florence on the site of the present Cittadella del
Prato \; and among other scenes that he made there
from the life of Christ, in all which he acquitted
himself very well, he made the Massacre that Herod
ordained of the Innocents, wherein he expressed very
vividly the emotions both of the murderers and of
the other figures ; for in some nurses and mothers
who are snatching the infants from the hands of the
murderers and are seeking all the assistance that
they can from their hands, their nails, their teeth,
and every movement of the body, there is shown on
the surface a heart no less full of rage and fury
than of woe.
Of this work, that
convent being today in ruins, there is to be seen
nothing but a colored sketch in our book of drawings
by diverse masters, wherein there is this scene
drawn by the hand of Buonamico. himself. In the
doing of this work for the aforesaid Nuns of
Faenza,. seeing that Buffalmacco was a person very
eccentric and careless both in dress and in manner
of life, it came to pass, since he did not always
wear his cap and his mantle, as in those times it
was the custom to do, that the nuns, seeing him once
through the screen that he had caused to be made,
began to say to the steward that it did not please
them to see him. in that guise, in his jerkin;
however, appeased by him, they stayed for a little
without saying more. But at last, seeing him ever in
the same guise, and doubting whether he was not some
knavish boy for grinding colors, they had him told
by the Abbess that they would have liked to see the
master at work, and not always him. To which
Buonamico answered, like the good fellow that he
was, that as soon as the master was there, he would
let them know; taking notice, none the less, of the
little confidence that they had in him. Taking a
stool, therefore, and placing another above it, he
put on top of all a pitcher, or rather a water jar,
and on the mouth of that he put a cap, hanging over
the handle, and then he covered the rest of the jar
with a burgher's mantle, and finally, putting a
brush in suitable fashion into the spout through
which the water is poured, he went off. The nuns,
returning to see the work through an opening where
the cloth had slipped, saw the supposititious master
in full canonicals; wherefore, believing that he was
working might and main and was by way of doing
different work from that which the untidy knave was
doing, they left it at that for some days, without
thinking more about it.
Finally, having
grown desirous to see what beautiful work the master
had done, fifteen days having passed, during which
space of time Buonamico had never come near the
place, one night, thinking that the master was not
there, they went to see his paintings, and remained
all confused and blushing by reason of one bolder
than the rest discovering the solemn master, who in
fifteen days had done not one stroke of work. Then,
recognizing that he had served them as they merited
and that the works that he had made were worthy of
nothing but praise, they bade the steward recall
Buonamico, who, with the greatest laughter and
delight, returned to the work, having given them to
know what difference there is between men and
pitchers, and that it is not always by their clothes
that the works of men should be judged. In a few
days, then, he finished a scene wherewith they were
much contented, it appearing to them to be in every
way satisfactory, except that the figures appeared
to them rather wan and pallid than otherwise in the
flesh-tints. Buonamico, hearing this, and having
learnt that the Abbess had some Vernaccia, the best
in Florence, which was used for the holy office of
the Mass, said to them that in order to remedy this
defect nothing else could be done but to temper the
colours with some good Vernaccia; because, touching
the cheeks and the rest of the flesh on the figures
with colors thus tempered, they would become rosy
and colored in most lifelike fashion. Hearing this,
the good sisters, who believed it all, kept him ever
afterwards furnished with the best Vernaccia, as
long as the work lasted; and he, rejoicing in it,
from that time onwards made the figures fresher and
more highly colored with his ordinary colors!
This work finished,
he painted some stories of S. James in the Abbey of
Settimo, in the chapel that is in the cloister, and
dedicated to that Saint, on the vaulting of which he
made the four Patriarchs and the four Evangelists,
among whom S. Luke is doing a striking action in
blowing very naturally on his pen, in order that it
may yield its ink. Next, in the scenes on the walls,
which are five, there are seen beautiful attitudes
in the figures, and the whole work is executed with
invention and judgment. And because Buonamico was
wont, in order to make his flesh color better, as is
seen in this work, to make a ground of purple, which
in time produces a salt that becomes corroded and
eats away the white and other colors, it is no
marvel if this work is spoilt and eaten away,
whereas many others that were made long before have
been very well preserved. And I, who thought
formerly that these pictures had received injury
from the damp, have since proved by experience,
studying other works of the same man, that it is not
from the damp but from this particular use of
Buffalmacco's that they have become spoilt so
completely that there is not seen in them either
design or anything else, and that where the flesh
colors were there has remained nothing else but the
purple. This method of working should be used by no
one who is anxious that his pictures should have
long life.
Buonamico wrought,
after that which has been described above, two
panels in distemper for the Monks of the Certosa of
Florence, whereof one is where the books of chants
are kept for the use of the choir, and the other
below in the old chapels. He painted in fresco the
Chapel of the Giochi and Bastari in the Badia of
Florence, beside the principal chapel; which chapel,
although afterwards it was conceded to the family of
the Boscoli, retains the said pictures of
Buffalmacco up to our own day. In these he made the
Passion of Christ, with effects ingenious and
beautiful, showing very great humility and sweetness
in Christ, who is washing the feet of His Disciples,
and ferocity and cruelty in the Jews, who are
leading Him to Herod. But he showed talent and
facility more particularly in a Filate, whom he
painted in prison, and in Judas hanging from a tree;
wherefore it is easy to believe what is told about
this gay painter namely, that when he thought fit to
use diligence and to take pains, which rarely came
to pass, he was not inferior to any painter
whatsoever of his times. And to show that this is
true, the works injresco that he made in Ognissanti,
where today there is the cemetery, were wrought with
so much diligence and with so many precautions, that
the water which has rained over them for so many
years has not been able to spoil them or to prevent
their excellence from being recognized, and that
they have been preserved very well, because they
were wrought purely on the fresh plaster. On the
walls, then, are the Nativity of Jesus Christ and
the Adoration of the Magi that is, over the tomb of
the Aliotti. After this work Buonamico, having gone
to Bologna, wrought some scenes in fresco in S.
Petronio, in the Chapel of the Bolognini that is, on
the vaulting; but by reason of some accident, I know
not what, supervening, he did not finish them.
It is said that in
the year 1302 he was summoned to Assisi, and that in
the Church of S. Francesco, in the Chapel of S.
Caterina, he painted all the stories of her life in
fresco, which have been very well preserved; and
there are therein some figures that are worthy to be
praised. This chapel finished, on his passing
through Arezzo, Bishop Guido, by reason of having
heard that Buonamico was a gay fellow and an able
painter, desired him to stop in that city and paint
for him, in the Vescovado, the chapel where baptisms
are now held. Buonamico, having put his hand to the
work, had already done a good part of it when there
befell him the strangest experience in the world,
which was, according to what Franco Sacchetti
relates, as follows. The Bishop had an ape, the
drollest and the most mischievous that there had
ever been. This animal, standing once on the
scaffolding to watch Buonamico at work, had given
attention to everything, and had never taken his
eyes off him when he was mixing the colors, handling
the flasks, beating the eggs for making the
distempers, and in short when he was doing anything
else whatsoever
Now, Buonamico
having left off working one Saturday evening, on the
Sunday morning this ape, notwithstanding that he
had, fastened to his feet, a great block of wood
which the Bishop made him carry in order that thus
he might not be able to leap wherever he liked,
climbed on to the scaffolding whereon Buonamico was
used to stand to work, in spite of the very great
weight of the block of wood; and there, seizing the
flasks with his hands, pouring them one into another
and making six mixtures, and beating up whatever
eggs there were, he began to daub over with the
brushes all the figures there, and, persevering in
this performance, did not cease until he had
repainted everything with his own hand; and this
done, he again made a mixture of all the colors that
were left him, although they were but few, and,
getting down from the scaffolding, went off. Monday
morning having come, Buonamico returned to his work,
where, seeing the figures spoilt, the flasks all
mixed up, and everything upside down, he stood all
in marvel and confusion. Then, having pondered much
in his own mind, he concluded finally that some
Aretine had done this, through envy or through some
other reason; wherefore, having gone to the Bishop,
he told him how the matter stood and what he
suspected, whereat the Bishop became very much
disturbed, but, consoling Buonamico, desired him to
put his hand again to the work and to repaint all
that was spoilt. And because the Bishop had put
faith in his words, which had something of the
probable, he gave him six of his men-at-arms, who
should stand in hiding with halberds while he was
not at work, and, if anyone came, should cut him to
pieces without mercy.
The figures, then,
having been painted over again, one day that the
soldiers were in hiding, lo and behold! they hear a
certain rumbling through the church, and a little
while after the ape climbing on to the scaffolding;
and in the twinkling of an eye, the mixtures made,
they see the new master set himself to work over the
saints of Buonamico. Calling him, therefore, and
showing him the culprit, and standing with him to
watch the beast at his work, they were all like to
burst with laughter; and Buonamico in particular,
for all that he was vexed thereby, could not keep
from laughing till the tears came. Finally,
dismissing the soldiers who had mounted guard with
their halberds, he went off to the Bishop and said
to him: " My lord, you wish the painting to be done
in one fashion, and your ape wishes it done in
another." Then, relating the affair, he added:
"There was no need for you to send for painters from
elsewhere, if you had the true master at home. But
he, perhaps, knew not so well how to make the
mixtures; now that he knows, let him do it by
himself, since I am no more good here. And his
talent being revealed, I am content that there
should be nothing given to me for my work save leave
to return to Florence." The Bishop, hearing the
affair, although it vexed him, could not keep from
laughing, and above all as he thought how an animal
had played a trick on him who was the greatest
trickster in the world. However, after they had
talked and laughed their fill over this strange
incident, the Bishop persuaded Buonamico to resume
the work for the third time, and he finished it. And
the ape, as punishment and penance for the crime
committed, was shut up in a great wooden cage and
kept where Buonamico was working, until this work
was entirely finished; and no one could imagine the
contortions which that creature kept making in this
cage with his face, his body, and his hands, seeing
others working and himself unable to take part.
The work in this
chapel finished, the Bishop, either in jest or for
some other reason known only to himself, commanded
that Buffalmacco should paint him, on one wall of
his palace, an eagle on the back of a lion which it
had killed. The crafty painter, having promised to
do all that the Bishop wished, had a good
scaffolding made of planks, saying that he refused
to be seen painting such a thing. This made,
shutting himself up alone inside it, he painted,
contrary to what the Bishop wished, a lion that was
tearing to pieces an eagle ; and, the work finished,
he sought leave from the Bishop to go to Florence in
order to get some colors that he was wanting. And
so, locking the scaffolding with a key, he went off
to Florence, in mind to return no more to the
Bishop, who, seeing the business dragging on and the
painter not returning, had the scaffolding opened,
and discovered that Buonamico had been too much for
him. Wherefore, moved by very great displeasure, he
had him banished on pain of death, and Buonamico,
hearing this, sent to tell him to do his worst;
whereupon the Bishop threatened him to a fearful
tune. But finally, remembering that he had begun the
playing of tricks and that it served him right to be
tricked himself, he pardoned Buonamico for his
insult and rewarded him liberally for his labors.
Nay, what is more, summoning him again no long time
after to Arezzo, he caused him to make many works in
the Duomo Vecchio, which are now destroyed, treating
him ever as his familiar friend and very faithful
servant. The same man painted the niche of the
principal chapel in the Church of S. Giustino, also
in Arezzo.
Some writers tell
that Buonamico being in Florence and often
frequenting the shop of Maso del Saggio with his
friends and companions, he was there, with many
others, arranging the festival which the men of the
Borgo San Friano held on May 1 in certain boats on
the Arno; and that when the Ponte alia Carraia,
which was then of wood, collapsed by reason of the
too great weight of the people who had flocked to
that spectacle, he did not die there, as many others
did, because, precisely at the moment when the
bridge collapsed on to the structure that was
representing Hell on the boats in the Arno, he had
gone to get some things that were wanting for the
festival.
Being summoned to
Pisa no long time after these events, Buonamico
painted many stories of the Old Testament in the
Abbey of S. Paolo a Ripa d'Arno, then belonging to
the Monks of Vallombrosa, in both tran- septs of the
church, on three sides, and from the roof down to
the floor, beginning with the Creation of man, and
continuing up to the completion of the Tower of
Nimrod. In this work, although it is today for the
greater part spoilt, there are seen vivacity in the
figures, good skill and loveliness in the coloring,
and signs to show that the hand of Buonamico could
very well express the conceptions of his mind,
although he had little power of design. On the wall
of the right transept which is opposite to that
wherein is the side door, in some stories of S.
Anastasia, there are seen certain ancient costumes
and headdresses, very charming and beautiful, in
some women who are painted there with graceful
manner. Not less beautiful, also, are those figures
that are in a boat, with well-conceived attitudes,
among which is the portrait of Pope Alexander IV,
which Buonamico had, so it is said, from Tafo his
master, who had portrayed that Pontiff in mosaic in
S. Pietro. In the last scene, likewise, wherein is
the martyrdom of that Saint and of others, Buonamico
expressed very well in the faces the fear of death
and the grief and terror of those who are standing
to see her tortured and put to death, while she
stands bound to a tree and over the fire.
A companion of
Buonamico in this work was Bruno di Giovanni, a
painter, who is thus called in the old book of the
Company; which Bruno (also celebrated as a gay
fellow by Boccaccio), the said scenes on the walls
being finished, painted the altar of S. Ursula with
the company of virgins in the same church. He made
in one hand of the said Saint a standard with the
arms of Pisa, which are a white cross on a field of
red, and he made her offering the other hand to a
woman who, rising between two mountains and touching
the sea with one of her feet, is stretching both her
hands to her in the act of supplication ; which
woman, representing Pisa, and having on her head a
crown of gold and over her shoulders a mantle
covered with circlets and eagles, is seeking
assistance from that Saint, being much in travail in
the sea. Now, for the reason that in painting this
work Bruno was bewailing that the figures which he
was making therein had not the same life as those of
Buonamico, the latter, in his waggish way, in order
to teach him to make his figures not merely
vivacious but actually speaking, made him paint some
words issuing from the mouth of that woman who is
supplicating the Saint, and the answer of the Saint
to her, a device that Buonamico had seen in the
works that had been made in the same city by
Cimabue. This expedient, even as it pleased Bruno
and the other thick-witted men of those times, in
like manner pleases certain boors today, who are
served therein by craftsmen as vulgar as themselves.
And in truth it seems extraordinary that from this
beginning there should have passed into use a device
that was employed for a jest and for no other
reason, inso- much that even a great part of the
Campo Santo, wrought by masters of repute, is full
of this rubbish.
The works of
Buonamico, then, finding much favor with the Pisans,
he was charged by the Warden of the Works of the
Campo Santo to make four scenes in fresco, from the
beginning of the world up to the construction of
Noah's Ark, and round the scenes an ornamental
border, wherein he made his own portrait from the
life namely, in a frieze, in the middle of which,
and on the corners, are some heads, among which, as
I have said, is seen his own, with a cap exactly
like the one that is seen above. And because in this
work there is a God, who is upholding with his arms
the heavens and the elements nay, the whole body of
the universe Buonamico, in order to explain his
story with verses similar to the pictures of that
age, wrote this sonnet in capital letters at the
foot, with his own hand, as may still be seen; which
sonnet, by reason of its antiquity and of the
simplicity of the language of those times, it has
seemed good to me to include in this place, although
in my opinion it is not likely to give much
pleasure, save perchance as something that bears
witness as to what was the knowledge of the men of
that century:
Voi che avisate
questa dipintura
Di Dio pietoso,
sommo creatore,
Lo qual fe' tutte
cose con amore,
Pesate, numerate ed
in misura;
In nove gradi
angelica natura,
In ello empirio
ciel pien di splendore,
Colui che non si
muove ed e motore,
Ciascuna cosa fece
buona e pura.
Levate gli occhi
del vostro intelletto,
Considerate quanto
e ordinato
Lo mondo
universale; e con affetto
Lodate lui che 1'
ha si ben create;
Pensate di passare
a tal diletto
Tra gli Angeli,
dov' e ciascun beato.
Per questo mondo si
vede la gloria,
Lo basso e il mezzo
e 1' alto in questa storia.
And to tell the
truth, it was very courageous in Buonamico to
undertake to make a God the Father five braccia
high, with the hierarchies, the heavens, the angels,
the zodiac, and all the things above, even to the
heavenly body of the moon, and then the element of
fire, the air, the earth, and finally the nether
regions ; and to fill up the two angles below he
made in one, S. Augustine, and in the other, S.
Thomas Aquinas. At the head of the same Campo Santo,
where there is now the marble tomb of Corte,
Buonamico painted the whole Passion of Christ, with
a great number of figures on foot and on horseback,
and all in varied and beautiful attitudes; and
continuing the story he made the Resurrection and
the Apparition of Christ to the Apostles, passing
well. Having finished these works and at the same
time all that he had gained ^Pisa, which was not
little, he returned to Florence as poor as he had
left it, and there he made many panels and works in
fresco, whereof there is no need to make further
record. Meanwhile there had been entrusted to Bruno,
his great friend (who had returned with him from
Pisa, where they had squandered everything), some
works in S. Maria Novella, and seeing that Bruno had
not much design or invention, Buonamico designed for
him all that he afterwards put into execution on a
wall in the said church, opposite to the pulpit and
as long as the space between column and column, and
that was the story of S. Maurice and his companions,
who were beheaded for the faith of Jesus Christ.
This work Bruno made for Guido Campese, then
Constable of the Florentines, whose portrait he had
made before he died in the year 1312; in that work
he painted him in his armour, as was the custom in
those times, and behind him he made a line of
men-at-arms, armed in ancient fashion, who make a
beautiful effect, while Guido himself is kneeling
before a Madonna who has the Child Jesus in her
arms, and is appearing to be recommended to her by
S. Dominic and S. Agnes, who are on either side of
him. Although this picture is not very beautiful,
yet, considering the design and invention of
Buonamico, it is worthy to be in part praised, and
above all by reason of the costumes, helmets, and
other armor of those times. And I have availed
myself of it in some scenes that I have made for the
Lord Duke Cosimo, wherein it was necessary to
represent men armed in ancient fashion, and other
similar things of that age; which work has greatly
pleased his most Illustrious Excellency and others
who have seen it. And from this it can be seen how
much benefit may be gained ) from the inventions and
works made by these ancients, although they I may
not be very perfect, and in what fashion profit and
advantage can// be drawn from their performances,
since they opened the way for us tto the marvels
that have been made up to our day and are being made
continually.
While Bruno was
making this work, a peasant desiring that Buonamico
should make him a S. Christopher, they came to an
agreement in Florence and arranged a contract in
this fashion, that the price should be eight florins
and that the figure should be twelve braccia high.
Buonamico, then, having gone to the church where he
was to make the S. Christopher, found that by reason
of its not being more than nine braccia either in
height or in length, he could not, either without or
within, accommodate the figure in a manner that it
might stand well; wherefore he made up his mind,
since it would not go in upright, to make it within
the church lying down. But since, even so, the whole
length would not go in, he was forced to bend it
from the knees downwards on to the wall at the head
of the church. The work finished, the peasant would
by no means pay for it; nay, he made an outcry and
said he had been cozened. The matter, therefore,
going before the Justices, it was judged, according
to the contract, that Buonamico was in the right.
In S. Giovanni fra
I'Arcore was a very beautiful Passion of Christ by
the hand of Buonamico, and among other things that
were much praised therein was a Judas hanging from a
tree, made with much judgment and beautiful manner.
An old man, likewise, who was blowing his nose, was
most natural, and the Maries, broken with weeping,
had expressions and aspects so sad, that they
deserved to be greatly praised, since that age had
not as yet much facility in the method of
representing V the emotions of the soul with the
brush. On the same wall there was a good figure in a
S. Ivo of Brittany, who had many widows and orphans
at his feet, and two angels in the sky, who were
crowning him, were made with the sweetest manner.
This edifice and the pictures together were thrown
to the ground in the year of the war of 1529.
In Cortona. also,
for Messer Aldobrandino, Bishop of that city,
Buonamico painted many works in the Vescovado, and
in particular the chapel and panel of the high
altar; but seeing that everything was thrown to the
ground in renovating the palace and the church,
there is no need to make further mention of them. In
S. Francesco, however, and in S. Margherita, in the
same city, there are still some pictures by the hand
of Buonamico. From Cortona going once more to
Assisi, Buonamico painted in fresco, in the lower
Church of S. Francesco, the whole Chapel of Cardinal
Egidio Alvaro, a Spaniard; and because he acquitted
himself very well, he was therefore liberally
rewarded by that Cardinal. Finally, Buonamico having
wrought many pictures throughout the whole March, in
returning to Florence he stopped at Perugia, and
painted there in fresco the Chapel of the Buontempi
in the Church of S. Domenico, making therein stories
of the life of S. Catherine, virgin and martyr. And
in the Church of S. Domenico Vecchio, on one wall,
he painted in fresco the scene when the same
Catherine, daughter of King Costa, making
disputation, is convincing and converting certain
philosophers to the faith of Christ; and seeing that
this scene is more beautiful than any other that
Buonamico ever made, it can be said with truth that
in this work he surpassed himself. The people of
Perugia, moved by this, according to what Franco
Sacchetti writes, commanded that he should paint S.
Ercolano, Bishop and Protector of that city, in the
square ; wherefore, having agreed about the price,
on the spot where the painting was to be done there
was made a screen of planks and matting, to the end
that the master might not be seen painting; and this
made, he put his hand to the work.
But before ten days
had passed, every passer-by asking when this picture
would be finished, as though such works were cast in
moulds, [* Proverbial expression, equivalent to our
"twinkling of an eye."] the matter disgusted
Buonamico; wherefore, having come to the end of the
work and being distracted with such importunity, he
determined within himself to take a gentle vengeance
on the impatience of these people. And this came to
pass, for, when the work was finished, before
unveiling it, he let them see it, and it was
entirely to their satisfaction; but on the people of
Perugia wishing to remove the screen at once,
Buonamico said that for two days longer they should
leave it standing, for the reason that he wished to
retouch certain parts on the dry; and so it was
done. Buonamico, then, having mounted the
scaffolding, removed the great diadem of gold that
he had given to the Saint, raised in relief with
plaster, as was the custom in those times, and made
him a crown, or rather garland, right round his
head, of roaches; and this done, one morning he
settled with his host and went off to Florence. Now,
two days having passed, the people of Perugia, not
seeing the painter going about as they had been
used, asked the host what had become of him, and,
hearing that he had returned to Florence, went at
once to remove the screen; and finding their S.
Ercolano crowned solemnly with roaches, they sent
word of it immediately to their governors. But
although these sent horsemen post-haste to look for
Buonamico, it was all in vain, seeing that he had
returned in great haste to Florence. Having
determined, then, to make a painter of their own
remove the crown of roaches and restore the diadem
to the Saint, they said all the evil that can be
imagined about Buonamico and the rest of the
Florentines.
Buonamico, back in
Florence and caring little about what the people of
Perugia might say, set to work and made many
paintings, whereof, in order not to be too long,
there is no need to make mention. (I will say only
this, that having painted in fresco at Calcinaia a
Madonna with the Child in her arms, he who had
charged him to do it, in place of paying him, gave
him words; whence Buonamico, who was not used to
being trifled with or being fooled, determined to
get his due by hook or by crook. And so, having gone
one morning to Calcinaia, he transformed the child
that he had painted in the arms of the Virgin into a
little bear, but in colors made only with water,
without size or distemper. This change being seen,
not long after, by the peasant who had given him the
work to do, almost in despair he went to find
Buonamico, praying him for the sake of Heaven to
remove the little bear and to paint another child as
before, for he was ready to make satis- faction.
This the other did amicably, being paid for both the
first and the second labour without delay; and for
restoring the whole work a wet sponge sufficed.
Finally, seeing that it would take too long were I
to wish to relate all the tricks, as well as all the
pictures, that Buonamico Buffalmacco made, and above
all when frequenting the shop of Maso del Saggio,
which was the resort of citizens and of all the gay
and mischievous spirits that there were in Florence,
I will make an end of discoursing about him.
He died at the age
of seventy-eight, and being very poor and having
done more spending than earning, by reason of being
such in character, he was supported in his illness
by the Company of the Misericordia in S. Maria
Nuova, the hospital of Florence; and then, being
dead, he was buried in the Ossa (for so they call a
cloister, or rather cemetery, of the hospital), like
the rest of the poor, in the year 1340. The works of
this man were prized while he lived, and since then,
for works of that age, they have been ever extolled.
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AMBROGIO LORENZETTI
(circa 1290-circa 1348)
PAINTER OF SIENA
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
If that debt is great, as without doubt it is, which
craftsmen of fine genius should acknowledge to
nature, much greater should that be that is due from
us to them, seeing that they, with great solicitude,
fill the cities with noble and useful buildings and
with lovely historical compositions, gaining for
themselves, for the most part, fame and riches with
their works; as did Ambrogio Lorenzetti, painter of
Siena, who showed beautiful and great invention in
grouping and placing his figures thoughtfully in
historical scenes. That this is true is proved by a
scene in the Church of the Friars Minor in Siena,
painted by him very gracefully in the cloister,
wherein there is represented in what manner a youth
becomes a friar, and how he and certain others go to
the Soldan, and are there beaten and sentenced to
the gallows and hanged on a tree, and finally
beheaded, with the addition of a terrible tempest.
In this picture, with much art and dexterity, he
counterfeited in the travailing of the figures the
turmoil of the air and the fury of the rain and of
the wind, wherefrom the modern masters have learnt
the method and the principle of this invention, by
reason of which, since it was unknown before, he
deserved infinite commendation.
Ambrogio was a
practised colorist in fresco, and he handled colors
in distemper with great dexterity and facility, as
it is still seen in the panels executed by him in
Siena for the little hospital called Mona Agnesa,
where he painted and finished a scene with new and
beautiful composition. And at the great hospital, on
one front, he made in fresco the Nativity of Our
Lady and the scene when she is going with the
virgins to the Temple. For the Friars of S.
Augustine in the same city he painted their
Chapterhouse, where the Apostles are seen
represented on the vaulting, with scrolls in their
hands whereon is written that part of the Creed
which each one of them made; and below each is a
little scene containing in painting that same
subject that is signified above by the writing. Near
this, on the main front, are three stories of S.
Catherine the martyr, who is disputing with the
tyrant in a temple, and, in the middle, the Passion
of Christ, with the Thieves on the Cross, and the
Maries below, who are supporting the Virgin Mary who
has swooned; which works were finished by him with
much grace and with beautiful manner.
In a large hall of
the Palazzo della Signoria in Siena he painted the
War of Asinalunga, and after it the Peace and its
events, wherein he fashioned a map, perfect for
those times; and in the same palace he made eight
scenes in terra-verde, highly finished. It is said
that he also sent to Volterra a panel in distemper
which was much praised in that city. And painting a
chapel in fresco and a panel in distemper at Massa,
in company with others, he gave them proof how
great, both in judgment and in genius, was his worth
in the art of painting; and in Orvieto he painted in
fresco the principal Chapel of S. Maria. After these
works, proceeding to Florence, he made a panel in S.
Procolo, and in a chapel he painted the stories of
S. Nicholas with little figures, in order to satisfy
certain of his friends, who desired to see his
method of working; and, being much practised, he
executed this work in so short a time that there
accrued to him fame and infinite repute. And this
work, on the predella of which he made his own
portrait, brought it about that in the year 1335 he
was summoned to Cortona by order of Bishop Ubertini,
then lord of that city, where he wrought certain
works in the Church of S. Margherita, built a short
time before for the Friars of S. Francis on the
summit of the hill, and in particular the half of
the vaulting and the walls, so well that, although
today they are wellnigh eaten away by time, there
are seen notwithstanding most beautiful effects in
the figures; and it is clear that he was deservedly
commended for them.
This work finished,
Ambrogio returned to Siena, where he lived honorably
the remainder of his life, not only by reason of
being an excellent master in painting, but also
because, having given attention in his youth to
letters, they were a useful and pleasant
accompaniment to him in his painting, and so great
an ornament to his whole life that they rendered him
no less popular and beloved than did his profession
of painting; wherefore he was not only intimate with
men of learning and of taste, but he was also
employed, to his great honor and advantage, in the
government of his Republic. The ways of Ambrogio
were in all respects worthy of praise, and rather
those of a gentleman and a philosopher than of a
craftsman; and what most demonstrates the wisdom of
men, he had ever a mind disposed to be content with
that which the world and time brought, wherefore he
supported with a mind temperate and calm the good
and the evil that came to him from fortune. And
truly it cannot be told to what extent courteous
ways and modesty, with the other good habits, are an
honourable accompaniment to all the arts, and in
particular to those that are derived from the
intellect and from noble and exalted talents;
wherefore every man should make himself no less
beloved with his ways than with the excellence of
his art.
Finally, at the end
of his life, Ambrogio made a panel at Monte Oliveto
di Chiusuri with great credit to himself, and a
little afterwards, being eighty-three years of age,
he passed happily and in the Christian faith to a
better life. His works date about 1340.
As it has been
said, the portrait of Ambrogio, by his own hand, is
seen in the predella of his panel in S. Procolo,
with a cap on his head. And what was his worth in
draughtsmanship is seen in our book, wherein are
some passing good drawings by his hand.
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PIETRO CAVALLINI
(1250-1344)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
FOR MANY CENTURIES
Rome had been deprived not only of fine letters and
of the glory of arms but also of all the sciences
and fine arts, when, by the will of God, there was
born Pietro Cavallini, in those times when Giotto,
having, it may be said, restored painting to life,
was holding the sovereignty among the painters in
Italy, He, then, having been a disciple of Giotto
and having worked with Giotto himself on the
Navicella in mosaic in San Pietro, was the first
who, after him, gave light to that art, and he began
to show that he had been no unworthy disciple of so
great a master when he painted, over the door of the
sacristy of the Araceli, some scenes that are today
eaten away by time, and very many works colored in
fresco throughout the whole church of Santa Maria in
Trastevere. Afterwards, working in mosaic on the
principal chapel and on the facade of the church, he
showed in the beginning of such a work, without the
help of Giotto, that he was no less able in the
execution and bringing to completion of mosaics than
he was in painting.
Making many scenes
in fresco, also, in the Church of San Grisogono, he
strove to make himself known both as the best
disciple of Giotto and as a good craftsman. In like
manner, also in Trastevere, he painted almost the
whole church of Santa Cecilia with his own hand, and
many works in the church of San Francesco appresso
Ripa. He then made the facade of mosaic in San Paolo
without Rome, and many stories of the Old Testament
for the central nave. And painting some works in
fresco in the chapterhouse of the first cloister, he
put therein so great diligence that he gained
thereby from men of judgment the name of being a
most excellent master, and was therefore so much
favored by the prelates that they commissioned him
to do the inner wall of San Pietro, between the
windows. Between these he made the four Evangelists,
wrought very well in fresco, of extraordinary size
in comparison with the figures that at that time
were customary, with a St. Peter and a St. Paul, and
a good number of figures in a ship, wherein, the
Greek manner pleasing him much, he blended it ever
with that of Giotto; and since he delighted to give
relief to his figures, it is recognized that he used
thereunto the greatest efforts that can be imagined
by man.
But the best work
he made in that city was in the said church of
Araceli on the Campidoglio, where he painted in
fresco, on the vaulting of the principal apse, the
Madonna with the Child in her arms, surrounded by a
circle of sunlight, and beneath is the Emperor
Octavian, to whom the Tiburtine Sibyl is showing
Jesus Christ, and he is adoring Him; and the figures
in this work, as it has been said in other places,
have been much better preserved than the others,
because those that are on the vaulting are less
injured by dust than those that are made on the
walls.
After these works
Pietro went to Tuscany, in order to see the works of
the other disciples of his master Giotto and those
of Giotto himself; and with this occasion he painted
many figures in San Marco in Florence, which are not
seen today, the church having been whitewashed,
except the Annunciation, which stands covered beside
the principal door of the church. In San Basilio,
also, in the Canto alla Macine, he made another
Annunciation in fresco on a wall, so like to that
which he had made before in San Marco, and to
another one that is in Florence, that some believe,
and not without probability, that they are all by
the hand of this Pietro; and in truth they could not
be more like, one to another, than they are. Among
the figures that he made in the said San Marco in
Florence was the portrait of Pope Urban V from the
life, with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul; from
which portrait Fra Giovanni da Fiesole copied that
one which is in a panel in San Domenico, also of
Fiesole; and that was no small good fortune, seeing
that the portrait which was in San Marco and many
other figures that were about the church in fresco
were covered with whitewash, as it has been said,
when that convent was taken from the monks who
occupied it before and given to the Preaching
Friars, the whole being whitewashed with little
attention and consideration.
Passing afterwards,
in return to Rome, through Assisi, not only in order
to see those buildings and those notable works made
there by his master and by some of his fellow
disciples, but also to leave something there by his
own hand, he painted in fresco in the lower Church
of San Francesco--namely, in the transept that is on
the side of the sacristy--a Crucifixion of Jesus
Christ, with men on horseback armed in various
fashions, and with many varied and extravagant
costumes of diverse foreign peoples. In the air he
made some angels, who, poised on their wings in
diverse attitudes, are in a storm of weeping; and
some pressing their hands to their breasts, others
wringing them, and others beating the palms, they
are showing that they feel the greatest grief at the
death of the Son of God; and all, from the middle
backwards, or rather from the middle downwards, melt
away into air.
In this work, well
executed in the coloring, which is fresh and
vivacious and so well contrived in the unctions of
the plaster that the work appears all made in one
day, I have found the coat of arms of Gualtieri,
Duke of Athens; but by reason of there not being
either a date or other writing there, I cannot
affirm that it was caused to be made by him. I say,
however, that besides the firm belief of everyone
that it is by the hand of Pietro, the manner could
not be more like his than it is, not to mention that
it may be believed, this painter having lived at the
time when Duke Gualtieri was in Italy, that it was
made by Pietro as well as by order of the said Duke.
At least, let everyone think as he pleases, the
work, as ancient, is worthy of nothing by praise,
and the manner, besides the public voice, shows that
it is by the hand of this man.
In the church of
Santa Maria at Orvieto, where there is the most holy
relic of the Corporal, the same Pietro wrought in
fresco certain stories of Jesus Christ and of the
Host, with much diligence; and this he did, so it is
said, for Messer Benedetto, son of Messer Buonconte
Monaldeschi and lord at that time, or rather tyrant,
of that city. Some likewise affirm that Pietro made
some sculptures, and that they were very successful,
because he had genius for whatever he set himself to
do, and that he made the Crucifix that is in the
great church of San Paolo without Rome; which
Crucifix, as it is said and may be believed, is the
one that spoke to St. Brigida in the year 1370.
By the hand of the
same man were some other works in that manner, which
were thrown to the ground when the old church of San
Pietro was pulled down in order to build the new.
Pietro was very diligent in all his works, and
sought with every effort to gain honor and to
acquire fame in the art. He was not only a good
Christian, but most devout and very much the friend
of the poor, and he was beloved by reason of his
excellence not only in his native city of Rome but
by all those who had knowledge of him or of his
works. And finally, he devoted himself at the end of
his old age to religion, leading an exemplary life,
with so much zeal that he was almost held a saint.
Wherefore there is no reason to marvel not only that
the said Crucifix by his hand spoke to the Saint, as
it has been said, but also that innumerable miracles
have been and still are wrought by a certain Madonna
by his hand, which I do not intend to call his best,
although it is very famous in all Italy and although
I know very certainly and surely, by the manner of
the painting, that it is by the hand of Pietro,
whose most praiseworthy life and piety towards God
were worthy to be imitated by all men. Nor let
anyone believe, for the reason that it is scarcely
possible and that experience continually shows this
to us, that it is possible to attain to honorable
rank without the fear and grace of God and without
goodness of life. A disciple of Pietro Cavallino was
Giovanni da Pistoia, who made some works of no great
importance in his native city.
Finally, at the age
of eighty-five, he died in Rome of a colic caught
while working in fresco, by reason of the damp and
of standing continually at this exercise. His
pictures date about the year 1364, and he was
honorably buried in San Paolo without Rome, with
this epitaph:
QUANTUM ROMANAE
PETRUS DECUS ADDIDIT URBI
PICTURA, TANTUM DAT DECUS IPSE POLO.
His portrait has never been found, for all the
diligence that has been used; it is therefore not
included.
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LIVES OF SIMONE
MARTINI (1285-1344) and LIPPO MEMMI (d. 1357)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
TRULY HAPPY can
those men be called, who are inclined by nature to
those arts that can bring to them not only honour
and very great profit, but also, what is more, fame
and a name wellnigh eternal, and happier still are
they who have from their cradles, besides such
inclination, courtesy and honest ways, which render
them very dear to all men. But happiest of all,
finally, talking of craftsmen, are they who not only
receive a love of the good from nature, and noble
ways from the same source and from education, but
also live in the time of some famous writer, from
whom, in return for a little portrait or some other
similar courtesy in the way of art, they gain on
occasion the reward of eternal honor and name, by
means of their writings; and this, among those who
practise the arts of design, should be particularly
desired and sought by the excellent painters, seeing
that their works, being on the surface and on a
ground of colour, cannot have that eternal life
which castings in bronze and works in marble give to
sculpture, or buildings to the architects.
Very great, then,
was that good fortune of Simone, to live at the time
of Messer Francesco Petrarca and to chance to find
that most amorous poet at the Court of Avignon,
desirous of having the image of Madonna Laura by the
hand of Maestro Simone, because, having received it
as beautiful as he had desired, he made memory of
him in two sonnets, whereof one begins:
Per mirar Policleto
a prova fiso
Con gli altri che
ebber f ama di quell' arte;
and the second:
Quando giunse a
Simon 1' alto concetto
Ch' a mio nome gli pose in man lo stile.
These sonnets, in
truth, together with the mention made of him in one
of his Familiar Letters, in the fifth book, which
begins: "Non sum nescius," have given more fame to
the poor life of Maestro Simone than all his own
works have ever done or ever will, seeing that they
must at some time perish, whereas the writings of so
great a man will live for eternal ages. Simone Memmi
of Siena, then, was an excellent painter, remarkable
in his own times and much esteemed at the Court of
the Pope, for the reason that after the death of
Giotto his master, whom he had followed to Rome when
he made the Navicella in mosaic and the other works,
he made a Virgin Mary in the portico of S. Pietro,
with a S. Peter and a S. Paul, near to the place
where the bronze pinecone is, on a wall between the
arches of the portico on the outer side; and in this
he counterfeited the manner of Giotto very well,
receiving, so much praise, above all because he
portrayed therein a sacristan of S. Pietro lighting
some lamps before the said figures with much
promptness, that he was summoned with very great
insistence to the Court of the Pope at Avignon,
where he wrought so many pictures, in fresco and on
panels, that he made his works correspond to the
reputation that had been borne thither. Whence,
having returned to Sjena in great credit and much
favoured on this account, he was commissioned by the
Signoria to paint in fresco, in a hall of their
Palace, a Virgin Mary with many figures round her,
which he completed with all perfection to his own
great credit and advantage. And in order to show
that he was no less able to work on panel than in
fresco, he painted in the said Palace a panel which
led to his being afterwards made to paint two of
them in the Duomo, and a Madonna with the Child in
her arms, in a very beautiful attitude, over the
door of the Office of the Works of the said Duomo.
In this picture certain angels, supporting a
standard in the air, are flying and looking down on
to some saints who are round the Madonna, and they
make a very beautiful composition and great
adornment.
This done, Simone
was brought by the General of the Augustinians to
Florence, where he painted the Chapterhouse of S.
Spirito, showing invention and admirable judgment in
the figures and the horses that he made, as is
proved in that place by the story of the Passion of
Christ, wherein everything is seen to have been made
by him with ingenuity, with discretion, and with
most beautiful grace. There are seen the Thieves on
the Cross yielding up their breath, and the soul of
the good one being carried to Heaven by the angels,
and that of the wicked one going, accompanied by
devils and all harassed, to the torments of Hell.
Simone likewise showed invention and judgment in the
attitudes and in the very bitter weeping of some
angels round the Crucifix. But what is most worthy
of consideration, above everything else, is to see
those spirits visibly cleaving the air with their
shoulders, almost whirling right round and yet
sustaining the motion of their flight. This work
would bear much stronger witness to the excellence
of Simone, if, besides the fact that time has eaten
it away, it had not been spoilt by those Fathers in
the year 1560, when they, being unable to use the
Chapterhouse, because it was in bad condition from
damp, made a vaulted roof to replace a worm-eaten
ceiling, and threw down the little that was left of
the pictures of this man. About the same time Simone
painted a Madonna and a S. Luke, with some other
Saints, on a panel in distemper, which is today in
the Chapel of the Gondi in S. Maria Novella, with
his name.
Next, Simone
painted three walls of the Chapterhouse of the said
S. Maria Novella, very happily. For the first, which
is over the door whereby one enters, he made the
life of S. Dominic; and on that which follows in the
direction of the church, he represented the
Religious Order of the same Saint fighting against
the heretics, represented by wolves, which are
attacking some sheep, which are defended by many
dogs spotted with black and white, and the wolves
are beaten back and slain. There are also certain
heretics, who, being convinced in disputation, are
tearing their books and penitently confessing
themselves, and so their souls are passing through
the gate of Paradise, wherein are many little
figures that are doing diverse things. In Heaven is
seen the glory of the Saints, and Jesus Christ ; and
in the world below remain the vain pleasures and
delights, in human figures, and above all in the
shape of women who are seated, among whom is the
Madonna Laura of Petrarca, portrayed from life and
clothed in green, with a little flame of fire
between her breast and her throat. There is also the
Church of Christ, and, as a guard for her, the Pope,
the Emperor, the Kings, the Cardinals, the Bishops,
and all the Christian Princes; and among them,
beside a Knight of Rhodes, is Messer Francesco
Petrarca, also portrayed from the life, which Simone
did in order to enhance by his works the fame of the
man' who had made him immortal. For the Universal
Church he painted the Church of S. Maria del Fiore,
not as it stands today, but as he had drawn it from
the model and design that the architect Arnolfo had
left in the Office of Works for the guidance of
those who had to continue the building after him; of
which models, by reason of the little care of the
Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, as it has
been said in another place, there would be no
memorial for us if Simone had not left it painted in
this work.
On the third wall,
which is that of the altar, he made the Passion of
Christ, who, issuing from Jerusalem with the Cross
on His shoulder, is going to Mount Calvary, followed
by a very great multitude. Arriving there, He is
seen raised on the Cross between the Thieves, with
the other circumstances that accompany this story. I
will say nothing of there being therein a good
number of horses, of the casting of lots by the
servants of the court for the garments of Christ, of
the raising of the Holy Fathers from the Limbo of
Hell, and of all the other well-conceived
inventions, which belong not so much to a master of
that age as to the most excellent of the moderns;
inasmuch as, taking up the whole walls, with very
diligent judgment he made in each wall diverse
scenes on the slope of a mountain, and did not
divide scene from scene with ornamental borders, as
the old painters were wont to do, and many moderns,
who put the earth over the sky four or five times,
as it is seen in the principal chapel of this same
church, and in the Campo Santo of Pisa, where,
painting many works in fresco, he was forced against
his will to make such divisions, for the other
painters who had worked in that place, such as
Giotto and Buonamico his master, had begun to make
their scenes with this bad arrangement.
In that Campo
Santo, then, following as the lesser evil the method
used by the others, Simone made in fresco, over the
principal door and on the inner side, a Madonna
borne to Heaven by a choir of angels, who are
singing and playing so vividly that there are seen
in them all those various gestures that musicians
are wont to make in singing or playing, such as
turning the ears to the sound, opening the mouth in
diverse ways, raising the eyes to Heaven, blowing
out the cheeks, swelling the throat, and in short
all the other actions and movements that are made in
music. Under this Assumption, in three pictures, he
made some scenes from the life of S. Ranieri of
Pisa. In the first scene he is shown as a youth,
playing the psaltery and making some girls dance,
who are most beautiful by reason of the air of the
heads and of the loveliness of the costumes and
head-dresses of those times. Next, the same Ranieri,
having been reproved for such lasciviousness by the
Blessed Alberto the Hermit, is seen standing with
his face downcast and tearful and with his eyes red
from weeping, all penitent for his sin, while God,
in the sky, surrounded by a celestial light, appears
to be pardoning him. In the second picture Ranieri,
distributing his wealth to God's poor before
mounting on board ship, has round him a crowd of
beggars, of cripples, of women, and of children, all
most touching in their pushing forward, their
entreating, and their thanking him.
And in the same
picture, also, that Saint, having received in the
Temple the gown of a pilgrim, is standing before a
Madonna, who, surrounded by many angels, is showing
him that he will repose on her bosom in Pisa; and
all these figures have vivacity and a beautiful air
in the heads. In the third Simone painted the scene
when, having returned after seven years from beyond
the seas, he is showing that he has spent thrice
forty days in the Holy Land, and when, standing in
the choir to hear the Divine offices, he is tempted
by the Devil, who is seen driven away by a firm
determination that is perceived in Ranieri not to
consent to offend God, assisted by a figure made by
Simone to represent Constancy, who is chasing away
the ancient adversary not only all in confusion but
also (with beautiful and fanciful invention) all in
terror, holding his hands to his head in his flight,
and walking with his face downcast and his shoulders
shrunk as close together as could be, and saying, as
it is seen from the writing that is issuing from his
mouth: "I can no more." And finally, there is also
in this picture the scene when Ranieri, kneeling on
Mount Tabor, is miraculously seeing Christ in air
with Moses and Elias; and all the features of this
work, with others that are not mentioned, show that
Simone was very fanciful and understood the good
method of grouping figures gracefully in the manner
of those times. These scenes finished, he made two
panels in distemper in the same city, assisted by
Lippo Memmi, his brother, who had also assisted him
to paint the Chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella and
other works.
He, although he had
not the excellence of Simone, none the less followed
his manner as well as he could, and made many works
in fresco in his company for S. Croce in Florence;
the panel of the high altar in S. Caterina at Pisa,
for the Preaching Friars; and in S. Paolo a Ripa d'
Arno, besides many very beautiful scenes in fresco,
the panel in distemper that is today over the high
altar, containing a Madonna, S. Peter, S. Paul, S.
John the Baptist, and other Saints; and on this
Lippo put his name. After these works he wrought by
himself a panel in distemper for the Friars of S.
Augustine in San Gimignano, and thereby acquired so
great a name that he was forced to send to Arezzo,
to Bishop Guido de' Tarlati, a panel with three
half-length figures which is to-day in the Chapel of
S. Gregorio in the Vescovado.
While Simone was at
work in Florence, one his cousin, an ingenious
architect called Neroccio, undertook in the year
1332 to make to ring the great bell of the Commune
of Florence, which, for a period of seventeen years,
no one had been able to make to ring without twelve
men to pull at it. He balanced it, then, in a manner
that two could move it, and once moved one alone
could ring it without a break, although it weighed
more than six thousand libbre; wherefore, besides
the honor, he gained thereby as his reward three
hundred florins of gold, which was great payment in
those times.
But to return to
our two Memmi of Siena; Lippo, besides the works
mentioned, wrought a panel in distemper, with the
design of Simone, which was carried to Pistoia and
placed over the high altar of the Church of S.
Francesco, and was held very beautiful. Finally,
both having returned to their native city of Siena,
Simone began a very large work in color over the
great gate of Camollia, containing the Coronation of
Our Lady, with an infinity of figures, which
remained unfinished, a very great sickness coming
upon him, so that he, overcome by the gravity of the
sickness, passed away from this life in the year
1345, to the very great sorrow of all his city and
of Lippo his brother, who gave him honorable burial
in S. Francesco.
Lippo afterwards
finished many works that Simone had left imperfect,
and among these was a Passion of Jesus Christ over
the high altar of S. Niccola in Ancona, wherein
Lippo finished what Simone had begun, imitating that
which the said Simone had made and finished in the
Chapterhouse of S. Spirito in Florence. This work
would be worthy of a longer life than peradventure
will be granted to it, there being in it many horses
and soldiers in beautiful attitudes, which they are
striking with various animated movements, doubting
and marvelling whether they have crucified or not
the Son of God. At Assisi, likewise, in the lower
Church of S. Francesco, he finished some figures
that Simone had begun for the altar of S. Elizabeth,
which is at the entrance of the door that leads into
the chapels, making there a Madonna, a S. Louis King
of France, and other Saints, in all eight figures,
which are only as far as the knees, but good and
very well colored. Besides this, in the great
refectory of the said convent, at the top of the
wall, Simone had begun many little scenes and a
Crucifix made in the shape of a Tree of the Cross,
but this remained unfinished and outlined with the
brush in red over the plaster, as may still be seen
today; which method of working was the cartoon that
our old masters used to make for painting in fresco,
for greater rapidity; for having distributed the
whole work over the plaster, they would outline it
with the brush, reproducing from a small design all
that which they wished to paint, and enlarging in
proportion all that they thought to put down.
Wherefore, even as this one is seen thus outlined,
and many others in other places, so there are many
others that had once been painted, from which the
work afterwards peeled off, leaving them thus
outlined in red over the plaster.
But returning to
our Lippo, who drew passing well, as it may be seen
in our book in a hermit who is reading with his legs
crossed; he lived for twelve years after Simone,
executing many works throughout all Italy, and in
particular two panels in S. Croce in Florence. And
seeing that the manner of these two brothers is very
similar, one can distinguish the one from the other
by this, that Simone used to sign his name at the
foot of his works in this way: SIMONIS MEMMI
SENENSIS OPUS; and Lippo, leaving out his baptismal
name and caring nothing about a Latinity so rough,
in this other fashion: opus MEMMI DE SENIS ME FECIT.
On the wall of the
Chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella besides Petrarca
and Madonna Laura, as it has been said above Simone
portrayed Cimabue, the architect Lapo, his son
Arnolfo, and himself, and in the person of that Pope
who is in the scene he painted Benedetto XI of
Treviso, one of the Preaching Friars, the likeness
of which Pope had been brought to Simone long before
by Giotto, his master, when he returned from the
Court of the said Pope, who had his seat in Avignon.
In the same place, also, beside the said Pope, he
portrayed Cardinal Niccola da Prato, who had come to
Florence at that time as Legate of the said Pontiff,
as Giovanni Villani relates in his History.
Over the tomb of
Simone was placed this epitaph:
SIMONI MEMMIO
PICTORUM OMNIUM OMNIS ^TATIS CELEBERRIMO.
VIXIT ANN. LX, MENS. II, D. III.
As it is seen in
our aforesaid book, Simone was not very excellent in
draughtsmanship, but he had invention from nature,
and he took much delight in drawing portraits from
the life ; and in this he was held so much the
greatest master of his times that Signer Pandolfo
Malatesti sent him as far as Avignon to portray
Messer Francesco Petrarca, at the request of whom he
made afterwards the portrait of Madonna Laura, with
so much credit to himself.
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LIFE OF TADDEO
GADDI (c. 1300-1366)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
IT IS A BEAUTIFUL
and truly useful and praiseworthy action to reward
talent largely in every place, and to honor him who
has it, seeing that an infinity of intellects which
might otherwise slumber, roused by this
encouragement, strive with all industry not only to
learn their art but to become excellent therein, in
order to advance themselves and to attain to a rank
both profitable and honorable; whence there may
follow honor for their country, glory for
themselves, and riches and nobility for their
descendants, who, upraised by such beginnings, very
often become both very rich and very noble, even as
the descendants of the painter Taddeo Gaddi did by
reason of his work. This Taddeo di Gaddo Gaddi, a
Florentine, after the death of Giotto who had held
him at his baptism and had been his master for
twenty-four years after the death of Gaddo, as it is
written by Cennino di Andrea Cennini, painter of
Colle di Valdelsa remained among the first in the
art of painting and greater than all his fellow
disciples both in judgment and in genius; and he
wrought his first works, with a great facility given
to him by nature rather than acquired by art, in the
Church of S. Croce in Florence, in the chapel of the
sacristy, where, together with his companions,
disciples of the dead Giotto, he made some stories
of S. Mary Magdalene, with beautiful figures and
with most beautiful and extravagant costumes of
those times. And in the Chapel of the Baroncelli and
Bandini, where Giotto had formerly wrought the panel
in distemper, he made by himself in fresco, on one
wall, some stories of Our Lady which were held very
beautiful.
He also painted
over the door of the said sacristy the story of
Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple,
which was afterwards half-ruined when the elder
Cosimo de' Medici, in making the noviciate, the
chapel, and the antechamber in front of the
sacristy, placed a cornice of stone over the said
door. In the same church he painted in fresco the
Chapel of the Bellacci, and also that of S. Andrea
by the side of one of the three of Giotto, wherein
he made the scene of Jesus Christ taking Andrew and
Peter from their nets, and the crucifixion of the
former Apostle, a work greatly commended and
extolled both then when it was finished and still at
the present day. Over the side door, below the
burial place of Carlo Marsuppini of Arezzo, he made
a Dead Christ with the Maries, wrought in fresco,
which was very much praised; and below the tramezzo
that divides the church, on the left hand, above the
Crucifix of Donato, he painted in fresco a story of
S. Francis, representing a miracle that he wrought
in restoring to life a boy who was killed by falling
from a terrace, together with his apparition in the
air. And in this story he portrayed Giotto his
master, Dante the poet, Guido Cavalcanti, and, some
say, himself. Throughout the said church, also, in
diverse places, he made many figures which are known
by painters from the manner. For the Company of the
Temple he painted the shrine that is at the corner
of the Via del Crocifisso, containing a very
beautiful Deposition from the Cross.
In the cloister of
S. Spirito he wrought two scenes in the little
arches beside the Chapter house, in one of which he
made Judas selling Christ, and in the other the Last
Supper that He held with the Apostles. And in the
same convent, over the door of the refectory, he
painted a Crucifix and some Saints, which give us to
know that among the others who worked here he was
truly an imitator of the manner of Giotto, which he
held ever in the greatest veneration. In S . Stefano
del Ponte Vecchio he painted the panel and the
predella of the high altar with great diligence; and
on a panel in the Oratory of S. Michele in Orto he
made a very good picture of a Dead Christ being
lamented by the Maries and laid to rest very
devoutly by Nicodemus in the Sepulchre. In the
Church of the Servite Friars he painted the Chapel
of S. Niccold, belonging to those of the palace,
with stories of that Saint, wherein he showed very
good judgment and grace in a boat that he painted,
demonstrating that he had complete understanding of
the tempestuous agitation of the sea and of the fury
of the storm; and while the mariners are emptying
the ship and jettisoning the cargo, S. Nicholas
appears in the air and delivers them from that
peril. This work, having given pleasure and having
been much praised, was the reason that he was made
to paint the chapel of the high altar in that
church, wherein he made in fresco some stories of
Our Lady, and another figure of Our Lady on a panel
in distemper, with many Saints wrought in lively
fashion. In like manner, in the predella of the said
panel, he made some other stories of Our Lady with
little figures, whereof there is no need to make
particular mention, seeing that in the year 1467
everything was destroyed when Lodovico, Marquis of
Mantua, made in that place the tribune that is there
to-day and the choir of the friars, with the design
of Leon Battista Alberti, causing the panel to be
carried into the Chapterhouse of that convent; in
the refectory of which Taddeo made, just above the
wooden seats, the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with
the Apostles, and above that a Crucifix with many
saints.
Having given the
last touch to these works, Taddeo Gaddi was summoned
to Pisa, where, for Gherardo and Bonaccorso
Gambacorti, he wrought in fresco the principal
chapel of S. Francesco, painting with beautiful
colours many figures and stories of that Saint and
of S. Andrew and S. Nicholas. Next, on the vaulting
and on the front wall is Pope Honorius, who is
confirming the Order; here Taddeo is portrayed from
the life, in profile, with a cap wrapped round his
head, and at the foot of this scene are written
these words:
MAGISTER TADDEUS
GADDUS DE FLORENTIA PINXIT HANC HISTORIAM
SANCTI FRANCISCI ET
SANCTI ANDREW ET SANCTI NICOLAI, ANNO DOMINI
MCCCXLII, DE MENSE
AUGUSTI.
Besides this, in
the cloister also of the same convent he made in
fresco a Madonna with her Child in her arms, very
well colored, and in the middle of the church, on
the left hand as one enters, a S. Louis the Bishop,
seated, to whom S. Gherardo da Villamagna, who had
been a friar of this Order, is recommending a Fra
Bartolommeo, then Prior of the said convent. In the
figures of this work, seeing that they were taken
from nature, there are seen liveliness and infinite
grace, in that simple manner which was in some
respects better than that of Giotto, above all in
expressing supplication, joy, sorrow, and other
similar emotions, which, when well expressed, ever
bring very great honor to the painter.
Next, having
returned to Florence, Taddeo continued for the
Commune the work of Orsanmichele and refounded the
piers of the Loggia building them with stone dressed
and well shaped, whereas before they had been made
of bricks, without, however, altering the design
that Arnolfo left, with directions that there should
be made over the Loggia a palace with two vaults for
storing the provisions of grain that the people and
Commune of Florence used to make. To the end that
this work might be finished, the Guild of Porta S.
Maria, to which the charge of the fabric had been
given, ordained that there should be paid thereunto
the tax of the square of the grain market and some
other taxes of very small importance. But what was
far more important, it was well ordained with the
best counsel that each of the Guilds of Florence
should make one pier by itself, with the Patron
Saint of the Guild in a niche therein, and that
every year, on the festival of each Saint the
Consuls of that Guild should go to church to make
offering, and should hold there the whole of that
day the standard with their insignia, but that the
offering, none the less, should be to the Madonna
for the succour of the needy poor? And because,
during the great flood of the year 1333, the waters
had swept away the parapets of the Ponte Rubaconte,
thrown down the Castle of Altafronte, left nothing
of the Ponte Vecchio but the two piers in the
middle, and completely ruined the Ponte a S. Trinita
except one pier that remained all shattered, as well
as half the Ponte alla Carraia, bursting also the
weir of Ognissanti, those who then ruled the city
determined no longer to allow the dwellers on the
other side of the Arno to have to return to their
homes with so great inconvenience as was caused by
their having to cross in boats. Wherefore, having
sent for Taddeo Gaddi, for the reason that Giotto
his master had gone to Milan, they caused him to
make the model and design of the Ponte Vecchio,
giving him instructions that he should have it
brought to completion as strong and as beautiful as
might be possible; and he, sparing neither cost nor
labor, made it with such strength in the piers and
with such magnificence in the arches, all of stone
squared with the chisel, that it supports to day
twenty-two shops on either side, which make in all
forty-four, with great profit to the Commune, which
drew from them eight hundred florins yearly in
rents. The extent of the arches from one side to the
other is thirty-two braccia, that of the street in
the middle is sixteen braccia, and that of the shops
on either side eight braccia. For this work, which
cost sixty thousand florins of gold, not only did
Taddeo then deserve infinite praise, but even today
he is more than ever commended for it, for the
reason that, besides many other floods, it was not
moved in the year 1557, on September 13, by that
which threw down the Ponte a S. Trinita and two
arches of that of the Carraia, and shattered in
great part the Rubaconte, together with much other
destruction that is very well known. And truly there
is no man of judgment who can fail to be amazed, not
to say marvel, considering that the said Ponte
Vecchio in so great an emergency could sustain
unmoved the onset of the waters and of the beams and
the wreckage made above, and that with so great
firmness.
At the same time
Taddeo directed the founding of the Ponte a S.
Trinita, which was finished less happily in the year
1346, at the cost of twenty thousand florins of
gold; I say less happily, because, not having been
made like the Ponte Vecchio, it was entirety ruined
by the said flood of the year 1557. In like manner,
under the direction of Taddeo there was made at the
said time the wall of the Costa a S. Gregorio, with
piles driven in below, including two piers of the
bridge in order to gain additional ground for the
city on the side of the Piazza de' Mozzi, and to
make use of it, as they did, to make the mills that
are there.
While all these
works were being made by the direction and design of
Taddeo, seeing that he did not therefore stop
painting, he decorated the Tribunal of the Mercanzia
Vecchia, wherein, with poetical invention, he
represented the Tribunal of Six (which is the number
of the chief men of that judicial body), who are
standing watching the tongue being torn from
Falsehood by Truth, who is clothed with a veil over
the nude, while Falsehood is draped in black; with
these verses below:
LA PURA VERITA, PER
UBBIDIRE
ALLA SANTA
GIUSTIZIA, CHE NON TARDA,
CAVA LA LINGUA ALLA
FALSA BUGIARDA.
And below the scene
are these verses:
TADDEO DIPINSE
QUESTO BEL RIGESTRO;
DISCEPOL FU DI
GIOTTO IL BUON MAESTRO.
Taddeo received a
commission for some works in fresco in Arezzp, which
he carried to the greatest perfection in company
with his disciple Giovanni da Milanp. Of these we
still see one in the Company of the Holy Spirit, a
scene on the wall over the high altar, containing
the Passion of Christ, with many horses, and the
Thieves on the Cross, a work held very beautiful by
reason of the thought that he showed in placing Him
on the Cross. Therein are some figures with vivid
expressions which show the rage of the Jews, some
pulling Him by the legs with a rope, others offering
the sponge, and others in various attitudes, such as
the Longinus who is piercing His side, and the three
soldiers who are gambling for His raiment, in the
faces of whom there is seen hope and fear as they
throw the dice. The first of these, in armour, is
standing in an uncomfortable attitude awaiting his
turn, and shows himself so eager to throw that he
appears not to be feeling the discomfort; the other,
raising his eyebrows, with his mouth and with his
eyes wide open, is watching the dice, in suspicion,
as it were, of fraud, and shows clearly to anyone
who studies him the desire and the wish that he has
to win. The third, who is throwing the dice, having
spread the garment on the ground, appears to be
announcing with a grin his intention of casting
them. In like manner, throughout the walls of the
church are seen some stories of S. John the
Evangelist, and throughout the city other works made
by Taddeo, which are recognized as being by his hand
by anyone who has judgment in art. In the Vescovado,
also, behind the high-altar, there are still seen
some stories of S. John the Baptist, which are
wrought with such marvellous manner and design that
they cause him to be held in admiration. In the
Chapel of S. Sebastiano in S. Agostino, beside the
sacristy, he made the stories of that martyr, and a
Disputation of Christ with the Doctors, so well
wrought and finished that it is a miracle to see the
beauty in the changing colors of various sorts and
the grace in the pigments of these works, which are
finished to perfection.
In the Church of the Sasso della Vernia in the
Casentino he painted the chapel wherein S. Francis
received the Stigmata, assisted in the minor details
by Jacopo di Casentino, who became his disciple by
reason of this visit. This work finished, he
returned to Florence together with Giovanni, the
Milanese, and there, both within the city and
without, they made very many panels and pictures of
importance; and in process of time he gained so
much, turning all into capital, that he laid the
foundation of the wealth and the nobility of his
family, being ever held a prudent and far-sighted
man.
He also painted the
Chapterhouse in S. Maria Novella, being commissioned
by the Prior of the place, who suggested the subject
to him. It is true, indeed, that by reason of the
work being large and of there being unveiled, at
that time when the bridges were being made, the
Chapterhouse of S. Spirito, to the very great fame
of Simone Memmi, who had painted it, there came to
the said Prior a desire to call Simone to the half
of this work; wherefore, having discussed the whole
matter with Taddeo, he found him well contented
therewith, for the reason that he had a surpassing
love for Simone, because he had been his fellow
disciple under Giotto and ever his loving friend and
companion. Oh ! minds truly noble ! seeing that
without emulation, ambition, or envy, ye loved one
another like brothers, each rejoicing as much in the
honor and profit of his friend as in his own! The
work was divided, therefore, and three walls were
given to Simone, as I said in his Life, and Taddeo
had the left-hand wall and the whole vaulting, which
was divided by him into four sections or quarters in
accordance with the form of the vaulting itself. In
the first he made the Resurrection of Christ,
wherein it appears that he wished to attempt to make
the splendor of the Glorified Body give forth light,
as we perceive in a city and in some mountainous
crags ; but he did not follow this up in the figures
and in the rest, doubting, perchance, that he was
not able to carry it out by reason of the difficulty
that he recognized therein. In the second section he
made Jesus Christ delivering S. Peter from
shipwreck, wherein the Apostles who are manning the
boat are certainly very beautiful; and among other
things, one who is fishing with a line on the shore
of the sea (a subject already used by Giotto in the
mosaics of the Navicella in S. Pietro) is depicted
with very great and vivid feeling.
In the third he
painted the Ascension of Christ, and in the fourth
the coming of the Holy Spirit, where there are seen
many beautiful attitudes in the figures of the Jews
who are seeking to gain entrance through the door.
On the wall below are the Seven Sciences, with their
names and with those figures below them that are
appropriate to each. Grammar, in the guise of a
woman, with a door, teaching a child, has the writer
Donato seated below her. After Grammar follows
Rhetoric, and at her feet is a figure that has two
hands on books, while it draws a third hand from
below its mantle and holds it to its mouth. Logic
has the serpent in her hand below a veil, and at her
feet Zeno of Elea, who is reading. Arithmetic is
holding the tables of the abacus, and below her is
sitting Abraham, its inventor. Music has the musical
instruments, and below her is sitting Tubal-Cain,
who is beating with two hammers on an anvil and is
standing with his ears intent on that sound.
Geometry has the square and the compasses, and
below, Euclid. Astrology has the celestial globe in
her hands, and below her feet, Atlas. In the other
part are sitting seven Theological Sciences, and
each has below her that estate or condition of man
that is most appropriate to her Pope, Emperor, King,
Cardinals, Dukes, Bishops, Marquises, and others;
and in the face of the Pope is the portrait of
Clement V. In the middle and highest place is S.
Thomas Aquinas, who was adorned with all the said
sciences, holding below his feet some heretics
Arius, Sabellius, and Averroes; and round him are
Moses, Paul, John the Evangelist, and some other
figures, that have above them the four Cardinal
Virtues and the three Theological, with an infinity
of other details depicted by Taddeo with no little
design and grace, insomuch that it can be said to
have been the best conceived as well as the best
preserved of all his works.
In the same S.
Maria Novella, over the tramezzo of the church, he
also made a S. Jerome robed as a Cardinal, having
such a devotion for that Saint that he chose him as
the protector of his house; and below this, after
the death of Taddeo, his son caused a tomb to be
made for their descendants, covered with a slab of
marble bearing the arms of the Gaddi. For these
descendants, by reason of the excellence of Taddeo
and of their merits, Cardinal Jerome has obtained
from God most honourable offices in the Church
Clerkships of the Chamber, Bishoprics, Cardinalates,
Provostships, and Knighthoods, all most honorable;
and all these descendants of Taddeo, of whatsoever
degree, have ever esteemed and favored the beautiful
intellects inclined to the matters of sculpture and
painting, and have given them assistance with every
effort.
Finally, having
come to the age of fifty and being smitten with a
most violent fever, Taddeo passed from this life in
the year 1350, leaving his son Agnolo and Giovanni
to apply themselves to painting, recommending them
to Jacopo di Casentino for ways of life and to
Giovanni da Milano for instruction in the art. After
the death of Taddeo this Giovanni, besides many
other works, made a panel which was placed on the
altar of S. Gherardo da Villamagna in S. Croce,
fourteen years after he had been left without his
master, and likewise the panel of the high altar of
Ognissanti, where the Frati Umiliati had their seat,
which was held very beautiful, and the tribune of
the high altar at Assisi, wherein he made a
Crucifix, with Our Lady and S. Chiara, and stories
of Our Lady on the walls and sides. Afterwards he
betook himself to Milan, where he wrought many works
in distemper and in fresco, and there finally he
died.
Taddeo, then,
adhered constantly to the manner of Giotto, but did
not better it much save in the coloring, which he
made fresher and more vivacious than that of Giotto,
the latter having applied himself so ardently to
improving the other departments and difficulties of
this art, that although he gave attention to this,
he could not, however, attain to the privilege of
doing it, whereas Taddeo, having seen that which
Giotto had made easy and having learnt it, had time
to add something and to improve the coloring.
Taddeo was buried
by Agnolo and Giovanni, his sons, in the first
cloister of S. Croce, in that tomb which he had made
for Gaddo his father, and he was much honoured with
verses by the men of culture of that time, as a man
who had been greatly deserving for his ways of life
and for having brought to completion with beautiful
design, besides his pictures, many buildings of
great convenience to his city, and besides what has
been mentioned, for having carried out with
solicitude and diligence the construction of the
Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, from the design
left by Giotto his master; which campanile was built
in such a manner that stones could not be put
together with more diligence, nor could a more
beautiful tower be made, with regard either to
ornament, or cost, or design. The epitaph that was
made for Taddeo was this that is to be read here:
HOC UNO DICI
POTERAT FLORENTIA FELIX
VIVENTE ; AT CERTA EST NON POTUISSE MORI.
Taddeo was very
resolute in draughtsmanship, as it may be seen in
our book, wherein is drawn by his hand the scene
that he wrought in the Chapel of S. Andrea, in S.
Croce at Florence.
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LIFE OF ANDREA DI
CIONE ORCAGNA (1308-1368)
PAINTER, SCULPTOR, AND ARCHITECT, OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
RARELY IS A MAN of
parts excellent in one pursuit without being able
easily to learn any other, and above all any one of
those that are akin to his original profession, and
proceed, as it were, from one and the same source,
as did the Florentine Orcagna, who was painter,
sculptor, architect, and poet, as it will be told
below. Born in Florence, he began, while still a
child to give attention to sculpture under Andrea
Pisano, and pursued it for some years; then, being
desirous to become abundant in invention in order to
make lovely historical compositions, he applied
himself with so great study to drawing, assisted by
nature, who wished to make him universal, that
having tried his hand at painting with colors both
in distemper and in fresco, even as one thing leads
to another, he succeeded so well with the assistance
of Bernardo Orcagna, his brother, that this Bernardo
took him in company with himself to paint the life
of Our Lady in the principal chapel of S. Maria
Novella, which then belonged to the family of the
Ricci. This work, when finished, was held very
beautiful, although, by reason of the neglect of
those who afterwards had charge of it, not many
years passed before, the roof becoming ruined, it
was spoilt by the rains and thereby brought to the
condition wherein it is today, as it will be told in
the proper place.
It is enough for
the present to say that Domenico Ghirlandajo, who
repainted it, availed himself greatly of the
invention put into it by Orcagna, who also painted
in fresco in the same church the Chapel of the
Strozzi, which is near to the door of the sacristy
and of the belfry, in company with Bernardo, his
brother. In this chapel, to which one ascends by a
staircase of stone, he painted on one wall the glory
of Paradise, with all the Saints and with various
costumes and headdresses of those times. On the
other wall he made Hell, with the abysses, centers,
and other things described by Dante, of whom Andrea
was an ardent student. In the Church of the Servites
in the same city he painted in fresco, also with
Bernardo, the Chapel of the family of Cresci; with a
Coronation of Our Lady on a very large panel in S.
Pietro Maggiore, and a panel in S. Romeo, close to
the side door. In like manner, he and his brother
Bernardo painted the outer facade of S. Apollinare,
with so great diligence that the colors in that
exposed place have been preserved marvellously vivid
and beautiful up to our own day.
Moved by the fame
of these works of Orcagna, which were much praised,
the men who at that time were governing Pisa had him
summoned to work on a portion of one wall in the
Campo Santo of that city, even as Giotto and
Buffalmacco had done before. Wherefore, putting his
hand to this, Andrea painted a Universal Judgment,
with some fanciful inventions of his own, on the
wall facing towards the Duomo, beside the Passion of
Christ made by Buffalmacco; and making the first
scene on the corner, he represented therein all the
degrees of lords temporal wrapped in the pleasures
of this world, placing them seated in a flowery
meadow and under the shade of many orange-trees,
which make a most delicious grove and have some
Cupids in their branches above; and these Cupids,
flying round and over many young women (all
portraits from the life, as it seems clear, of noble
ladies and dames of those times, who, by reason of
the long lapse of time, are not recognized), are
making a show of shooting at the hearts of these
young women, who have beside them young men and
nobles who are standing listening to music and song
and watching the amorous dances of youths and
maidens, who are sweetly taking joy in their loves.
Among these nobles
Orcagna portrayed Castruccio, Lord of Lucca, as a
youth of most beautiful aspect, with a blue cap
wound round his head and with a hawk on his wrist,
and near him other nobles of that age, of whom we
know not who they are. In short, in that first part,
in so far as the space permitted and his art
demanded, he painted all the delights of the world
with exceeding great grace. In the other part of the
same scene he represented on a high mountain the
life of those who, drawn by repentance for their
sins and by the desire to be saved, have fled from
the world to that mountain, which is all full of
saintly hermits who are serving the Lord, busy in
diverse pursuits with most vivacious expressions.
Some, reading and praying, are shown all intent on
contemplation, and others, laboring in order to gain
their livelihood, are exercising themselves in
various forms of action.
There is seen here
among others a hermit who is milking a goat, who
could not be more active or more lifelike in
appearance than he is. Below there is S. Macarius
showing to three Kings, who are riding with their
ladies and their retinue and going to the chase,
human misery in the form of three Kings who are
lying dead but not wholly corrupted in a tomb, which
is being contemplated with attention by the living
Kings in diverse and beautiful attitudes full of
wonder, and it appears as if they are reflecting
with pity for their own selves that they have in a
short time to become such. In one of these Kings on
horseback Andrea portrayed Uguccione della Faggiuola
of Arezzo, in a figure which is holding its nose
with one hand in order not to feel the stench of the
dead and corrupted Kings. In the middle of this
scene is Death, who, flying through the air and
draped in black, is showing that she has cut off
with her scythe the lives of many, who are lying on
the ground, of all sorts and conditions, poor and
rich, halt and whole, young and old, male and
female, and in short a good number of every age and
sex. And because he knew that the people of Pisa
took pleasure in the invention of Buffalmacco, who
gave speech to the figures of Bruno in S. Paolo a
Ripa d'Arno, making some letters issue from their
mouths, Orcagna filled this whole work of his with
such writings, whereof the greater part, being eaten
away by time, cannot be understood. To certain old
men, then, he gives these words:
DACCHE PROSPERITADE
CI HA LASCIATI,
O MORTE, MEDICINA
D' OGNI PENA,
DEH VIENI A DARNE
OMAI L' ULTIMA CENA !
with other words
that cannot be understood, and verses likewise in
ancient manner, composed, as I have discovered, by
Orcagna himself, who gave attention to poetry and to
making a sonnet or two. Round these dead bodies are
some devils who are tearing their souls from their
mouths, and are carrying them to certain pits full
of fire, which are on the summit of a very high
mountain. Over against these are angels who are
likewise taking the souls from the mouths of others
of these dead people, who have belonged to the good,
and are flying with them to Paradise. And in this
scene there is a scroll, held by two angels, wherein
are these words:
ISCHERMO DI SAVERE
E DI RICCHEZZA,
DI NOBILTADE ANCORA E DI PRODEZZA,
VALE NIENTE A I COLPI DI COSTEI ;
with some other
words that are difficult to understand. Next, below
this, in the border of this scene, are nine angels
who are holding legends both Italian and Latin in
some suitable scrolls, put into that place below
because above they were like to spoil the scene, and
not to include them in the work seemed wrong to
their author, who considered them very beautiful;
and it may be that they were to the taste of that
age. The greater part is omitted by us, in order not
to weary others with such things, which are not
pertinent and little pleasing, not to mention that
the greater part of these inscriptions being
effaced, the remainder is little less than
fragmentary. After these works, in making the
Judgment, Orcagna set Jesus Christ on high above the
clouds in the midst of His twelve Apostles, judging
the quick and the dead; showing on one side, with
beautiful art and very vividly, the sorrowful
expressions of the damned who are being dragged
weeping by furious demons to Hell, and, on the
other, the joy and the jubilation of the good, whom
a body of angels guided by the Archangel Michael are
leading as the elect, all rejoicing, to the right,
where are the blessed. And it is truly a pity that
for lack of writers, in so great a multitude of men
of the robe, chevaliers, and other lords, that are
clearly depicted and portrayed there from the life,
there should be not one, or only very few, of whom
we know the names or who they were; although it is
said that a Pope who is seen there is Innocent IV,
friend of Manfredi ["This is probably a printer's
error for "nemico," as that Pope was anything but
the friend of Manfredi].
After this work, and after making some sculptures in
marble for the Madonna that is on the abutment of
the Ponte Vecchio, with great honour for himself, he
left his brother Bernardo to execute by himself a
Hell in the Campo Santo, which is described by
Dante, and which was afterwards spoilt in the year
1530 and restored by Sollazzino, a painter of our
own times ; and he returned to Florence, where, in
the middle of the Church of S. Croce, on a very
great wall on the right, he painted in fresco the
same subjects that he painted in the Campo Santo of
Pisa, in three similar pictures, excepting, however,
the scene where S. Macarius is showing to three
Kings the misery of man, and the life of the hermits
who are serving God on that mountain. Making, then,
all the rest of that work, he labored therein with
better design and more diligence than he had done in
Pisa, holding, nevertheless, to almost the same plan
in the invention, the manner, the scrolls, and the
rest, without changing anything save the portraits
from life, for those in this work were partly of his
dearest friends, whom he placed in Paradise, and
partly of men little his friends, who were put by
him in Hell. Among the good is seen portrayed from
life in profile, with the triple crown on his head,
Pope Clement VI, who changed the Jubilee in his
reign from every hundred to every fifty years, and
was a friend of the Florentines, and had some of
Orcagna's pictures, which were very dear to him.
Among the same is Maestro Dino del Garbo, a most
excellent physician of that time, dressed as was
then the wont of doctors, with a red bonnet lined
with miniver on his head, and held by the hand by an
angel; with many other portraits that are not
recognized. Among the damned he portrayed Guardi,
serjeant of the Commune of Florence, being dragged
along by the Devil with a hook, and he is known by
three red lilies that he has on his white bonnet,
such as were then wont to be worn by the Serjeants
and other similar officials; and this he did because
Guardi once made dis- traint on his property. He
also portrayed there the notary and the judge who
had been opposed to him in that action. Near to
Guardi is Ceccho Besides Bernardo, Andrea had a
brother called Jacopo, who was engaged in sculpture,
but with little profit; and in making on occasion
for this Jacopo designs in relief and in clay, there
came to him the wish to make something in marble and
to see whether he remembered the principles of that
art, wherein, as it has been said, he had worked in
Pisa; and so, putting himself with more study to the
test, he made progress therein in such a fashion
that afterwards he made use of it with honor, as it
will be told. Afterwards he devoted himself with all
his energy to the study of architecture, thinking
that at some time or another he would have to make
use of it. Nor did his thought deceive him, seeing
that in the year i3$ [SIC], the Commune of Florence
having bought some citizens' houses near their
Palace (in order to have more space and to make a
larger square, and also in order to make a place
where the citizens could take shelter in rainy or
wintry days, and carry on under cover such business
as was transacted on the Ringhiera when bad weather
did not hinder), they caused many designs to be made
for the building of a magnificent and very large
Loggia for this purpose near the Palace, and at the
same time for the Mint where the money is struck.
Among these designs, made by the best masters in the
city, that of Orcagna being universally approved and
accepted as greater, more beautiful, and more
magnificent than all the others, by decree of the
Signori and of the Commune there was begun under his
direction the great Loggia of the square, on the
foundations made in the time of the Duke of Athens,
and it was carried on with squared stone very well
put together, with much diligence.
And what was
something new in those times, the arches of the
vaulting were made no longer quarter-acute, as it
had been the custom up to that time, but they were
turned in half circles in a new and laudable method,
which gave much grace and beauty to this great
fabric, which was brought to completion in a short
time under the direction of Andrea. And if there had
been taken thought to put it beside S. Romolo and to
turn the arches with the back to the north, which
they did not do, perchance, in order to have it
conveniently near to the gate of the Palace, it
would have been as useful a building for the whole
city as it is beautiful in workmanship; whereas, by
reason of the great wind, in winter no one can stand
there. In this Loggia, between the arches on the
front wall, in some ornamental work by his own hand,
Orcagna made seven marble figures in half-relief
representing the seven Theological and Cardinal
Virtues, as accompaniment to the whole work, so
beautiful that they made him known for no less able
as sculptor than as painter and architect; not to
mention that he was in all his actions as pleasant,
courteous, and lovable a man as was ever any man of
his condition. And because he would never abandon
the study of any one of his professions for that of
another, while the Loggia was building he made a
panel in distemper with many large figures, with
little figures in the predella, for that chapel of
the Strozzi wherein he had formerly made some works
in fresco with his brother Bernardo; on which panel,
it appearing to him that it could bear better
testimony to his profession than the works wrought
in fresco could do, he wrote his name with these
words:
ANNO DOMINI
MCCCLVII, ANDREAS CIONIS DE FLORENTIA ME PINXIT.
This work
completed, he made some pictures, also on panel,
which were sent to the Pope in Avignon and are still
in the Cathedral Church of that city. A little while
afterwards the men of the Company of Orsanmichele,
having collected large sums of money from offerings
and donations given to their Madonna by reason of
the mortality of 1348, resolved to make round her a
chapel, or rather shrine, not only very ornate and
rich with marbles carved in every way and with other
stones of price, but also with mosaic and ornaments
of bronze, as much as could possibly be desired, in
a manner that both in workmanship and in material it
might surpass every other work of so great a size
wrought up to that day. Wherefore, the charge of the
whole being given to Orcagna as the most excellent
of that age, he made so many designs that finally
one of them pleased the authorities, as being better
than all the others. The work, therefore, being
allotted to him, they put complete reliance in his
judgment and counsel; wherefore, giving the making
of all the rest to diverse master-carvers brought
from several districts, he applied himself with his
brother to executing all the figures of the work,
and, the whole being finished, he had them built in
and put together very thoughtfully without mortar,
with clamps of copper fixed with lead, to the end
that the shining and polished marbles might not
become discolored; and in this he succeeded so well,
with profit and honor from those who came after him,
that to one who studies that work it appears, by
reason of such union and methods of joining
discovered by Orcagna, that the whole chapel has
been shaped out of one single piece of marble.
And although it is
in a German manner, for that style it has so great
grace and proportion that it holds the first place
among the works of those times, above all because
its composition of figures great and small, and of
angels and prophets in half-relief round the
Madonna, is very well executed. Marvellous, also, is
the casting of the bands of bronze, diligently
polished, which, encircling the whole work, enclose
and bind it together in a manner that it is
therefore as stout and strong as it is beautiful in
all other respects. But how much he labored in order
to show the subtlety of his intellect in that gross
age is seen in a large scene in half-relief on the
back part of the said shrine, wherein; with figures
of one braccio and a half each, he made the twelve
Apostles gazing on high at the Madonna, while she,
in an oval space, surrounded by angels, is ascending
to Heaven. In one of these Apostles he portrayed
himself in marble, old, as he was, with the beard
shaven, with the cap wound round the head, and with
the face flat and round, as it is seen above in his
portrait, drawn from that one. Besides this, he
inscribed these words in the marble below:
ANDREAS CIONIS,
PICTOR
FLORENTINUS,
ORATORII ARCHIMAGISTER EXTITIT HUJUS, MCCCLIX.
It is known that
the building of this Loggia and of the marble
shrine, with all the masterwork, cost ninety-six
thousand florins of gold, which were very well
spent, for the reason that it is, both in the
architecture and in the sculptures and other
ornaments, as beautiful as any other work whatsoever
of those times, and is such that, by reason of the
parts made therein by him, the name of Andrea
Orcagna has been and will be ever living and great.
He used to write in
his pictures:
FECE ANDREA DI CIONE, SCULTORE; and in his
sculptures: FECE ANDREA DI CIONE, PITTORE
wishing that his painting should be known by his
sculpture, and his sculpture by his painting. There
are throughout all Florence many panels made by him,
which are partly known by the name, such as a panel
in S. Romeo, and partly by the manner, such as one
that is in the Chapter-house of the Monastery of the
Angeli. Some of them that he left unfinished were
completed by Bernardo, his brother, who sur- vived
him, but not for many years. And because, as it has
been said, Andrea delighted in making verses and
various forms of poetry, when already old he wrote
some sonnets to Burchiello, then a youth ; and
finally, being sixty years of age, he finished the
course of his life in 1389, and was borne with honor
from his dwelling, which was in the Via Vecchia de'
Corazzai, to his tomb.
There were many men
able in sculpture and in architecture at the same
time as Orcagna, of whom the names are not known,
but their works are to be seen, and these are worthy
of nothing but praise and com- mendation. Among
their works is not only the Monastery of the Certosa
of Florence, made at the expense of the noble family
of the Acciaiuoli, and in particular of Messer
Niccola, Grand Seneschal of the King of Naples, but
also the tomb of the same man, whereon he is
portrayed in stone, and that of his father and one
of his sisters, which has a covering of marble,
whereon both were portrayed very well from nature in
the year 1366. There, too, wrought by the hand of
the same men, is the tomb of Messer Lorenzo, son of
the said Niccola, who, dying at Naples, was brought
to Florence and laid to rest there with the most
honorable pomp of funeral obsequies. In like manner,
in the tomb of Cardinal Santa Croce of the same
family, which is in a choir then built anew in front
of the high altar, there is his portrait on a slab
of marble, very well wrought in the year 1390.
Disciples of Andrea
in painting were Bernardo Nello di Giovanni F_alcpni
[SIC] of Pisa, who wrought many panels in the Duomo
of Pisa, and Tommaso di Marco of Florence, who,
besides many other works, made in the year 1392 a
panel that is in S. Antonio in Pisa, set up against
the tramezzo of the church.
After the death of
Andrea, his brother Jacopo who occupied himself in
sculpture, as it has been said, and in architecture,
was employed in the year 1328 on the foundation and
building of the Tower and Gate of S. Piero
Gattolini, and it is said that he made the four
marzocchi * [*heraldic lions] of stone which were
placed on the four corners of the Palazzo Principale
of Florence, all overlaid with gold. This work was
much censured, by reason of there being laid on
those places, without necessity, a greater weight
than peradventure was expedient; and many would have
been pleased to have the marzocchi made rather of
plates of copper, hollow within, and then, after
being gilded in the fire, set up in the same place,
because they would have been much less heavy and
more durable. It is said, too, that the same man
made the horse, gilded and in full relief, that is
in S. Maria del Fiore, over the door that leads to
the Company of S. Zanobi, which horse is believed to
be there in memory of Piero Farnese, Captain of the
Florentines; however, knowing nothing more about
this, I could not vouch for it. About the same time
Mariotto, nephew of Andrea, made in fresco the
Paradise of S. Michele Bisdomini, in the Via de'
Servi in Florence, and the panel with an
Annunciation that is on the altar; and for Monna
Cecilia de' Boscoli he made another panel with many
figures, placed near the door of the same church.
But among all the
disciples of Orcagna none was more excellent than
Francesco Traini, who made a panel with a ground of
gold for a nobleman of the house of Coscia, who is
buried at Pisa in the Chapel of S. Domenico, in the
Church of S. Caterina; which panel contained a S.
Dominic standing two braccia and a half high, with
six scenes of his life on either side of him,
animated and vivacious and well coloured. And in the
same church, in the Chapel of S. Tommaso d' Aquino,
he made a panel in distemper with fanciful
invention, which is much praised, placing therein
the said S. Thomas seated, portrayed from the life:
I say from the life, because the friars of that
place had an image of him brought from the Abbey of
Fossa Nuova, where he died in the year 1323.
Below, round S.
Thomas, who is placed seated in the air with some
books in his hand, which are illuminating the
Christian people with their rays and lustre, there
are kneeling a great number of doctors and clergy of
every sort, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes, among
whom is the portrait of Pope Urban VI. Under the
feet of S. Thomas are standing Sabellius, Arius,
Averroes, and other heretics and philosophers, with
their books all torn; and the said figure of S.
Thomas is placed between Plato, who is showing him
the Timceus, and Aristotle, who is showing him the
Ethics. Above, a Jesus Christ, in like manner in the
air between the four Evangelists, is blessing S.
Thomas, and appears to be in the act of sending down
upon him the Holy Spirit, and filling him with it
and with His grace. This work, when finished,
acquired very great fame and praise for Francesco
Traini, for in making it he surpassed his master
Andrea by a great measure in coloring, in harmony,
and in invention. This Andrea was very diligent in
his drawings, as it may be seen in our book.
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GIOTTINO
(1324-1369)
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
WHEN those arts
that proceed from design come into competition and
their craftsmen work in rivalry, without doubt the
good intellects, exercising themselves with much
study, discover new things every day in order to
satisfy the various tastes of men ; and some,
speaking for the present of painting, executing
works obscure and unusual and de- monstrating in
them the difficulty of making them, make known by
the shadows the brightness of their genius. Others,
fashioning the sweet and delicate, thinking these to
be likely to be more pleasing to the eyes of all who
behold them by reason of their having more relief,
easily attract to themselves the minds of the
greater part of men. Others, again, painting with
unity and lowering the tones of the colours,
reducing to their proper places the lights and
shades of their figures, deserve very great praise,
and reveal the thoughts of the intellect with
beautiful dexterity of mind; even as they were ever
revealed with a sweet manner in the works of Tommaso
di Stefano, called Giottino, who, being born in the
year 1324 and having learnt from his father the
first prin- ciples of painting, resolved while still
very young to attempt, in so far as he might be able
with assiduous study, to be an imitator of the
manner of Giotto rather than of that of his father
Stefano. In this attempt he succeeded so well that
he gained thereby, besides the manner, which was
much more beautiful than that of his master, the
surname of Giottino, which never left him; nay, by
reason both of the manner and of the name it was the
opinion of many, who, however, were in very great
error, that he was the son of Giotto; but in truth
it is not so, it being certain, or to speak more
exactly, believed (it being impossible for such
things to be affirmed by any man) that he was the
son of Stefano, painter of Florence.
He was, then, so
diligent in painting and so greatly devoted to it,
that, although many of his works are not to be
found, those nevertheless that have been found are
good and in a beautiful manner, for the reason that
the draperies, the hair, the beards, and all the
rest of his work were made and harmonized with so
great softness and diligence, that it is seen that
without doubt he added harmony to this art and had
it much more perfect than his master Giotto and his
father Stef ano. In his youth Giottino painted a
chapel near the side door of S. Stef ano al Ponte
Vecchio in Florence, wherein, although it is today
much spoilt by damp, the little that has remained
shows the dexterity and the genius of the craftsman.
Next, he made the two Saints, Cosimo and Damiano,
for the Frati Ermini in the Canto alia Macine, but
little is seen of them to-day, for they too have
been ruined by time. And he wrought in fresco a
chapel in the old S. Spirito in that city, which was
afterwards ruined in the burning of that church; and
in fresco, over the principal door of the church,
the story of the Sending of the Holy Spirit ; and on
the square before the said church, on the way to the
Canto alia Cuculia, on the corner of the convent, he
painted that shrine that is still seen there, with
Our Lady and other Saints round her, wherein both
the heads and the other parts lean strongly towards
the modern manner, for the reason that he sought to
vary and to blend the flesh colors, and to harmonize
all the figures with grace and judgment by means of
a variety of colors and draperies.
In like manner he
wrought the stories of Constantine with much
diligence in the Chapel of S. Silvestro in S. Croce,
showing very beautiful ideas in the gestures of the
figures; and then, behind an ornament of marble made
for the tomb of Messer Bertino de' Bardi, a man who
at that time had held honourable military rank, he
made this Messer Bertino in armor, after the life,
issuing from a sepulchre on his knees, being
summoned with the sound of the trumpets of the
Judgment by two angels, who are in the air
accompanying a beautifully-wrought Christ in the
clouds. On the right hand of the entrance of the
door of S. Pancrazio the same man made a Christ who
is bearing His Cross, and some Saints near Him, that
have exactly the manner of Giotto. In S. Gallo
(which convent was without the Gate called by the
same name, and was destroyed in the siege) in a
cloister, there was a Pieta painted in fresco,
whereof there is a copy in the aforesaid S.
Pancrazio, on a pillar beside the principal chapel.
In S. Maria Novella, in the Chapel of S. Lorenzo de'
Giuochi, as one enters by the door on the left, on
the front wall, he wrought in fresco a S. Cosimo and
a S. Damiano, and, in Ognissanti, a S. Christopher
and a S. George, which were spoilt by the malice of
time, and then restored by other painters by reason
of the ignorance of a Provost little conversant with
such matters. In the said church there has remained
whole the arch that is over the door of the
sacristy, wherein there is in fresco a Madonna with
the Child in her arms by the hand of Tommaso, which
is a good work, by reason of his having wrought it
with diligence.
By means of these
works Giottino had acquired so good a name,
imitating his master both in design and in
invention, as it has been told, that there was said
to be in him the spirit of Giotto himself, both
because of the vividness of his coloring and of his
mastery in draughtsmanship; and in the year 1343, on
July 2, when the Duke of Athens was driven out by
the people and when he had renounced the sovereignty
and restored their liberty to the Florentines,
Giottino was forced by the twelve Re- formers of the
State, and in particular by the prayers of Messer
Agnolo Acciaiuoli, then a very great citizen, who
had great influence with him, to paint in contempt,
on the tower of the Palace of the Podesta, the said
Duke and his followers, who were Messer Ceritieri
Visdomini, Messer Maladiasse, his Conservator, and
Messer Ranieri da San Gimignano, all with the cap of
Justice ignominiously on their heads. Round the head
of the Duke were many beasts of prey and other
sorts, signifying his nature and his character; and
one of those his counsellors had in his hand the
Palace of the Priors of the city, and was handing it
to him, like a disloyal traitor to his country. And
all had below them the arms and emblems of their
families, and some writings which can hardly be read
today because they have been eaten away by time. In
this work, both by reason of the draughtsmanship and
of the great diligence wherewith it was executed,
the manner of the craftsman gave universal pleasure
to all. Afterwards, at the Campora, a seat of the
Black Friars without the Porta a S. Piero Gattolini,
he made a S. Cosimo and a S. Damiano, which were
spoilt in the whitewashing of the church; and on the
bridge of Romiti in Valdarno he painted in fresco
the shrine that is built over the middle, with his
own hand and in a beautiful manner.
It is found
recorded by many who wrote thereon that Tommaso
applied himself to sculpture and wrought a figure in
marble on the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore in
Florence, four braccia high and facing the place
where the Orphans now dwell. In S. Giovanni Laterano
in Rome, likewise, he brought to fine completion a
scene wherein he represented the Pope in several
capacities, which is now seen to have been eaten
away and corroded by time; and in the house of the
Orsini he painted a hall full of famous men; with a
very beautiful S. Louis on a pillar in the Araceli,
on the right hand beside the altar.
In the lower church
of S. Francesco at Assisi, in an arch over the
pulpit (there being no other space that was not
painted) he wrought the Coronation of Our Lady, with
many angels round her, so gracious, so beautiful in
the expressions of the faces, and so sweet and
delicate in manner, that they show, with the usual
harmony of colour which was something peculiar to
this painter, that he had proved himself the peer of
all who had lived up to that time; and round this
arch he made some stories of S. Nicholas. In like
manner, in the Monastery of S. Chiara in the same
city, in the middle of the church, he painted a
scene in fresco, wherein is S. Chiara supported in
the air by two angels who appear real; she is
restoring to life a child that was dead, while round
her are standing many women all full of wonder, with
great beauty in the faces and in the very gracious
headdresses and costumes of those times that they
are wearing. In the same city of Assisi, over the
gate of the city that leads to the Duomp namely, in
an arch on the inner side he made a Madonna with the
Child in her arms, with so great diligence that she
appears alive, and a S. Francis and another Saint,
both very beautiful; both of which works, although
the story of S. Chiara remained unfinished by reason
of Tommaso having fallen sick and returned to
Florence, are perfect and most worthy of all praise.
It is said that
Tommaso was melancholic in temperament and very
solitary, but with respect to art devoted and very
studious, as it is clearly seen from a panel in the
Church of S. Romeo in Florence, wrought by him in
distemper with so great diligence and love that
there has never been seen a better work on wood by
his hand. In this panel, which is placed in the
tramezzo of the church, on the right hand, is a Dead
Christ with the Maries and Nicodemus, accompanied by
other figures, who are bewailing His death with
bitterness and with very sweet and affectionate
movements, wringing their hands with diverse
gestures, and beating themselves in a manner that in
the air of the faces there is shown very clearly
their sharp sorrow at the so great cost of our sins.
And it is something marvellous to consider, not that
he penetrated with his genius to such a height of
imagination, but that he could express it so well
with the brush. Wherefore this work is consummately
worthy of praise, not so much by reason of the
subject and of the invention, as because in it the
craftsman has shown, in some heads that are weeping,
that although the lineaments of those that are
weeping are distorted in the brows, in the eyes, in
the nose, and in the mouth, this, however, neither
spoils nor alters a certain beauty which is wont to
suffer much in weeping when the painters do not know
well how to avail themselves of the good methods of
art. But it is no great thing that Giottino should
have executed this panel with so much consideration,
since in his labors he ever aimed rather at fame and
glory than at any other reward, being free from the
greed of gain, that makes our present masters less
diligent and good. And even as he did not seek to
have great riches, so he did not trouble himself
much about the comforts of life nay, living poorly,
he sought to satisfy others rather than himself;
wherefore, taking little care of himself and
enduring fatigue, he died of consumption at the age
of thirty-two, and was given burial by his relatives
at the Martello Gate without S. Maria Novella,
beside the tomb of Bontura.
Disciples of
Giottino, who left more fame than wealth, were
Giovanni Tossicani of Arezzo, Michelino, Giovanni
dal Ponte, and Lippo, who were passing good masters
of this art, but above all Giovanni Tossicani, who
made many works throughout all Tuscany after Tommaso
and in the same manner as his, and in particular the
Chapel of S. Maria Maddalena, belonging to the
Tuccerelli, in the Pieve of Arezzo, and a S. James
on a pillar in the Pieve of the township of Empoli.
In the Duomo of Pisa, also, he wrought some panels
which have since been removed in order to make room
for the modern. The last work that he made was in a
chapel of the Vescovado of Arezzo, for the Countess
Giovanna, wife of Tarlato da Pietramala namely, a
very beautiful Annunciation, with S. James and S.
Philip; which work, by reason of the back of the
wall being turned to the north, was little less than
completely spoilt by damp, when Maestro Agnolo di
Lorenzo of Arezzo restored the Annunciation, and
shortly afterwards Giorgio Vasari, still a youth,
restored the S. James and S. Philip, to his own
great profit, having learnt much, at that time when
he had not the advantage of other masters, by
studying Giovanni's method of painting and the
shadows and colours of that work, spoilt as it was.
In this chapel there are still read these words in
an epitaph of marble, in memory of the Countess who
had it built and painted:
ANNO DOMINI 1335,
DE MENSE AUGUSTI, HANC CAPELLAM CONSTITUI
FECIT NOBILIS DOMINA COMITISSA JOANNA DE SANCTA
FLORA, UXOR
NOBILIS MILITIS DOMINI TARLATI DE PETRAMALA, AD
HONOREM BEATS
MARLE VIRGINIS.
Of the works of the
other disciples of Giottino there is no mention
made, seeing that they were but ordinary and little
like those of the master and of Giovanni Tossicani,
their fellow disciple. Tommaso drew very well, as it
may be seen in our book, in certain drawings wrought
by his hand with much diligence.
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GIOVANNI DAL PONTE
(1307-1365)
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
ALTHOUGH THERE IS
NO TRUTH and not much confidence to be placed in the
ancient proverb that the prodigal's purse is never
empty, and although, on the contrary, it is very
true that he who does not live a well-ordered life
in his own degree lives at the last in want and dies
miserably, it is seen, nevertheless, that fortune
sometimes aids rather those who squander without
restraint than those who are in all things careful
and self-restrained; and when the favor of fortune
ceases, there often comes death, to make up for her
defection and for the bad management of men,
supervening at the very moment when such men would
begin with infinite dismay to recognize how
miserable a thing it is to have squandered in youth
and to want in old age, living and labouring in
poverty, as would have happened to Giovanni da Santo
Stefano a Ponte of Florence, if, after having
consumed his patrimony and much gain which had been
brought to his hands rather by fortune than by his
merits, with some inheritances that came to him from
an unexpected source, he had not finished at one and
the same time the course of his life and all his
means.
This man, then, who
was a disciple of Buonamico Buffalmacco, and who
imitated him more in attending to the pleasures of
life than in seeking to become an able painter, was
born in the year 1307, and after being in early
youth a disciple of Buffalmacco, he made his first
works in the Chapel of S. Lorenzo, in the Pieve of
Empoli, painting there in fresco many scenes of the
life of that Saint, with so great diligence that he
was summoned to Arezzo in the year 1344, a better
development being expected after so fine a
beginning; and there he painted the Assumption of
Our Lady in a chapel in S. Francesco. And a little
time afterwards, being in some credit in that city
for lack of other painters, he painted the Chapel of
S. Onofrio in the Pieve, with that of S. Antonio,
which today is spoilt by damp. He also made some
other pictures that were in S. Giustina and in S.
Matteo, but these were thrown to the ground by Duke
Cosimo, together with the said churches, in the
making of fortifications for that city; and exactly
in that place, at the foot of the abutment of an
ancient bridge beside the said S. Giustina, where
the stream entered the city, there were then found a
head of Appius Caecus and one of his son, both in
marble and very beautiful, with an ancient epitaph,
likewise very beautiful, which are all now in the
guardaroba of the said Lord Duke.
Giovanni, having
returned to Florence at the time when there was
finished the closing of the middle arch of the Ponte
a S. Trinita, painted many figures both within and
without a chapel built over one pier and dedicated
to S. Michelagnolo, and in particular all the front
wall; which chapel, together with the bridge, was
carried away by the flood of the year 1557. It is by
reason of these works that some maintain, besides
what has been said about him at the beginning, that
he was ever afterwards called Giovanni dal Ponte. In
Pisa, also, in the year 1355, he made some scenes in
fresco behind the altar of the principal chapel of
S. Paolo a Ripa d' Arno, which are now all spoilt by
damp and by time. Giovanni also painted the Chapel
of the Scali in S. Trinita in Florence, with another
that is beside it, and one of the stories of S. Paul
by the side of the principal chapel, where is the
tomb of Maestro Paolo, the astrologer. In S. Stefano
al Ponte Vecchip he painted a panel, with other
pictures in distemper and in fresco both within and
without Florence, which brought him considerable
credit.
He gave contentment
to his friends, but more in his pleasures than in
his works, and he was the friend of men of learning,
and in particular of all those who pursued the
studies of his own profession in order to become
excellent therein; and although he had not sought to
have in himself that which he desired in others, yet
he never ceased to encourage others to work
valiantly. Finally, having lived fifty-nine years,
Giovanni was seized by pleurisy and in a few days
departed this life, wherein, had he survived a
little longer, he would have suffered many
discomforts, there being left in his house scarce as
much as sufficed to give him decent burial in S.
Stefano al Ponte Vecchio. His works date about 1365.
In our book of
drawings by diverse ancients and moderns there is a
drawing in watercolor by the hand of Giovanni,
wherein is a S. George on horseback who is slaying
the Dragon, and a skeleton, which bear witness to
the method and manner that he had in drawing.
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LIFE OF AGNOLO
GADDI,
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
HOW HONORABLE and
profitable it is to be excellent in a noble art is
manifestly seen in the talent and management of
Taddeo Gaddi, who, having acquired very good means
as well as fame with his industry and labours, left
the affairs of his family so well arranged, when he
passed to the other life, that Agnolo and Giovanni,
his sons, were easily able to give a beginning to
the very great riches and to the exaltation of the
house of Gaddi, today very noble in Florence and in
great repute throughout all Christendom. And in
truth it has been very reasonable, seeing that
Gaddo, Taddeo, Agnolo, and Giovanni adorned many
honored churches with their talent and their art,
that their successors have been since adorned by the
Holy Roman Church and by the Supreme Pontiffs of the
same with the greatest ecclesiastical dignities.
Taddeo, then, of
whom we have already written the Life, left his sons
Agnolo and Giovanni in company with many of his
disciples, hoping that Agnolo, in particular, would
become very excellent in painting; but he, who in
his youth showed promise of surpassing his father by
a great measure, did not succeed further in
justifying the opinion that had already been
conceived of him, for the reason that, being born
and bred in easy circumstances, which are often an
impediment to study, he was given more to traffic
and to trading than to the art of painting; which
should not appear a thing new or strange, seeing
that avarice very often bars the way to many
intellects which would ascend to the greatest height
of excellence, if the desire of gain did not impede
their path in their earliest and best years. Working
as a youth in S. Jacopo tra' Fossi in Florence,
Agnolo wrought a little scene, with figures little
more than a braccio high, of Christ raising Lazarus
on the fourth day after death, wherein, imagining
the corruption of that body, which had been dead
three days, with much thought he made the grave
clothes which held him bound discoloured by the
decay of the flesh, and round the eyes certain livid
and yellowish marks in the flesh, that seems half
living and half dead; not without stupefaction in
the Apostles and in other figures, who, with
attitudes varied and beautiful, and with their
draperies to their noses in order not to feel the
stench of that corrupt body, are no less afraid and
awestruck at such a marvellous miracle than Mary and
Martha are joyful and content to see life returning
to the dead body of their brother.
This work was
judged so excellent that many deemed the talent of
Agnolo to be destined to surpass all the disciples
of Taddeo, and even Taddeo himself; but the event
proved otherwise, because, even as in youth the will
conquers every difficulty in order to acquire fame,
so a certain negligence that the years bring with
them often causes a man, instead of advancing, to go
backwards, as did Agnolo. Having given so great a
proof of his talent, he was commissioned by the
family of Soderini, who had great hopes of him, to
paint the principal chapel of the Carmine, and he
painted therein all the life of Our Lady, so much
less well than he had done the resurrection of
Lazarus, that he gave every man to know that he had
little wish to attend with every effort to the art
of painting; for the reason that in all that great
work there is nothing else of the good save one
scene, wherein, round Our Lady, in a room, are many
maidens who are wearing diverse costumes and
headdresses, according to the diversity of the use
of those times, and are engaged in diverse
exercises: this one is spinning, that one is sewing,
that other is winding thread, one is weaving, and
others working in other ways, all passing well
conceived and executed by Agnolo.
For the noble
family of the Alberti, likewise, he painted in
fresco the principal chapel of the Church of S.
Croce, making therein all that came to pass in the
discovery of the Cross, and he executed that work
with much mastery of handling but not with much
design, for only the coloring is beautiful and good
enough. Next, in painting in fresco some stories of
S. Louis in the Chapel of the Bardi in the same
church, he acquitted himself much better. And
because he used to work by caprice, now with more
zeal and now with less, working in S. Spirito, also
in Florence, within the door that leads from the
square into the convent, he made in fresco, over
another door, a Madonna with the Child in her arms,
and S. Augustine and S. Nicholas, so well that the
said figures appear as if made only yesterday.
And because in a
certain manner there had come to Agnolo, by way of
inheritance, the secret of working in mosaic, and he
had at home the instruments and all the materials
that his grandfather Gaddo had used in this, he
would make something in mosaic when it pleased him,
merely to pass time and by reason of that
convenience of material, rather than for aught else.
Now, seeing that time had eaten away many of those
marbles that cover the eight faces of the roof of S.
Giovanni, and that the damp penetrating within had
therefore spoilt much of the mosaic which Andrea
Tafi had wrought there at a former time, the Consuls
of the Guild of Merchants determined, to the end
that the rest might not be spoilt, to rebuild the
greater part of that covering with marble, and in
like manner to have the mosaic restored. Wherefore,
the direction and commission for the whole being
given to Agnolo, he, in the year 1346, had it
recovered with new marbles and the pieces laid over
each other at the joinings, with unexampled
diligence, to the breadth of two fingers, cutting
each slab to the half of its thickness; then,
joining them together with cement made of mastic and
wax melted together, he fitted them with so great
diligence that from that time onwards neither the
roof nor the vaulting has received any damage from
the rains. Agnolo, having afterwards restored the
mosaic, brought it about by means of his counsel and
of a design very well conceived that there was
rebuilt, round the said church, all the upper
cornice of marble below the roof, in that form
wherein it now remains; which cornice was much
smaller than it is and very commonplace. Under
direction of the same man there was also made the
vaulting of the Great Hall of the Palace of the
Podesta, which before was directly under the roof,
to the end that, besides the adornment, fire might
not again be able to do it damage, as it had done a
long time before. After this, by the counsel of
Agnolo, there were made round the said Palace the
battlements that are there today, which before were
in no wise there.
The while that
these works were executing, he did not desert his
painting entirely, and painted in distemper, in the
panel that he made for the high altar of S.
Pancrazio, Our Lady, S. John the Baptist, and the
Evangelist, and beside them the Saints Nereus,
Archileus, and Pancratius, brothers, with other
Saints. But the best of this work nay, all that is
seen therein of the good is the predella alone,
which is all full of little figures, divided into
eight stories of the Madonna and of S. Reparata.
Next, in 1348, he painted the panel of the high
altar of S. Maria Maggiore, also in Florence, for
Barone Cappelli, making therein a passing good dance
of angels round a Coronation of Our Lady. A little
afterwards, in the Pieve of the district of Prato,
rebuilt under direction of Giovanni Pisano in the
year 1312, as it has been said above, Agnolo painted
in fresco, in the chapel wherein was deposited the
Girdle of Our Lady, many scenes of her life; and in
other churches of that district, which was full of
monasteries and convents held in great honor, he
made other works in plenty. In Florence, next, he
painted the arch over the door of S. Romeo; and in
Orto S. Michele he wrought in distemper a
Disputation of the Doctors with Christ in the
Temple. And at the same time, many houses having
been pulled down in order to enlarge the Piazza de'
Signori, and in particular the Church of S. Romolo,
this was rebuilt with the design of Agnolo. There
are many panels by his hand throughout the churches
in the said city, and many of his works may also be
recognized in the domain, which were wrought by him
with much profit to himself, although he worked more
in order to do as his forefathers had done than for
any love of it, having his mind directed on
commerce, which brought him better profit; as it is
seen when his sons, not wishing any longer to be
painters, gave themselves over completely to
commerce, holding a house open for this purpose in
Venice together with their father, who, from a
certain time onward, did not work save for his own
pleasure, and, in a certain manner, in order to pass
time. Having thus acquired great wealth by means of
trading and by means of his art, Agnolo died in the
sixty-third year of his life, overcome by a
malignant fever which in a few days made an end of
him.
His disciples were
Maestro Antonio da Ferrara, who made many beautiful
works in S. Francesco at Urbino, and at Citta' di
Castello; and Stefano da Verona, who painted in
fresco most perfectly, as it is seen in many places
at Verona, his native city, and also in many of his
works at Mantua. This man, among other things, was
excellent in giving very beautiful expressions to
the faces of children, of women, and of old men, as
it may be seen in his works, which were all imitated
and copied by that Piero da Perugia, illuminator,
who illuminated all the books that are in the
library of Pope Pius in the Duomo at Siena, and was
a practised colorist in fresco. A disciple of
Agnolo, also, was Michele da Milano, as was Giovanni
Gaddi, his brother, who made, in the cloister of S.
Spirito where are the little arches of Gaddo and of
Taddeo, the Disputation of Christ in the Temple with
the Doctors, the Purification of the Virgin, the
Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness, and the
Baptism of John; and finally, having created very
great expectation, he died. A pupil of the same
Agnolo in painting was Cennino di Drea Cennini of
Colle di Valdelsa, who, having very great affection
for the art, wrote a book describing the methods of
working in fresco, in distemper, in size, and in
gum, and, besides, how illuminating is done, and all
the methods of applying gold; which book is in the
hands of Giuliano, goldsmith of Siena, an excellent
master and a friend of these arts. And in the
beginning of this his book he treated of the nature
of colors, both the minerals and the earth colors,
according as he learnt from Agnolo his master,
wishing, for the reason perchance that he did not
succeed in learning to paint perfectly, at least to
know the nature of the colors, the distempers, the
sizes, and the application of gesso, and what colors
we must guard against as harmful in making the
mixtures, and in short many other considerations
whereof there is no need to discourse, there being
today a perfect knowledge of all those matters which
he held as great and very rare secrets in those
times.
But I will not
forbear to say that he makes no mention (and
perchance they may not have been in use) of some
earth colors, such as dark red earths, cinabrese,
and certain vitreous greens. Since then there have
been also discovered umber, which is an earth color,
giallo santo, the smalts both for fresco and for
oils, and some vitreous greens and yellows, wherein
the painters of that age were lacking. He treated
finally of mosaics, and of grinding colors in oils
in order to make grounds of red, blue, green, and in
other manners; and of the mordants for the
application of gold, but not then for figures.
Besides the works that he wrought in Florence with
his master, there is a Madonna with certain saints
by his hand under the loggia of the hospital of
Bonifazio Lupi, colored in such a manner that it has
been very well preserved up to our own day.
This Cennino, in
the first chapter of his said book, speaking of
himself, uses these very words: "I, Cennino di Drea
Cennini, of Colle di Valdelsa, was instructed in the
said art for twelve years by Agnolo di Taddeo of
Florence, my master, who learnt the said art from
Taddeo, his father, who was held at baptism by
Giotto and was his disciple for four-and-twenty
years; which Giotto transmuted the art of painting
from Greek into Latin, and brought it to the modern
manner, and had it for certain more perfected than
anyone ever had it." These are the very words of
Cennino, to whom it appeared that even as those who
translate any work from Greek into Latin confer very
great benefit on those who do not understand Greek,
so, too, did Giotto in transforming the art of
painting from a manner not understood or known by
anyone, save perchance as very rude, to a beautiful,
facile, and very pleasing manner, understood and
known as good by all who have judgment and the least
grain of reason.
All these disciples
of Agnolo did him very great honor, and he was
buried by his sons, to whom it is said that he left
the sum of fifty thousand florins or more, in S.
Maria Novella, in the tomb that he himself had made
for himself and for his descendants, in the year of
our salvation 1387. The portrait of Agnolo, made by
himself, is seen in the Chapel of the Alberti, S.
Croce, beside a door in the scene wherein, the
Emperor Heraclius is bearing the Cross; it is
painted in profile, with a little beard, and with a
rose-colored cap on his head according to the use of
those times. He was not excellent in
draughtsmanship, in so far as is shown by some
drawings by his hand that are in our book.
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BARNA DA SIENA
(active ca. 1340-1350s)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
IF THOSE WHO LABOR
to become excellent in some art did not very often
have the thread of life cut by death in their best
years, I have no doubt that many intellects would
arrive at that rank which is most desired both by
them and by the world. But the short life of men and
the bitterness of various accidents, which threaten
them from all sides, snatch them from us sometimes
prematurely, as could be seen in poor young Berna of
Siena, who, although he died young, nevertheless
left so many works that he appears to have lived
very long ; and those that he left were made in such
a way, that it may well be believed from this
showing that he would have become excellent and rare
if he had not died so soon. In two chapels of S.
Agostino in Siena there are seen some little
pictures with figures in fresco, by his hand; and in
the church, on a wall now pulled down in order to
make chapels there, was a scene of a youth led to
execution, as well made as it could possibly be
imagined, there being seen expressed in it the
pallor and fear of death, in so lifelike a manner
that he deserved therefore the highest praise.
Beside the said youth was a friar painted in a very
fine attitude, and, in short, everything in that
work is so vividly wrought that it appears, indeed,
that in this work Berna imagined this event as most
horrible, as it must be, and full of most bitter and
cruel terror, seeing that he portrayed it so well
with the brush that the same scene appearing in
reality would not stir greater emotion.
In the city of
Cortona, also, besides many other works scattered in
many places in that city, he painted the greater
part of the vaulting and of the walls of the Church
of S. Margherita, where today is the seat of the
Frati Zoccolanti. From Cortona he went to Arezzo in
the year 1369, exactly when the Tarlati, formerly
Lords of Pietramala, had caused Moccio, a sculptor
and architect of Siena, to finish the Convent and
the body of the Church of S. Agostino in that city,
in the lesser aisles of which many citizens had
caused chapels and tombs to be made for their
families; and there, in the Chapel of S. Jacopo,
Berna painted in fresco some little scenes of the
life of that Saint, and especially vivid is the
story of Marino the swindler, who, having by reason
of greed of gold given his soul to the Devil and
made thereunto a written contract in his own hand,
is making supplication to the Saint to free him from
this promise, while a Devil, showing him the
contract, is pressing him with the greatest
insistence in the world. In all these figures Berna
expressed the emotions of the mind with much
vivacity, and particularly in the face of Marino,
which shows on one side fear, and on the other the
faith and trust that make him hope for his
liberation from S. James, although opposite there is
seen the Devil, hideous to a marvel, who is warmly
speaking and declaring his rights to the Saint, who,
after having instilled into Marino extreme penitence
for his sin and for the promise made, is liberating
him and leading him back to God.
This same story,
says Lorenzo Ghiberti, by the hand of the same man,
was in a chapel of the Capponi, dedicated to S.
Nicholas, in S. Spirito at Florence, before that
church was burnt down. After this work, then, Berna
painted a great Crucifix in a chapel of the
Vescovado of Arezzo for Messer Guccio di Vanni
Tarlati da Pietramala, and at the foot of the Cross
a Madonna, S. John the Evangelist, and S. Francis,
in most sorrowful attitudes, together with a S.
Michelagnolo, with so much diligence that it merits
no small praise, and above all by reason of having
been so well preserved that it appears made only
yesterday. Below, moreover, is the portrait of the
said Guccio, kneeling in armor at the foot of the
Cross. In the Pieve of the same city, in the Chapel
of the Paganelli, he painted many stories of Our
Lady, and portrayed there after the life the Blessed
Rinieri, a holy man and prophet of that house, who
is giving alms to many beggars who are round him. In
S. Bartolommep, also, he painted some stories of the
Old Testament and the story of the Magi; and in the
Church of Spirito Santo he painted some stories of
S. John the Evangelist, and in certain figures the
portrait of himself and of many of his friends,
nobles of that city.
Returning after
these works to his own country, he made on wood many
pictures both small and great; but he made no long
stay there, because, being summoned to Florence, he
painted in S. Spirito the Chapel of S. Niccold,
which we have mentioned above, and which was much
extolled, and other works that were consumed in the
miserable burning of that church. In the Pieve of
San Gimignano in Valdelsa he wrought in fresco some
stories of the New Testament, which he had already
very nearly brought to completion, when, falling by
a strange accident from his scaffolding to the
ground, he bruised himself internally in such a
manner, and injured himself so grievously, that in
the space of two days, with greater loss to art than
to himself, who went to a better place, he passed
from this life. And the people of San Gimignano,
honouring him much in the way of obsequies, gave to
his body honorable burial in the aforesaid Pieve,
holding him after death in the same repute wherein
they had held him in life, and not ceasing for many
months to attach round his tomb epitaphs both Latin
and Italian, by reason of the men of that country
being naturally given to fine letters. So, then,
they conferred a suitable reward on the honest
labors of Berna, celebrating with their pens him who
had honored them with his pictures.
Giovanni da
Asciano, who was a pupil of Berna, brought to
completion the remainder of that work; and he
painted some pictures in the Hospital of the Scala
at Siena, and also some others in the old houses of
the Medici at Florence, which gave him considerable
fame. The works of Berna of Siena date about 1381.
And because, besides what has been said, Berna was
passing dexterous in draughtsmanship and was the
first who began to portray animals well, as bears
witness a drawing by his hand that is in our book,
all full of wild beasts of diverse sorts, he
deserves to be consummately praised and to have his
name held in honor by !; [sic] craftsmen. His
disciple, too, was Luca di Tome of Siena, who
painted many works in Siena and throughout all
Tuscany, and in particular the panel and the chapel
that are in S. Domenico at Arezzo, belonging to the
family of the Dragomanni; which chapel, German in
architecture, was very well adorned, by means of the
said panel and of the work that is therein in
fresco, by the hand and by the judgment and genius
of Luca of Siena.
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Duccio
PAINTER OF SIENA
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
WITHOUT DOUBT those
who are inventors of anything notable receive the
greatest attention from the pens of the writers of
history, and this comes to pass because the first
inventions are more observed and held in greater
marvel, by reason of the delight that the novelty of
the thing brings with it, than all the improvements
made afterwards by any man whatsoever when works are
brought to the height of perfection, for the reason
that if a beginning were never given to anything,
there would be no advance and improvement in the
middle stages, and the end would not become
excellent and of a marvellous beauty. Duccio, then,
painter of Siena and much esteemed, deserved to
carry off the palm from those who came many years
after him, since in the pavement of the Duomo of
Siena he made a beginning in marble for the inlaid
work of the figures in chiaroscuro, wherein today
modern craftsmen have made the marvels that are seen
in them. He applied himself to the imitation of the
old manner, and with very sane judgment gave
dignified forms to his figures, which he fashioned
very excellently in spite of the difficulties of
such an art. With his own hand, imitating the
pictures in chiaroscuro, he arranged and designed
the beginnings of the said pavement, and he made in
the Duomo a panel that was then placed on the high
altar, and afterwards removed thence in order to
place there the Tabernacle of the Body of Christ,
which is seen there at the present day. In this
panel, according to the description of Lorenzo di
Bartolo Ghiberti, there was a Coronation of Our
Lady, wrought, as it were, in the Greek manner, but
blended considerably with the modern. And as it was
painted both on the back part and on the front, the
said high altar being isolated right round, on the
said back part there had been made by Duccio with
much diligence all the principal stories of the New
Testament, with very beautiful little figures. I
have sought to learn where this panel is to be found
today, but, for all the diligence that I have
thereunto used, I have never been able to discover
it, or to learn what Francesco di Giorgio, the
sculptor, did with it when he remade the said
tabernacle in bronze, as well as the marble
ornaments that are therein.
He made, likewise,
many panels on grounds of gold throughout Siena, and
one in Florence, in S. Trinita, wherein there is an
Annunciation. He painted, next, very many works for
diverse churches in Pisa, in Lucca, and in Pistoia,
which were all consummately praised and acquired for
him very great fame and profit. Finally, it is not
known where this Duccio died, nor what relatives,
disciples, or wealth he left; it is enough that, for
having left art the heir to his invention of making
pictures of marble in chiaroscuro, he deserves
infinite commendation and praise for such a benefit
to art, and that he can be assuredly numbered among
the benefactors who confer advancement and adornment
on our profession, considering that those who go on
investigating the difficulties of rare inventions
leave their memory behind them, besides all their
marvellous works.
They say in Siena
that Duccio, in the year 1348, gave the design for
the chapel that is in the square, against the wall
of the Palazzo Principale; and it is read that there
lived in his times a sculptor and architect of
passing good talent from the same country, named
Moccio, who made many works throughout all Tuscany,
and particularly one in the Church of S. Domenico in
Arezzo, namely, a tomb of marble for one of the
Cerchi, which tomb acts as support and ornament for
the organ of the said church; and although it may
appear to some that it is not a very excellent work,
yet, if it is considered that he made it while still
a youth, in the year 1356, it cannot but seem
passing good. This man served in the building of S.
Maria del Fiore as under-architect and as sculptor,
making certain works in marble for that fabric; and
in Arezzo he rebuilt the Church of S. Agostino,
which was small, in the manner that it is today, and
the expense was borne by the heirs of Piero Saccone
de' Tarlati, according as he had ordained before he
died in Bibbiena, a place in the Casentino; and
because Moccio erected this church without any
vaulting, and laid the weight of the roof on the
arches of the columns, he exposed himself to a great
peril and was truly too bold. The same man made the
Church and Convent of S. Antonio, which, before the
siege of Florence, was at the Porta a Faenza, and
today is wholly ruined; and he wrought in sculpture
the door of S. Agostino in Ancona, with many figures
and ornaments similar to those which are on the door
of S. Francesco in the same city. In this Church of
S. Agostino he also made the tomb of Fra Zenone
Vigilanti, Bishop, and General of the Order of the
said S. Augustine; and finally, he built the Loggia
de' Mercatanti of that city, which has since
received, now for one reason and now for another,
many improvements in the modern manner, with
ornaments of various sorts. All these works,
although they are in these days much less than
passable, were then much extolled, according to the
standard of knowledge of these men. But returning to
our Duccio, his works date about the year of our
salvation 1350.
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ANTONIO VENEZIANO
(Antonio Viniziano) (active 1369-after 13 March
1419)
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
MANY who would fain
stay in the country where they are born, being torn
by the tooth of envy and oppressed by the tyranny of
their fellow citizens, take themselves off, and
choosing for country those places where they find
that their talent is recognized and rewarded, they
make their works therein; and striving to become
very excellent in order to put to shame, in some
sort, those by whom they have been outraged, they
become very often great men, whereas, by staying
quietly in their country, they would peradventure
have had little more than a mediocre success in
their arts. Antonio Viniziano, who betook himself to
Florence in the wake of Agnolo Gaddi in order to
learn painting, grasped the good method of working
so well that he was not only esteemed and loved by
the Florentines, but also greatly cherished by
reason of this talent and of his other good
qualities. Whereupon, being seized by a wish to show
himself in his own city in order to enjoy some fruit
of the fatigues endured by him, he returned to
Venice, where, having made himself known by many
works wrought in fresco and in distemper, he was
commissioned by the Signoria to paint one of the
walls of the Council Chamber. This he executed so
excellently and with so great majesty that,
according to his merit, he would have obtained an
honorable reward; but the emulation, or rather, the
envy of the craftsmen, and the favor that some
gentlemen showed to other painters from abroad,
caused the affair to fall out otherwise.
Wherefore the poor
Antonio, finding himself thus crushed and overborne,
took the wiser part and returned to Florence, with
the intention never again to consent to return to
Venice, and determined once and for all that his
country should be Florence. Establishing himself,
then, in that city, he painted in the cloister of S.
Spirito, in a little arch, a Christ who is calling
Peter and Andrew from their nets, and Zebedee and
his sons; and below the three little arches of
Stefano he painted the story of the miracle of
Christ with the loaves and fishes, wherein he showed
infinite diligence and lovingness, as it is clearly
seen in the figure of Christ Himself, who, in the
air of His countenance and in His aspect, is showing
the compassion that He has for the multitude, and
the ardor of the love wherewith He is causing the
bread to be dispensed. Great affection, likewise, is
seen in the very beautiful action of an Apostle, who
is exerting himself greatly in dispensing the bread
from a basket. From this work all who belong to art
learn ever to paint their figures in a manner that
they may appear to be speaking, for otherwise they
are not prized. Antonio demonstrated the same thing
on the outer frontal in a little scene of the Manna,
wrought with so great diligence, and finished with
so fine grace, that it can be truly called
excellent. Afterwards, in S. Stefano al Ponte
Vecchio, on the predella of the high altar, he made
some stories of S. Stephen, with so great lovingness
that it is not possible to see either more gracious
or more beautiful figures, even if they were done in
miniature. In S. Antonio al Ponte alia Carraja,
moreover, he painted the arch over the door, which,
with the whole church, was thrown to the ground in
our own day by Monsignor Ricasoli, Bishop of
Pistoia, because it took away the view from his
houses; although, even if he had not done this, we
should today, in any case, be deprived of that work,
the late flood of 1557, as it has been said before,
having carried away on that side two arches and the
abutment of the bridge on which was built the said
little Church of S. Antonio.
Antonio, being
summoned after these works to Pisa by the Warden of
Works of the Campo Santo, continued therein the
painting of the stories of the Blessed Ranieri, a
holy man of that city, formerly begun by Simone
Sanese, following his arrangement. In the first part
of the work painted by Antonio there is seen, in
company with the said Ranieri when he is embarking
in order to return to Pisa, a good number of figures
wrought with diligence, among which is the portrait
of Count Gaddo, who died ten years before, and that
of Neri, his uncle, once Lord of Pisa. Among the
said figures, also, that of a maniac is very
notable, for, with the features of madness, with the
person writhing in distorted gestures, the eyes
blazing, and the mouth gnashing and showing the
teeth, it resembles a real maniac so greatly that it
is not possible to imagine either a more lifelike
picture or one more true to nature.
In the next part,
which is beside that named above, three figures (who
are marvelling to see the Blessed Ranieri showing
the Devil, in the form of a cat on a barrel, to a
fat host, who has the air of a gay companion, and
who, all fearful, is commending himself to the
Saint) can be said to be truly very beautiful, being
very well executed in the attitudes, the manner of
the draperies, the variety of the heads, and all the
other parts. Not far away are the host's womenfolk,
and they, too, could not be wrought with more grace,
Antonio having made them with certain tucked-up
garments and with certain ways so peculiar to women
who serve in hostelries, that nothing better can be
imagined. Nor could that scene likewise be more
pleasing than it is, wherein the Canons of the Duomo
of Pisa, in very beautiful vestments of those times,
no little different from those that are used today
and very graceful, are receiving S. Ranieri at
table, all the figures being made with much
consideration. Next, in the painting of the death of
the said Saint, he expressed very well not only the
effect of weeping, but also the movement of certain
angels who are bearing his soul to Heaven,
surrounded by a light most resplendent and made with
beautiful invention. And truly one cannot but marvel
as one sees, in the bearing of the body of that
Saint by the clergy to the Duomo, certain priests
who are singing, for in their gestures, in the
actions of their persons, and in all their
movements, as they chant diverse parts, they bear a
marvellous resemblance to a choir of singers; and in
that scene, so it is said, is the portrait of the
Bavarian.
In like manner, the
miracles that Ranieri wrought as he was borne to his
tomb, and those that he wrought in another place
when already laid to rest therein in the Duomo, were
painted with very great diligence by Antonio, who
made there blind men receiving their sight,
paralytics regaining the use of their members, men
possessed by the Devil being delivered, and other
miracles, all represented very vividly. But among
all the other figures, that of a dropsical man
deserves to be considered with marvel, for the
reason that, with the face withered, with the lips
shrivelled, and with the body swollen, he is such
that a living man could not show more than does this
picture the very great thirst of the dropsical and
the other effects of that malady. A wonderful thing,
too, in those times, was a ship that he made in this
work, which, being in travail in a tempest, was
saved by that Saint; for he made therein with great
vivacity all the actions of the mariners, and
everything which is wont to befall in such accidents
and travailings. Some are casting into the
insatiable sea, without a thought, the precious
merchandize won by so much sweat and labor, others
are running to see to their vessel, which is
breaking up, and others, finally, to other mariners'
duties, whereof it would take too long to relate the
whole; it is enough to say that all are made with so
great vividness and beautiful method that it is a
marvel.
In the same place,
below the lives of the Holy Fathers painted by
Pietro Laurati of Siena, Antonio made the body of
the Blessed Oliverio (together with the Abbot
Panuzio, and many events of their lives), in a
sarcophagus painted to look like marble; which
figure is very well painted. In short, all these
works that Antonio made in the Campo Santo are such
that they have been universally held, and with great
reason, the best of all those that have been wrought
by many excellent masters at various times in that
place, for the reason that, besides the particulars
mentioned, the fact that he painted everything in
fresco, never retouching any part on the dry,
brought it about that up to our day they have
remained so vivid in the coloring that they can
teach the followers of that art and make them
understand how greatly the retouching of works in
fresco with other colours, after they are dry,
causes injury to their pictures and labors, as it
has been said in the treatise on Theory; for it is a
very certain fact that they are aged, ' and not
allowed to be purified by time, by being covered
with colors that have a different body, being
tempered with gums, with tragacanths, with eggs,
with size, or some other similar substance, which
tarnishes what is below, and does not allow the
course of time and the air to purify that which has
been truly wrought in fresco on the soft plaster, as
they would have done if other colours had not been
superimposed on the dry.
Having finished
this work, which, being truly worthy of all praise,
brought him honorable payment from the Pisans, who
loved him greatly ever afterwards, Antonio returned
to Florence, where, at Nuovoli without the Porta a
Prato, he painted in a shrine, for Giovanni degli
Agli, a Dead Christ, the story of the Magi with many
figures, and a very beautiful Day of judgment.
Summoned, next, to the Certosa, he painted for the
Acciaiuoli, who built that place, the panel of the
high altar, which was consumed by fire in our day by
reason of the inadvertence of a sacristan of that
monastery, who left the thurible full of fire
hanging from the altar, wherefore the panel was
burnt, and afterwards the altar was made by those
monks, as it stands today, entirely of marble. In
that same place, also, the same master made in
fresco, over a wardrobe that is in the said chapel,
a Transfiguration of Christ which is very beautiful.
And because he studied the science of herbs in
Dioscorides, being much inclined thereunto by
nature, and delighting to understand the property
and virtue of each one of them, at last he abandoned
painting and gave himself to the distilling of
simples and to seeking them out with all diligence.
Changing thus from
painter to physician, for a long time he followed
this art. Finally, falling sick from disease of the
stomach, or, as others say, from plague caught while
acting as physician, he finished the course of his
life at the age of seventy-four, in the year 1384,
when there was a very great plague in Florence,
having been no less expert as physician than he was
diligent as painter; wherefore, having made infinite
experiments in medicine by means of those who had
availed Themselves of him in their necessities, he
left to the world a very good name for himself in
both one and the other of these arts. Antonio drew
very graciously with the pen, and so well in
chiaroscuro, that some drawings by him which are in
our book, wherein he made the little arch of S.
Spirito, are the best of those times. A disciple of
Antonio was Gherardo Stamina, the Florentine, who
imitated him greatly; and Paolo Uccello, who was
likewise his disciple, did him no small honor.
The portrait of
Antonio Viniziano, by his own hand, is in the Campo
Santo in Pisa.
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LIFE OF JACOPO DI
CASENTINO (1297- 1358)
PAINTER
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
Now that the fame
and the renown of the pictures of Giotto and his
disciples had been heard for many years, many,
desirous of acquiring fame and riches by means of
the art of painting, and animated by zealous
aspirations and by the inclination of nature, began
to advance towards the improvement of the art, with
a firm belief that, exercising themselves therein,
they would surpass in excellence both Giotto and
Taddeo and the other painters. Among these was one
Jacopo di Casentino, who, being born, as it is read,
of the family of Messer Cristoforo Landino of
Pratovecchio, was apprenticed by a friar of the
Casentino, then Prior at the Sasso della Vernia, to
Taddeo Gaddi, while Taddeo was working in that
convent, to the end that he might learn drawing and
colouring in the art, wherein in a few years he
succeeded so well that, betaking himself to Florence
and executing many works in company with Giovanni da
Milano in the service of Taddeo their master, he was
made to paint the shrine of the Madonna of the
Mercato Vecchio, with the panel in distemper, and
likewise the one at the corner of the Piazza di S.
Niccolo and the Via del Cocomero, which were
restored a few years ago, both one and the other, by
a worse master than was Jacopo ; and for the Dyers
he painted that which is in S. Nofri, at the corner
of the wall of their garden, opposite to S.
Giuseppe. In the meanwhile, the vaults of
Orsanmichele over the twelve piers having been
brought to a finish, a low rustic roof was placed
upon them, in order to pursue as soon as might be
possible the building of that palace, which was to
be the granary of the Commune; and it was given to
Jacopo di Casentino, as a person then much
practised, to paint these vaults, with instructions
that he should make there, as he did, together with
the patriarchs, some prophets and the chiefs of the
tribes, which were in all sixteen figures on a
ground of ultramarine, today half spoilt, not to
mention the other ornaments. Next, on the walls
below and on the piers, he made many miracles of the
Madonna, and other works that are recognized by the
manner.
This work finished,
Jacopo returned to the Casentino. and after he had
made many works in Pratovecchio, in Poppi, and other
places in that valley, he betook himself to Arezzo,
which then governed itself with the counsel of sixty
of its richest and most honoured citizens, to whose
care was committed the whole administration. There,
in the principal chapel of the Vescovado, he painted
a story of S. Martin, and in the Duomo Vecchio, now
in ruins, a number of pictures, among which was the
portrait of Pope Innocent VI, in the principal
chapel. Next, in the Church of S. Bartolommeo, for
the Chapter of the Canons of the Pieve, he painted
the wall where the high altar is, and the Chapel of
S. Maria della Neve; and in the old Company of S.
Giovanni de' Peducci he made many stories of that
Saint, which today are covered with whitewash. In
the Church of S. Domenico, likewise, he painted the
Chapel of S. Cristofano, portraying there from
nature the Blessed Masuolo, who is liberating from
prison a merchant of the Fei family, who caused that
chapel to be built; which Blessed Masuolo, as
prophet, predicted many misadventures to the
Aretines in his lifetime. In the Church of S.
Agostino, in the chapel and on the altar of the
Nardi, he painted in fresco some stories of S.
Laurence, with marvellous manner and execution.
And because he
exercised himself also in the things of
architecture, by order of the sixty aforesaid
citizens he reconducted under the walls of Arezzo
the water that comes from the foot of the hill of
Pori, three hundred braccia distant from the city.
This water, in the time of the Romans, had been
brought first to the theatre, whereof the remains
are still there, and from that theatre, which was on
the hill where today there is the fortress, to the
amphitheatre of the same city, on the plain; but
these edifices and conduits were wholly ruined and
spoilt by the Goths. Jacopo, then, as it has been
said, having brought this water below the walls,
made the fountain which was then called the Fonte
Guizianelli, and which is now named, by the
corruption of the word, the Fonte Viniziana; this
work endured from that time, which was the year
1354, up to the year 1527, and no more, for the
reason that the plague of that year, the war that
came afterwards, the fact that many intercepted the
water at their own convenience for the use of their
gardens, and still more the fact that Jacopo did not
sink it, brought it about that today it is not, as
it should be, standing.
The while that the
aqueduct was going on being built, Jacopo, not
leaving aside his painting, wrought many scenes from
the acts of Bishop Guido and Piero Sacconi in the
palace that was in the old citadel, now in ruins ;
for these men, both in peace and in war, had done
great and honourable deeds for that city. In the
Pieve, likewise, below the organ, he wrought the
story of S. Matthew and many other works. [And so,
making works with his own hand throughout the whole
city, he showed to Spinello Aretino the principles
of that art which was taught to him by Agnolo, and
which Spinello taught afterwards to Bernardo Daddi,
who, working in his own city, honored it with many
beautiful works of painting, which, together with
his other most noble qualities, brought it about
that he was much honoured by his fellow citizens,
who employed him much in magistracies and in other
public affairs. The paintings of Bernardo were many
and in much esteem, and above all the Chapel of S.
Lorenzo and of S. Stefano, belonging to the Pulci
and Berardi, in S. Croce, and many other paintings
in diverse places in the said church. Finally,
having made some pictures over the gates of the city
of Florence on the inner side, he died, laden with
years, and was given honourable burial in S.
Felicita, in the year 1380.
But returning to
Jacopo; besides what has been told, in his time, in
the year 1350, there was founded the Company and
Confraternity of Painters; for the masters who were
then living, both those of the old Greek manner and
those of the new manner of Cimabue, being a great
number, and reflecting that the arts of design had
had their new birth in Tuscany nay rather, in
Florence itself created the said Company under the
name and protection of S. Luke the Evangelist, both
in order to render praise and thanks to God in its
oratory, and also to come together sometimes and to
give succour, in spiritual matters as well as in
temporal, to anyone who on occasion might have need
of it; which custom is also in use among many Guilds
in Florence, but was much more so in ancient times.
Their first oratory was the principal chapel of the
Hospital of S. Maria Nuova, which was conceded to
them by the family of the Portinari. And those who
were the first governors of the said Company, with
the title of captains, were six, besides two
counsellors and two treasurers, as it may be seen in
the old book of the said Company, begun at that
time, whereof the first chapter begins thus: "These
articles and ordinances were drawn up and made by
good and discreet men of the Guild of Painters in
Florence, and at the time of Lapo Gucci, painter;
Vanni Cinuzzi, painter; Corsino Buonaiuti, painter;
Pasquino Cenni, painter; Segna d' Antignano,
painter. The counsellors were Bernardo Daddi and
Jacopo di Casentino, painters; and the treasurers,
Consiglio Gherardi and Domenico Pucci, painters."
The said Company
being created in this way, at the request of the
captains and of the others Jacopo di Casentino
painted the panel of their chapel, making therein a
S. Luke who is portraying Our Lady in a picture, and
on one side of the predella the men of the Company,
and on the other all the women, kneeling. From this
beginning, sometimes assembling and sometimes not,
this Company has continued up to its arrival at the
condition wherein it stands today, as it is narrated
in its new articles, approved by the most
Illustrious Lord Duke Cosimo, most benign protector
of these arts of design.
Finally, being
heavy with years and much fatigued, Jacopo returned
to the Casentino, and died in Pratovecchio at the
age of eighty, and was buried by his relatives and
friends in S. Agnolo, the Abbey of the Order of
Camaldoli, without Pratovecchio. His portrait, by
the hand of Spinello, was in the Duomo Vecchio, in a
story of the Magi; and of the manner of his drawing
there is an example in our book.
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LIFE OF SPINELLO
ARETINO (c. 1345 - 1410)
PAINTER
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
LUCA SPINELLI
having gone to dwell in Arezzo on one of the several
occasions when the Ghibellines were driven out of
Florence, there was born to him in that city a son,
to whom he gave the name of Spinello, so much
inclined by nature to be a painter, that almost
without a master, while still a boy, he knew what
many exercised under the discipline of the best
masters do not know; and what is more, having had
friendship with Jacopo di Casentino while he worked
in Arezzo, and having learnt something from him,
before he was twenty years of age he was by a long
way a much better master, young as he was, than was
Jacopo himself, already an old painter. Spinello,
then, began to be reputed a good painter, and Messer
Dardano Acciaiuoli, having caused the Church of S.
Niccol6 to be built near the Sala del Papa, behind
S. Maria Novella, in the Via della Scala, and having
given burial therein to one his brother, a Bishop,
caused him to paint the whole of that church in
fresco with stories of S. Nicholas, Bishop of Bari;
and he delivered it completely finished in the year
1334, having been at work on it two years without
ceasing. In this work Spinello acquitted himself so
well, both in the colouring and in the design, that
up to our own day the colours had remained very well
preserved and the excellence of the figures was
clearly visible, when, a few years since, they were
in great part spoilt by a fire that burst out
unexpectedly in that church, which had been unwisely
filled with straw by some foolish men who made use
of it as a barn or storehouse for straw. Attracted
by the fame of this work, Messer Barone Capelli,
citizen of Florence, caused Spinello to paint in
fresco, in the principal chapel of S. Maria
Maggiore, many stories of the Madonna and some of S.
Anthony the Abbot, and near these the consecration
of that very ancient church, consecrated by Pope
Paschal, second of that name; and all this Spinello
wrought so well that it appears made all in one day,
and not in many months, as it was.
Beside the said
Pope is the portrait of Messer Barone himself from
the life, in the dress of those times, made very
well and with very good judgment. This chapel
finished, Spinello painted in fresco, in the Church
of the Carmine, the Chapel of S. James and S. John,
the Apostles, wherein, among other things, there is
wrought with much diligence the scene when the wife
of Zebedee, mother of James, is demanding of Jesus
Christ that He should cause one of her sons to sit
on the right hand of the Father in the Kingdom of
Heaven, and the other on the left; and a little
beyond are seen Zebedee, James, and John abandoning
their nets and following Christ, with liveliness and
admirable manner. In another chajgel of the same
church, which is beside the principal chapel,
Spinello made, also in fresco, some stories of the
Madonna, and the Apostles appearing to her
miraculously before her death, and likewise the
moment when she dies and is then borne to Heaven by
the Angels. And because the scene was large and the
diminutive chapel, which was not longer than ten
braccia and not higher than five, would not contain
the whole, and above all the Assumption of Our Lady
herself, Spinello, with beautiful judgment, caused
it to curve round within the length of the picture,
on to a part where Christ and the Angels are
receiving her. In a chapel in S. Trinita he made in
fresco a very beautiful Annunciation; and in the
Church of S. Apostolo, on the panel of the high
altar, he made in distemper the Holy Spirit being
sent down on the Apostles in tongues of fire. In S.
Lucia de' Bardi, likewise, he painted a little
panel, and another in S. Croce, larger, for the
Chapel of S. Giovanni Battista, which was painted by
Giotto.
After these works,
being recalled to Arezzo by the sixty citizens who
governed that place, by reason of the great name
that he had acquired while working in Florence, he
was made by the Commune to paint the story of the
Magi in the Church of the Duomo Vecchio, without the
city, and, in the Chapel of S. Gismondo, a S.
Donatus who is slaying a serpent with his
benediction. In like manner, he made diverse figures
on many pilasters in that Duomo, and, on a wall, the
Magdalene anointing the feet of Christ in the house
of Simon; with other pictures, whereof there is no
need to make mention, since that church, which was
full of tombs, of bones of saints, and of other
memorable things, is to-day wholly ruined. [l will
say, indeed, to the end that there may at least
remain this memory of it, that it was erected by the
Aretines more than thirteen hundred years since, at
the time when first they came into the faith of
Jesus Christ, converted by S. Donatus, who was
afterwards & Bishop of that city; and that it was
dedicated to his name, and richly adorned, both
within and without, with very ancient spoils. The
ground- plan of this edifice, whereof we have
discoursed at length in another place, was divided
without into sixteen sides, and within into eight,
and all were full of the spoils of those temples
which before had been dedicated to the idols; and it
was, in short, as beautiful as a temple thus made
and very ancient can be, when it was destroyed.
After the many
pictures made in the Duomo, Spinello painted in S.
Francesco, in ihe Chapel of the Marsuppini, Pope
Honorius con- firming and approving the Order of
that Saint, and made there from nature the portrait
of Innocent IV, from whatsoever source he had it. He
painted also in the same church, in the Chapel of S.
Michelagnolo, many stories of him, in the place
where the bells are rung ; and a little below, in
the Chapel of Messer Giuliano Baccio, an
Annunciation, with other figures, which are much
praised; all which works made in this church were
wrought in fresco, with very resolute handling, from
1334 up to 1338. Next, in the Pieve of the same
city, he painted the Chapel of S. Pietro e S. Paolo,
and below it, that of S. Michelagnolo ; and, for the
Confraternity of S. Maria della Misericordia, he
painted in fresco, on the same side of the church,
the Chapel of S. Jacopo e S.Filippo; found over the
principal door of the Confraternity, which opens on
to the square namely, on the arch he painted a
Pieta, with a S. John, at the request of the Rectors
of that Confraternity, which had its origin in the
following way. A certain number of good and
honorable citizens had begun to go about collecting
alms for the poor who were ashamed to beg, and to
succour them in all their needs: and in the year of
the plague of 1348, by reason of the great name
acquired by these good men for the Confraternity in
assisting the poor and the sick, in burying the
dead, and in doing other similar works of charity,
so many were the legacies, the donations, and the
inheritances that were left to it, that it inherited
the third of the riches of Arezzo; and the same came
to pass in the year 1383, when there was likewise a
great plague. Spinello, then, belonging to this
Company, it was often his turn to visit the sick, to
bury the dead, and to do other similar pious
exercises, such as the best citizens of that city
have ever done and still do today; and in order to
make some memorial of this in his pictures, he
painted for that Company, on the facade of the
Church of S. Laurentino e S. Pergentino, a Madonna
who, having her mantle open in front, has under it
the people of Arezzo, among whom are portrayed from
life many of the chief men of the Confraternity,
with their wallets on their shoulders and with
wooden hammers in their hands, like to those that
they use for knocking at the doors when they go
seeking alms. In like manner, for the Company of the
Annunciation he painted the great shrine that is
without the church, and part of a portico that is
opposite to it, and the panel of that Company,
wherein there is likewise an Annunciation in
distemper. A work of Spinello' s, likewise, is the
panel which is now in the Church of the Nuns of S.
Giusto, wherein a little Christ, who is in the arms
of His mother, is marrying S. Catherine, together
with six little scenes, with small figures, of her
acts; and it is much praised.
Being next summoned
to the famous Abbey of Camaldoli in the Casentino,
in the year 1361, he made for the hermits of that
place the panel of the high altar, which was removed
in the year 1539, when, that church having been just
rebuilt completely anew, Giorgio Vasari made a new
panel, and painted in fresco the whole of the
principal chapel of that abbey, and the tramezzo of
the church, also in fresco, and two other panels.
Summoned thence to Florence by Don Jacopo d' Arezzo,
Abbot of S. Miniato sul Monte, of the Order of Monte
Oliveto, Spinello painted on the vaulting and on the
four walls of the sacristy of that monastery,
besides the panel in distemper for the altar, many
scenes in fresco of the life of S. Benedict, with
great mastery and with much vivacity of colouring,
learnt by him by means of long practice and of
labouring continually with zeal and diligence, even
as in truth all must do who wish to acquire any art
perfectly.
After these works,
the said Abbot departed from Florence, having been
made Governor of the Monastery of S. Bernardo, of
the same Order, in his own country, precisely when
the building was almost wholly finished on the site
conceded by the Aretines to those monks, just where
there was the Colosseum; and he caused Spinello to
paint in fresco two chapels that are beside the
principal chapel, and two others that are one on
either side of the door that leads into the choir,
in the tramezzo * of the church. In one of these,
which is beside the principal chapel, is an
Annunciation in fresco, made with very great
diligence, and on a wall beside it is the Madonna
ascending the steps of the Temple, accompanied by
Joachim and Anna. In the other chapel is a Christ
Crucified, with the Madonna and S. John, who are
bewailing Him, and a S. Bernard kneeling, who is
adoring Him. He made, also, on that inner wall of
the church where there is the altar of Our Lady, the
Virgin herself with her Son in her arms, which was
held a very beautiful figure ; together with many
others that he made for that church, over the choir
of which he painted Our Lady, S. Mary Magdalene, and
S. Bernard, very vividly. In the Pieve of Arezzo,
likewise, in the Chapel of S. Bartolommeo, he made
many scenes of the life of that Saint; and opposite
to it, in the other aisle, in the Chapel of S.
Matteo (which is below the organ, and was painted by
Jacopo di Casentino, his master), he made in certain
medallions on the vaulting besides many stories of
that Saint, which are passing good the four
Evangelists in a bizarre manner, seeing that, making
the busts and members human, he gave to S. John the
head of an eagle, to Mark the head of a lion, to
Luke that of an ox, and to Matthew alone the face of
a man, or rather, of an angel.
Without Arezzo,
also, in the Church of S. Stefano, erected by the
Aretines on many columns of granite and of marble in
order to honour and to preserve the memory of many
martyrs who were put to death by Julian the Apostate
on that spot, he painted many figures and scenes,
with infinite diligence, and with such a manner of
colouring that they had remained very fresh up to
our own day, when, not many years since, they were
ruined. But what was marvellous in that place,
besides the stories of S. Stephen made with figures
larger than life, was to see Joseph, in a story of
the Magi, beside himself with joy at the coming of
those Kings, on whom he was gazing with most
beautiful manner, while they were opening their
vessels full of treasures and were offering them to
him. A Madonna in that same church, who is handing a
rose to the Infant Christ, was and still is held in
so great veneration among the Aretines, as being a
very beautiful and devout figure, that without
regard for any difficulty or expense, when the
Church of S. Stefano was thrown to the ground, they
cut the wall away round her, and, binding it
together ingeniously, they bore her into the city
and placed her in a little church, in order to honor
her, as they do, with the same devotion that they
showed to her before. Nor should this appear
anything wonderful, because, it having been
something peculiar and natural to Spinello to give
to his figures a certain simple grace, which has
much of the modest and the saintly, it appears that
the figures that he made of saints, and above all of
the Virgin, breathe out a certain quality of the
saintly and the divine, which moves men to hold them
in supreme reverence; as it may be seen, apart from
the said figure, in the Madonna that is on the Canto
degli Albergotti, and in that which is on an outer
wall of the Pieve in the Seteria, and in one of the
same sort, likewise, that is on the Canto del
Canale. By the hand of Spinello, also, on a wall of
the Hospital of Spirito Santo, is a scene of the
Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit, which is very
beautiful; and so, too, are the two scenes below,
wherein S. Cosimo and S. Damiano are cutting off a
sound leg from a dead Moor, in order to attach it to
a sick man, from whom they had cut off one that was
mortified; and likewise the very beautiful "Noli me
tangere," which is between those two works. In the
Company of the Puraccioli, on the Piazza di S.
Agostino, in a chapel, he made an Annunciation very
well coloured, and in the cloister of that convent
he wrought in fresco a Madonna, a S. James, and a S.
Anthony; and he portrayed there a soldier in armour
on his knees, with these words:
HOC OPUS FECIT
FIERI
CLEMENS PUCCI DE
MONTE CATINO, CUJUS CORPUS JACET HIC, ETC. ANNO
DOMINI 1367, DIE 15
MENSIS MAIL
Likewise, with
regard to the chapel that is in that church, with
paintings of S. Anthony and other Saints, it is
known by the manner that they are by the hand of
Spinello, who, shortly afterwards, working in the
Hospital of S. Marco (which is today the Monastery
of the Nuns of S. Croce, by reason of their
monastery, which was without the city, having been
thrown to the ground), painted a whole portico with
many figures, and portrayed there Pope Gregory IX
from nature, to represent S. Gregory the Pope, who
is standing beside a Misericordia.
The Chapel of S.
Jacopo e S. Filippo, which is in S. Domenico in the
same city, just as one enters the church, was
wrought in fresco by Spinello with beautiful and
resolute handling, as was also the half- length of
S. Anthony painted on the fa9ade of his church, so
beautiful that he appears alive, in the midst of
four scenes of his life ; which same scenes, with
many more also of the life of S. Anthony, likewise
by the hand of Spinello, are in the Church of S.
Giustino, in the Chapel of S. Antonio. In the Church
of S. Lorenzo, on one side, he made some stories of
the Madonna, and without the church he painted her
seated, showing great grace in this work in fresco.
In a little hospital opposite to the Nunnery of S.
Spirito, near the gate that leads to Rome, he
painted a portico entirely by his own hand, showing,
in a Christ lying dead in the lap of the Maries, so
great genius and judgment in painting, that he is
recognized to have proved himself the peer of Giotto
in design, and to have surpassed him by a long way
in colouring. In the same place, also, he
represented Christ seated, with a theological
significance very ingeniously contrived, having
placed the Trinity within a sun in such wise that
from each of the three figures there are seen
issuing the same rays and the same splendour. But to
this work, to the great loss, truly, of the lovers
of this art, there has befallen the same thing as to
many others, for it was thrown to the ground in
fortifying the city. Without the Church of the
Company of the Trinita there is seen a shrine
wrought very well in fresco by Spinello, containing
the Trinity, S. Peter, and S. Cosimo and S. Damiano
clothed in such garments as physicians used to wear
in those times.
The while that
these works were in progress, Don Jacopo d' Arezzo
was made General of the Congregation of Monte
Oliveto, nineteen years after he had caused many
works to be wrought in Florence and in Arezzo, as it
has been said above, by our Spinello; and living,
according to the custom of these dignitaries, at
Monte Oliveto Maggiore di Chiusuri in the district
of Siena, as the most honored seat of that Order, he
conceived a desire to have a very beautiful panel
made in that place. Sending therefore for Spinello,
by whom he had found himself very well served at
another time, he caused him to paint in distemper
the panel of the principal chapel, wherein Spinello
made an infinite number of figures both great and
small on a ground of gold, with much judgment; and
an ornament being made for it afterwards, carved in
half-relief, by Simone Cini, the Florentine, he made
for it in certain parts, with gesso mixed with size
and rather thick, or truly gelatinous, another
ornament which turned out very beautiful, and which
was afterwards all overlaid with gold by Gabriello
Saracini, who wrote at the foot of the said panel
these three names:
SIMONE CINI, THE
FLORENTINE, MADE THE CARVING J GABRIELLO SARACINI
OVERLAID IT WITH GOLD ; AND SPINELLO DI LUCA OF
AREZZO PAINTED IT
IN THE YEAR 1385.
This work finished,
Spinello returned to Arezzo, having received from
that General and from the other monks, besides
payment, many kindnesses ; but making no long stay
there, because Arezzo was harassed by the Guelph and
Ghibelline parties, and was sacked in those days, he
betook himself with his family and his son Parri,
who was studying painting, to Florence, where he had
friends and relatives enough. There, without the
Porta a S. Piero Gattolini, on the Strada Romana,
where one turns to go to Pazzolatico, he painted an
Annunciation, as it were to pass the time, in a
shrine that today is half-ruined, and other pictures
in another shrine near the hostelry of Galluzzo.
He was then
summoned to Pisa in order to finish, below the
stories of S. Ranieri in the Campo Santo, certain
stories that were lacking in a space that had
remained not painted; and in order to connect them
together with those that had been made by Giotto,
Simone Sanese, and Antonio Viniziano, he made in
that place, in fresco, six stories of S. Petito and
S. Epiro. In the first is S. Epiro, as a youth,
being presented by his mother to the Emperor
Diocletian, and being made General of the armies
that were to march against the Christians; and also
Christ appearing to him as he is riding, showing him
a white Cross and commanding the Saint not to
persecute Him. In another story there is seen the
Angel of the Lord giving to that Saint, who is
riding, the banner of the Faith with the white Cross
on a field of red, which has been ever since the
ensign of the Pisans, by reason of S. Epiro having
prayed to God that He should give him a standard to
bear against His enemies. Beside this story there is
seen another, wherein, a fierce battle being
contested between the Saint and the pagans, many
angelsin armor are combating to the end that he may
be victorious. Here Spinello wrought many things
worthy of consideration for those times, when the
art had as yet neither strength nor any good method
of expressing vividly with color the conceptions of
the mind; and such, among the many other things that
are there, were two soldiers, who, having gripped
each other by the beard with one hand, are seeking
with their naked swords, which they have in the
other hand, to rob each other of life, showing in
their faces and in all the movements of their
members the desire that each has to come out
victorious, and how fearless and fiery of soul they
are, and how courageous beyond all belief. And so,
too, among those who are combating on horseback,
that knight is very well painted who is pinning to
the ground with his lance the head of his enemy,
whom he has hurled backwards from his horse, all
dismayed.
Another story shows
the same Saint when he is presented to the Emperor
Diocletian, who examines him with regard to the
Faith, and afterwards causes him to be put to the
torture, and to be placed in a furnace, wherein he
remains unscathed, while the ministers of torture,
who are showing great readiness there on every side,
are burnt in his stead. And in short, all the other
actions of that Saint are there, up to his
beheading, after which his soul is borne to Heaven;
and, for the last, we see the bones and relics of S.
Petito being borne from Alexandria to Pisa. This
whole work, both in coloring and in invention, is
the most beautiful, the most finished, and the best
executed that Spinello made, a circumstance which
can be recognized from this, that it is so well
preserved as to make everyone who sees it today
marvel at its freshness.
Having finished
this work in the Campo Santo, he painted many
stories of S. Bartholomew, S. Andrew, S. James, and
S. John, the Apostles, in a chapel in S. Francesco,
which is the second from the principal chapel, and
perchance he would have remained longer at work in
Pisa, since in that city his works were known and
rewarded; but seeing the city all in confusion and
uproar by reason of Messer Pietro Gambacorti having
been slain by the Lanfranchi, citizens of Pisa, he
returned once again with all his family, being now
old, to Florence, where, in the one year and no more
that he stayed there, he made many stories of the
lives and deaths of S. Philip and S. James in the
Chapel of the Macchiavelli in S. Croce, dedicated to
those Saints; and as for the panel for the said
chapel, being desirous to return to Arezzo, his
native city, or, to speak more exactly, held by him
as his native city, he wrought it in Arezzo, and
from there sent it finished in the year 1400.
Having returned
there, then, at the age of seventy-seven or more, he
was received lovingly by his relatives and friends,
and was ever afterward cherished and honored up to
the end of his life, which was at the age of ninety-
two. And although he was very old when he returned
to Arezzo, and, having ample means, could have done
without working, yet, as one who was ever used to
working, he knew not how to take repose, and
undertook to make for the Company of S. Agnolo in
that city certain stories of S. Michael, which he
sketched in red on the intonaco of the wall, in that
rough fashion wherein the old craftsmen used
generally to do it; and in one corner, for a
pattern, he wrought and colored completely a single
story, which gave satisfaction enough. Then, having
agreed on the price with those who had charge
thereof, he finished the whole wall of the high
altar, wherein he represented Lucifer fixing his
seat in the North; and he made there the Fall of the
Angels, who are being transformed into devils and
raining down to earth; while in the air is seen a S.
Michael, who is doing combat with the ancient
serpent of seven heads and ten horns; and below, in
the center, there is a Lucifer, already transformed
into a most hideous beast.
And Spinello took
so much pleasure in making him horrible and
deformed, that it is said (so great, sometimes, is
the power of imagination) that the said figure
painted by him appeared to him in a dream, asking
Spinello where he had seen him so hideous, and why
he had offered him such an affront with his brushes;
and that he, awaking from his sleep, being unable to
cry out by reason of his fear, shook with a mighty
trembling, insomuch that his wife, awaking, came to
his rescue. But he was none the less thereby in
peril his heart being much strained of dying on the
spot by reason of such an accident; and although he
lived a little afterwards, he was half mad, with
staring eyes, and he slipped into the grave, leaving
great sorrow to his friends, and to the world two
sons, of whom one was Forzore, the goldsmith, who
worked admirably at Florence in niello, and the
other was Parri, who, imitating his father, labored
continually at painting, and surpassed him by a long
way in design. This sinister misfortune, for all
that Spinello was old, was a great grief to the
Aretines, who were robbed of the so great talent and
excellence that were his. He died at the age of
ninety-two, and was given burial at Arezzo in S.
Agostino, where there is still seen today a
tombstone with a coat of arms made according to his
fancy, containing a hedgehog. Spinello knew much
better how to draw than how to execute a painting,
as it may be seen in our book of the drawings of
diverse ancient painters, in two Evangelists in
chiaroscuro and a S. Louis, drawn by his hand and
very beautiful. And the portrait of the same man,
which is seen above, was copied by me from one that
was in the Duomo Vecchio before it was pulled down.
His pictures date from 1380 up to 1400.
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LIFE OF OF GHERARDO
STARNINA (1360-1413)
PAINTER
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
VERILY he who
journeys far from his own country, dwelling in those
of other men, gains very often a disposition and
character of a fine temper, for, in seeing abroad
diverse honourable customs, even though he might be
perverse in nature, he learns to be tractable,
amiable, and patient, with much greater ease than he
would have done by remaining in his own country. And
in truth, he who desires to refine men in the life
of the world need seek no other fire and no better
touchstone than this, seeing that those who are
rough by nature are made gentle, and the gentle
become more gracious. Gherardo di Jacopo Starnina,
painter of Florence, being nobler in blood than in
nature, and very harsh and rough in his manners,
brought more harm thereby on himself than on his
friends; and more harm still would this have brought
on him if he had not dwelt a long time in Spain,
where he learnt gentleness and courtesy, seeing that
in those parts he became in such wise contrary to
that first nature of his, that on his returning to
Florence an infinite number of those who bore him
deadly hatred before his departure, received him on
his return with very great lovingness, and ever
after loved him very straitly, so thoroughly had he
become gentle and courteous.
Gherardo was born
in Florence in the year 1354, and growing up, as one
who had an intellect inclined by nature to design,
he was placed with Antonio Viniziano in order to
learn to draw and to paint; and having in the course
of many years not only learnt drawing and the
practice of coloring, but also given proof of
himself in certain works wrought with beautiful
manner, he took his leave of Antonio, and beginning
to work by himself he made in S. Croce, in the
Chapel of the Castellani (which was given him to
paint by Michele di Vanni, an honored citizen of
that family), many stories in fresco of S. Anthony
the Abbot, and also some of S. Nicholas the Bishop,
with so great diligence and with so beautiful a
manner that they caused him to become known to
certain Spaniards, who were then staying in Florence
on some business of their own, as an excellent
painter, and what is more, caused them to take him
into Spain to their King, who saw him and received
him very willingly, and above all because there was
then a dearth of good painters in that land. Nor was
it a great labor to persuade him to leave his
country, for the reason that, having had rough words
with certain people in Florence after the affair of
the Ciompi and after Michele di Lando had been made
Gonfalonier, he was rather in peril of his life than
othewise. Going, then, to Sgain, and executing many
works for that King, he became, by reason of the
great rewards that he gained for his labors, as rich
and highly honored as any man of his own rank;
wherefore, being desirous to make himself seen and
known by his friends and relatives in that better
state, he returned to his country, and was there
much cherished and received lovingly by all the
citizens.
Nor was it long
before he was commissioned to paint the Chapel of S.
Girolamo in the Carmine, where, making many stories
of that Saint, he painted, in the story of Paola and
Eustachio and Jerome, certain costumes that the
Spaniards wore at that time, with very
characteristic invention, and with an abundance of
manners and conceptions in the attitudes of the
figures. Among other things, painting a scene of S.
Jerome learning his first letters, he made a master
who has caused a boy to climb on the back of another
and is beating him with his rod, in a manner that
the poor lad, kicking out with his legs by reason of
the great pain, appears to be howling and trying to
bite the ear of the one who is holding him ; and all
this Gherardo expressed gracefully and very
charmingly, as one who was going on investigating on
every side the things of nature. Likewise, in the
scene where S. Jerome, at the point of death, is
making his testament, he counterfeited some friars
with beautiful and very ready manner; for while some
are writing and others earnestly listening and
gazing on him, they are all hanging with great
affection on the words of their master.
This work having
acquired for Starnina rank and fame among the
craftsmen, and his ways of life, with the sweetness
of his manners, bringing him very great reputation,
the name of Gherardo was famous throughout all
Tuscany nay, throughout all Italy when, being called
to Pisa in order to paint in that city the
Chapterhouse of S. Niccola, he sent thither in his
stead Antonio Vite of Pistoia, in order not to leave
Florence. This Antonio, having learnt the manner of
Starnina under his teaching, wrought in that
chapterhouse the Passion of Jesus Christ, and
delivered it finished in that fashion wherein it is
seen today, in the year 1403, to the great
satisfaction of the Pisans. Stamina having then
finished, as it has been said, the Chapel of the
Pugliesi, and the Florentines being greatly pleased
with the stories of S. Jerome that he made there, by
reason of his having represented vividly many
expressions and attitudes that had never been
depicted up to that time by the painters who had
lived before him, the Commune of Florence in the
year when Gabriel Maria, Lord of Pisa, sold that
city to the Florentines at the price of 200,000
crowns, after Giovanni Gambacorti had sustained a
siege of thirteen months, and had at last agreed to
the sale caused him to paint in memory of this, on
the facade of the Palace of the Guelph party, a
picture of S. Dionysius the Bishop, with two angels,
and below him the city of Pisa, portrayed from
nature ; in which work he used so great diligence in
everything, and particularly in colouring it in
fresco, that in spite of the air, the rains, and its
being turned to the north, it has always remained
and still remains at the present day a picture
worthy of much praise, by reason of its having been
preserved as fresh and beautiful as though it had
only just been painted. Gherardo, then, having come
by reason of this and of his other works into very
great repute and fame, both in his own country and
abroad, envious death, ever the enemy of noble
actions, cut short in the finest period of his
labour the infinite expectation of much greater
works, for which the world was looking from him; for
at the age of forty-nine he came unexpectedly to his
end, and was buried with most honorable obsequies in
the Church of S. Jacopo Sopra Arno.
Disciples of
Gherardo were Masolino da Panicale, who was first an
excellent goldsmith and afterwards a painter, and
certain others, of whom, seeing that they were not
very able men, there is no need to speak. The
portrait of Gherardo is in the aforesaid story of S.
Jerome, in one of the figures that are round that
Saint when he is dying, in profile, with a cap wound
round the head and wearing a buckled mantle. In our
book are certain drawings by Gherardo, made with the
pen on parchment, which are not otherwise than
passing good.
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LIFE OF LIPPO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
INVENTION has ever
been held, and ever will be, the true mother of
architecture, of painting, and of poetry nay, of all
the finer arts also, and of all the marvellous works
that are made by men, for the reason that it pleases
the craftsmen much, and displays their fantasies and
the caprices of fanciful brains that seek out
variety in all things; and these discoveries ever
exalt with marvellous praise all those who,
employing themselves in honourable ways, give a form
marvellous in beauty, under the covering and shadow
of a veil, to the works that they make, now praising
others dexterously, and now blaming them without
being openly understood.] Lippo, then, a painter of
Florence, who was as rare and as varied in invention
as he was truly unfortunate in his works and in his
life for it lasted but a little time was born in
Florence, about the year of our salvation 1354; and
although he applied himself to the art of painting
very late, when already grown up, nevertheless, he
was so well assisted by nature, which inclined him
to this, and by his intelligence, which was very
beautiful, that soon he produced therein marvellous
fruits. Wherefore, beginning his labors in Florence,
he made in S. Benedetto (a very large and beautiful
monastery of the Order of Camaldoli, without the
Porta a Pinti, and now in ruins) many figures that
were held very beautiful, and in particular a chapel
painted entirely with his own hand, which showed how
soon diligent study can produce great works in one
who labors honorably through desire of glory.
Being summoned from
Florence to Arezzo, he made in fresco, for the
Chapel of the Magi in the Church of S. Antonio, a
large scene wherein the Magi are adoring Christ; and
in the Vescovado he painted the Chapel of S. Jacopo
e S. Cristofano for the family of the Ubertini. All
these works were very beautiful, Lippo showing
invention in the composition of the scenes and in
the coloring, and above all because he was the first
who began to sport, so to speak, with the figures,
and to awaken the minds of those who came after him;
a thing which had not even been suggested, much less
put into use, before his time.
Having afterwards
wrought many works in Bologna, and a panel in
Pistoia which was passing good, he returned to
Florence, where, in the year 1383, he painted the
stories of S. John the Evangelist in the Chapel of
the Beccuti, in S. Maria Maggiore. On the wall of
the church beside this chapel, which is on the left
hand of the principal chapel, there follow six
stories of the same Saint by the same man's hand,
very well composed and ingeniously ordered, wherein,
among other things, there is very vividly depicted a
S. John who is causing his own garment to be placed
by S. Dionysius the Areopagite over some corpses,
which are returning to life in the name of Jesus
Christ, to the great marvel of some who, being
present at this deed, can scarce believe their own
eyes. In the figures of the dead, likewise, there is
seen very great mastery in some foreshortenings,
whereby it is clearly demonstrated that Lippo knew,
and in part grappled with, certain difficulties of
the art of .painting. It was Lippo, likewise, who
painted the folding leaves in the Church of S.
Giovanni namely, those of the shrine wherein are the
angels and the S. John in relief by the hand of
Andrea; and on them he wrought very diligently in
distemper stories of S. John the Baptist. And
because he also delighted in working in mosaic, in
the said S. Giovanni, over the door that leads to
the Misericordia, between the windows, he made a
beginning, which was held very beautiful and the
best work in mosaic which had been made in that
place up to that time ; and he also restored some
works in that church, likewise in mosaic, which were
spoilt.
Without Florence,
too, in S. Giovanni fra l'Arcora without the Porta a
Faenza, a church which was destroyed in the siege of
the said city, he painted in fresco, beside a
Passion of Christ wrought by Buffalmacco, many
figures which were held very beautiful by all who
saw them. In like manner, in certain little
hospitals at the Porta a Faenza, and in S. Antonio
within the said gate, near the hospital, he painted
certain beggars in fresco, in diverse beautiful
manners and attitudes; and within the cloisters,
with beautiful and new invention, he painted a
vision wherein he represented S. Anthony gazing on
the snares of the world, and beside these the will
and the desires of men, who are drawn by both the
first and the second to the diverse things of this
world; and all this he painted with much thought and
judgment. Lippo also wrought works in mosaic in many
parts of Italy, and in the Palace of the Guelph
party in Florence he made a figure with the head
glazed; and in Pisa, also, there are many of his
works. But none the less it can be said that he was
truly unfortunate, not only because the greater part
of his labors are now thrown down, having gone to
ruin in the havoc of the siege of Florence, but also
because he ended the course of his life very
unhappily; for Lippo being a litigious person and
fonder of discord than of peace, and having one
morning used very ugly words towards an adversary at
the tribunal of the Mercanzia, he was waylaid by
this man one evening when he was returning to his
house, and stabbed in the breast with a knife so
grievously, that a few days afterwards he died
miserably. His pictures date about 1410.
About the same time
as Lippo there was in Bologna another painter,
Dalmasi, also called Lippo, who was an able man, and
who painted, among other works, in the year 1407 (as
it may be seen in S. Petronio in Bologna), a Madonna
which is held in great veneration; and in fresco,
the arch over the door of S. Procolo; and in the
Church of S. Francesco, in the tribune of the high
altar, he made a large Christ between S. Peter and
S. Paul, with good grace and manner, and below this
work there is seen his own name written in large
letters. He drew passing well, as it may be seen in
our book; and he taught the art to M. Galante da
Bologna, who afterwards drew much better than he, as
it may be seen in the said book, in a portrait from
the life, a figure in a short coat with puffed
sleeves.
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LORENZO MONACO
(1370-1425)
Giorgio Vasari's
Lives of the Artists
FOR A GOOD and
religious person, I believe, there must be great
contentment in having ready to his hand some
honorable exercise, whether that of letters, or of
music, or of painting, of of any other liberal or
mechanical arts, such as are not blameworthy, but
rather useful and helpful to other men; for the
reason that after the divine offices the time passes
honorably with the delight that is taken in the
sweet labors of these pleasant exercises. And to
this it may be added that not only is he esteemed
and held in price by others the while that he lives,
provided that they be not envious and malign, but
that he is also honored after death by all men, by
reason of his works and of the good name that he
leaves to those who survive him.
And in truth one he
who spends his time in this manner, lives in quiet
contemplation and without being molested by those
ambitious desires which are almost always seen, to
their shame and loss, in the idle and unoccupied,
who are for the most part ignorant. And even if it
comes about that our virtuous man is sometimes
smitten by the malign, so powerful is the force of
virtue that time covers up and buries the malice of
the wicked, and the virtuous man, throughout the
ages that follow, remains ever famous and
illustrious.
Don Lorenzo, then,
a painter of Florence, was a monk of the Order of
Camaldoli in the Monastery of the Angeli, which
monastery was founded in the year 1294 by Fra
Guittone d'Arezzo, of the Militant Order of the
Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, or rather, as the
monks of that Order were vulgarly called, of the
Joyous Friars; and he applied himself in his
earliest years to design and to painting with so
great zeal, that he was afterwards deservedly
numbered among the best of the age in that exercise.
The first worlds of
this painter-monk, who held to the manner of Taddeo
Gaddi and his disciples, were in his Monastery of
the Angeli, where, among many other things, he
painted the panel of the high altar, which is still
seen today in their church, and which was completely
finished, as it may be seen from letters written
below on the ornament, in the year 1413, when it was
set in place. On a panel, likewise, which was in the
Monastery of San Benedetto, of the same Order of
Camaldoli, which was outside the Porta a Pinto and
was destroyed in 1529, in the siege of Florence, Don
Lorenzo painted a Coronation of Our Lady, even as he
had also done in the panel for his own Church of the
Angeli; and this panel, painted for San Benedetto,
is today in the first cloister of the said Monastery
of the Angeli, in the Chapel of the Alberti, on the
right hand. About the same time, or perchance
before, in Santa Trinita at Florence, he painted in
fresco the Chapel of the Ardinghelli, with its
panel, which was much praised at the time; and there
he made from nature the portraits of Dante and of
Petrarca.
In San Piero
Maggiore he painted the Chapel of the Fioravanti,
and the panel in a chapel in San Piero Scheraggio;
and in the said church of Santa Trinita he painted
the Chapel of the Bartolini. In San Jacopo Sopra
Arno, also, there is seen a panel by his hand, very
well wrought and executed with infinite diligence
according to the manner of those times. In the
Certosa without Florence, likewise, he painted some
pictures with good mastery; and in San Michele in
Pisa, a monastery of his Order, he painted some
panels that are passing good. And in Florence, in
the Church of the Romiti [Church of the Hermits]
(also belonging to the Order of the Camaldoli),
which, being in ruins together with the monastery,
has to-day left no memory but the name to that
quarter on the other side of the Arno, which is
called Camaldoli from the name of that holy place,
among other works, he painted a Crucifix on panel,
with a St. John, which were held very beautiful.
Finally, falling sick of a cruel imposthume, which
kept him suffering for many months, he died at the
age of fifty-five, and was honorably buried by his
fellow-monks, as his virtues deserved, in the
chapterhouse of their monastery.
And because it
often happens, as experience shows, that from one
single germ, with time and by means of the study and
intelligence of men, there spring up many, in the
said Monastery of the Angeli, where in former times
the monks ever applied themselves to painting and to
design, not only was the said Don Lorenzo excellent
among them, but many men excellent in the matters of
design also flourished there for a long space of
time, both before and after him. Wherefore it
appears to me by no means right to pass over in
silence one Don Jacopo, a Florentine, who lived long
before the said Don Lorenzo, for the reason that,
even as he was a very good and very worthy monk, so
was he a better writer of large letters than any who
lived either before or after him, not only in
Tuscany, but in all Europe, as it is clearly proved
not only by the twenty very large volumes of choral
books that he left in his monastery, which are the
most beautiful, as regards the writing, as well as
the largest that there are perchance in Italy, but
also by a infinity of others which are to be found
in Rome, in Venice, and in many other places, and
above all in San Michele and in San Mattia di
Murano, a monastery of his Order of Camaldoli; for
which works this good father well deserved, many
years after he had passed to a better life, not only
that Don Paolo Orlandini, a very learned monk of the
same monastery, should celebrate him with many Latin
verses, but that his right hand, wherewith he wrote
the said books, should be preserved with much
veneration in a shrine, as it still is, together
with that of another monk called Don Silvestro, who,
according tot he standard of those times,
illuminated the said books no less excellently than
Don Jacopo had written them.
And I, who have
seen the many times, remain in a marvel that they
were executed with so much design and with so much
diligence in those times, when the arts of design
were little less than lost; for the works of these
monks date about the year of our salvation 1350,
more or less, as it may be seen in each of the said
books. It is said, and some old men still remember
it, that when Pope Leo X came to Florence he wished
to see the said books and examine them carefully,
remembering that he had heard them much praised to
Lorenzo de'Medici the Magnificent, his father; and
that after he had looked at them with attention and
admiration, as they all lay open on the desks of the
choir, he said, "If they were according to the Roman
Church, and not, as they are, according to the
monastic use and ordering of Camaldoli, we would be
pleased to take some volumes of them for San Pietro
in Rome, giving just recompense to the monks"; in
which church there were formerly, and perhaps there
still are, two others of them by the hand of the
same monks, both very beautiful. In the same
Monastery of the Angeli there are many ancient
embroideries, wrought with very beautiful manner and
with much design by the ancient fathers of that
place, while they were living in perpetual enclosure
under the name not of monks but of hermits, without
ever issuing from the monastery, in such wise as do
the sisters and nuns of our own day; which enclosure
lasted until the year 1470.
But to return to
Don Lorenzo; he taught Francesco Fiorentino, who,
after his death, painted the shrine that is on the
Canto di Santa Maria Novella, at the head of the Via
della Scala, on the way to the Scala del Papa; and
he taught another disciple, a Pisan, who painted a
Madonna, St. Peter, St. John the Baptist, St.
Francis, and St. Ranieri, and three scenes with
little figures on the predella of the altar, in the
Church of San Francesco at Pisa, in the Chapel of
Rutilio di Ser Baccio Maggiolini; and this work,
painted in 1315, was held passing good for something
wrought in distemper. In my book of drawings I have,
by the hand of Don Lorenzo, the Theological Virtues
done in chiaroscuro with good design and beautiful
and graceful manner, insomuch that they are
peradventure better than the drawings of any other
master whatsoever of those times. A passing good
painter in the time of Don Lorenzo was Antonio Vite
of Pistoia, who besides may other works--as it has
been said in the Life of Starnina--painted, in the
Palace of the Ceppo at Prato, the life of Francesco
di Marco, Founder of that holy place.
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TADDEO DI BARTOLO
[BARTOLI] (1362/1363 - August 26, 1422)
PAINTER OF SIENA
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
IT IS THE DUE of
those craftsmen who, in order to acquire a name, put
them- selves to much fatigue in painting, that their
works should be placed, not in a dark and
dishonourable position, wherefore they may be blamed
by those who have no more understanding than this,
but in some spot where, through the nobility of the
place, through the lights, and through the air, they
can be rightly seen and studied by all, as was and
still is the public work of the chapel that Taddeo
Bartoli, painter of Siena, wrought in the Palazzo
della Signoria in Siena.
Taddeo, then, was
the son of Bartolo di Maestro Fredi, who was a
mediocre painter in his day and painted the whole
wall (on the left hand as one enters) of the Pieve
of San Gimignano with stories of the Old Testament;
in which work, which in truth was not very good,
there may still be read in the middle this epitaph:
A.D. 1356, BARTOLUS
MAGISTRI FREDI DE SENIS ME PINXIT.
At this time
Bartolo must have been young, because in a panel
containing the Circumcision of Our Lord, together
with some saints, wrought likewise by him in the
year 1388 in S. Agostino, in the same territory, on
the left hand as one enters the church through the
principal door, it is seen that he had a much better
manner both in drawing and in coloring, seeing that
some heads therein are beautiful enough, although
the feet of those figures are in the ancient manner.
In short, there are seen many other works by the
hand of Bartolo in those parts.
But to return to
Taddeo: the painting of the Chapel of the Palazzo
della Signoria in his native city being entrusted to
him, as it has been said, as the best master of
those times, it was wrought by him with so great
diligence, and so greatly honoured with regard to
its situation, and paid for by the Signoria in such
a manner, that Taddeo largely increased his glory
and fame thereby; wherefore not only did he
afterwards paint many panels in his own country, to
his great honour and infinite profit, but he was
invited with great favour and sought for from the
Signoria of Siena by Francesco da Carrara, Lord of
Padua, to the end that he might go, as he did, to
paint certain works in that most noble city; where,
particularly in the Arena and in the Santo, he
wrought some panels and other works with much
diligence, to his own great honour and to the
satisfaction of that Lord and of the whole city.
Returning afterwards to Tuscany, he wrought a panel
in distemper, which inclines to the manner of
Ugolino Sanese, in San Gimignano; and this panel is
today behind the high altar of the Pieve, and faces
the choir of the priests. Going next to Siena, he
did not stay there long before he was invited by one
of the Lanfranchi, the Warden of Works of the Duomo,
to Pisa ; and betaking himself thither, he made in
fresco, in the Chapel of the Nunziata, the scene
when the Madonna ascends the steps of the Temple, at
the head of which the priest is awaiting her in full
canonicals a highly finished work. In the face of
this priest he portrayed the said Warden of Works,
and beside him his own self. This work finished, the
same Warden of Works made him paint over the chapel
in the Campo Santo a Madonna being crowned by Jesus
Christ, with many angels in very beautiful attitudes
and very well colored. In like manner, for the
Chapel of the Sacristy of S. Francesco in Pisa
Taddeo made a Madonna and some saints on a panel
painted in distemper, placing thereon his name and
the year when it was painted, which was the year
1394. And about this same time he wrought certain
panels in distemper at Volterra, and a panel at
Monte Oliveto, with a Hell in fresco on a wall,
wherein he followed the invention of Dante in so far
as relates to the division of the sins and to the
form of the punishments, but in the place itself he
either could not or would not imitate him, or knew
not how. He also sent to Arezzo a panel that is in
S. Agostino, wherein he portrayed Pope Gregory XI
namely, the Pope who brought the Court back to Italy
after it had been so many decades of years in
France.
Returning after
these works to Siena, he made no very long stay
there, because he was called to work at Perugia in
the Church of S. Domenico, where, in the Chapel of
S. Caterina, he painted in fresco all the life of
that Saint; and in S. Francesco, beside the door of
the sacristy, he made some figures which, although
today little can be discerned of them, are known to
be by the hand of Taddeo, who held ever to one
unchanging manner. A little time afterwards there
befell the death of Biroldo, Lord of Perugia, who
was murdered in the year 1398; whereupon Taddeo
returned to Siena, where, labouring continually, he
applied himself so zealously to the studies of his
art, in order to become an able painter, that it can
be affirmed, if perchance he did not realize his
inten- tion, that this was certainly not by reason
of any defect or negligence that he showed in his
work, but rather through indisposition caused by an
internal obstruction, which afflicted him in a
manner that he could not attain to the fulness of
his desire. Having taught the art to one his nephew,
called Domenico, Taddeo died at the age of
fifty-nine; and his pictures date about the year of
our salvation 1410.
He left, then, as
it has been said, Domenico Bartoli, his nephew and
disciple, who, following the art of painting,
painted with greater and better mastery, and in the
scenes that he wrought he showed much more
fertility, varying them in diverse ways, than his
uncle had done. In the pilgrim's hall of the great
hospital at Siena there are two large scenes,
wrought in fresco by Domenico, wherein are seen
perspectives and other adornments very ingeniously
composed. Domenico is said to have been modest and
gentle, and a man of singular amiability and most
liberal courtesy; and this is said to have done no
less honour to his name than the art of painting
itself. His works date about the year of our Lord
1436, and the last were a panel containing an
Annunciation in S. Trinita in Florence, and the
panel of the high altar in the Church of the
Carmine.
There lived at the
same time and painted in almost the same manner,
although he made the coloring more brilliant and the
figures lower, one Alvaro di Piero, a Portuguese,
who made many panels in Volterra, and one in S.
Antonio in Pisa, and others in other places,
whereof, seeing that they are of no great
excellence, there is no need to make further record.
In our book there is a drawing made with great
mastery by Taddeo, wherein are Christ and two
angels.
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LORENZO DI BICCI
(c. 1350-c. 1427)
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Vasari's Lives of
the Artists
WHEN MEN who are
excellent in any honorable exercise whatsoever
accompany their ability in working with gentle ways
and good habits, and particularly with courtesy,
serving readily and willingly all who have need of
their assistance, they secure without fail, together
with much praise and profit for themselves,
everything that in a certain sense is desirable in
this world; as did Lorenzo di Bicci, painter of
Florence, who, being born in Florence in 1400,
precisely when Italy was beginning to be harassed by
the wars which shortly afterwards brought her to an
evil pass, was in very good credit almost from his
childhood, for the reason that, having learnt good
ways under the discipline of his father and the art
of painting from the painter Spinello, he had ever
the name not only of an excellent painter, but of a
most courteous and honourable and able man. Lorenzo,
then, young as he was, having made some works in
fresco both within and without Florence for the sake
of practice, Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, seeing
his good manner, caused him to paint in the hall of
the old house of the Medici which afterwards came
into the possession of Lorenzo, brother of Cosimo
the Elder, when the great palace was built all those
famous men that are still seen there to-day, very
well preserved. This work finished, seeing that
Lorenzo di Bicci wished to exercise himself in his
study of painting in places where work was not so
minutely examined, as the doctors still do, who make
experiments in their art on the hides of needy
countrymen, for some time he accepted all the work
that came to his hand, and therefore painted a
shrine on the bridge of Scandicci, without the Porta
a S. Friano, in the manner wherein it is still seen
today, and at Cerbaia, on a wall below a portico, he
painted many saints very creditably, together with a
Madonna. Next, being commissioned by the family of
the Martini to paint a chapel in S. Marco in
Florence, he wrought in fresco on the walls many
stories of the Madonna, and on the panel the Virgin
herself in the midst of many saints; and in the same
church, over the Chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista,
belonging to the family of the Landi, he painted in
fresco an Angel Raphael with Tobias.
And afterwards, in
the year 1418, for Ricciardo di Messer Niccolo
Spinelli, on the facade of the Convent of S. Croce
facing the square, he painted a large scene in
fresco of S. Thomas looking for the wound in the
side of Jesus Christ, and beside him and round him
all the other Apostles, who, kneeling reverently,
are watching this event. And beside the said scene
he made, likewise in fresco, a S. Christopher twelve
braccia and a half high, which is something rare,
because up to then, excepting the S. Christopher of
Buffalmacco, there had not been seen a greater
figure, nor, for something so large, any image more
creditable or better proportioned in all its parts
than that one, although it is not in a good manner;
not to mention that these pictures, both the one and
the other, were wrought with so much mastery, that,
although they have been exposed to the air for many
years and buffeted by the rains and tempests, being
turned to the North, yet they have never lost their
vividness of coloring, nor have they been injured in
any part. Within the door, moreover, which is
between these figures, called the Martello door, the
same Lorenzo, at the request of the said Ricciardo
and of the Prior of the convent, made a Crucifixion
with many figures, and, on the walls around, the
confirmation of the Rule of S. Francis by Pope
Honorius, and beside it the martyrdom of certain
friars of that Order, who went to preach the Faith
among the Saracens.
On the arches and
on the vaulting he made certain Kings of France,
friars and devout followers of S. Francis, and he
portrayed them from nature; and likewise many
learned men of that Order, and men distinguished for
dignity of rank, such as Bishops, Cardinals, and
Popes, among whom are portraits from nature, in two
medallions on the vaulting, of Pope Nicholas IV and
Pope Alexander V. In all these figures, although
Lorenzo made their garments grey, he varied them,
nevertheless, by reason of the good practice that he
had in working, in a manner that they are all
different one from the other; some incline to
reddish, others to bluish, while some are dark and
others lighter, and in short, all are varied and
worthy of consideration; and what is more, it is
said that he wrought this work with so great
facility and readiness, that being called once by
the Prior, who was bearing his expenses, to his
dinner, at the very moment when he had made the
intonaco for a figure and had begun it, he answered:
"Pour out the soup. Let me finish this figure, and
I'm with you." Wherefore it is with good reason that
men say that Lorenzo had so great rapidity of hand,
so great practice in coloring, and so great
resolution, that no other man ever had more.
By his hand are the
shrine in fresco which is on the corner of the
Convent of the Nuns of Foligno, and the Madonna and
some saints that are over the door of the church of
that convent, among whom is a S. Francis who is
espousing Poverty. In the Church of the Order of
Camaldoli in Florence, also, he painted for the
Company of the Martyrs some scenes of the martyrdom
of some saints, and two chapels in the church, one
on either side of the principal chapel. And because
these pictures gave universal pleasure to the whole
city, after he had finished them he was commissioned
by the family of the Salvestrini which today is
almost extinct, there being to my knowledge none
left save a friar of the Angeli in Florence, called
Fra Nemesio, a good and worthy churchman to paint a
wall of the Church of the Carmine, whereon he made
the scene when the martyrs, being condemned to
death, are stripped naked and made to walk barefoot
over spikes strewn by ministers of the tyrants,
while they were going to be placed on the cross; and
higher up they are seen placed thereon, in various
extravagant attitudes.
In this work, which
was the largest that had ever been made up to that
time, everything is seen to have been done,
according to the knowledge of those times, with much
mastery and design, for it is all full of those
various emotions that nature arouses in those who
are made to die a violent death; wherefore I do not
marvel that many able men have contrived to avail
themselves of certain things that are seen in this
picture. After these he made many other figures in
the same church, and particularly in two chapels in
the tramezzo. And about the same time he painted the
shrine of the Canto alla Cuculia, and that which is
on the house front in the Via de' Martelli; and,
over the Martello door in S. Spirito, a S. Augustine
in fresco presenting the Rule to his friars. In S.
Trinita, in the Chapel of Neri Compagni, he painted
in fresco the life of S. Giovanni Gualberto; and, in
the principal chapel of S. Lucia in the Via de'
Bardi, some scenes in fresco of the life of that
Saint, for Niccolo da Uzzano, who was portrayed by
him there from the life, together with some other
citizens.
This Niccolo, with
the direction and model of Lorenzo, built a palace
for himself near the said church, and a magnificent
beginning for a university, or rather, a school,
between the Convent of the Servi and that of S.
Marco namely, where there are now the Lions. This
work, truly most praiseworthy and rather that of a
magnanimous prince than of a private citizen, was
never finished, for the very large sums of money
that Niccolo left at the Monte in Florence for the
building and maintenance of this school, were spent
by the Florentines in certain wars or for other
necessities of the city. And although Fortune will
never be able to obscure the memory and the
greatness of soul of Niccolo da Uzzano, it is none
the less true that the public interest suffered very
great harm from the fact that this work was not
finished. Wherefore, if a man desires to benefit the
world in similar ways, and to leave an honorable
memorial of himself, let him do it by himself while
he has life, and let him not put his trust in the
good faith of posterity and of his heirs, since
anything that has been left to be done by successors
is rarely seen brought to perfect completion.
But returning to
Lorenzo: he painted, besides what has been said, a
Madonna and certain saints in fresco, passing good,
in a shrine on the Ponte Rubaconte. And no long time
after, Ser Michele di Fruosino, being Director of
the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova in Florence which
hospital was founded by Folco Portinari, citizen of
Florence determined that, even as the wealth of the
hospital had increased, so its church, which was
then without Florence and very small, dedicated to
S. Egidio, should be enlarged. Whereupon, having
taken counsel thereon with Lorenzo di Bicci, who was
very much his friend, on September 5, in the year
1418, he began the new church, which was finished in
a year in the manner wherein it stands today, and
was then solemnly consecrated by Pope Martin V at
the request of the said Ser Michele, who was the
eighth Director of the Hospital, and of the men of
the family of Portinari. This consecration Lorenzo
afterwards painted, according to the wish of Ser
Michele, on the facade of that church, portraying
there from life that Pope and some Cardinals; and
this work, as something new and beautiful, was then
much praised. Wherefore he obtained the honor of
being the first to paint in the principal church of
his city that is, in S. Maria del Fiore, where,
beneath the windows of each chapel, he painted that
Saint to whom it is dedicated, and then, on the
pilasters and throughout the church, the twelve
Apostles with the crosses of consecration; for that
church had been most solemnly consecrated in that
same year by Pope Eugenius IV, the Venetian. In the
same church the Wardens of Works, by order of the
State, caused him to paint in fresco, on one wall, a
tomb in imitation of marble, in memory of Cardinal
Corsini, who is portrayed there from nature on the
sarcophagus; and above that he made a similar one in
memory of Maestro Luigi Marsili, a very famous
theologian, who went as ambassador, with Messer
Luigi Guicciardini and Messer Guccio di Gino, most
honorable cavaliers, to the Duke of Anjou.
Lorenzo was then
summoned to Arezzo by Don Laurentino, Abbot of S.
Bernardo, a monastery of the Order of Monte Oliveto,
in the principal chapel of which he painted in
fresco, for Messer Carlo Marsuppini, stories of the
life of S. Bernard. But while planning to paint the
life of S. Benedict in the cloister of the convent
(I mean, after having painted for the elder
Francesco de' Bacci the principal chapel of the
Church of S. Francesco, where he wrought by himself
the vaulting and half of the arch) he fell sick of a
pleurisy; wherefore, having himself carried to
Florence, he left directions that Marco da
Montepulciano, his disciple, should paint the scenes
of the life of S. Benedict in the said cloister,
from the design that he had made and left with Don
Laurentino; and this Marco did as best he knew,
delivering the whole work finished in chiaroscuro on
April 24, in the year 1448, as it may be seen
written by his hand in verses and words that are no
less rude than the pictures. Having returned to his
country and being restored to health, Lorenzo
painted, on the same wall of the Convent of S. Croce
whereon he had made the S. Christopher, the
Assumption into Heaven of Our Lady, surrounded by a
choir of angels, and below her a S. Thomas, who is
receiving the Girdle. In the execution of this work,
being indisposed, Lorenzo caused Donatello, then a
youth, to help him; wherefore, with assistance so
able, it was finished in the year 1450, in such wise
that I believe that it is the best work, both in
design and in coloring, that was ever made by
Lorenzo, who, no long time after, being old and worn
out, died at the age of about sixty, leaving two
sons who applied themselves to painting; one of
whom, named Bicci, gave him assistance in making
many works, while the other, who was called Neri,
portrayed his father and himself in the Chapel of
the Lenzi in Ognissanti, in two medallions with
letters round them, which give the name of both one
and the other.
In this chapel the
same man, in painting some stories of the Madonna,
strove to counterfeit many costumes of those times,
both of men and of women; and he made the panel in
distemper for the chapel. In like manner, he made
some panels for the Abbey of S. Felice in Piazza at
Florence, belonging to the Order of Camaldoli, and
one for the high altar of S. Michele in Arezzo, a
church of the same Order. And at S. Maria delle
Grazie without Arezzo, in the Church of S.
Bernardino, he made a Madonna that has under her
mantle the people of Arezzo, and on one side that S.
Bernardino kneeling with a wooden cross in his hand,
such as he was wont to carry when he went preaching
through Arezzo, and on the other side and about her
S. Nicholas and S. Michelagnolo; and on the predella
are painted stories of the acts of the said S.
Bernardino, and of the miracles that he wrought,
particularly in that place. The same Neri made the
panel of the high altar of S. Romolo in Florence;
and in S. Trinita, in the Chapel of the Spini, he
painted in fresco the life of S. Giovanni Gualberto,
and in distemper the panel that is over the altar.
From these works it is recognized that if Neri had
lived, and had not died at the age of thirty-six, he
would have made more numerous and better works than
did Lorenzo, his father, whose Life, seeing that he
was the last of the masters of the old manner of
Giotto, will also be the last of this First Part,
which with the aid of the blessed God we have
brought to conclusion.
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