VALERIO VINCENTINO, GIOVANNI DA CASTES BOLOGNESE,
MATTEO DAL NASARO, of Verona, and other excellent
Engravers of cameos and gems.
(1468-1546; 1496-1553; ?-? 1548)
Since the Greeks were so divine in engraving Oriental stones and made perfect cameos, I have thought it proper to mention their imitators in our own age; although none of the moderns have surpassed them in delicacy and design, unless it be those whom I am about to mention. Before I begin, I will say a few words on the art of carving hard stones and gems, which was lost after the fall of Greece and Rome. At Rome, cameos, the sardonyx and other fine intag1ios are found daily among the ruins. For many years no one of any account studied the art, and so far as is known no progress was made until the time of Martin V. and Paul II., after which there was a steady advance, so that Lorenzo de' Medici the Magnificent, who was very fond of intaglios, and his son Piero, collected a great quantity engraved
(1) In 1554.
in various fashions, especially of chalcedony and comelian. This gave an impulse to the art in that city, and many masters arrived there from various countries, who, besides setting stones, could engrave them marvellously. Through Lorenzo's instrumentality, a young Florentine called Giovanni delle Comiole learned this art, earning his name for his excellent workmanship, testified by his countless works, great and small, but especially a large one with the portrait of Fra Girolamo Savonarola,1 the idol of Florence for his preaching.
He had a rival, Domenico de' Cammei of Milan, who hollowed out a large portrait of Duke Ludovico iI Moro in a ruby larger than a Julius, one of the best modern intaglios produced. The art advanced under Leo X. by the abilities of Piermaria da Pescia, a great imitator of the antique. His rival, Michelino, was of equal excellence, and considered a graceful master. He prepared the way for the difficult intaglios used for seals in which the use of wax is necessary from time to time, to see what one is doing, rendering possible the beautiful works of Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, Valerio Vincentino, Matteo dal Nasaro and others. Giovanni, during three years that he spent with Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, did many small things for him which I need not mention. His first larger work was the action of Bastia9 engraved in a crystal and of great beauty. In steel he engraved the duke's portrait for medals, with a Christ taken by the multitudes on the reverse. Going afterwards to Rome and being stimulated by Giovio, he had the opportunity of making the portrait of Clement VII., by means of the Cardinals Ippolito de' Medici and Giovanni Salviati, with Joseph declaring himself to his brethren on the reverse. For this His Floliness rewarded him with the office of a Mazza, whicli he sold for 200 crowns in the time of Paul III. For Clement he made the four Evangelists in four round crystals, which were much admired, and secured him the friendship of many prelates, notably the Cardinals Salvati and Medici referred to, the latter being the patroii of all men of ability. Giovanni did a steel medal of Ippolito, and in cryslal the presentation of the wife of Darius to Alexander the Great. When Charles V. came to be crowned at Bologna Giovanni made his portrait on steel, and struck a gold medal which he took to the emperor, who gave him LOO
(1) Now in the Uffizi. His name signifies Giovanni of tlie Cornelians. (2) La Bastia di Geniolo near Ferrara. Taken by the Spaniards and retaken by the Duke of Fertara the same clay, the 3I Dec., I5II. Celebrated by Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, Canto XLII. stanzas 3-5.
gold doubles and invited him to Spain. He refused, saying that he could not leave the service of Clement and Cardinal Ippolito, for whom he had begun some things. On returning to Rome Giovanni did the Rape of the Sabines for Ippolito, a very beautiful thing. The cardinal heaped favours upon him, and when he left for France, accompanied by lords and nobles, he turned to Giovanni, and taking from his neck a small chain, by which a cameo was attached alone worth 6oo crowns, gave it to him, telling him to keep it until his return. On the cardinals's death the cameo came into the hands of Cardinal Farnese, for whom Giovanni did many things in crystal, notably a crvcifix with God the Father above, the Virgin, St. John and the Magdalen at the foot. In a triangle at the foot of the cross he did three scenes of the Passion, one on each angle. For two silver candelabra he did six circles in crystal: the centurion praying Christ to heal his son; the pool of Bethesda; the Transfiguration; the miracle of the five loaves and two fishes; the driving of the money-changers from the Temple; and the resurrection of Lazarus, all of rare bcauty.
Being desirous of having a rich silver shrine, Cardinal Farnese entrusted the work to Marino, a goldsmith of Florence, mentioned elsewhere, and employed Giovanni to fill the spaces with crystals. He occupied them with scenes in marble in halfrelief. He made his silver figures and ornaments with great diligence, producing a work of unequalled perfection. There are some ovals on which he has carved with marvellous art the chase of Meleager and the Calydonian boar; the Bacchantae and a naval battle; the combat of Hercules with the Amazons, and other fancies of the cardinal, Perino del Vaga and other masters being employed to make the designs. In a crystal he afterwards did the capture of the Goletta, and in another the Turkish war. For the same cardinal he carved in crystal a Nativity, Christ in the Garden taken by the Jews, led before Annas, Herod and Pilate, scourged and crowned with thorns, bearing the cross, crucified and raised again, a work of great beauty executed with astonishing rapidity. From a design by Michelagnolo for the Cardinal de' Medici of a vulture eating the heart of a Tityus, Giovanni carved a lovely crystal, and from another design of Buonarotto he did a Ph~thon driving the horses of the Sun and falling into the Po, his weeping sisters being converted into trees. He made portraits of Margarita of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Charles V. and wife of Duke Alessandro de' Medici and then of Duke Ottavio Farnese, in competition with
Valerio Vincentino. For these works Cardinal Farnese rewarded him with the office of a Janissary, from which he drew a good sum of money, and he received many favours from that prelate. The cardinal never passed the commodious house which Giovanni had built for himself at Faenza without going to stay there. Giovanni went there to rest from his work and made it his regular abode. On the death of his first wife, who was childless, he took a second, who bore him two boys and a girl, and as he possessed an income of more than 400 crowns, he lived content to the age of sixty, when he rendered his soul to God on Whitsunday I 555. Matteo dal Nassaro, born at Verona, his father, Jacopo dal Nassaro, being a shoemaker, studied both design and music in his early childhood, having as masters in the latter Marco Carra and Il Tromboncino of Verona, who were then in the service of the Marquis of Mantua. In carving he was much assisted by two Veronese of good family; one was Niccolo Avanzi, who did cameos, cornelians and other stones privately at Rome, which were sent to various princes. Some remember a lapis lazuli of his, three fingers across, of a Nativity con- taining many figures, sold to the Duchess of Urbino as a rarity. The other was Galeazzo Mondella, who designed beautifully, besides being an engraver of gems. From these two Matteo learned all he knew. A fine piece of jasper coming into his hands, he carved on it a Deposition from the cross making the red spots of the stone serve as blood, thus winning great commendation. This jasper was sold to the Marchioness Isabella da Este. Proceeding to France with many of his works to obtain an introduction to the court of Francis I., he was presented to the king, who valued all men of genius. After accepting many of his intaglios, the king took him into his service, providing him with a good pension, and not valuing him less as a good musician, for he performed beautifully on the lute, than as a carver of gems. There is no greater incentive to ability than the rewards bestowed by princes and nobles in the way the illustrious house of the Medici has always signalised itself as well as the maguanimoils King Francis. Matteo therefore did many rare things for the king and for all the noblest lords and barons of the court, almost all employing him, as cameos and similar gems were much worn in caps and at the throat. For the high altar of the king's chapel he did a panel full of gold figures, some in full and some in half-relief, with many jewels distributed about it. He also engraved many crystals, squeezes of which
may seen in several places, but chiefly at Verona, wherethere are some excellent plantes, and Venus with a cupid turning his back, of unsurpassable beauty. In a fine chalcedony found in a river he engraved a head of a Deianira in the lion's skin, employing a red vein in the stone in the inside of the lion's skin so finely that it looked newly flayed. On another mark he arranged the hairs, and the face and breast on the white. It is now in the possession of the King of France, while Matteo was a liberal and spirited man, so that he would rather Matteo's pupil, Zoppo, a goldsmith, has a squeeze at Verona. give away his works than sell them cheaply. Thus, having done a cameo for a baron of importance, and being offered a wretched sum, he begged him to accept it as a gift. But as the baron declined, and still offered his miserable paynient, Matteo became angry, and smashed the gem then and there with a hammer. For the same king Matteo did many drawings for arras, and in conformity with the king's wish he went with them to Flanders, remaining there while they were being woven in silk and gold When they were brought to France they were considered most beautiful. Like nearly everyone, Matteo ultimately returned home, bringing with him several curiosities, notably woven material of Flanders, beautifully worked, which are still preserved at Verona in memory of him by Signor Luigi and Sig. Girolamo Stoppi. At Verona Matteo lived in a cave under a rock, over the garden of the Jesuits, which, besides being cool in summer and warm in winter, possesses a beautiful view. But he could not enjoy this house of his fancy as he desired, because, when King Francis was released from prison, he sent a post to recall him to France and pay him his pension for his time at Verona. When he returned he was made master of the mint. Accordingly he took a wife and settled down in France, where the king was, and had some children, but so unlike him that they caused him little gratification. He was a gentle and courteous man, cordially welcoming all who were staying in France, not only Veronese, but all Lombards. His great friend there was Paulo Ernilio of Verona, who wrote French history in Latin. Matteo had many pupils, among others a Veronese, brother of Domenico Brusciasorzi, his two nephews, who went to Flanders, and many others, Italian and French, whom I need not mention. He died not long after King Francis.
I now come to the excellent Valerio Vincentino.2 He did quantities of intaglios, large and small, with incredible delicacy
(1) In March 1526. (2) Valerio Belli of Vicenza .
and ease, and if Nature had made him as excellent in design as he was diligent and patient in execution, he would have far surpassed the ancients, whom he equalled. However, he used the designs of others, or copied ancient intaglios. For Pope Clement VII. he did a crystal casket, executed with wonderful mastery, for which he received 2000 gold ducats. In the crystals he engraved the Crucifixion from designs by others. The casket was afterwards presented by Pope Clement to King Francis at Marseilles, as he was going to marry his niece to the Duke of Orleans, afterwards King Henry. For the same Pope Valerio did some lovely Peaces, a marvellous crystal cross, and dies ‚ for money with Clement's portrait, the reverses being very handsome. This led to a great increase in the professors of the art, so that the number had become marvellous before the sack of Rome, whither they flocked from Milan and other places. Valerio made the medals of twelve emperors with their reverses, copied from the antique but more beautiful, and numerous Greek medals. He carved so many crystals that the goldsmiths' shops and all the world are full of squeezes of them, whether of scenes, figures or heads. His skill was so extra ordinary that no one ever produced more than he in that trade. For Pope Clement he also did numerous crystal vases, some being given to various princes and some placed in S. Lorenzo in Florence, with vases from the Medici palace, formerly the property of Lorenzo de' Medici the elder, and other members of that illustrious house, to preserve the relics of the numerous saints presented by Clement to the Church. The vases are of extraordinary variety, of sardonyx, agate, amethyst, lapis lazuli, crystals, cornelians, and others of inestimable value and beauty. For Pope Paul III. valerio did a cross and two candelabra of crystal, carving in them the Crucifixion, introducing such a number of large and small stones that it would take too long to record them. Cardinal Farnese possessed many things by his hand, for he did not leave fewer works than Giovanni. At the age of seventy-eight he performed miracles with his eyes and hands, and taught the art to a daughter of his who worked very well. He was utterly regardless of expense in procuring ancient and modern squeezes and modern antiquities, and paintings and designs by great masters, so that his house at Verona was full of such things and a marvel. We see indeed that a man who really loves ability never stops short at the threshold, and so he wins praise in life and immortality after death. Valerio was richly rewarded for his labours, receiving numerous offices and benefits from the princes whom he
(1) In 1532; now in the Uffizi.
served, so that his successors were enabled to maintain an honourable position. When longer able to work, and worn out by old age, he rendered his soul to God in 1546.
Somewhat earlier Il Marmita lived in Parma, who, after studying painting for a while, turned to intaglio, closely imitating the ancients. Many beautiful works of his exist. He taught the art to his son Ludovico, who long remained at Rome with
Cardinal Giovanni de' which for whom he did four oval crystals of great excellence, carved with figures and set in a beautiful silver casket, which was given to Leonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence. Among many other things he did a fine' head of Socrates on a cameo, and he was very skilful in imitating ancient medals, an occupation which brought him much profit.
In Florence, Domenico di Polo was an excellent master of engraving. He studied under Giovanni delle Corniole, and in a divine portrait of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, for steel dies and beautiful medals, the reverse being Florence. He also made a portrait of Duke Cosimo the year he was elected to the government of Florence, with the sign of Capricorn on the reverse. He did many other intaglios of small things which I need not mention, and died aged sixty-five.
Domenico, Valerio, Marmita and Giovanni da Castel Bolognese being all dead, many remained who far surpassed them. In Venice, Luigi Anichini of Ferrara was remarkable for hil. delicate engraving. But the foremost in grace, perfection and universality was AIessandro Cesari, called Il Greco, who has made such beautiful things in cameos and rounds, both raised and hollowed, and has chiselled steel dies, so fine in every detail, that it is impossible to imagine better. Those who wish to admire his miracles should examine a medal of Pope Paul III., who seems alive, and on the reverse Alexander the Great throwing himself at the feet of the high priest of Jerusalem, figures which excite amazement and cannot be surpassed. When Michelagnolo saw them in the presence of Giorgio Vasari, he said that the death hour of the art had come, for it could not go farther. For Pope Julius III. Cesari made the medal of I550, the reverse representing the prisoners who were anciently released at a time of Jubilee, a beautiful and rare work. For many years he was kept busy in making dies and portraits
(1) Rectius Cesati.
for the mint at Rome. He portrayed Pierluigi Farnese, Duke of Castro, Duke Ottavio his son, and for Cardinal Farnese did his portrait on a medal, a gold head on a silver ground. For this cardinal he made a head of King Henry of France, larger than a Julius, hollowed in a cornelian, one of the best modem intaglios for design, grace, excelience and finish. He also carved many cameos, a nude woman being perfect. So are others with a lion, an infant, and many small ones which I need not mention. "iI But the best of all was the head of Phocion the Athenian, a miraculous work, and the best cameo to be seen.
Gio. Antonio de' Rossi of Milan also carves cameos, and is an excellent master. Among many others, both large and small, he did a large cameo for Duke Cosimo, a third of a braccia each way, containing two half-length figures, the duke himself and the Duchess Leonora, each holding a circle containing Florence. Near them are portraits of Prince don Francesco, Don Giovanni the cardinal, Don Garzia, Don Ernando, Don Pietro, Donna IsabelIa and Donna Lucrezia, their children, the work being stupendous, surpassing all his smaller works, so that I will not mention them, for they may be seen.
Cosimo da Trezzo did many works worthy of this profession and his merits have earned him a position with King Philip of' Spain, who rewards and honours his ability. For portraits he has no equal, and in other respects he is extraordinarily clever. I need not say much of Fillipo Negrolo of Milan, who has carved arms with leaves and figures, as his published copper engravings have won him a great reputation. Gasparo and Girolamo Misuroni of Milan made beautiful crystal vases and cups, notably two for Duke Cosimo, which are marvellous. From a piece of Elitropia they made a vessel of marvellous size, wonderfully carved, as well as a great and admirable vase of lapis lazuli. Jacopo da Trezzo does the like in Milan, having rendered the art very beautiful and easy. I could tell of many more who have done medals, heads and reverses, surpassing the ancients, such as Benvenuto Cellini, who, when acting as gold- smith at Rome under Pope Clement, made two medals with a life-like portrait of Clement, and on the reverse Peace, who has bound Fury and is burning her arms, while the other contains Moses striking the rock and making water flow for the thirsty people, a triumph of his art, as were the coins and medals which he did for Duke Alessandro in Florence. I speak elsewhere of the knight Lione Aretino, who has done the like, and of the works which he is still producing.
Pietro Paolo Galeotto of Rome made medals for Duke Cosimo with his portrait, and dies for money and marquetry work, imitating the processes of Maestro Salvestro, who was an excellent master of the profession at Rome and did marvellous things. Pastorino da Siena excelled in heads, and may be said to have made the portrait of every man of importance, both great lords and artists. He found a stucco for making portraits, which took natural colours, with the tints of beard, hair and flesh, giving a life-like appearance. But his steel things are much more admirable, and he made excellent metal dies. It would take too long, to speak of all those who make portraits on medals and in wax, as in these days every goldsmith does some and many nobles practise the art; for example Gio Battista Sozzini at Siena, Il
Rosso de' Giugni at Florence, and countless others. In conclusion I turn to the engravers on steel, such as Girolamo Fagiuoli of Bologna, who did copper things, and in Florence Domenico Poggini, who makes dies for the mint with the medals of Duke Cosimo, and does marble statues, imitating as far as possible the distinguished men of the profession.
MARCANT0NI0 BOLOGNESE and other Engravers (I487-1539) THE treatise on the theory of painting contains little with regard to copper engraving, as it sufficed then to explain the method of engraving silver with the ‚burin, which is a square iron, cut diagonally, with a fine point, and I will take this opportunity to say what I consider to bei enoughi on the subject in connection with this Life. Engraving was invented by Maso Finiguerta of Florence about 1460. Of every work engraved by him in silver to be filled with nicllo, he took an impression in clay on which he poured liquid sulphur, so that it was blackened by the fumes and showed in oil the subject engraved on the silver. He did the like with a damp sheet with the same tint, going over it with a round cylinder, which made it look like a pen -and -ink drawing. He was followed by Baccio Baldini ,2 goldsmith of Florence, who, not having much design, copied the drawings of Sandro Botticcllo. The process becoming known to Andrea Mantegna at Rome,(1) Marcantonio Raimondi. (2) 1436-I5I5.
he began to engrave many of his works, as was said in his Life. The invention then passed to Flanders, and one Martin1 at Antwerp, considered an excellent painter, did a great many engravings and sent them to Italy, all signed M. C.2 The first were the five foolish virgins with their lamps out, and the five prudent ones with their lamps lighted; a Christ on the cross, with St John at his feet, so well done that Gherardo, a Florentine illuminator, began to copy it with the burin, and proved very successful, but went no farther, as he did not live long. Martin then issued the four Evangelists, and small sheets of Christ and the Apostles, Veronica with six saints, and the arms of some German lords supported by nude and draped men and women. He also issued St. George slaying the serpent, Christ before Pilate-who washes his hands-and the Passing of the Virgin, rather large, with all the Apostles, this being one of his best achievements. In another he did St. Anthony beaten by devils, and carried into the air by a swarm of them, of the most cunous forms imaginable, a sheet which so pleased Michelagnolo when young that he began to colour it. Martin was followed by Albert Durer3 at Antwerp, ‚who displayed more design, better judgment and finer inventions, seeking to imitate life and to approach the Italian style, which = he highly esteemed. While quite young he did many things which were considered as beautiful as those of Martin. He engraved them with his own hand and signed his name. In I503 he issued a small Madonna, surpassing both Martin and himself. He then did horses, two on a sheet, drawn from life and very beautiful. The next was the prodigal son, kneeling with his hands crossed, looking up, while the swine are feeding in a trough, and fine old German cottages embellish the landscape. He did a small St. Sebastian, with his arms bound above his head, and a Madonna and Child, with a window behind, un- surpassed for a small work. He did a Flemish woman on horse- back with a squire on foot. On copper and larger he did a nymph carried off by a marine monster, while other nymphs are bathing. Of the same size he did a Diana chastising a nymph, who has fled to a satyr for refuge, done with a masterly delicacy, attaining the perfection and goal of his art, and intended to show that he understood the nude. Though these masters were praised in their own country, they are only commended in(1) Martin Schoen, 1420-86. (2) This signature is that of Martin van Cleef. (3) 1471-1528; he was born at Nurnberg.
Italy for their diligent engraving. I believe that Albert could not have done better, considering that he did not enjoy proper advantages, and was compelled to draw his own pupils when he did nudes. These formed bad models, like most Germans, though they appear fine men enough when clothed. He did many costumes of Flemish peasants, in various engravings, who are playing the bagpipes and dancing, some selling fowls and so forth. One sleeps in a hot bath while Venus tempts him in a dream, a Cupid on stilts plays about him and the devil blows into his ear with the bellows. He did two different St
Christophers carrying the Christ-child, the polished hairs and other parts being beautifully executed. Finding that copper engraving took so long, and having a quantity of drawings, Albert began to engrave on wood, which offers a much wider scope to men of invention. He issued two small wood-engravings in z5io, one of the Be-heading of St. John, the other his head presented on a charger to Herod. In others he did St. Christopher, St. Sixtus the Pope, St. Stephen and St. Laurence. Finding this much easier than copper engraving, he did a Mass of St. Gregory, with his deacon and sub-deacon. Still further encouraged, he did a part of a Passion of Christ on a large sheet in I510, completing four pieces and intending to do the rest: the Last Supper, the Seizure in the Garden, the Descent into Limbo to rescue the holy Fathers, and the Resurrection. He did a beautiful oil- painting of the second subject, now in Florence, owned by Sig. Bernardetto de' Medici. Although the remaining eight parts were printed with his signature, I do not think they can be his, as they are badly executed and do not resemble his style in heads, draperies or anything. They were probably done by others after his death for the sake of gain, without a thought for his reputation. In 1511 he did the life of the Virgin in twenty sheets, of the same size, incomparable for invention, composition, perspective, buildings, costumes, and young and old heads. If this rare, diligent and versatile man had been born in Tuscany instead of Flanders, and could have studied the things of Rome as we have done, he would have been the best painter of our land, as he was the most eminent artist whom the Flemings have ever produced. The same year he endeavoured on fifteen sheets to represent the tremendous vision of St. John on the isle of Patmos, described in the Apocalypse. Accordingly he set to work, and his fantastic imagination being well adapted to such a subject, he represented heayenly and earthly things so well, and with such variety in the animals
and
monsters, that it has been a great light to many of our artists, who have copied them frequently. By the same hand is a naked Christ surrounded by the mysteries of His Passion, and weeping for our sins with His hands to His face, very admirably executed, though small. His ability and courage increasing from finding that his things were valued, Albert did some copper engravings which amazed the world. On a half sheet he did a Melancholia surrounded by all the instruments which render men melancholy, and nothing could be more delicately carved with the burin. On a small sheet he did three different women, most delicately engraved. But it would take too long to enumerate all Albert's works. For the present I will say that, having designed and engraved a Crucifixion in thirty-six plates, he arranged with Marcantonio of Bologna to publish themi1 Their appearance in Venice gave an extraordinory impulse to engraving
in Italy, as will be related below.While Francesco Francia was painting at Bologna, one of the best off his pupils was a youth called Marcafltonio, who, from remaining many years with his master, acquired the cognomen de' Franci. Being a better designer than his master and skilful in manipulating the burin, he made borders in niello of great beauty, those things being much in use. Desiring afterwards to go into the world and examine various things and the methods of other artists, he was permitted by Francia to go to Venice, where he was well received by the artists of the city. Meeting some Flemings with wood and copper engravings of Albert Durer on the Piazza S. Marco, he was amazed at Albert's methods and style, and spent all the money he had brought from Bologna on those sheets, acquiring among other things the Passion of Christ engraved on thirty-six pieces of wood, quarto size, just printed by Albert, beginning with the sin of Adam and the expulsion from Paradise, and continuing to the sending of the Holy Spirit. Feeling what honour and profit might be acquired by that art in Italy, Marcantonio deterniincd to study it diligently and carefully. He began by imitating the things of Albert, studying all the prints which he had bought, which, for their novelty and beauty, were sought after by everyone. Having engraved on copper, as thick as thc wood used by Albert, all the Passion and life of Christ in thirty-six sheets, with the A. D. with which Albert signed his works, Marcantonio succeeded in making them so like that no one could tell the difference who did .not know, and they were sold and bought as
(1) The Melancholia belongs to 1554, the Cnicifixion to 1555.
Albert's works. On being informed of this, one of the counterfeits being sent to Flanders, Albert flew into such a ragethat he left Flanders and came to Venice, and complained of Marcantonio to the Signoria. But all he obtained was that Marcantonio should no longer use his signature. Marcantonio next went to Rome and devoted himself to design, while Albert, on returning to Flanders, found another rival who had begun to make many delicate engravings. This was Lucas of Holland,1 who, although unequal to Albert in design, was his peer with the burin. Among his numerous works, the first, in 1509, were
two circular pnnts, one of Christ bearing the cross, and the other a Crucifixion. He afterwards issued a Sampson, David on horseback, and Peter Martyr with his persecutors. He next did a copper engraving of David playing before Saul. Not long after he had so far progressed as to make a large and delicate engraving of Virgil hung out of a window in a basket, with some heads and figures, which led to Albert issuing some printed sheets of incomparable excellence. Wishing to show his full ability, he made an armed man on horseback to represent human strength, beautifully finished, with lustrous armour, and the glossy black coat of the horse, a difficult achievementin
drawing. Near the man is Death, an hour-glass in his hand, and the devil behind. There is also a hairy dog, most delicately done. In 1512 Albert issued sixteen small scenes in copper engraving of the Passion of Christ, of the utmost beauty, sweetness and grace, the figures standing out in high relief.Incited by this competition, Lucas did twelve similar pieces of great beauty, but not so well engraved or designed. He also did a St. George comforting the girl who weeps because she is to be devoured by the serpent, a Solomon worshipping idols, the
Baptism of Christ, Pyramus and Tliisbe, Ahasuerus and Queen
Esther kneeling. On the other hand, Albert, being determined not
to be surpassed by Lucas in either the quantity or the quality of
his work, did a nude figure on the clouds, and Temperance with
wonderful wings and a gold cup in her hands, a bridle and a
minute landscape. By her is St. Eustace kneeling before the stag
with the crucifix between its horns, a marvellous sheet, especially
for some fine dogs in various attitudes, which could not be surpassed. Among the children which he did ‚for ornaments of arms and devices, Albert made some holding a shield on which is a death's head and a cock for a crest, the feathers of which a re most finely wrought. Finally, he issued a St. Jeromewriting,
(1) Lucas of Leyden, born 1494.
in his cardinal's hat, the sleeping lion at his feet, in a room with glass windows, through which the sun's rays are reflected to where the saint is writing, done with marvellous truth. There also are books, clocks, writings and all the other articles of that profcssion. Soon after, in 1523, he did a Christ with the twelve Apostles, almost his last work. Many portraits by him were printed, among them Erasmus of Rotterdam, Albert of Brandenburg, the cardinal, elector of the Empire, and one of himself. Although he engraved so much he did not abandon painting, but continued to do panels, canvases and other valuable things. He further left works on engraving, painting, perspective and architecture.
But to return to engravings. Albert's works incited Lucas to renewed efforts, and he next did four copper engravings of the acts of Joseph, the four Evangelists, the angels appearing to Abraham in the plain of Mamre, Susannah at the bath, David praying, Mordecai triumphing on horseback, Lot intoxicated by his daughters, thc creation of Adam and Eve, the command of God not to eat the apple, Cain killing Abel, all issued in 5529.1 But the thing that most increased Lucas's fame was a large sheet of the Crucifixion and an Ecce Homo, containing a great number of figures and much valued. So also is a Conversion of St. Paul, and his being taken to Damascus. These things secure for Lucas a place among the best engravers with the burin. His compositions are very right, so clear and free from confusion, that it seems as if his ideas could not be expressed otherwise, and more in conformity with the rules of art than Albert's. He also showed discretion, the more distant objects gradually fading from sight as they do in nature, and they are very softly toned, considerations which have opened the eyes of many painters. lie made many small prints, various Madonnas, the twelve Apostles with Christ, numerous saints, arms, crests and the like. Very fine is a peasant having a tooth out, in such great pain that he is not aware a woman is emptying his purse. All these things of Albert and Lucas have iiiduced numerous Flemings and Germans to have similar beautiful works printed. To return to Marcantonio. Arrived at Rome, he made a beautiful copper engraving of a drawing of Raphael, representing Lucretia killing herself, executed with such finish and beauty that, when it was shown to Raphael, he was disposed to issue some prints himself from his own designs. An earlier design by Raphael of the Judgment
(1) This is wrong: the Joseph belongs to 1552, the Susannah to 1508, the Mordecai to 1515 and the Lot to 1530.
of Paris into which he had capriciously introduced the chariot of the sun, wood, water and river nysnphs, vessels, prows and other things was boldly engraved by Marcantonio, to the wonder of Rome. He then did the drawing of the Innocents, with magnificent nudes, women and children; the Neptune with small scenes of ~neas about it, the beautiful Rape of Helen, also designed by Raphael, and the Death of St. Felicita in boiling oil, her ‚childrcn being decapitated, all of which brought Marcantonio such fame that his things were more valued than those of the Flemings for their good design, and the merchants found them very profitable. For many years Raphael had kept a boy called Il
Baviera to mix his colours, and, as he was intelligent, Raphael directed that
Marcantonio should engrave and Il Baviera print that all the
scenes might be finished, to be sold, wholesale or retail to all
who might want them. In this way countless prints were made
and considerable profit realised, all the sheets being marked
R. S. for Raphael Sanzio and M. F. for Marcantonio. The works
were Venus embraced by Love, drawn by Raphael; God blessing
the seed of Abraham, with a maid and two children; then all
the medallions drawn by Raphael in the chamber of the papal
chamber; Calliope with her horn; Prudence and Justice; a small
drawing of the Mount Parnassus with Apollo, the Muses and
Poets; ~neas carrying Anchises while Troy burns, this being a
design of Raphael for a picture; they next printed Raphael's
Galatea on a car drawn by dolphins, with Tritons carrying off
a nymph. This done, he did many single figures of Raphael in
copper, Apollo with the lyre, Love offering an olive branch to
Peace, the three Theological Virtues and the four moral ones;
of the same size, Christ and the twelve Apostles, and on a half-
sheet the Madonna painted by Raphael in the Araceli picture,
and the one that went to S. Domenico at Naples, with the 1Virgin, St. Jerome, Raphael and Tobias, and a small sheet of the Virgin embracing a half-clothed Christ as she sits on a chair. Many other Madonnas painted by Raphael ‚were similarly done. He next engraved a youthful St. John the Baptist seated in the desert, and then the St. Cecilia done by Raphael for S. Giovanni in Monte, with other saints, a much-admired sheet. Raphael having made cartoons for the arras of the Pope's chapel, after- wards woven in silk and gold, with stories of St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Stephen, Marcantionio engraved the preaching of St. Paul, the stoning of St. Stephen and the healing of the blind man, prints equally beautiful, for Raphael's invention and graceof
design and the finished engraving of Marcantonio which is indeed unsurpassable. He next engraved a fine Deposition from the Cross, after Raphael's, with a marvellous fainting Virgin, and not long after he did Raphael's picture of Christ bearing the cross, which was sent to Palermo, and is a very fine print, and a design by Raphael of Christ in the air with the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, and St. Catherine kneeling and St. Paul standing, a large and beautiful print. But this, like the others, was spoilt by too many impressions, and it was carried away by the Germans in the sack of Rome. He engraved in profile the portrait of Pope Clement VII., clean shaven, as on a medal, and Charles V. the Emperor as a young man, and subsequently when older; as well as Ferdinand, King of the Romans, afterwards emperor. He made the portrait at Rome of M. Pietro Aretino, the famous poet, and this was his finest work. Not long after he did the twelve emperors of antiquity on medals, some of which Raphael sent to Flanders to Albert Durer, who greatly praised Marcantonio and sent Raphael his own portrait, considered very good, as well as many other sheets.
Marcantonio's fame being thus grown, and his prints being much valued, many came to him to learn. Among these Marco da Ravenna1 made great progress, using Raphael's signature, R. S., and Agostino Viniziano, who signed A. V.; these two printed many designs of Raphael, namely a Virgin and the dead Christ, with St. John, the Magclalene, Nicodemiis and the other Maries; and another, of larger size, of the Virgin, with arms open, and her eyes turned piously upwards, the Christ lying dead. He did a large Nativity, with shepherds and angels, and God above; and about the cottage he did many vessels, both ancient and modern, and a censer, with perforated top, held by two women. He did a scene of a man transformed into a wolf 1as he is going to a bed to kill a sleeping man. He then did Alexander presenting a royal crown to Roxana, some cupids flying in the air, and others decking themselves out in Alexander's armour. Agostino and Marco engraved the Last SuPPcr, an Annunciation, both from Raphael's designs, and two scenes of the marriage of Psyche, painted by Raphael not long before. Agostino and Marco between them engraved almost all the things that Raphael ever drew or painted, and paintings of Giulio Romano, copied by them, and they also did the scenes painted by Giulio in the loggia from Raphael's design, whose works they had almost exhausted. Some of their first sheets,
(1) Marco Dente of Ravenna, born 1496.
signed M. R. for Marco Ravignano, and others, A. V. for Agostino
Viniziano, have been repeated by others, such as the Creation, God making animals, the sacrifice of Cain and Abel and Abel's death, Abraham sacrificing Isaac, Noah's ark and the Flood, the animals saved, the passage of the Red Sea, the giving of the laws from Mount Sinai by Moses, the manna, David killing Goliath, already engraved by Marcantonio, Solomon building theTemple, his judgment, the visit of the Queen of Sheba; and from the New Testament, the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ, the sending of the Holy Spirit, all printed during Raphael's lifetime. After his death Marco and Agostino separated, the latter being retained by Baccio Bandinello, sculptor, of Florence, who employed him to engrave a skeleton made by him of dried bones1 and also a Cleopatra, both considered very good. Encouraged by this, Baccio designed and had engraved a Massacre of the Innocents, one of the largest sheets done up to that time, filled with draped women, and nude men murdering the innocent children by Herod's command. Marcantonio meanwhile engraved the twelve Apostles in various ways, and many saints, of which poor painters unskilled in design can make use at their need. He also engraved a nude figure, with a lion at his feet, and a great banner, filled out by tlie wind, against the youth's will, another carrying a pedestal on his back, and a small St. Jerome regarding a death's head, with one finger in the cavity, an idea and design of Raphael. He then did Justice, taken from the chapel artas, and Dawn, drawn by two horses, bridled by the Hours. In the antique style he did the Three Graces and a scene of Our Lady mounting the steps of the Temple. Giulio Romano, whose modesty would not allow anything of his to be printed during Raphael's life, to avoid the appearance of competition, after his death got Marcantonio to do two cavalry fights of considerable size and great beauty, and all the legends of Venus, Apollo and Hyacinth, painted by him in the study at the villa of M. Baldassarre Turini of Pescia. He also did four scenes of the Magdalene and the four Evangelists on the vaulting of Trinity Chapel, erected by a courtezan, though now the property of M. Agnolo Massimi. He drew and had engraved similarly a fine ancient sarcophagus from Maiano, now in the court of S. Pietro, representing a lion hunt and one of the ancient marble bas- refiefs under the arch of Constantine; and finally numerous designs of Raphael for the corridors and loggias of the palace, afterwards engraved again by Tommaso Barlacchi, together with the hangings done by Raphael for the public consistoryGiulio next got Marcantonio to engrave twenty of his sheets of the commerce of evil men and women, for each of which M. Pietro Aretino wrote an extremely lewd sonnet, so that I cannot say which is worse, the drawings or the words. This work was strongly condemned by Pope Clement, and if Giulio had not already set out for Mantua, he would have been severely punished. The designs were afterwards found in the most unexpected places, and were finally prohibited, Marcantonio being imprisoned. He would have come off badly had not the Cardinal de' Medici and Bacdo Bandinello, who was serving the Pope in Rome, got him released. The gifts of God ought certainly not to be employed, as they so often are, upon such utterly abominable things. On coming out of prison Marcantonio finished a large sheet for Baccio Bandinello, begun before, full of nudes, of S. Layrence on the gridiron, considered very beautiful, and engraved with great care, although Bandinello complained to the Pope that a many faults had been committed. However, Baccio was repaid for his lack of courtesy, for Marcantonio finished it unknown to Baccio, and having heard all, went to the Pope, who was exceedingly fond of designs, and showed him Baccio's original, and then the print, by which the Pope perceived that he had not made any errors, but had corrected many of Baccio's of no small importance, and his engraving was more skilful than Baccio's drawing. So the Pope commended him highly, received him graciously, and would probably have conferred many favours upon him, but the sack of Rome well-nigh reduced him to beggary, as, besides losing everything, he had to ransom himself from the Spaniards. This done, he left Rome never to return, and few things of his subsequent to that time are to be seen. Our art owes much to him for introducing eogravings into Italy to the benefit of art and of all men of ability, others fofiowing in his steps, as I shall relate. Agostino Viniziano, mentioned above, came to Florence in- tending to join Andrea del Sarto, who was considered the best painter in Italy after Raphael. Persuaded by him to have his works engraved, Andrea designed a dead Christ supported by three angels, but as it did not prove so successful as he hoped Andrea would never have anything engraved again. But after his death they issued the Visitation- and St. John bap tisin g, taken from Andrea's scenes painted in grisaille, in the Scalzo at Florence. Marco da Ravenna also worked in company with Agostino, and did many admirable things by himself, to berecognised by his signature. Many who succeeded them have
engraved well, so that every province has seen the work of excellent men. Some have had the courage to make woodengravings that look like pen drawings, a most ingenious and difficult thing. Such a one was Ugo da Carpi,1 who, though amediocre painter, was very ingenious in other fantasies. In the thirtieth chapter of the theory2 he is mentioned as the first to succeed in making two impressions, one for the shadows and the other for colour tints, cutting deep, and leaving the lights so white that they seemed to be done with white lead when printed. In this style he did a design of Raphael, in grisaille, of a sibyl of this encouraged Ugo to make things in three impressions, the first for the shadows, the second for the half-tints, and the third for the lights. This also succeeded in a drawing of Aeneas carrying Anchises during the burning of Troy. He then did a Deposition from the Cross, the story of Simon Magus, done by Raphael for
the hangings of the chapel; and David slaying Goliath, and the
flight of the Philistines, designed by Raphael to be painted on the, papal loggia. After that he did many things in grisaille, including a Venus playing with cupids. Being also a painter, he painted in oils, with his finger and other curious tools, not using the brush, a panel at the altar of Volto Santo at Rome. One morning, as I was hearing Mass at the altar with Michelagiiolo, I saw the inscription stating that Ugo had done it without the brush, and smilingly pointed it out to him. He laughed and replied, "Better if he had used a brush and done it less badly." Thismethod
of
wood-engraving discovered by Ugo was adopted by many, who
produced numerous beautiful sheets. After him Baldassare Peruzzi, painter of Siena, did a sheet in grisaille of Hercules driving Avarice laden with gold and silver vessels from Mount Pamassus, the Muses being in fine and varied postures, and Francesco Parmigiano engraved a Diogenes, more beautiful than anything of Ugo. Parmigiano, after explain- ing the method of engraving with three plates to Antonio di Trento,3 got him to do a large Decollation of 55. Peter and Paul in grisaille, and then did with two plates only the Tiburtine Sibyl showing Christ and the Virgin to Augustus, and a nude seated with his back turned. In an oval he did a Madonna lying down, and several others, painted after his death by Joannicolo Vincentino. But the finest were made after Parmigiano'sdeath
(1) Born 1486. (2) i.e. Vasari's own technical introduction to his lives. (3) Antonio Fantuzzi, born 1520.
by Domenico Beccafumi of Siena, as will be related at length in Domenico's Life. His new method of engraving more easily than with the burin was a most praiseworthy invention, namely with acqua forte, although the things are not so clear. He first covered the copper with wax, varnish, or ‚oil colour, and traced the design on this with a sharp point, acid was thrown on the plate, and ate into the copper, which was then ready for printing. In this way Francesco Parmigiano did many small things with much grace, such as a Nativity, a dead Christ lamented by the Maries, one of the chapel hangings designed by Raphael, and many others. Battista, a painter of Vicenza, and Battista del Moro of Verona afterwards did fifty sheets of various landscapes. In Flanders, Jerome Cock did the Liberal Arts, and in Rome Fra Bastiano Viniziano did the Visitation of La Pace,' and that of Francesco Salviati of the Misericordia. In Venice the Feast of Testaccio, as well as many works, were cngraved by Battista Franco, the painter, and other masters.
But to return to simple copper engravings. After Marcantonio had published his prints Rosso was in Rome, and was persuaded by Il Baviera to print some of his things. Accordingly he induced Gian. Jacopo del Caraglio of Verona,2 who then was a good and industrious worker, imitating Marcantonio, to do a person with a skull in its hand and sitting on a serpent, while a swan sings. This proving successful, he had the Labours of Hercules engraved, the slaying of the Hydra, the fight with Cerberus, the killing of Cacus, the breaking the bull's horn, the battle of the Centaurs, Nessus cartying away Deianira, all very successful. Then Jacopo did Rosso's design of the I'ierides, who wished to compete with the Muses in singing and were turned into magpies. Then Il Baviera got Rosso to design for a boDk twenty gods in niches, with their attributes, Gian. Jacopo engraving them all with grace and style, and afterwards he did their transformations. Of these Rosso only designed two, because he had a difference with Il Baviera, who got Perino del Vago to do ten. Rosso's were the Rape of Proserpine and Philyra transformed into a horse, both engrived with great diligence and much valued. Caraglio next began the Rape of the Sabines for Rosso, which would have been remarkable, but the sack of Rome prevented its completion, for Rosso went away and all the prints were lost. It afterwards came into the hands of the printers, but in a bad state, because in order to gain money more was engraved than was intended. For Francesco
(1) i.e. the visitation by Fra Bartolomeo. (2) Born 1512.
Parmigiano Caraglio engraved a Marriage of the Virgin and other things of his, and then another Nativity for Titian from a 1painting by him. After making many copper engravings Caraglio began to carve cameos and gems, becoming equally excellent in this. He then went to the King of Poland, doing jewels and architecture, and giving up engraving as base work. Receiving much money from the king, he invested it in the Parmesan
in
order that he might enjoy his old age there with his friends and pupils after his prolonged labours. After him came Lam- berto Suave,1 an excellent engraver on copper; he did thirteen sheets of Christ and the Apostles, perfectly engraved, and they would have been marvellous if the design had displayed equal care, diligence and knowledge. We remark the same in a small sheet of St. Paul writing, and a larger one of the Resurrection of Lazarus, containing many fine things, notably the cave in which Lazarus is buried, and the light shed on some figures, done with beautiful invention. Gio. Battista of Mantua,2 pupil of Giulio Romano, has also shown skill in this, doing, among other things, a Virgin with the moon under her feet andthe
Child in her arms, containing some beautiful heads with crests,
and two sheets, one of a captain on foot and one on horseback. Another sheet of Mars, armed, sitting on a bed, while Venus suckles a Cupid, possesses many good points. Very charming also are two large sheets of his of the Burning of Troy, done with extraordinary invention, design and grace. He signed I.B.M. No less excellent than any of these was Enea Vico of Parma, who engraved on copper the Rape of Helen by Rosso, and did a Vulcan with some cupids forging thunderbolts, while the Cyclops work, from another design. In another he did Michelag- nolo's Leda and an Annunciation designed by Titian, the History of Judith ,painted by Michelagnolo, in the chapel, and the por- trait of Duke Cosimo de' Medici when young, in armour, from the design of Bandinello, the portrait of Bandinello himself, the combat between Cupid and Apollo in the presence of the gods. If Enea had been properly treated by Baiidinello and had received recognition for his labours, he would have engraved many other beautiful things for him. Francesco, pupil of Sal- viati, an excellent painter, being in Florence, induced Enea to engrave the large sheet of the Conversion of St. Paul, full of horses and soldiers, assisted by the liberality of Duke Cosimo,(1) Lambert Suterman of Liege; fl. 1550. (2) G.B. Ghisi, born about 1500. (3) Born about 1512.
Enea. He then did the portrait of Sig. Giovanni de' Medici, father of Duke Cosimo, with an ornamentation full of figures. He also engraved the portrait of the Emperor Charles V., with a border made of victories and spoils, for which he received rewards from his majesty ,and praise from everyone. In another sheet he did the emperors victory on the Elbe.1 For Doni he made some heads like medals with beautiful ornaments, Henry, King of France, Cardinal Bembo, M. Ludovico Ariosto, Il cello of Florence, M. Ludovico Domenichi, Signora Laura Terracina, M. Capriano Morosino and Il Doni. For Don Giulio Clovio, a rare illuminator, he did a St. George on horseback killing the serpent, succeeding remarkably well, a-. these were practically his first engravings. Being a man of spint and anxious to make progress, Enea studied antiquity and especially ancient medals, of which he issued several printed books containing the heads of many emperors and their wives, with inscriptions and reverses of all kinds, to delight those who like knowledge and clearness in tlie representations, for which he deserves great praise. Those who blame him for his books of medals are wrong, because we may well forgive minor slips when we consider his labours and their utility and beauty; his errors, which only arise from bad information or from being too credulous, or from having a different considered a beautiful thing, which brought great fame to opinion from others, are very excusable, for such errors have been made by Aristotle, Pliny, and many beside. Enea also designed for the general satisfaction and benefit fifty costumes of various nations, namely Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Flanders and other parts of the world, men and women, country and city folk, an ingenious, beautiful and fanciful idea. He also did a tree of all the emperors. At length, after many labours, he now rests under the shadow of Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara, for whom he has made a genealogical tree of the Marquises of Este. He did many other things, and is still at work, and I have decided to include liim among these able men.
Many others have engaged in copper engraving, but have not attained such perfection. However, they have benefited the world, and brought to light many works of great masters, giving those who cannot go to see the original works an opportunity of seeing the various inventions, and showing the ultramontanes many tliings which they did not know. Although many sheets have suffered by the carelessness of the printers, impelled more by the desire of gain than of honour, yet some are good, as for example the larger design of the Judgment of Michelagnolo
(1) The Battle of Muhlberg, 1547.
for the Pope's chapel, engraved by Giorgio Mantoano,1 the crucifixion of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul, painted in the Pauline chapel at Rome, and engraved by Gio. Battista de' Cavalieri,2 who afterwards did copper engravings of St. John the Baptist in meditation, the Deposition from the Cross, painted by Daniello Ricciarelli of Volterra, in the Trinity at Rome, a Virgin with angels and countless others. Various artists have engraved many things of Michelagnolo at the request of Antonio Lanferri, who kept printers for such work, who have issued books of all manner of fishes, and the Phaethon, Tityus, Gany- mede, Archers, Baccanalia, Dream, Piety and Crucifixion of Michelagnolo, done for the Marchioness of Pescara. The four prophets of the chapel were also issued, but done so badlythat I prefer not to mention the engravers and printers. But I must not forget Antonio and Tommaso they have greatly assisted engraving, keeping many youths engaged, with the designs of masters too numerous to mention, issuing in this way arabesques, ancient temples, cornices, bases,
capitals
and similar things, to scale. Seeing everything done very badly,
Sebastiano Serlio, of Bologna, architect, has engraved two books
of architecture, comprising, among other things, thirty rustic doors and twenty delicate ones. The book is dedicated to King Henry of France. Antonio Labbaco has issued in a good style all the antique and notable things of Rome, to scale, well engraved by. .. of Perugia. Jacopo Barazzo of Vignola,4 archi- tect, has been equally industrious, his book showing easy rules for efflarging and diminishing, according to the proportions of the five orders, a most valuable work for art, and for this we owe him a great debt, being equally bound to Giovanni Cugini of Paris5 for his engravings and writings on architecture. In Rome, Niccolo Beatricio of Lorraine has also done much with the burin, producing many admirable sheets, such as two sarcophagi with cavalry fights, and others full of animals; one scene of the raising of the widow's daughter by Christ, boldly executed from a design by Girolamo Mosciano,7 painter of Brescia. From a design of Michelagnolo he also engraved an Annunciation, and printed Giotto's Navicella. Many beautiful sheets have come from Venice: landscapes of Titian, a Nativity, a St. Jerome and a St. Francis in wood and on copper, Tantalus, Adonis and others, engraved by Julio Bonasone of Bologna,8(1) Giorgio Ghisi, 1520-82. (2) 1530-90. (3) Rectius Lanfrery. (4) Rectius Barozzi, 1507-73. (5) Jean Cousin, 1530-90. (6) Beautrizet (7) Rectius Muziano. (8) Born 1498.
with some others of Raphael, Giulio Romano, Parmigiano and
every other master from whom he could get designs. Battista Franco, painter of Venice, has engraved and etched works of various masters, a Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Preaching of St. Peter, some scenes from the Acts of the Apostles and many from the Old Testament. The designers were thus kept constantly employed by the engravers, and after Rosso's death everything of his that could be found was engraved, such as Clelia and the Sabines crossing the river, the Masks of the Fates done for King Francis, a curious Annunciation, ten women dancing, King Francis alone at the Temple of Jove, having behind him Ignor- ance and other like figures. These were done by Rene,1 a copper engrav~r, during Rosso's lifetime, and many others were done after his death, comprising the history of Ulysses, and the vases, lamps, candles, salt-cellars and countless other silver tliings done from Rosso's designs. Luca Perini 2 published two Satyrs giving drink to Bacchus, and Leda taking Cupid's arrows, Susannah at the bath, and others from designs by Rosso and Francesco Bologna Primaticcio, now abbot of St. Martin's in France. They comprise a Judgment of Paris, Abraham sacrificing Isaac, a Virgin, Christ espousing St. Catherine, Jove converting Callisto into a bear, the Council of the Gods, Penelope weaving with her women, and numerous other wood-engravings, mostly done with the burin, the small figures being executed with the greatest imaginable fineness. Who can see without wonder the works of Francesco Marcolini of ForIi? Among other things he printed ii Giardino de' Pensieri, with a frontispiece of an astrologer's sphere and his head, designed by Giuseppo Porta of Castelnuova della Garfagnana. `The book contains Fate, Envy, Calamity, Timidity, Praise and many others, considered most beautiful. Very admir- able also were the figures of Gabriel Giolito in the Orlando Furioso, done in excellent style, as were the eleven anatomical drawings done for Andrea Vessalio, and designed by John de Calcar,3 an excellent Flemish painter. They were afterwards copied on to a smaller sheet and engraved by Valverde, who wrote on Anatomy, following Vessalio. Among the numerous prints issued by the Flemings during the last ten years, there are some fine ones by Michele,4 a painter, who worked for many years in two chapels in the Gerrtian church at Rome; these sheets are the Brazen Serpent of Moses and thirty-two scenes of Psyche and Cupid, considered very beauti-(1) Rene Boivin, I530-98. (2) Rectius Penni. (3) John Calcar, 1499- I546. (4) Michael Coxcie, I497-1592.
ful. Jerome Cock, also a Fleming, has done on a large sheet a Delilah cutting Sampson's hair, from tlie design of Martin Hemskerk. Not far off is the temple of the Philistines, where
we see the dead and the terrified fugitives among the ruins. In
three smaller sheets he did the creation of Adam and Eve, the
eating of the apple, the expulsion from Paradise; and in four
other sheets of the same size, the devil imprinting ayarlce and
ambition in the heart of man, and all the effects thus produced.
By. him also are twenty-seven scenes of the Old Testament of
the same size, from the expulsion of Adam from Paradise, boldly and skilfully designed by Martin, very like the Italian style. Jerome next engraved the history of Susannah in six round pictures and twenty-three scenes from the Old Testament, like the first of Abraham, namely the acts of David in six, those of Solomon in eight, Balaam in four, and Judith and Susannah in five. Of the New Testament he did twenty-nine sheets from the Annunciation to the Passion and Death of Christ. From Martin's designs he did the Seven Works of Mercy, the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the parable of the Good Samaritan in four sheets, and the parable of the Talents in four, front Matthew, chapter xviii. Meanwhile Lie Frynch,1 in competition, did the life and death of St. John the Baptist in ten sheets, and the Twelve Tribes in that number of sheets, Reuben on his pig for luxury, Simeon with the sword for homicide, and so forth. He afterwards engraved in more delicate style subjects of the acts of David, from his anointing by Samuel to his going before Saul, in ten sheets, and in six others he did Amnon and Tamar, with the death of the former. Not long after he did ten scenes of Job, and five from the Proverbs of Solomon. He also did the Magi, and then in six sheets the invitation to the wedding feast and the man without the wedding garment, from St. Matthew. In six sheets of like size he did the Acts of the Apostles, and in eight others he did eight women of perfect beauty, six from the Old Testament: Jael, Ruth, Abigail, Judith, Esther and Susan- nah; and the Virgin and Mary Magdalene from the New. He next did six sheets of the Triumph of Patience; in the first, Patience in a chariot holds a standard with a rose among thorns; the second shows a red-hot heart on an anvil, beaten by three hammers, the car drawn by two figures, a Desire with wings, and Hope with an anchor, while behind comes Fortune as a prisoner, her wheel broken. The third has Christ on a carwith the standard of the Cross and his Passion, at his side are the
(1) Hans Liefrink of Leyden.
Evangelists represented as animals; the car is drawn by two angels, and behind are four prisoners, the Devil, the World or flesh, Sin and Death. The next is Isaac naked upon a camel, his banner having a pair of manacles and behind are the altar with the sheep, the knife and the fire. In the next, Joseph on another car is mounted on an ox with a garland of ears of corn and fruit, and a standard with a box of peaches; his prisoners are Anger and Envy eating a heart. The next is David on a lion holding a sceptre and a standard and grasping a bridle. Behind him is Saul as a prisoner and Shimei with his tongue out. Then comes Tobias on an ass, his standard has a fountain, and his prisoners are Poverty and Blindness. The last is St. Stephen on an elephant, on his standard is Charity, and his persecutors are his prisoners. All these ingenious fancies were engraved by Jerome Cock with a bold hand. He also engraved Fraud and Avarice, and a Bacchanal with dancing children. In another he did Moses crossing the Red Sea, after the painting of Agnolo Bronzino the Florentine, painted in the upper chapel of the Duke's palace at Florence. In competition with him, Giorgio Mantovano engraved a beautiful Nativity, also from Bronzino's design. Jerome then engraved for the designer twelve sheets of the victories, battles and exploits of Charles V. For Verese,1 the painter and eminent perspectivist, he did twenty different buildiiigs, and for Jerome Bos he did St. Martin in a boat full of curiously shaped devils and an alclicinist wastiiig liis substance ahd coming at length to the hospital with liis wife and cliildren. This was designed by a painter who got him to engravc the seven mortal sins with various demons, a fantastic and laughable thing, the Last Judgment, and an old man with a lantern sccking quiet amid the turmoil of the world and not finding it. He also did a large fish eating small fish, and a Carnival rejoicing at table with others and driving away Lent, while in anothcr Lent expels the Carnival, with many other fancies which it would be tiresome to recount.
Many other Flemings have carefully imitated the style of Albert Durer, especially Albert Aldcgraf,2 who engraved four scenes of the creation of Adam, four of Abraham and Lot and four of Sussannah, all very beautiful. G. P.3 also engraved the Seven Works of Mercy, in small circles, eight scenes from the Book of Kings, Regulus put in the tub full of spikes, and a.
(1) Possibly Jan Cornelis Vermey is meant. (2) Albert Aldegrove, c. 1502-62. (3) George Penez, c. 1500-50.
lovely Artemis. I. B. did the four Evangelists, wonderfully minute, and five other beautiful sheets; a young girl led by
Death to the grave; Adam; a peasant a bishop and a cardinal
all led away by Death. He also did some Germans going with
their mistresses to pleasures, and some fine Satyrs. By. .. we
have the four Evangelists, not less fine, and twelve scenes of the
Prodigal Son, executed by a M. with much diligence. Finally Francis Floris,1 famous painter of those parts, did a great number of designs and works, mostly engraved by Jerome Cock, such as the Labours of Ylercules in ten sheets, and a large sheet of all the acts of life, another of the combat between ,the Horatii, the Judgment of Solomon, the fight between the !Pygmies and Ylercules, and Cain killing Abel, with Adam and Eve lamenting. Also Abraham sacrificing Isaac, with countless others marvellous for their various fancies. Our book contains portraits of painters, sculptors and archi- tects, designed by Giorgio Vasari and his pupils, and engraved by Maestro Cristofano Coriolano,2 who is still doing many notable things at Venice. The ultramontanes have derived great advantages from prints which have enabled them to see the style of the Italians, as the Italians have froni seeing those of foreigners and ultromontanes, and for this they are chiefly indebted to Marcantonio of Bologna, who, besides being among the earliest engravers, has not since been really surpassed, although a few have equalled him in some things. Not long after leaving Rome he died at Bologna. Our book contains some pen drawings of angels by him, and other very beautiful sheets copied from the chambers painted by Raphael. In these Marcantonio was drawn by Raphael as one of the bearers of Pope Julius II., in the scene where Onias the priest is praying. This is the conclusion of the notice of Marcantonio and the other engravers, of whom I have spoken at this necessary length to satisfy the students of art and all those who take delight in such works.(1) Francis Floris, 1520-70. (2) Born at Nurnberg in 1540; his name was Lederer.
ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO, Architect of Florence, (I485-I546)
WHAT great fame many illustrious princes would leave behind them if, in addition to the gifts of Fortune, they possessed a high spirit, and one inclined to the things which not only embellish the world, but are of the utmost benefit to all men. What works perpetuate the fame of princes and great men more than great and magnificent structures, because they endure practically forever? Of all the lavish expenditure incurred by the Romans when at the height of their power, what has come down to us, to their eternal glory, except those remains of buildings which we honour as sacred, and as the only things which we care to imitate? The interest of some princes in these things will appear in the Life of Antonio San Gallo, architect of Florence, which I am now writing.
He was the son of Bartolommeo Picconi of Mugello, a cooper, and having learned the trade of a carpenter as a child, he left Florence, hearing that his uncle Giuliano da San Gallo was employed at Rome with Antonio his brother. As he was much inclined to architecture- he gave promise of future eminence, displayed in later years in so many thiiigs all over Italy. When Giuliano, suffering from the stone, was forced to return to Florence, Antonio became known to Bramante the architect, helping the paralytic old man with his drawings, as he could not use his hands. Antonio did these with such finish that Bramante, finding the measurements correct, gave him the care of many things, supplying him with the necessary inventions and compositions. Antonio showed such judgment, quickness and diligence that, in I5I2, Bramante gave him the charge of the corridor leading to the moat of the Castle of St. Angelo, which he began with a provision of zo crowns a month, but the work was interrupted by the death of Julius II. Antonio, however, had already acquired the reputation of being a skilful architect, and his excellent walls led Alcssandro Farnese, the first cardinal of the house, afterwards Pope Paul III., to think of restoring his old palace in the Canipo di Fiore, where he lived with his fainily. Antonio, being anxious to win a position by this work, made various designs, one of which, arranged in two apartments, was adopted by the cardinal afler consulting his sons Pier Luigi and Ranuccio, whom he expected to accomo-
date in this structure. The work was therefore begun1 and advanced steadily every year. At this time a church dedicated to S. Maria da Loreto at the Macello de' Corbi at Rome, near the Trajan Column, was beautifully decorated by Antonio. Then M. Marchionne Baldassini built a palace near S. Agostino from Antonio's model, which, though small, is considered the first and most convenient house in Rome, the stairs, court, loggias, doors and rooms being most graceful. M. Marchionne was delighted, and determined that Perino del Vaga, painter of Florence, should decorate a hall, as will be related in his Life, the decorations possessing much grace and beauty. Antonio finished the house of the. Centelli, near the Torre di Nona, which is small but very convenient. Before long he went to Gradoli, a place on the estate of Cardinal Farnese, where he built a beautiful and convenient palace for him, and restored the fortress of Capo di Monte with a circuit of low, well-designed walls, designing also the fortress of Capraruola. The cardinal, seeing himself so well served, became very fond of him, and favoured him as far as possible in every undertaking. Cardinal Alborense wishing to leave a memorial of himself in the church of his nation, employed Antonio to erect a marble chapel and tomb for him in S. Jacopo degli Spagnuoli. The chapel, standing between the pilasters, was painted by Pellegrino da Modana, while Jacopo del Sansovino made a fine marble St. James for the altar. This work of architecture was considered most praiseworthy, the marble vault being decorated with octagons. Soon after M. Bartholommeo Ferratino, for his own convenience and that of his friends, and to leave an honourable memorial, employed Antonio to build him a palace 2 on the piazza of Amelia, a beautiful construction which brought Antonio no small fame and profit. Antonio di Monte, cardinal of S. Prassede, being at Rome at this time, wished Antonio to build him a palace, wl,ere he afterwards lived, on the street leading to Agone, where the statue of Maestro Pasquino stands, and having a place for a tower in the middle, constructed on three floors with fine pilasters and windows. Francesco dell' Indaco did in clay the figures and scenes, inside and out. Having intimate relations with the cardinal of Arimini, Antonio built him a palace in Tolentino della Marca, for which the cardinal rewarded him, remaining always in his debt.
Meanwhile, as Antonio's fame was increasing and spreading, Bramante, being very old, was summoned to another world.
(1) In 1534. (2) Now Patngnan,
Pope Leo therefore appointed three architects for the building of S. Pietro: Raphael, Giuliano da San Gallo, Antonio's uncle, and Fra Giocondo of Verona. Before long Fra Giocondo left Rome, and Giuliano, being old, obtained permission to return to Florence. Antonio, being in the service of Cardinal Farnese, begged him to get Pope Leo to appoint him to his uncle's place. This he easily obtained,1 because his ability merited the appointment, and he was supported by the influence of the Pope and Cardinal Farnese, and so the building was continued in a very dilatory fashion by him and Raphael. When the Pope went to fortify Civitavecchia, accompanied by numerous lords, ineluding Gio. Paolo Baglioni and Sig. Vitello, and by Pietro Navarta and Antonio Marchisi, architect of fortification who had come from Naples by the Pope's command, various designs were submitted, but Antonio's was accepted by the Pope and the others as being the finest and strongest, and so he won great credit at the court. After tliis Antonio's skill was able to repair a great error. In making the papal loggia and apartments, Raphael had left a number of spaces to please some people, to the detriment of the structure, as, the weight being too great, the building would certainly have fallen if Antonio had not supported it with props, making new foundations and leaving it more firm than it had ever been.
The Florentine nation having begun their church in the Strada Giulia behind the Banchi from the designs of Jacopo Sansovino, it was set too far back to the river. Accordingly they were involved in an expenditure of I2,000 crowns for foundations in the water. This was excellently carried out by Antonio, who had succeeded in doing what had baffled Jacopo, and several bracchia were built over the water, Andrea making a remarkable model, and if the work had been completed it would have been stupendous. However, it was a disgrace, and showed great want of foresight in the head of the nation at Rome, to permit the architects to found so large a church in so formidable a river, in order to gain 20 braccia in length and throw so many crowns away on foundations involving a continual struggle with the river, when the church might have been brought farther forward on the land, if shaped differently, and could have been completed at the same cost. If they trusted in the wealth of the nation, time proved their calculations to be false, for the church remained and still is in the same condition, 2 during all the years of Popes Leo and Clement, both
(1) In 1517. (2) It was finished between 1832 and 1838.
Medici, Julius III. and Marcellus, all Florentines, and in spite of the greatness of numerous cardinals and the riches of merchants; and architects ought to look to the end before putting their hands to a work of importance.
But to return to Antonio. One summer he accompanied the Pope Monte Fiascone and restored the fortress there erected
by Pope Urban, and did two small temples in the Viscentina
island on the Lake of Bolsena for Cardinal Farnese; one of them octagonal outside and round within, the other squareoutside and octagonal within, with a niche at each angle outside. Both were excellent, showing Antonio's resources in architecture. While they were building, he returned to Rome and began the palace of the Bishop of Cervia at the corner of S. Lucia, where the new mint is, but it was left unfinished. Near the Corte Savella he did the church of S. Maria di Monferrato, considered very beautiful, and the house of Marrano, behind the Cibo palace, near the house of the Massimi.
On the death of Leo all the fine arts revived by him and by Julius II. languished under Adrian VI. who succeeded, who treated them so badly that if his pontificate had lasted longer a Nin would have overtaken them, such as befel when the Goths came, all statues being condemned to the flames, good as well as improper ones. Adrian might perhaps have followed this example
of his predecessors, and had already begun to talk of pulling
down Michelagnolo's chapel which he called a stew of nudes,
and contemptuously classified all good pictures and statues as
lascivious and abominable. Thus all good artists, including Antonio, stopped work, and the building of S. Pietro was almost at a standstill during this pontificate, though he might have cared for this even if hostile to other worldly things. Aritonio therefore only did small things, restoring the aisles of the church of S. Jacopo degli Spagnuoli, and making some fine windows in the facade. He did the Tabernacle of the Imagine di Ponte in travertine, which is very graceful though small, and here Perino del Vaga did a beautiful little work in fresco. The unfortunate arts were thus badly circumstanced under Adrian, when Heaven by the death of one revived thousand. He made way for one more deserving of the station, and who would deal otherwise with worldly affairs. Clement VII. followed in the footsteps of Leo and the other members of his illustrious house, feeling that, as he had made such fine memorials as cardinal, he ought as Pope to advance all buildings and decorations. His election encouraged the artists and restored life to thetimid,
who afterwards produced the beautiful works which we now see. By the Pope's commission Antonio began a court in the palace before the loggias already painted by Raphael. Antoni greatly enhanced its convenience and beauty by enlarging some narrow and tortuous ways and giving them a better form. But it has since been altered, as Julius III. removed the granite columns to decorate his villa, and changed everything. In Banchi Antonio did the facade of the old mint, with a most graceful rounded corner, of great difficulty, putting the Pope' arms there. He made new foundations for the remainder of the loggias, left uncompleted by Leo's death, and untouched under Adrian, completing them as Clement desired. His Holiness resolved to fortify Parma and Piacenza,1 and after many plans had been prepared by various people, Antonio was sent thither with Giuliano Leno, the supervisor. Arrived there with his pupil Antonio l'Abbaco, Pier Francesco of Viterbo, a clever engineer, and Michele da S. Michele, architect of Verona, they together perfected the designs of these fortifications. This done, while the others stayed, Antonio returned to Rome, where Pope Clement directed him to begin the apartments over the Ferraria, where the public consistories are held, there being only scanty accommodation in the palace. The execution of the work gave great satisfaction to the Pope, who next had his chamberlains' apartments constructed. Above these Antonio made others of great convenieilce, the work being dangerous because of the foundations. In this respect Antonio showed great skill, as his buildings have never moved a hair's breadth, no modern architect being so safe as he.
In the time of Paul II. the little church of the Madonna of Loreto, the roof of which rested on rough brick pilasters, was restored upon its present plan by Giuliano da Maiano, being afterwards raised by Sixtus V. and others, as has been said. But in the time of Clement, after having stood perfectly firm, it cracked in 1526 so that the arches of the tribune were endangered, and the church also in many places, because the foundations were weak and the walls leaning out. Being sent by Clement to repair these defects, Antonio proceeded to Loreto, propped up the arches like a determined and judicious architect, and inade new foundations. He thickened the walls and the pilasters within and without, rendering it beautiful in form and proportion, and capable of bearing any strain. He continued this arrangement for the crossing and aisles, with superb mould-
(1) In 1525.
ings upon the arches, friezes and crnices. Especially fine were the bases of his four large pilasters at the eight sides of the tribune bearing the four arches, namely the three of the crossing where the chapels are, and the large one of the nave. This was considered his best work, and with good cause, because those who erect buildings from the beginning can fashion them as they please, whereas those who restire things begun by others and ill-designed or spoiled by misfortune, do not enjoy this advatage; so that Antonio may be said to have raised the dead, and to have achieved what was all but impossible. He directed that it should be roofed with lead, and showed how the remainder of the work was to be done, thus endowing that faomous sanctuary with form and grace greater than it had possessed before, and giving it the hope of a long life.
DO PAGE 92 AND 93 OF ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO HERE!!!!!!!!
prisoners, two at each, and a great number of trophies, with the arms of the Pope and Emperor, all executed under Antonio, by the best sculptors and painters then in Rome. He also designed all the apparatus for the festivities for receiving the emperor. For the Duke of Castro he next did the fortress of Nepi1 and the defence of all the city, which is impregnable and magnificent. Here also he planned several streets, designing houses and palaces for the citizens. For the Pope he then made the bastions of Rome, of great strength, including the S Spirito gate, with rustic ornaments in travertine, very solid, and of such magnificence that it equals the ancients. After Antonio's death a great effort was made to destroy it, chiefly through envy, but this was not permitted. He also made new foundations for the apostolic palace, which threatened to fall in several places, including one side of the Sistine Chapel, where the works of Michelagnolo are, and the facade, a work involving more danger than it promised glory. He enlarged the great hall of the Sistine Chapel, making two large windows in two lunettes with stucco ornament, which rendered the hall the most beautiful and richest in the world. He also made some steps leading to S. Pietro as
convenient as anything seen among the ancients and moderns.
He did the Paulina Chapel, where the Sacrament is placed, most beautifully proportioned, graceful and attractive. During the dissensions between the Perugians and the Pope he made the fortress of Perugia,2 pulling down the Baglioni houses, finishing it with marvellous speed and making it very beautiful. He also built the fortress of Ascoli, rendering it defensible in a few days, a thing the Ascolians did not expect for many years, so that the people were amazed at a garrison being placed there 50 soon. In Rome he made new foundations for his house in Strada Giulia to protect it when the Tiber was swollen,and he began and made considerable progress with the palace near S. Biagio, now owned by Cardinal Riccio da Montepulciano, who completed it at great cost, and with sumptuous rooms, in addition to the thousands of crowns which Antonio had expended.
But none of Antonio's works is to be compared with the stupendous fabric of S. Pietro at Rome, begun by Bramante, but extraordinarily enlarged and rearranged by him, as he gave it proportion, composition and decoration in every part, as we see by the completed wooden model made by his pupil Antonio Labacco, which gave Antonio a great name. This
(1) In 1537. (2) 1540
model and the plans were published by Labacco after his death, who wished to show his master's skill, and that men should know his views. Michelagnolo, however, made other dispositions, which were much contested, as I shall relate. He and many others who saw Antonio's model thought the composition too dwarfed by projections and members, which are small, as are the columns, arches being placed upon arches and cornices above cornices. He condemned the finish or garland of numerous small columns of the two campanili, the four small tribunes and the great tribune, nor did he like the numerous pyramids, which he thought approached the German style more than the good antique observed by the best architects.
Labacco having finished the models, that of S. Pietro cost 4I84 crowns for the carpenters and joiners only. Labacco did his part well, for he possessed a good knowledge of architecture, as we see by his fine printed book on Rome. The model is now in the principal chapel of S. Pietro, and is 35 palms long, 26 broad and 201 high, so that the complete work would have been I040 palms or I04 canne long, and 360 broad or 36 canne, the Roman canna being 10 palms.. For the labours on this model and the designs Antonio was granted I500 crowns, but lie only received I000 before his death. He thickened the pilasters of S. Pietro to bear the weight of the tribune and filled the foundations with solid materials, making it so strong that it could not move as it had done in Bramante's time. If that masterpiece were above ground instead of being hidden beneath, it would dismay the most formidable intelligence, and for it this admirable artist must always retain a place among the rarest intellects.
From the days of the ancient Romans there has been continual enmity between Narni and Terni, because the lake of Marmora does harm to one or the other, so that when Narni wishes to open it Terni will not consent, and thus there have been disputes under both emperors and popes. Cicero was sent by the Senate to compound such a difference, but did not succeed. In I546 ambassadors were sent to Paul III. on the matter, and he dispatched Antonio to settle the dispute. He decided that the lake ought to discharge on the side where the wall is, and with great difficulty he cut it. But the weather was very warm, and Antonio being an old man fell sick of the fever at Terni, and died soon after, to the sorrow of his friends and relations, and the loss of many buildings, chiefly the Farnese palace near the Campo di Fiore.
When a cardinal, Paul III. had advanced the palace to a good state, and had begun the front windows, the inside hall, and cleared a part of the court, though it was not sufficiently advanced to show its perfections. After the Pope's election Antonio entirely changed the design for something befitting a pope and not a cardinal. Pulling down some houses and the old staircases, he made new and more pleasant ones, enlarged the court in every sense and the whole of the palace, making larger salons, more numerous rooms, and finer ceilings, with beautiful carving and otheF decorati‚on. He completed the second windows, and it only remained to set up the surrounding cornice. The Pope, being a man of spirit and of good judgment, wished to have a finer cornice, the richest possible, and better than that of any other palace, so in addition to the plans prepared by Antonio all the best architects in Rome made theirs though Antonio was to superintend the work. One morning, as the Pope was driving in Belvedere, all the designs were brought to him in the presence of Antonio. They were by Perino del Vaga, Fra Bastiano del Piombo, Michelagnolo Buonarotti and Giorgio Vasari, then young and in the service of Cardinal Farnese, with whose commission and the Pope's he had prepared two designs Giorgio, who took his own and excused his friend as being for the cdrnice. Buonarotti did not bring his, but sent it by indisposed. The Pope examined the designs carefully, and praised all as being ingenious and beautiful, but especially that of Michelagnolo. Antonio did not like all this, as he wished to be the chief, and he was even more dissatisfied at seeing the favour bestowed by the Pope on one Jacopo Melighino of Ferrara, although he had no design and not much judgment, in employing him upon the work of S. Pietro and in giving him the same salary as Antonio had for all his labours. This was because Melighino had served the Pope for many years without any reward, and the Pope chose to reward him in this way, and moreover he‚ had given him charge of the Belvedere and some other buildings. After examining the designs, the Pope said, perhaps to test Antonio: "These are all fine, but I should like to see one by our Melighino." Antonio rather resented this, and thinking the Pope was jesting he said, "Holy Father, Melighino is an architect pour rire." On hearing this the Pope, who was seated, almost bent his head to the ground, and turning to Antonio he said, "Be good enough to remember that we consider Melighino a serious architect, as you may see by his provision," and then departed, dismissing them all, for he wished
to show that princes, more than merit, often bring men to greatness. The cornice was ultimately made by Michelagnolo, as wiIl be said in his Life, and he practically rebuilt the whole palace in another form. Antonio left a brother, Battista Gobbo, an ingenious man, who devoted all this time to his brother's buildings, though Antonio did not treat him very well. He survived Antonio many years, and at his death left all his property to the company of the Misericordia of the Florentines at Rome, on condition that they should print his book of observations upon Vitruvius, which has never appeared. It is supposed to have been a good work, because he thoroughly understood art and possessed judgment and intelligence.
But to return to Antonio. He died at Terni and was taken with great pomp to be buried at Rome, followed by all artists and many others. His body was afterwards laid in a vault near the chapel of Pope Sixtus in S. Pietro, with this epitaph:
Antonio Sarncti Galli Florentino Urbe munienda ac publ. operibus,
praecipueque D. Petri templo ornam. architectorum facile principi, dum Velini lacus emissionem parat. Paulo pont. max. auctore, interamne intempestive extincte. Isabella Deta uxor moestiss. posuit I546 III. Kalend. Octobr.Indeed, for his excellent works Antonio merits no less praise than any other architect, ancient or modern, no matter who.
GIULIO ROMANO, Painter (1492-1546)AMONG the countless pupils of Raphael, who mostly became excellent, no one imitated him more closely in style, invention, design and colouring than Giulio Romano, nor was anyone of them more profound, spirited, fanciful, various, prolific and universal; he also was an agrecable companIon, jovial, affable, gracious and abounding in excellent qualities, so tliat Raphael loved him as if he had been liis son, and employed him on all his principal works. Thus, when Raphael had designed the building, decoration and scenes for the loggias for Leo X., he charged Giulio to do many of the paintings, and amongst others the creation of Adam and Eve, that of the animals, the building
(1) Giulio Pippi.
of Noah's ark, the sacrifice, and many others recognisable by the style, such as Pharoah's daughter finding Moses in the ark, a marvellous work with a finely executed landscape. He also helped Raphael to eolour many things in the chamber of the Borgia tower containing the burning of the Borgo, notably the bronze-coloured basement, the Countess Matilda, King Pepin, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem, and other benefactors of the Church, all excellent figures. A part was issued as prints not long ago from Giulio's design. He also did most of the scenes in fresco in the loggia of Agostino Ghigi, and a fine St. Elizabeth in oils, done by Raphael and sent to King Francis of France with another of St. Margaret, almost entirely by Giulio from Raphael's design, who sent to the same king a portrait of the vice-queen of Naples,1 in which Raphael only did the head, the rest being by Giulio. These works greatly pleased the king, and they are still in the royal chapel at Fontainebleau. In this way Giulio learned the difficulties of art, taught to him with great patience by Raphael, and before long he became skilled in drawing perspectives, measuring buildings and making plans. Sometimes Raphael would sketch his ideas and Giulio would enlarge them for use in architecture, in which he began to take such delight that with practice he became an excellent master. On Raphael's death Giulio and Giovanfrancesco, called Il Fattore, were left his heirs and charged to finish his works, a task which they honourably fulfilled in most cases.
Cardinal Giuliano de' Medici, afterwards Clement VII., acquired a site in Rome under Mt. Mario, with a beautiful view, flowing water, well wooded, and extending along the Tiber from Ponte Molle to the S. Piero gate. Here on tlie flat ground at the top of the bank he resolved to erect a palace furnished with convenient rooms, loggias, gardens, fountains, woods and other things of beauty, and gave the work to Giulio. He took it readily, and erected the palace then known as the Vigna de' Medici, and now as the Vigna di Madama, with great perfection. Accommodating himself to the site and to the cardinal's wishes,
he designed a semicircular facade with niches and windows of
the Ionic order, so much admired that many believed Raphael
had designed them, and that Giulio had biit elaborated his sketches. Giulio decorated the chambers and other parts with pictures, notably a fine loggia beyond the first vestibule, adorned with large and small niches containing a quantity of ancient statues comprising a Jupiter of rare beauty, afterwardssent
(1) Joan of Aragon, painted I5I8, now in the Louvre.
by the Farnesi to King Francis of France, with many other beautiful statues. The walls and vaulting are, moreover, covered with arabesques by Giovanni da Udine, and the loggia is decorated with stucco. At the top Giulio painted a great Polyphemus in fresco, with infants and satyrs playing about him, for which he won great praise. His other designs there were equally admired, of fisheries, pavements, rustic fountains, woods and other things, all of great beauty and executed with judgment. But the work was interrupted by the death of Leo, as, on the eleetion of Adrian and the departure of the Cardinal de' Medici for Florence, all public works begun by Leo were discontinued. Meanwhile Giuliano and Giovanfranceseo finished many of Raphael's incomplete works, and prepared to carry out the cartoons he had done for the great hall of the palace, representing four scenes of the acts of the Emperor Constantine. Before his death Raphael had prepared the surface of one wall to receive the oils. But Adrian, who cared nothing for painting, sculpture, or anything fine, did not want it done. Thus, while Adrian lived, Giulio, Giovanfrancesco, Perino del Vaga, Giovanni da Udine, Bastiano Veniziano and other excellent artists came near dying of hunger. But while the court, nourished on the greatness of Leo, had come to this pass, and the best artists were at their wits' end, their abilities being no longer valued, Adrian died, by God's will, and Cardinal Giulio de' Medici was elected pope as Clement VII. Thus in one day all the arts of design revived with tlie other talents, and Giulio and Giovanfrencesco immediately and joyfully set about finishing the Hall of Constantine by the Pope's order. They threw down the wall prepared for the oils, leaving, however, two figures, which they had previously painted as a decoration about some popes, of Justice and another virtue. The hall being low, the dispositions had been judiciously arranged by Raphael. At the corners over the doors he put some large niches decorated with infants holding various devices of Leo X., such as lilies, diamonds, feathers and the like. In the niches were seated popes in tlieir pontificals, each one having a shadow. About them were cherubs holding books and other suitable things. On either side of each pope was an appropriate Virtue. Peter had Religion and Charity or Piety, and the others had the like, the popes being Damasus I., Alexander I., Leo III., Gregory, Silvester and some others, all well executed by Giulio, who devoted his best energies to the task. His labour and diligence are shown by a fine drawing of St. Silvester by him, probably more graceful than the painting,
for he was always happier in expressing his ideas in drawing than in painting, obtaining more vivacity, vigour and expression, possibly because a design is made in an hour in heat, while a painting takes months and years. Thus he became tired, losing his first ardour, and it is no wonder that the paintings are inferior.
But to return to the scenes. On one of the walls Giulio painted Constantine addressing his soldiers, a cross appearing in the air with some cherubs, and the letters IN HOC SIGNO VINCEs. A dwarf at Constantine's feet, putting on a helmet, is made with great art. On the largest wall is a cavalry fight near Ponte Molle, where Constantine routs Maxentius, an admirable work for the wounded and dead and the varied and curious attitudes of the infantry and cavalry fiercely engaged. There are also many portraits, and if it did not contain too much black, of which Giulio was always fond, it would be perfect, but this greatly detracts from its beauty. He did the whole landscape of Monte Mario, and Maxentius drowning in the River Tiber on his horse. This scene1 has proved of great assistance to those who have since represented bat!les. Giuliano studied the ancient columns of Trajan and Antoninus at Rome, making g‚reat use of them for the dresses of the soldiers, the armour, ensigns, bastions, stoclcades, rams and other implements of war represented there. Below this he painted many admirable things in bronze colour.
On the other wall he did St. Silvester the Pope baptising Con-
stantine, representing the very bath made by that emperor,
now at St. John Lateran. St. Silvester is a portrait of Pope Clement, and many assistants and others are present. Among the Pope's servants he drew the Pope's favourite, M. Niccolo Vespucci, knight of Rhodes, the little cavalier, and below in bronze colour he painted Constantine building S. Pietro, an allusion to Pope Clement, with portraits of Bramante and Giulian Lemi, who hold the plan of the church, making a very beautiful scene. On the fourth wall over the chimneypiecehe represented S. Pietro in perspective, with the papal residence as it stands, the Pope singing Mass with the cardinals and other prelates of the court, aiid the chapel of the choristers and musicians. The Pope is seated, as St. Silvester, with Constantine
kneeling at his feet and presenting to him a golden Rome as it
is shown on ancient medals, to indicate the gift which Constan-
tine made to the Church. Giulio here introduced many beautiful
women kneeling to view the ceremony, a poor man asking alms,(1) Begun in 1524.
a boy playing with a dog, and the lances of the Pope's guard making the people stand back in the usual way. Among the numerous portraits are those of Giulio himself, his friend Count Baldassare Castiglione, author of Il Cortigiano, Pontano, his great friend, Marullo and many other men of letters, and courtiers. About the windows Giulio painted many designs and poetic fancies of great beauty, greatly delighting the Pope, who richly rewarded him.
While this hall was being painted, Giulio and Gio. Francesco did an Assumption1 of great beauty, which was sent to Perugia, and placed in the monastery of' the nuns of Montelucci. Giul,o alone did a Madonna with a cat,2 so natural that it was called the picture of the cat. In another large picture he represented Christ at the Column, which was placed over the high altar of S. Prassedia at Rome. Not long after M. Gio. Matteo Giberti, afterwards bishop of Verona, and then datary of Pope Clement, employed his friend Giulio to design some apartments, built of brick, near the door of the Pope's palace, on the piazza of S. Pietro, near where the trumpeters stand when the cardinals go to the consistory, with convenient steps, which can be mounted on horse or foot. For the same friend Giulio did a Stoning of St. Stephen,3 with remarkable invention, grace and composition, and while the Jews are stoning him young Saul is seated on their clothes. Giulio never did a finer work than this, representing the vigour of the assailants and the patience of Stephen, who really seems to see Christ on the right hand of the Father in a lovely sky. M. Gio. Matteo gave this work to the monks of Monte Oliveto, together with the benefice, which they have converted into a monastery. For Jacopo Fugger, a German, Giulio did a panel for a chapel in S. Maria de Anima at Rome of the Virgin, St. Anne, St. Joseph, St. James, the little St. John, and St. Mark kneeling, with a lion at his feet, and a book. This was a difficult task, as the lion has wings, with soft, plumy feathers, an extraordinary iinitation of naturc. He also made a building, round like a theatre, with statues of inexpressible beauty, finely disposed. Among thein is a woman spinning, and looking at a hen with her chickens, wonderfully natural. Above the Virgin are some cherubs, holding a graceful canopy, but unfortunately this picture also contained too much black, which goes far to neutralise the labour bestowed on it, for the black always contains some carbon or other acid which
(1) In I525; now in the Vatican Gallery. (2) Naples Museum. (3) In I523, in S. Stefano, Genoa.
eats into the material. Among the numerous pupils of Giulio who assisted him with this work were Bartolommeo da Castiglione, Tommaso Paparello1 of Cortona, Benedetto Pagni of Pescia, and Giovanni da Lione and Raffaello dal Colle of Borgo S. Sepolcro, both much employed in the Hall of Constantine and the other works mentioned. Being dexterous painters who had carefully observed Giulio's methods, they coloured from his designs the arms of Pope Clement VII., near the old mint in Banchi, with a figure on either side. Not long after Raffaello, from a design of Giulio, painted in fresco, in the lunette of the door of the palace of the Cardinal della Valle, a Virgin covering the sleeping Child, between St. Andrew the Apostle and St. Nicholas, considered an excellent work. Giulio being friendly with M. Baldassarre Turini of Pescia, made a model and built him a palace on Mount Janiculum,2 where he has a fine view, of the utmost grace and convenIence. The rooms were adorned with stucco and painting, as Giulio himself painted stories of Numa Pompilius, who was buried there. In the bath-room Giulio painted stories of Venus and Cupid, Apollo, Hyacinth, being helped by his apprentices, all of which scenes are engraved. On separating from Gio. Francesco, he did various works in architecture at Rome, such as the design for the Alberini house in Banchi, attributed by some to Raphael, and a palace on the Piazza della Dogana at Rome, since engraved because of its good arrangement. He also did a fine range of windows at a corner of the Macello de' Corbi where his birthplace was, which, though small, is very graceful. Alter Raphael's death Giulio's excellent qualities gave him the reputation of being the best artist in Italy, and Count Baldassarre Castiglione, then ambassador at Rome of Federigo Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and his friend, being requested by the marquis to procure him an architect for his palace, he succeeded by prayers and promises in getting Giulio to go if he could obtain the permission of Pope Clement. That done, the count, on .going to Mantua with a message from the Pqpe to the emperor, took Giulio with him.3 He presented him to the marquis, who received Giulio graciously, gave him a well-furnished house, and ordained a provision for him and for Benedetto Pagni and another youth. He also sent him several ells of velvet and smooth cloth to dress himself, and, understanding that he had no horse, gave him a favourite one of his own called Ruggieri. On this creature Giulio rode a bowshot out of the S. Bastiano gate, where the marquis had a place
(1) Rectius Papacello. (2) Villa Lante. (3) In I524.
and stables, called the T, in the middle of a meadow, where he kept his stud. When he artived there, the marquis said that he wanted, without destroying the old building, to have a place where he could resort for amusement and take refreshment. Giulio, after examining the site, set to work and, using the old walls, made the first hall in a larger part, as may be seen on entering, with the chambers on either side. As there is no good stone there for building or carving, he used bricks and tiles, with stucco, and of this material he made columns, bases, Capitals cornices, doors, windows and other things in fine proportion, with new and extraordinary decoration for the vaulting, and richly decorated the interior, and this led to the marquis deciding to make the present fine palace there from a humble beginning. Giulio prepared a fine model in the court of rustic-work, which greatly pleased the marquis, who gave him a provision and, Giulio bringing many builders to the place, the work was speedily completed.1 The building is rectangular, with an open court in the middle for a piazza, upon which four ways open, in the form of a cross. The first passes to a large loggia, which leads through another into the garden. Two others lead to various apartments, decorated with stucco and painting. The vaulting of the hall, which is entered from the first, is painted in fresco, and the walls contain representations of all the best horses of the marquis's breed, and the dogs also, which are marked
like the horses, each with its name, all being designed by Giulio, and coloured in fresco by his pupils, Benedetto Pagni and Rinaldo Mantovano, so well that they seem alive. From here one enters a room at the corner of the palace, the vaulting of which is finely decorated with stucco and various cornices, gilt in some places. These form four octagons, which surround a square in the highest part, where a cupid stands before Jove, who is surrounded by a celestial light, and espouses Psyche in the presence of the gods, a most graceful design, the figures being so well foreshortened, as seen from beneath, that some, not more than a braccia long, look three; indeed, Giulio has made the illusion complete, the figures are in such relief. The octagons contain the other stories of Psyche, of the wrath of Venus against her, executed with the same beauty and perfection. The other angles contain cupids, and there are others in the windows with various expressions according to the spaces. The ceiling is coloured in oils by Benedetto and Rinaldo. The remainder of the scenes on the lower walls represent Psyche taking her bath,(1) Between I525 and I535.
attended by the cupids, while we see the banquet of Mercury, with the Bacchantae and the Graces beautifully embellishing the picture, and a goat, with two infants sucking her dugs; and near him is Bacchus, with two tigers at his feet; he leans on a sideboard on one arm, and has a camel on one side, and an elephant on the other. This sideboard is seniicircular, and covered with festoons and flowers, full of vines and grapes. Beneath are three tiers of curious vases, basins, cups and such things in various forms, and so lustrous tliat they actually seem silver and gold,, though he has used simple yellow colour, an instance of Giulio s genius and ability, which was rich, varied and prolific in invention and art. Not far off is Psyche, surrounded by women serving her, and in the distance is Phoebus guiding the four horses of his chari ot, and a naked Zephyr reclining on clouds and blowing soft breezes through a horn, making a pleasant atmosphere about Psyche. These designs were engraved soon after by Battista Franco of Venice, who made them uniform with the large cartoon of Giulio done by Benedetto and Rinaldo, who executed these scenes, except the Bacchus, the Silenus and the two children suckled by the goat. The work was indeed retouched by Giulio, and is therefore his. He learned this method from Raphael, and it is very useful for the young men employed, because they become excellent masters, and although some think they are better than those who direct the work, they soon
recognise that without such guidance they would find them-
selves blind in a sea of infinite errors. But to return to the rooms
of the T. The Psyche room led into another, full of friezes of figures in bas-relief in stucco from Giulio's design, by Francesco Primaticcio of Bologna,1 then a youth, and by Gio. Battista Mantovano, containing all the soldiers on the Trajan Column at Rome, done in fine style, the ceiling of an ante-chamber being painted in oils, representing Icarus directed by his father Daedalus, who, through wishing to fly too high, comes insight of Cancer and the chariot of the sun, drawn by four horses, near Leo, and is left without wings, the wax being melted by the heat. He is next seen falling, his face deathly pale, a fine idea of
Giulio, and very truthful, as we notice the sun's heat withering the wings, the smoke of the fire, the splitting of the feathers and the death agony in the face of Icarus, with passion and grief in that of Daedalus. I have the original design for this beautiful scene in my book. In the same place Giulio did the Months, with(1) He was at Mantua between I525 and I531.
the usual occupations of each, a work of delightful imagination, carried out with judgment and diligence.
Passing the great loggia, decorated with stucco, arms and other curious ornaments, we come to some rooms full of such various fancies that the mind is bewildered, for Guilio being very imaginative and ingenious, to show his ability, intended to make a room similar to the Psyche room, the walls of which should‚ correspond with the painting and create an illusion. As the place was marshy he laid the foundations deep and double, building a round room with thick walls so that the four external angles should be strong enough to bear a double barrel-vault. He then made the windows, door and chimneypiece of rustic stone, so twisted that they looked as if they leaned to one side and would fall. In this strangely built place he began to paint the most curious idea imaginable: Jove fulminating the giants. On the vaulting is the throne of Jove foreshortened, and a round Ionic temple on perforated columns, with a canopy over the seat in the middle. His eagle is there, the whole being on the clouds. Lower down angry Jove is fulminating the giants, with Juno assisting; lower still, while the strange-faced winds blow on the earth, the goddess Ops turns at the noise with her lions, as do the other gods and goddesses especially Venus, who is next to Mars and Momus, who with wide-open arms seems to be expecting the heavens to fall, and yet remains immovable. The Graces stand in fear with the Hours near them, and each goddess is fleeing in her chariot. The Moon, with Saturn and Janus, move towards an opening in the clouds to get away from the noise and fury, and so does Neptune, who, with his dolphins, seems to be trying to rest on his trident, while Pallas and the nine Muses wonder what this portends. Pan embraces a nymph who is trembling with fear, and he wishes to take her away from the tumult and lightnings which fill the heavens. Apollo stands on the chariot of the sun and some of the Hours attempt to stop the: horses. Bacchus and Silenus, with satyrs and nymphs, exhibit the utmost fear, and Vulcan, with his huge hammer on his shoulder, looks towards Hercules, who is speaking of the matter to Mercury. Near them stands the trembling Pomona, while Vertumnus and all the other gods exhibit the emotion of fear, which is presented with indescribable force both iii those standing and in those fleeing. On the lower part, that is to say on the walls below the arching of the vault, are the giants, some under mountains and huge rocks, which they are carrying on their strong shoulders to mount to heaven. But Jove fulminates
and all heaven is incensed against them, so that it not only strikes terror into the rash daring of the giants, hurling mountains at them, but all the world seems overturned and the end
of all things at hand. We see Briareus in a dark cavern almost
covered by the huge masses of rock, the other giants lying
crushed and some killed under the fragments. Through the cleft
of a dark cave many giants may be seen fleeing, struck by the
thunders of Jove and about to be crushed like the others. Elsewhere Giulio did other giants with temples, columns and partsof mountains falling, making a great slaughter among them. Between these falling walls is the fireplace, and when a fire is lighted the giants seem to be burning. Pluto in his car is drawn by shrivelled horses, and flees to the centre accompanied by the Furies, and thus Giulio decorated the chimneypiece most beautifully with this idea of fire. To make the work more terrible, he represented huge giants struck in various ways by the lighting and thunderbolts, falling to earthy some killed, some wounded, and some crushed beneath mountains and ruins. No more terrible work of the brush exists, and anyone entering the room and seeing the windows, doors and other things so twisted that they appear about to fall, and the tumbling mountains and
ruins, will fear that all is about to come about his ears, especially
as he sees the gods fleeing hither and thither. A marvellous
feature is that the painting has neither beginning nor end, and
is not interrupted in any way, so that objects near the buildings
seem very large, and those in the distant landscape are gradually
lost, and the room, which is not more than fifteen braccia long,
looks like an open country, and the floor being of small round stones set with a knife and the walls at the junction being painted like them, there seem to be no corner stones, and the
place looks extremely large. The judgment and art here displayed by Giulio place artists under a great debt to him. In this work Rinaldo became a perfect colourist, as he completed it from Giulio's designs, as well as the other apartments. If he had not died young he would have brought great honour to Giulio in after years. Besides this palace, in which Giulio did many
admirable things, which I pass over in order not to be too long,
he restored many rooms of the duke's castle at Mantua, and made
two large spiral staircases, richly decorated with stucco through-
out. He decorated one hall with the history of the Trojan war,
and did twelve scenes in oil in an ante-chamber under the heads
of the Roman emperors by Titian, considered rare. At Marmiruolo, five miles from Mantua, he designed a convenientstructure and large paintings not less fine than those of the castle and palace of the T. In the Chapel of Signora IsabelIa Buschetta in S. Andrea, at Mantua, he did an oil-panel of the Virgin adoring the Child Jesus lying on the ground, while Joseph, the ass and the ox are near a manger. On one side is St. John the Evangelist and on the other St. Longinus, larger than life-size.1 On the walls of the same chapel Rinaldo did two fine scenes from his designs, a Crucifixion with the thieves, some angels in the air, and the executioners, the Maries and many horses below (for he `loved to paint horses, and made them marvellously beautiful) and many soldiers in various attitudes. The other was the Finding of the Blood of Christ in the time cf the Countess Matilda, a most beautiful work. For Duke Federigo Giulio next did with his own hand a Virgin washing the Christchild, wlio is standing in a basin while St. John empties water out of a jug, both figures, which are life-size, being very bcautiful. 2 In the distance are half-length figures of women coming on a visit. This picture was afterwards given by the duke to Signora Isabella Buschetta. Giulio made a fine portrait of this lady in a small Nativity, a braccia high, now in the possession of Sig. Vespasiano Gonzaga, with another of Giulio's given him by Duke Federigo, representing a youth and maiden embracing on a bed,3 while an old woman secretly observes them at a door, the figures being rather less than life-size and very' graceful. In the same house tliere is a very fine St. Jerome by Giulio. Count Niccolo Maffei has a life-size Alexander the Great holding a Victory in his hand, copied from an ancient medal, and a very beautiful thing. Giulio next painted for his friend, M. Girolamo, organist of the Duomo at Mantua, a Vulcan forging arrows, in fresco. He holds the bellows in his hand and grasps a piece of red-hot iron with pincers, while Venus cools some of the arrows in a vase and puts them in Cupid's quiver.4 Tliis is one of Giulio's most beautiful works, and there is very little else of his in fresco. In S. Domenico he did a dead Christ for M. Ludovico da Fermo, and Joseph and Nicodemus prepanng to carry him to the tomb, with the Virgin, the Marles and St. John the Evangelist nearby. He did another dead Christ, now at Venice, in the house of Tommaso da Enipoli of Florence. About this time Sig. Giovanni de' Medici, being wounded by a musket, was taken to Mantua,
(1) Now in the Louvre, formerly in the collection of Charles I. (2) The Madonna della Catina, Dresden. (3) Berlin Gallery. (4) Probably the Venus and Vulcan of the Louvre.
where he died. M. Pietro Aretino, his faithful servant and a friend of Giulio, desired the artist to take a death mask, from which he made a portrait which remained in Aretino's possession for many years. When Charles V. came to Mantua,1 Giulio, by the duke's order, made many fine arches, scenes for comedies and other things,in which he had no peer, no one being !ike him for masquerades, and making curious costumes for jousts, feasts, tournaments, which excited great wonder in the emperor and in all present. For the city of Mantua at various times he designed temples, chapels, houses, gardens, fa~ades, and was so fond of decorating them that, by his industry, he rendered dry, healthy and pleasant places previously miry, full of stagnant water, and almost uninhabitable.
While he was serving the duke, the Po one year broke its banks, so that in some parts of Mantua the water was nearly tour braccia deep, and frogs lived there almost all the year. Giulio considered how he would make this good, and he suc-ceeded in restoring the former state and in preventing the recurrence of tlie accident, causing the streets to be raised on that side, by the duke's command, so that the buildings were above the level of the water. He directed that the small houses there should be pulled down, rebuilding larger and finer ones. When some opponents told the duke that Giulio was destroying too much, he refused to hear them, making Giulio master of the work and directing that no one should build except under him. This led to many complaints and threats, which reached the duke's ears, and he spoke out, letting it be known that he would consider aily wrong done to Giulio as an injury to himself. The duke loved the talents of Giulio so that he could not livewithout him, and Giulio cherished the utmost reverence for the duke. He asked for no favour that he did not receive, and at his death he was found to have an income of over IOOO ducats owing to the duke's liberality. Giulio built himself a house at Mantua opposite S. Barnaba, with a fantastic fade in coloured stucco, the inside being similiarly decorated, and furnished with numerous antiquities brought from Rome and received from the duke, to whom he gave many of his own. Giulio designed an incredible number of things for foreign parts and Mantua, for no palaces or other important buildings could be erected there without his designs. He rebuilt the church of S. Benedetto there near the Po, a large and rich house of the black monks, upon the old walls, and he
(1) In 1530
embellished the building with fine paintings and pictures. As his things were highly valued in Lombardy, Gian. Matteo Giberti, bishop of Verona, wished to have the tribune of the Duomo there, painted by Moro Veronese from Giulio's designs. For the Duke of Ferrara Giulio prepared many designs for arras, afterwards executed by Maestro Niccolo and Gio. Battista Rosso, Flemings, in silk and gold. These were engraved by Giovan. Battista Mantovano, who thus treated several of Giulio's designs, and besides three battle-scenes engraved by others, he did a physician putting leeches on a woman's back, a Flight into Egypt, Joseph leading the ass, and angels bending a palm-tree to permit Christ to gather the fruit. He also engraved from Giulio's design the Tiber wolf suckling Romulus and Remus, and four scenes of Pluto, Jove and Neptune dividing the heavens, the earth and the sea by lot. He did the goat Alfea held by Melissa and nourishing Jove, and men tortured in prison, on a large sheet. Other prints were the parley between the armics of Scipio and Hannibal on the banks of a river; the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, engraved by Sebastiano da Reggio, and many others printed in Italy. In Flandei s and France also ma!1y were printed, which I need not mention, beautiful as they were, as he produced them in the mass. Everything in art came so easy to him, especially design, tliat no one is known to have done more than he. He was universal and could discuss everything, but especially medals, upon which he spent much time and money. Although he spent most of his time on great things, yet he also did the smallest to oblige his patron and friends, and no sooner had they opened tlieir mouth to express an idea than he had grasped it and made a sketch. Among the numerous treasures in his house there was a portrait of Albert Durer, by himself, on fine cambric, sent by him to Raphael, diligently executed in water-colours, and finished without using white lead, the fabric itself serving for the whites and the fine threads being used to represent the hairs of the beard, and when held u,p to the light it was transparent all over. Giulio, who valued it highly, showed it to me himself as a miracle once when I was on business at Mantua.
The death of Duke Federigo1 whom Giulio loved beyond all imagining, affected him so deeply that he would have left Mantua if the cardinal, the duke's brother, regent during the minority of Federigo's sons, had not detained him. Giulio, indeed, had there his wife, children, houses, estate, and all
(1) In 1540.
the other requirements of a gentleman of position. The cardinal also wished to consult Giulio on the restoration of the Duomo. To this Giulio put his hand,1 executing it in a beautiful style.
At this time Giorgio Vasari a great friend of Giulio, though they only knew each other by report and by letters, passed through Mantua on his way to Venice to see him and his works. On meeting, they recognised each other as though they had met
a thousand times before. Giulio was so delighted that he spent
four days in showing Vasari all his works, especially the plans
of ancient buildings at Rome, Naples, Pozzuolo, Campagna, and
all the other principal antiquities designed partly by him and
partly by others. Then, opening a great cupboard, he showed
him plans of all the buildings erected from his designs in Mantua,
Rome and all Lombardy, so beautiful that I do not believe that
more original, fanciful or convenient buildings exist. When the
cardinal afterwards asked Giorgio, in Giulio's presence, what he
thought of Giulio's work, he answered that he deserved a statue
to every corner of the city and half the state would not suffice
at reward his labours. The cardinal answered that Giulio was
much more the master of the state than himself, and as Giulio
was a most amiable man, especially to his friends, he loaded
Giorgio with caresses. Vasari left Mantua for Venice, and returned to Rome at the time when Michelagnolo uncovered his Last Judgment. He sent to Giulio by M. Nino Nini of Cortona, secretary of the cardinal of Mantua, three drawings of the seven mortal sins represented in that Judgment, which Giulio greatly welcomed for the author, and because he was about to do a chapel for the cardinal in the palace, and this incited him to greater things than he had purposed. Accordingly he made every effort to produce a fine cartoon,2 and represented the call of Peter and Andrew to become fishers of men. It was the finest cartoon he ever did, and was executed by Fermo Guisoni, his pupil, now an excellent master. Not long after, the chiefs of the building of S. Petronio at Bologna desired to begin the facade of that church,3 and sent for Guilio and a Milanese architect called Tofano Lombardino, a man then much esteemed in Lombardy for numerous buildings. They made several designs and, those of Baldassare Peruzzi being lost, one of Giulio's proved so fine that he deserved the greatest praise from that people and a rich reward on returning to Mantua.(1) In I544. The original is in the Louvre. (3) In I543.
Antonio Sangallo having died at Rome,1 and the trustees of S. Pietro being in no small difficulty, not knowing to whom they should entrust the completion of so great a structure, they thought no one was better fitted than Giulio, whose qualities they all knew. Accordingly they endeavoured to tempt him with a large provision and by means of his friends, but all in vain, for although he would willingly have gone, two things detained him, the cardinal would not let him go, and his wife, friends and relations dissuaded him in every way. Perhaps neither cause would have prevailed, only he was not in good health. He thought of the honour to himself and his children, and began to make preparations, intending to ask the cardinal's permission, but the trouble grew worse. It was decreed that he should not go to Rome, and the end of his life was near, for he died in a few days at Mantua, in grief and pain, not being allowed to adorn his native Rome as he had adorned that city. He was fifty-four and left only one son, named Raffaello, after his master. This boy, having mastered the elements of the arts and shown considerable promise, died not long after, and so did his mother. A daughter named Virginia alone survives as the wife of Ercole Malatesta, and is living at Mantua. The death of Giulio caused deep sorrow to all who knew him. He was buried in S. Barnaba, where they intended to raise an honourable memorial. But his children and wife kept putting it off till at last there remained none. It is a shame that a man who did so much for the city has not received any recognition except from those who made use of him, who often remembered him in their needs. But the talents which adorned him through life and which are displayed in his works form a perpetual memorial which neither time nor years will destroy.
He was of medium stature, rather plump than thin, dark skinned, a handsome face, black and laughing eyes, most amiable, of courtly manners, a small eater, and elegant in his dress and bearing. Among his numerous pupils the best were Gian. dal Lione, Raffaello dal Colle Borghese, Benedetto Pagni of Pescia, Figurino da Faenza, Rinaldo and Cio. Battista Mantovani and Fermo Guisoni, who is still in Mantua and does him honour, being an excellent master. So also has Benedetto, who has done many things in his native Pescia, and a panel in the Opera of the Duomo at Pisa, a picture of the Virgin with a Florence presenting to her the dignity of the Medici house, a picture now owned by Sig. Mondragone, a Spaniard, highly favoured
(1) In 1546.
by the illustrious Prince of Florence. Giulio died in I546 on All Saints' Day, and the following epitaph was placed on his tomb:
Romanus moriens secum tres Julius arteis Abstulit (haud mirum) quatuor unus erat.SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO,1 Friar of the Piombo and Painter (I485-1547) PAINTING was not, as many affirm, the first profession of Sebastiano, but music, as besides singing he delighted in playing vanous instruments and especially the lute, on which he could render all the parts without accompaniment. It was an exercise of which the Venetian nobles were very fond, and he always enjoyed intimate relations with them. While still young he turned to painting, learning the elements from Giovan. Bellini, then an old man. Then Giorgione da Castlefranco introduced a more modern style, more harmonious and the colours bettertoned,
so that Sebastiano left Giovanni and joined Giorgione, whose
style he in great part acquired. He did many good portraits in
Venice, among others that of Verdelotto, an excellent French
musician then chapel-master inS. Marco, and in the same picture
Uberto, his fellow-singer. Verdelotto took‚this picture to Florence,
where he became chapel-master inS. Giovanni, and it is now in
the house of Francesco Sangallo, the sculptor. At that time Sebastiano did a panel with some figures in S. Giovanni Grisos- tomo at Venice, so like Giorgione's work that many people not experts, have been deceived. It is a fine picture, the colouring giving it great relief. Sebastiano's fame spreading, Agostino Chigi, a wealthy Sienese merchant, having affairs at Venice and hearing him greatly praised in Rome, tried to induce him to go thither, being pleased also with his lute-playing and pleasant conversation. The task was not a hard one, for Sebas- tiano knew that city to be the home of all lofty spirits. When Sebastiano arrived there 2 Agostino gave him work, the first thing being the arches of the loggia in the palace of Agostino in Travestevere,3 opening on the garden where Baldassareof
(1) Sebastiano Luciani. (2) About1512. (3) The Farnesina.
Siena had painted the vaulting. Here Sebastiano did some poetical fancies in a style he had brought from Venice, very unlike that in use among the prominent painters then at Rome. After this, Raphael having done a scene of Galatea there, Sebastiano at Agostino's request, painted Polyphemus beside it, doing his utmost, spurred by the competition of Baldassare of Siena and of Raphael. He then painted some things in oils much valued in Rome for the method of colouring he had learned from Giorgione. While he was at work at Rome, Raphael had become so famous that his friends said his paintings were superior to those of Michelagnolo for beauty of colour, excellence in design and grace, and they judged Raphael superior or at least equal to him in painting, but absolutely superior in colouring. These things, being spread abroad by many artists who thought more of Raphael's grace than of Michelagnolo's profundity, had made many more favourable to the former than the latter. Sebastiano, however, was not among these, as his exquisite judgment showed him the precise worth of each. Michelagnolo therefore turned to him, being attracted by his colouring and grace, and took him under his protection, thinking that if he gave his assistance to Sebastian in design he might succeed in confounding his rivals under cover of a third person; While matters were in
this state and some things of Sebastiano being greatly appreciated by the praises bestowed by Michelagnolo, besides being beautiful and admirable of themselves, some one from Viterbo, in high favour with the Pope, employed Sebastiano to decorate a chapel for him in S. Francesco at Viterbo, with a dead Christ lamented hy His Mother.1 This was diligently completed by Sebastiano7 who i Ptroduced a much-admired shaded landscape, but the invention and cartoon were Michelagnolo's. The work wasconsidered most beautiful by all who saw it, and Sebastiano acquired great credit and confirmed the reports of those who favoured him. Piero Francesco Borgherini, a Florentine merchant, having taken a chapel in S. Pietro a Montorio on the right on entering the church, it was allotted to Sebastiano by Michelagnolo's influence, because Piero tliought Michelagnolo would prepare the design, as l,e dicl. Sebastiano execiited it with such diligence tliat it was rightly considered very beautiful. From Michelagnolo's small design he made some larger ones for his own use, a particularly good one being in our book. Sebastiano thought he had discovered a method of colouring in oils on a wall, and so he prepared the surface of the walls of
(1) In 1525.
The same wardrobe contains a fine portrait of Signora Sofonisba Anguisciola by herself, presented by her to Julius II., and an ancient MS. of the Bucolics, Georgics and ~neid of Virgil, the characters of which have led many learned men to believe that it was written actually under C~sar Augustus or soon after, so that it is small wonder if the cardinal treasures it greatly. This is the end of the Life of~Taddeo Zucchero the painter.
MICHELAGNOLO BUONAROTTI of Florence, Painter, Sculptor and Architect (1475-1564)WHILE industrious and choice spirits, aided by the light afforded by Giotto and his followers, strove to show the world the talent with which their happy stars and well-balanced humours had endowed them, and endeavoured to attain to the height of knowledge by imitating the greatness of Nature in all things, the great Ruler of Heaven looked down and, seeing these vain and fruitless efforts and the presumptuous opinion of man more removed from truth than light from darkness, resolyed, in order to rid him of these errors, to send to earth a genius universal in each art, to show single-handed the perfection of line and shadow, and who should give relief to his paintings, show a sound judgment in sculpture, and in architecture should render habitations convenient, safe, healthy, pleasant, well-proportioned, and enriched with various ornaments. He further endowed him with true moral philosophy and a sweet poetic spirit, so that the world should marvel at the singular eminence of his life and works and all his actions, seeming rather divine than earthy.
In the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture the Tuscans have always been among the best, and Florence was the city in Italy most worthy to be the birthplace of such a citizen to crown her perfections. Thus in 1474 the true and noble wife of Ludovico di Lionardo Buonarotti Simone, said to be of the ancient and noble family of the Counts of Canossa, gave birth to a son in the Casentino, under a lucky star. The son was born on Sunday, 6 March, at eight in the evening, and was called Michelagnolo, as being of a divine nature, for Mercury and Venus were in the house of Jove at his birth, showing that his works of art would
be stupendous. Ludovico at the time was podesta at Chiusi and Caprese near the Sasso della Vernia, where St. Francis received the stigmata, in the diocese of Arezzo. On laying down his office Ludovico returned to Florence, to the villa of Settignano, three miles from the city, where he had a property inherited from his ancestors, a place full of rocks and quarries of macigno which are constantly worked by stonecutters and sculptors who are mostly natives. There Michelagnolo was put to nurse with a stonecutter's wife. Thus he once said jestingly to Vasari: "What good I have comes from the pure air of your native Arezzo, and also because I sucked in chisels and hammers with my nurse's milk." In time Ludovico had several children, and not being well off, he put them in the arts of wool and silk. Michelagnolo, who was older, he placed with Maestro Francesco da Urbino to school. But the boy devoted all the time he could to drawing secretly, for which his father and seniors scolded and sometimes beat him, thinking that such things were base and unworthy of their noble house.
About this time Michelagnolo made friends with Francesco Granacci, who though quite young had placed himself with Domenico del Grillandaio to learn painting. Granacci perceiyed Michelagnolo's aptitude for design, and supplied him daily with drawings of Grillandaio, then' reputed to be one of the best masters not only in Florence but throughout Italy. Michelagnolo' s desire to achieve thus increased daily, and Ludovicoy perceiving that he could not prevent the boy from studying design, resolved to derive some profit from it, and by the advice of friends put him with Domenico Grillandaio that he might learn the profession. At that time Michelagnolo was fourteen years old. The author of his Life,1 written after 1550 when I first published this work, has stated that some through not knowing him have omitted things worthy of note and stated others that are not true, and in particular he taxes Domenico with envy, saying that he never assisted Michelagnolo. This is clearly false, as may be seen by a writing in the hand of Ludovico written in the books of Domenico now in the possession of his heirs. It runs thus: "1488. bow this 1st April that I Ludovico di Lionardo Buonarroto apprentice my son Michelagnolo to Domenico and David di Tommaso di Currado for the next three years, with the following agreements: that the said Michelagnolo shall remain‚ with them that time to learn to paint and practise that art and shallfio what they
(1) Ascanio Condivi.
bid him, and they shall give him 24 florins in the three years, 6 in the first, 8 in the second and 10 in the third, in all 96 lire". Below this Ludovico has written: "Michelagnolo has received 2 gold florins this 16th April, and I Ludovico di Lionardo, his father, have received 12 lire 12 soldi." I have copied this from the book to show that I have written the truth, and 1 do not think that there is anyone who has seen more of Michelagnolo, who has been a greater and more faithful friend to him, or who can show a larger number of autograph letters than I. I have made this digression in the interests of truth, and let this suffice for the rest of the life. We will now return to the story.
Michelagnolo's progress amazed Domenico when he saw him doing things beyond a boy, for he seemed likely not only to surpass the other pupils, of whom there were a great number, but would also frequently equal the master's own works.- One of the youths happened one day to have made a pen sketch of draped women by his master, Michelagnolo took the sheet, and
with a thicker pen made a new outline for one of the women,
representing her as she should be and making her perfect. The
difference between the two styles is as marvellous as the audacity
of the youth whose good judgment led him to correct his master.
The sheet is now in my possession, treasured as a relic. I had it
from Granaccio with others of Michelagnolo, to place in the Book of Designs. In 1550, when Giorgio showed it to Michel- agnolo at Rome, he recognised it with pleasure, andmodestly said that he knew more of that art when a child than later on in life.
One day, while Domenico was engaged upon the large chapel
of S. Maria Novella, Michelagnolo drew the scaffolding and all
the materials with some of the apprentices at work. When Bomenico returned and saw it, he said, "He knows more than I do," and remained amazed at the new style produced by the judgment of so young a boy, which was equal to that of an artist of many years' experience. To this Michelagnolo added study and diligence so that he made progress daily, as we see by a copy of a print engraved by Martin the German,1 which brought him great renown. When a copper engraving by Martin of St. Anthony beaten by the devils reached Florence, Michel- agnolo made a pen drawing and then painted it. To counterfeit some strange forms of devils he bought fish with curiously coloured scales, and showed such ability that he won much credit and reputation. He also made perfect copies of various old mast&s, making them look old with smoke and otherthings
(1) Martin Sehos.
so that they could not be distinguished from the originals. He did this to obtain the originals in exchange for the copies, as he wanted the former and sought to surpass them, thereby acquiring a great name.
At this time Lorenzo de' Medici the Maguificent kept Bertoldo the sculptor in his garden on the piazza of S. Marco, not so much G the custodian of the numerous collections of beautiful antiquities there, as because he wished to create a school of great painters and sculptors with Bertoldo as the head, who had been pupil of Donato. Although old and unable to work, he was a master of skill and repute, having diligently finished Donatos pulpits and cast many bronze reliefs of battles and other small things, so that no one then in Florence could surpass him in such things. Lorenzo, who loved painting and sculpture, was grieved that no famous sculptors lived in his day to equal the great painters who then flourished, and so he resolved to found a school. Accordingly he asked Domenico Ghirlandajo that if he had any youths in his shop inclined to this he should send them to the garden, where he would have them instructed so as to do honour to him and to the city. Domenico elected among others Michelagnolo and Francesco Granaccio as being the best. At the garden they found that Torrigiano was modelling clay figures given to him by Bertoldo. Michelagnolo immediately did some incompefition, and Lorenzo, seeing his genius, always expected great things of him. Thus encouraged, the boy began in a few days to copy in marble an antique faun's head, smiling, with a broken nose.1 Although he had never previously touched marble or the chisel, he imitated it so well that Lorenzo was amazed. Seeing that in addition the boy had opened its mouth and made the tongue and all the teeth, Lorenzo j estingly said, for he was a pleasant man, "You ought to know that the old never have all their teeth, and always lack some." Michelagnolo, who loved and respected his patron, took him seriously in his simplicity, and so soon as he was gone he broke out a tooth and made the gum look as if it had fallen out. He anxiously awaited the return of Lorenzo, who, when he saw Michelagnolo's simplicity and excellence, laughed more than once, and related the matter to his friends as a marvel. He returned to help and favour the youth, and sending for his father, Ludovico, asked him to allow him to treat the boy as his own son, a request that was readily granted. Accordingly Lorenzo gave Michelagnolo. a room in the palace, and he ate regularly at table with the family and other
(1) Now m the Bargello, Florence.
nobles staying there. This was the year after he had gone to Domenico, when he was fifteen or sixteen, and he remained in the house for four years until after the death of Lorenzo in`92. I hear that he received a provision at this time from Lorenzo and five ducats a month to help his father. The Magnificent also gave him a violet mantle, and conferred an office in the customs upon his father. Indeed all the youths in the garden received a greater or less salary from that noble citizen, as well as rewards.
By the advice of Poliziano, the famous man of letters, Michelagnolo did a fight between Hercules and the Centaurs1 on a piece of marble given him by that signor, of such beauty that it seems the work of a consummate master and not of a youth. It is now preserved in his house by his nephew Lionardo as a precious treasure, in memory of him. Not many years since this Lionardo had a Madonna in bas-relief2 by his uncle, more than a braccia high, in imitation of Donatello's style, so fine that it seems the world of that master, except that it possesses more grace and design. Lionardo gave it to Duke Cosimo, who values it highly, as he possesses no other bas-relief of the master.
To return to Lorenzo's garden. It was full of antiquities and excellent paintings, collected there for beauty, study and pleasure. Michelagnolo had the keys, and was much more studious than the others in every direction, and always showed his proud spirit. For many months he drew Masaccio's paintings in the Carmine, showing such judgment that he amazed artists and others, and also roused envy. It is said that Torrigiano made friends with him, but moved by envy at seeing him more honoured and skilful than himself, struck him so hard on the nose that he broke it and disfigured him for life. For this Torrigiano was banished from Florence, as is related elsewhere.
On the death of Lorenzo Michelagnolo returned home, much grieved at the loss of that great man and true friend of genius. Buying a large block of marble, he made a Hercules 3 of four braccia, which stood for many years in the Strozzi palace, and was considered remarkable. In the year of the siege it was sent to King Francis of France by Giovambattista della Palla. It is said that Piero de' Medici, who had long associated with Michelagnolo, often sent for him, wishing to buy antique cameos and other intaglios, and one snowy winter he got him to make
(1) Between Lapiths and Centanrs; now in the Casa Buonarotti, Florence. (2) Also in the Casa Buonarotti. (3) It went to Fontainebleau and remained in the garden of the Palace until I7I3, since which time it has been lost.
a beautiful snow statue in the court of his palace. He so honoured Michelagnolo for his ability that his father, seeing him in such favour with the great, clothed him much more sumptuously than before. For S. Spirito in Florence Michelagnolo made a wooden crucifix,1 put over the lunette above the high altar to please the prior, who gave him suitable rooms, where he was able, by frequently dissecting dead bodies, to study anatomy, and thereby he began to perfect his great design. At the time of the expulsion of the Medici from Florence, Michelagnolo had gone to Bologna a few weeks before the event, and had then proceeded to Venice, fearing evil consequences from piero's arrogance and bad government, for he was a member of the household. Finding no means of existence at Venice, he returned to Bologna, where he had the misfortune not to take the countersign on entering the gate to permit him to go out again, for M. Giovanni Bentivogli had ordained that those who had not the countersign should be condemned to pay fifty lire. Michelagnolo was in grcat distress, being unable to pay, but M. Giovanfrancesco Aldovrandi, one of the sixteen governors, took compassion on him, made him relate the circumstances, released him, and entertained him in his house for more than a year. One day Aldovrandi took him to see the ark of St. Dominic, made by Giovan Pisano and Maestro Niccolo dal l'Arca, the old sculptors. He asked him if he had the courage to do an angel holding a candlestick, and a St. Petronius, figures of about a braccia, that were wanting. Michelagnolo replied in the affirmative, and on receiving the marble made them, and they are the best figures there. He received thirty ducats for both from M. Francesco Aldovrandi. He remained rather more than a year at Bologna, and would have stayed longer to please Aldovrandi, who loved him for his design and liked to hear him read Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and other Tuscan poets with his Tuscan accent. But perceiving that he was wasting time, Michelagnolo gladly returned to Florence. There he did a marble St. John for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, and then began a life-size sleeping Cupid also in marble. When it was done Baldassare del Milanese caused it to be shown to Pierfrancesco, who said, "If you buried it, I feel sure that it would pass for an antique at Rome if made to appear old, and you would get much more than by selling it here." It is said that Michelagnolo made it appear antique, and indeed it was an easy matter as he had wit enough for this and more. Others state that Milanese took it to Rome, buried it
(1) In I494, now lost.
at his villa, and then sold it as an antique for two hundred ducats to the Cardinal S. Giorgio. It is also said that Milanese wrote to Pierfrancesco telling him to give thirty crowns to Michelagnolo, as he had not obtained more for the Cupid, thus deceiving the cardinal, Pierfrancesco and Michelagnolo. But it afterwards became known that the Cupid had been made in Florence, and Milanese's agent was forced to restore the money and take back the figure. It came subsequently into the hands of Duke Valentino, who gave it to the Marchioness of Mantua, and she took it home to that city where it now is.a The Cardinal S. Giorgio did not escape blame for not recognising the merit of the work,
for when the moderns equal the ancients in perfection it is a
mere empty preference of a name to the reality when men prefer
the works of the latter to those of the former, though such men
are found in every age. The noise of this matter. so increased
Michelagnolo's reputation that he was immediately invited to
Rome2 and engaged by the cardinal S. Giorgio. He stayed nearly a year, but the cardinal, knowing little of art, gave him nothing to do.At that time the cardinal's barber, who coloured in tempera very diligently but could not design, made friends with Michelagnolo, who made him a cartoon of St. Francis receiving the stigmata which the barber executed in colours on a small panel with great diligence. It is now in the first chapel on the left on entering S. Piero a Montorio.3 M. Jacopo Galli, an intelligent Roman noble, recognised Michelagnolo's ability, and employed him to make a marble Cupid of life-size,4 and then to do a Bacchus of ten palms holding a cup in the right hand, and in the left a tiger's skin and a bunch of grapes with a satyr trying to
eat them.a This figure shows that he intended a marvellous
blending of limbs, uniting the slenderness of a youth with the
fleshy roundness of the female, proving Michelagnolo's superio-
rity to all the moderns in statuary. During his stay in Rome he
made such progress in art that his conceptions were marvellous,
and he executed difficulties with the utmost ease, frightening
those who were not accustomed to see such things, for when they
were done the works of others appeared as nothing beside them.
Thus the cardinal of St. Denis, called Cardinal Rohan, a French-
man, desired to leave a memorial of himself in the famous city
by such a rare artist, and got him to do a marble Pieth, which(1) It has since vanished. a I496. a Now lost. (2) Probably the one now in South Kensington Museum. (3) Now in the Bargello, Florence.
was placed in the chapel of S. Maria della Febbre in the temple of Mars, in S. Pietro1 The rarest artist could add nothing to its design and grace, or finish the marble with such polish and art, for it displays the utmost limits of sculpture. Among its beauties are the divine draperies, the foreshortening of the dead Christy and the beauty of the limbs with the muscles, veins, sinews, while no better presentation of a corpse was ever made. The sweet air of the head and the harmonious joining of the arms and legs to the torso, with the pulses and veins, are marvellous, and it is a miracle that a once shapeless stone should assume a form that Nature with difficulty produces in flesh. Michelagnolo devoted so much love and pains on this work that he put his name on the girdle crossing the Virgin's breast, a thing he never did again. One morning he had gone to the place to where it stands and observed a number of Lombards who were praising it loudly. One of them asked another the name of the sculptor, and he replied, "Our Gobbo of Milan." 2 Michelagnolo said nothing, but he resented the injustice of having his work attributed to another, and that night he shut himself in the chapel with a light and his chisels and carved his name on it. It has been thus aptly described:
Bellezza ed onestate E doglia e pieta on vivo marmo morte, Deh, come voi pur fate Nort piangete si forte Che anzi tempo risveglisi da morte E pur, mai grado suo Nostro Signore e tuo Sposo, figliuolo e padre Unica sposa sua figliuola e madre.It brought him great renown, and though some fools say that he has made the Virgin too young, they ought to know that spotless virgins keep their youth for a long time, while people afflicted like Christ do the reverse, so that should contribute more to increase the fame of his genius than all the things done before.
Some of Michelagnolo's friends wrote from Florence urging him to return, as they did not want that block of marble on the opera to be spoiled which Piero Soderini, then gonfaloniere for life in the city, had frequently proposed to give to Lionardo da Vinci, and then to Andrea Contucci, an excellent sculptor,
(1) The contract was made in I498. The patron was Jean de Groslaye de Villiers, abbot of St. Denis and cardinal of St. Sabina, not the Cardinal de Rohan.
(2) i.e. Cristoforo Solari of Milan.who wanted it. Michelagnolo on returning' tried to obtain it, although it was difficult to get an entire figure without pieces, and no other man except himself would have had the courage to make the attempt, but he had wanted it for many years, and
on reaching Florence he made efforts to get it. It was nine braecia
high, and unluckily one Simone da Fiesole had begun a giant,
cutting between the legs and mauling itso badly that the wardens
of S. Maria del Fiore had abandoned it without wishing to have
it finished, and it had rested so for many years. Michelagnolo
examined it afresh, and decided that it could be hewn into something new while following the attitude sketched by Simone, and he decided to ask the wardens and Soderini for it. They gave it to him as worthless, thinking that anything he might do would be better than its present useless condition. Accordingly Michelagnolo made a wax model of a youthful David holding the sling to show that the city should be boldly defended and righteously governed, following David's example. He began it in the opera, making a screen between the wall and the tables, and finished it without anyone having seen him at work.2 The marble had been hacked and spoiled by Simone so that be could not do all that he wished with it, though he left some of Simone's work at the end of the marble, which may still be seen. This revival of a dead thing was a veritable miracle. When it was finished various disputes arose as to who should take it to the piazza of the Signori, so Giuliano da Sangallo and his brother Antonio made a strong wooden frame and hoisted the figure on to it with ropes; they then moved it forward by beams and windlasses and placed it in position. The knot of the rope which held the statue was made to slip so that it tightened as the weight increased, an ingenious device, the design for which is in our book, showing a very strong and safe method of sus- pending heavy weights. Piero Soderini came to see it, and expressed great pleasure to Michelagnolo who was retouching it, though he said he thought the nose large. Michelagnolo seeing the gonfaloniere below and knowing that he could not see properly, mounted the scaffolding and taking his chisel dex- terously let a little marble dust fall on to the gonfaloniere, without, however, actually altering his work. Looking down he said, "Look now." "I like it better," said the gonfaloniere, "you have given it life." Michelagnolo therefore came down with(1) In 1501. It had been given to Agostino di Duccio in 1463 and taken from him three years later. (2) In 1504.
feelings of pity for those who wish to seem to understand matters of which they know nothing. When the statue was finished and set up Michelagnolo uncovered it. It certainly bears the palm among all modern and ancient works, whether Greek or Roman, and the Marforio of Rome, the Tiber and Nile of Belvedere, and the colossal statues of Montecavallo do not compare with it in proportion and beauty. The legs are finely turned, the slender flanks divine, and the graceful pose unequalled, while such feet, hands and head have never been excelled. Alter seeing this no one need wish to look at any other sculpture or the work of any other artist. Michelagnolo received four hundred crowns from Piero Soderini, and it was set up in 15O4. Owing to his reputation thus acquired, Michelagnolo did a beautiful bronze David 2 for the gonfaloniere, which he sent to France, and he‚ sketched out two marble medallions,3 one for Taddeo Taddei, and now in his house, the other for Bartolommeo Pitti, which was given by Fra Miniato Pitti of Monte Oliveto, a master of cosmography and many sciences, especially painting, to his intimate friend Luigi Guicciardini. These works were considered admirable. At the same time he sketched a marble statue of St. Matthew in the opera of S. Maria del Fiore,4 which showed his perfection and taught sculptors the way to make statues without spoiling them, by removing the marble so as to enable them to make such alterations as may be necessary. He also did a bronze Madonna in a circle,5 carved at the request of some Flemish merchants of the Moscheroni, noblemen in their country, who paid him one hundred crowns and sent it to Flanders. His friend, Agnolo Doni, citizen of Florence, and the lover of all beautiful works whether ancient or modern, desired to have something of his. Michelagnolo therefore began a round painting of the Virgin kneeling and offering the Child to Joseph,8 where he shows his marvellous power in the head of the Mother fixedly regarding the beauty of the Child, and the emotion of Joseph in reverently and tenderly taking it, which is obvious without examining it closely. As this did not suffice to display his powers, he made seated, standing and reclining nude figures in the background, completing the work with such finish and polish that it is
(1) It was removed to the Accademia in 1873. (2) In 1502, now lost. (3) One in the Royal Academy, London, and the other in the Bargello. (4) In 15o3. (4) Now in Notre Dame, Bruges, done for John and Alexander Mouscron in 1505. (6) Painted in 1503; now in the Uffizi.
considered the finest of his few panel paintings. When finished he sent it wrapped up to Agnolo's house, by a messenger, with a note and a request for seventy ducats as payment. Agnolo being a careful man, thought this a large sum for one picture, though he knew it was worth more. So he gave the bearer forty ducats, saying that was enough. Michelagnolo at once sent demand-
ing one hundred ducats or the return of the picture. Andrea
being delighted with the picture, then agreed to give seventy ducats, but Michelagnolo being incensed by Agnolo's mistrust, demanded double what he had asked the first time, and Agnolo, who wanted the picture, was forced to send him one hundred and forty crowns.When Lionardo da Vinci was painting in the Great Hall of the Council, as related in his Life, Piero Soderini, the gonfaloniere, his great genius, and the artist chose the war of Pisa as his subject.2 He was given a room in the dyers' hospital at S. Onofrio, and there began a large cartoon which he allowed no one to see. He filled it with nude figures bathing in the Arno owing to the heat, and running in this condition to their arms on being attacked by the enemy. He represented them hurrying out of
the water to dress, and seizing their arms to go to assist their
comrades, some buckling their cuirasses and many putting on
other armour, while others on horseback are beginning the
fight. Among other figures is an old man wearing a crown of
ivy to shade his head trying to pull his stockings on to his wet
feet, and hearing the cries of the soldiers and the beating of the
drums he is struggling violently, all his muscles to the tips of
his toes and his contorted mouth showing the effects of the
exertion. It also contained drums and nude figures with twisted
draperies running to the fray, foreshortened in extraordinary
attitudes, some upright, some kneeling, some bent, and some
lying. There were also many groups sketched in various ways,
some merely outlined in carbon, some with features filled in,
some hazy or with white lights, to show his knowledge of art. And
indeed artists were amazed when they saw the lengths he had
reached in this cartoon. Some in seeing his divine figures declared
that it was impossible for any other spirit to attain to its divinity.
When finished3 it was carried to the Pope's hall amid the excite-
ment of artists and to the glory of Michelagnolo, and all those(1) InI504. (2) The scene represented the battle of Cascina, which took place on 28 July, 1364, when Sir John Hawkwood surprised the Florentines. (2) 1n 1506.
who studied and drew from it, as foreigners and natives did for many years afterwards, became excellent artists, as we see by Aristotile da Sangallo, his friend, Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, Raphael Sanzio, Francesco Granaccio, Baccio Bandinelli, AIonso Berugetta a Spaniard, with Andrea del Sarto, Franciabigio, Jacopo Sansovino, Rosso, Maturino, Lorenzetto, Tribolo, then a child, Jacopo da Pontormo, and Perino del Vaga, all great Florentine masters. Having become a school for artists, this cartoon was taken to the great hall of the Medici palace, where it was entrusted too freely to artists, for during the illness of Duke Giuliano it was unexpectedly torn to pieces and scattered in many places,1 some fragments still being in the house of M. Uberto Strozzi, a Mantuan noble, where they are regarded with great reverence, indeed they are more divine than human.
The Pieta, the colossal statue and the cartoon gave Michelagnolo such a name that when, in I503,2 Julius II. succeeded Alexander VI., he sent for the artist, who was then about twenty nine, to make his tomb, paying him one hundred crowns for the journey. After reaching Rome, it was many months before he did anything. At last he settled on a design for the tomb, surpassing in beauty and richness of ornament all ancient and imperial tombs, affording the best evidence of his genius. Stimulated by this, Julius decided to rebuild S. Pietro in order to hold the tomb, as related elsewhere. Michelagnolo set to work with spirit, and first went to Cartara to obtain all the marble, accompanied by two apprentices, receiving 1000 crowns for this from AIamanno Salviati at Florence. He spent eight inonths there without receiving any further provision, his mind being full of projects for making great statues there as a memorial to himself, as the ancients had done, for he felt the fascination of the blocks. Having chosen his marble, he sent it by sea to Rome, where it filled half the piazza of S. Pietro towards S. Caterina, and the space between the church and the corridor leading to Castello. Here Michelagnolo made his studio for producing his figures and the rest of the tomb. In order that the Pope might readily come to see him work, he made a drawbridge from the cortidor to the studio. His intimacy with the Pope grew out of this, but it afterwards brought him great annoyance and persecution, giving rise to much envy among artists. Of this work,
(1) See Vol III., p. 190. Mr. Symonds gives reasons for doubting this story, Life of Michelangelo, i. 164. (2) It was in 1505.
during Julius's life and after his death, Michelagnolo did four complete statues and sketched eight, as I shall relate.
The work being devised with great invention, I will describe the ordering of it. Michelagnolo wished it to stand isolated, in arranged a series of niches separated by terminal figures clothed order to make it appear larger, showing all four sides, from the middle upwards and bearing the first cornice on their heads, each one in a curious attitude and having a nude prisoner bound, standing on a projection from the basement. These prisoners were to represent the provinces subdued by the Pope and rendered obedient to the Church. Other statues, also bound, represented the sciences and fine arts doomed to death like the Pope who had protected them. At the corners of the first cornice were four large figures, Active and Contemplative Life, St. Paul and Moses. Above the cornice the work was on a smalier scale with a frieze of bronze bas-reliefs and other figures, infants and ornaments. As a completion there were two figures above, one a smiling Heaven, supporting the bier on her shoulders, with Cybele, goddess of the earth, who seems to grieve that the world has lost such a man, while the other rejoices that his soul has
passed to celestial glory. There was an arrangement to enter at
the top of the work between the niches, and an oval place to
move about in the middle, like a church, in the midst of which the
sarcophagus to contain the Pope's body was to be placed. In all
it was to have forty marble statues without counting the reliefs, infants and ornaments, the carved cornices and other architec- tural parts. For greater convenience Michelagnolo ordered that a part of the marble should be taken to Florence, where he proposed to spend the summer to escape from the malaria of Rome. There he completed one face of the work in several pieces, and at Rome divinely finished two prisoners1 and other statues which are unsurpassed. That they might not be otherwise employed, he gave the prisoners to Signor Ruberto Strozzi, in whose house Michelagnolo had fallen sick. They were afterwards sent to King Francis as a gift, and are now at Ecouen in France. He sketched eight statues at Rome and five at Florence, and finished a Victory2 above a prisoner, nowowned by Duke Cosimo, who had it from the artist's nephew Lionardo. The duke has placed it in the great hall of the palace painted by Vasari. Michelagnolo finished the Moses in marble, a statue of five
(1) In I5I3. They are now in the Louvre. (2) Now in the Bargello.
braccia, unequalled by any modern or ancient work. Seated in a serious attitude, he rests with one arm on the tables, and with the other holds his long glossy beard, the hairs, so difficult to render in sculpture, being so soft and downy that it seems as if the iron chisel must have become a brush. The beautiful face, like that of a saint and mighty prince, seems as one regards it to need the veil to cover it, so splendid and shining does it appear, and so well has the artist presented in the marble the divinity with which God had endowed that holy countenance. The draperies fall in graceful folds, the muscles of the arms and bones of the hands are of such beauty and perfection, as are tlie legs and knees, the feet being adorned with excellent shoes, that Moses may now be called the friend of God more than ever, since God has permitted his body to be prepared for the resurrection before the others by the hand of Michelagnolo. The Jews still go every Saturday in troops to visit'and adore it as a divine, not a human thing. At length he finished this part, which was afterwards set up in S. Pietro ad Vincola.
It is said that while Michelagnolo was engaged upon it, tlie remainder of the marble from Carrara arrived at Ripa, and was taken with the rest to the piazza of S. Pietro. As it was necessary to pay those who brought it, Michelagnolo went as usual to the Pope. But the Pope had that day received important news concerning Bologna, so Michelagnolo returned home and paid for the marble himself, expecting to be soon repaid. iTe returned another day to speak to the Pope, and found difficulty in entering, as a porter told him to wait, saying he had orders to admit no one. A bishop said to the porter, "Perhaps you do not know this man." "I know him very well," said the porter, "but I am here to execute my orders." Unaccustomed to this treatment, Michelagnolo told the man to inform the Pope he was away when next His Holiness inquired for him. Returning home, he set out post at two in the morning, leaving two servants with instructions to sell his things to the Jews, and to follow him to Florence. Reaching Poggibonsi, in Florentine territory, he felt safe, not being aware that five couriers had arrived with letters from the Pope with orders to bring him back. But neither prayers nor letters which demanded his return upon pain of disgrace moved him in the least. However, at the instance of the couriers, he at length wrote a few lines asking the Pope to excuse him, saying he would never return as he had been driven away like a rogue, that his faithful service merited better treatment, and that he should find someone else to serve him.
on reaching Florence, Michelagnolo finished in three months the cartoon of the great hall which Piero Soderini the gonfaloniere desired him to finish. ‚ The Signoria received at that time three letters from the Pope demanding that Michelagnolo should be sent back to Rome. On this account it is said that, fearing the Pope's wrath, he thought of going to Constantinople to serve the Turk by means of some Franciscan friars, from between Constantinople and Pera. However, Piero Soderini persuaded him, against his will, to go to the Pope, and sent him as ambassador of Florence, to secure his person, to Bologna whither the Pope had gone from Rome1, with letters of recommendation to Cardinal Soderini, the gonfaloniere's brother, who was charged to introduce the Pope. There is another account of this departure from Rome: that the Pope was angry with Michelagnolo, who would not allow him to see any of his things. The artist suspected his assistants of having received bribes from the Pope more than once to admit him to look at
the chapel of his uncle Sixtus, which he was having painted, on certain occasions when Michelagnolo was not at home, or at work. It happened once that Michelagnolo hid himself, for he suspected the betrayal by his apprentices, and threw down some planks as the Pope entered the chapel, and not thinking who it was, caused him to be summarily ejected. At all events, whatever the cause, he was angry with the Pope and also afraid of him, and so he ran away.Arrived at Bologna, he first approached the footmen and was taken to the palace of the Sixteen by a bishop sent by Cardinal Soderini, who was sick. He knelt before the Pope, who looked wrathfully at him, and said as if in anger:' "Instead of coming to us, you have waited for us to come and find you," inferring that Bologna is nearer Florence than Rome. Michelagnolo spread his hands and humbly asked for pardon in a loud voice, saying he had acted in anger through being driven away, and that he hoped for forgiveness for his error. The bishop who presented him made excuses, saying that such men are ignorant of everything except their art. At this the Pope waxed wroth, and striking the bishop with a mace he was holding, said: "It is you who are ignorant, to reproach him when we say nothing." The bishop therefore was hustled out by the attendants, and the Pope's anger being appeased, he blessed Michelagnolo, who was loaded with gifts and promises, and ordered to prepare a bronze
(1) In 1506.
statue of the Pope, five braccia high, in a striking attitude of majesty, habited in rich vestments, and with determination and courage displayed in his countenance. This was placed in a niche above the S. Petronio gate.
It is said that while Michelagnolo was engaged upon it Francia the painter came to see it, having heard much of him and his works, but seen none. He obtained the permission, and was amazed at Michelagnolo's art. When asked what he thought of the figure, he replied that it was a fine cast and good material. Michelagnolo, thinking that he had praised the bronze rather than the art; said: "I am under the same obligation to Pope Julius, who gave it to me, as you are to those who provide your paints,'' and in the presence of the nobles he angrily called him a blockhead. Meeting one day a son of Francia, who was said to be a very handsome youth, he said: "Your father knows how to make living figures better than to paint them.'' One of the nobles asked him which was the larger, the Pope's statue or a pair of oxen, and he replied, "It depends upon the oxen, those of Bologna are certainly larger than our Florentine ones.'' Michelagnolo finished the statue in clay before the Pope left for Rome; His Holiness went to see it, and the question was raised of what to put in the left hand, the right being held up with such a proud gesture that the Pope asked if it was giving a blessing or a curse. Michelagnolo answered that he was admonishing the people of Bologna to be prudent. When he asked the Pope whether he should put a book in his left hand, the pontiff replied, "Give me a sword; I am not a man of letters." The Pope left 1000 crowns wherewith to finish it in the bank of M. Antonmaria da Lignano. Alter sixteen months of hard work it was placed in front of the church of S. Petronio, as already related It was destroyed by the Bentivogli, and the bronze sold to Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, who made a cannon of it, called the Julius, the head only being preserved, which is now in his wardrobe.
After the Pope had returned to Rome, and when Michelagnolo had finished the statue, Bramante, the friend and relation of Raphael and therefore ill-disposed to Michelagnolo, seeing the Pope's preference for sculpture, schemed to divert his attention, and told the Pope that it would be a bad omen to get Michelagnolo to go on with his tomb, as it would seem to be an invitation to death. He persuaded the Pope to get Michelagnolo, on his return, to paint the vaulting of the Sixtine Chapel. In this way Bramante and his other rivals hoped to confound him, for by
taking him from sculpture, in which he was perfect, and putting him to colouring in fresco, in which he had had no experience, they thought he would produce less admirable work than Raphael, and even if he succeeded he would become embroiled with the Pope, from whom they wished to separate him. Thus, when Michelagnolo returned to Rome, the Pope was disposed not to have the tomb finished for the time being, and asked him to paint the vaulting of the chapel. Michelagnolo tried every means to avoid it, and recommended Raphael, for he saw the difficulty of the work, knew his lack of skill in eolouring, and wanted to finish the tomb. But the more he excused himself, !he more the impetuous Pope was determined he should do it, being stimulated by the artist's rivals, especially Bramante, and ready to become incensed against Michelagnolo. At length, seeing that the Pope was resolute, Michelagnolo decided to do it.1 The Pope commanded Bramante to make preparations for the painting, and he hung a scaffold on ropes, making holes in the vaulting. When Michelagnolo asked why he had done this, as on the conipletion of the painting it would be necessary to fill up the holes again, Bramante declared there was no other way. Michelagnolo thus recognised either that Bramante was incapable or else hostile, and he went to complain to the Pope that the scaffolding would not do, and that Bramante did not know how it should be constructed. The Pope answered, in Bramante's presence, that Michelagnolo should design one for himself. Accordingly he erected one on poles not touching the wall, a method which guided Bramante and others in similar work. He gave so much rope to the poor carpenter who made it, that it sufficed, when sold, for the dower of the man's daughter, to whom Michelagnolo presented it. He then Get to work on the cartoons. The Pope wanted to destroy the work on tl,e walls done by masters in the time of Sixtus, and he set aside I5,ooo ducats as the cost, as valued by Giuliano da San Gallo. Impressed by the greatness of the work, Michelagnolo sent to Florence for help, resolving to prove himself superior to those who had worked there before, and to show modern artists the true way to design and paint. The circumstances spurred him on in his quest of fame and his desire for the good of art. When he had completed the cartoons, he waited before beginning to eolour them in fresco until some friends of his, who were painters, should arrive from Florence, as he hoped to obtain help from them, and learn their methods of fresco-painting, in which some of them
(1) He was engaged upon this work from 1508 to I5I2.
were experienced, namely Granaccio, Giulian Dugiardini, Jacopo di Sandro, Indaco !he elder, Agnolo di Donnino and Aristotile. He made them begin some things as a specimen, but perceiving their work to be very far from his expectations, he decided one morning to destroy everything which they had done, and shutting himself up in the chapel he refused to admit them, and would not let them see him in his house. This jest seemed to them to be carried too far, and so they took their departure, returning with shame and mortification to Florence. Michelagnolo then made arrangements to do the whole work singlehanded. His care and labour brought everything into excellent train, and he would see no one in order to avoid occasions for showing anything, so that the most lively curiosity was excited. Pope Julius was very anxious to see his plans, and the fact of their being hidden greatly excited his desire. But when he went one day he was not admitted. This led to the disturbance already referred to, when Michelagnolo had to leave Rome. Michelagnolo has himself told me that, when he had painted a third of the vault, a certain mouldiness began to appear one winter when the north wind was blowing; This was because the Roman lime, being white and made of travertine, does not dry quicKly enough, and when mixed with pozzolana, which is of a tawny colour, it makes a dark mixture. If this mixture is liquid and watery, and the wall thoroughly wetted, it often effloresces in drying. This happened here, where tlie salt effloresced in many places, although in time the air consumed it. In despair at this, Michelagnolo wished to abandon the work, and when he excused himself, telling the Pope that he was not succeeding, Julius sent Giuliano da San Gallo, who explained the difficulty and taught him how to obviate it. When he had finished half, the Pope, who sometimes went to see it by means of steps and scaffolds, wanted it to be thrown open, being an impatient man; unable to wait until it had received the finishing-touches. Immediately all Rome flocked to see it, the Pope being the first, arriving before the dust of the scaffolding had been removed. Raphael, who was excellent in imitating, at once changed his style after seeing it, and to show his skill did the prophets and sybils in 1a Pace, while Bramante tried to have the other half of the chapel given to Raphael. On hearing this Michelagnolo became incensed against Bramante, and pointed out to the Pope without mincing matters many faults in his life and works, the latter of which he afterwards corrected in the building of S. Pietro. But the Pope daily became more
convinced of Michelagnolo's genius, and wished him to complete the work, judging that he would do the other half even better. Thus, singlehanded, he completed the work in twenty months, aided offly by his mixer of colours. He sometimes complained that owing to the impatience of the Pope he had not been able to finish it as be would have desired, as the Pope was always asking him when he would be done. On one occasion Michelagnolo replied that he would be finished when he had satisfied his own artistic sense. "And we require you to satisfy us in getting it done quicKly," replied the Pope, adding that if it was not done soon he would have the scaffolding down. Fearing the Pope's impetuosity. Michelagnolo finished what he had to do without devoting enough time to it, and the scaffold being removed it was opened on All Saints day, when the Pope went there to sing Mass amid the enthusiasm of the whole city. Like the old masters who had worked below, Michelagnolo wanted to retouch some things a secco, such as the backgrounds, draperies, the gold ornaments and tl~gs, to impart greater richness and a better appearance. When the Pope learned this he wished it to be done, for he heard what he had seen so higily praised, but as it would have taken too long to reconstruct the scaffold it remained as it was. The Pope often saw Micbelagnolo, and said, "Have the chapel enriched with colours and gold, in which it is poor." lie would answer familiarly, "Holy Father, jn those days they did not wear gold; they never became very rich, but were holy men who despised wealth." Altogether Michelagnolo received 3000 crowns from the Pope for this work, and he must have spent twenty-five on the colours. The work was executed in great discomfort, as Michelagnolo had to stand with his head thrown back, and he so injured his eyesight that for several months he could only read and look at designs in that posture. I suffered similarly when doing the vaulting of four large rooms in the palace of Duke Cosimo, and I should never have finished them had I not made a seat supporting the head, which enabled me to work lying down, but it so enfeebled my head and injured my sight that I feel the effects still, and I marvel that Michelagnolo supported the discomfort. However, he became more eager every day to be doing and making progress, and so he felt no fatigue, and despised the discomfort.
The work had six corbels on each side and one at each end, containing sibyls and prophets, six braccia high, with the Creation of the World in the middle, down to the Flood and Noah's drunkenness, and tlie generations of Jesus Christ in
the lunettes. He used no perspective or foreshortening, or any fixed point of view, devoting his energies rather to adapting the figures to the disposition than the disposition to the figures, contenting himself with the perfection of his nude and draped figures, which are of unsurpassed design and excellence. This work has been a veritable beacon to our art, illuminating all painting and the world which had remained in darkness for so any centuries. Indeed, painters no longer care about novelties, inventions, attitudes and draperies, methods of new expression or striking subjects painted in different ways, because this work contains every perfection that can be given. Men are stupefied by the excellence of the figures, the perfection of tlie foreshortening, the stupendous rotundity of the contours, the grace and slenderness and the charming proportions of the fine nudes showing every perfection; every age, expression and form being represented in varied attitudes, such as sitting, turning, holding festoons of oak-leaves and laurel, the device of Pope Julius, showing !hat his was a golden age, for Italy had yet to experience her miseries. Some in the middle hold medals witl, scenes, painted like bronze or gold, the subject being taken from the Book of Kings. To show the greatness of God and the perfection of art he represents the Dividing of Light from Darkness, sliowing with love and art the Almighty, self-supported, with extended arms. With fine discretion and ingenuity he then did God makiiig the sun and moon, supported by numerous cherubs, with marvellous foreshortening of the arms and legs. The same scene contains the blessing of the earth and the Creation, God being foreshortened in the act of flying, the figure following you to whatever part of the chapel you turn. In anotl,er part he did God dividing the waters from the land, marvellous figures showing the highest intellect and tvorthy of being made by the divine hand of Michelagnolo. He continued with the creation of Adam, God being borne by a group of little angels, wlio seem also to be supporting the whole weight of the world. ‚Tlie venerable majesty of God with the motion as He surrounds some of cherubs with one arm and stretches the other to an Adam of marvellous beauty of attitude and outline, seem a new creation of the Maker rather than one of the brush and design of such a man. He next did the creation of our mother Eve, showing two nudes, one in a heavy sleep like death, the other quickened by the blessing of God. The brush of this great artist has clearly marked the difference between sleeping and waking, and the firmness presented by the Divine Majesty, to speak humanly.
He then did Adam eating the apple, persuaded by a figure half woman and half serpent, and he and Eve expelled from Paradise, the angel executing the order of the incensed Deity with grandeur and nobility, Adam showing at once grief for his sin and the fear of death, while the woman displays shame, timidity and a desire to obtain pardon as she clasps her arms and hands over her breast, showing, in turning her head towards the angel, that she has more fear of the justice than hope of the Divine mercy. No less beautiful is the sacrifice of Cain and Abel, one bringing wood, one bending over the fire, and some killing the victim, certaiffly not executed with less thought and care than the others. He employed a like art and judgment in the story of the Flood, containing various forms of death, the terrified men trying every possible means to save their lives. Their heads show that they recognise the danger with their terror and utter despair. Some are humanely assisting each other to climb to the top of a rock; one of them is trying to remove a half-dead man in a very natural manner. It is impossible to describe the excellent treatment of Noah's drunkenness, showing incomparable and unsurpassable art. Encouraged by these he attacked the five sibyls and seven prophets, showing himself even greater. They are of five braccia and more, in varied attitudes, beautiful draperies and displaying miraculous judgment and invention, their expressions seeming divine to a discerning eye. Jeremiah,
with crossed legs, holds his beard with his elbow on his knee, the other hand resting in his lap, and his head being bent in a melancholy and thoughtful manner, expressive of his grief, regrets, reflection, and the bitterness he feels concerning his people. Two boys behind him show similar power; and in the first sibyl nearer the door, in representing old age, in addition to the involved folds of her draperies, he wishes to show that her blood is frozen by time, and in reading she holds the book close to her eyes, her sight having failed. Next comes Ezekiel, an old man with fine grace and movement, in copious draperies, one hand holding a scroll of his prophecies, the other raised and his head turned as if he wished to declare things high and great. Behind him are two boys holding his books. Next comes a sibyl, who, unlike the Erethrian sibyl just mentioned, holds her book at a distance, and is about to turn the page; her legs are crossed, and she is reflecting what she shall write, while a boy behind her is lighting her lamp. This figure has an expression of extra- ordinary beauty, the hair and draperies are equally fine, and her arms are bare, and as perfect as the other parts. He didnext
the Joel earnestly reading a scroll, with the most natural expression of satisfaction at what he finds written, exactly like one who has devoted close attention to some subject. Over the door of the chapel Michelagnolo placed the aged Zachariah, who is searching for something in a book, with one leg raised and the other down, though in his eager search he does not feel the discomfort. He is a fine figure of old age somewhat stout in person, his fine drapery falling in few folds. There is another sibyl turned towards the altar showing writings, not less admirable with her I" boys than the others. But for Nature herself one must see the Isaiah, a figure wrapped in thought, with his legs crossed, one hand on his book to keep the place, and the elbow of the other arm also on the volume, and his chin in his hand. Being called by one of the boys behind, he rapidly turns his head without moving the rest of his body. This figure, when well studied, is a liberal education in all the principles of painting. Next him is a beautiful aged sibyl who sits studying a book, with extraordinary grace, matched by the two boys beside her. It would not be possible to add to the excellence of the youthful Daniel, who is writing in a large book, copying with incredible eagerness from some writings, while a boy standing between his legs supports the weight as he writes. Equally beautiful is the Lybica, who, having written a large volume drawn from several books, remains in a feminine attitude ready to rise and shut the book, a difficult thing practically impossible for any other master. What can I say of the four scenes in the angles of the corbels of the vaulting? A David stands with his boyish strength triumphant over a giant, gripping him by the neck while soldiers about the camp marvel. Very wonderful are the attitudes in the story of Judith, in which we see the headless trunk of Holofernes, while Judith puts the head into a basket carried by her old attendant, who being tall bends down to permit Judith to do it, while she prepares to cover'it, and turning towards the trunk shows her fear of the camp and of the body, a well-thought-out painting. Finer than this and than all the rest is the story of the Brazen Serpent, over the left corner of the altar, showing the death of many, the biting of the serpents, and Moses raising the brazen serpent on a staff, with a variety in the manner of death and in those who being bitten have lost all hope. The keen poison causes the agony and death of many, who lie still with twisted legs and arms, while many fine heads are crying out in despair. Not less beautiful are those regarding the serpent, who feel their pains diminishing with returning life. Among them is
a woman, supported by one whose aid is as finely shown as her need in her fear and distress. The scene of Ahasuerus in bed having the annals read to him is very fine. There are three figures eating at a table, showing the council held to liberate the Hebrews and impale Haaman, a wonderfully foreshortened figure, the stake supporting him and an arm stretched out seerifing real, not painted, as do his projecting leg and the parts of the body turned inward. It would take too long to enumerate all the beauties and various circumstances in the genealogy of the patriarchs, beginning with the sons of Noah, forming the
generation of Christ, containing a great variety of draperies, expressions, extraordinary and novel fancies; nothing in fact but displays genius, all the figures being finely foreshortened, and everything being admirable and divine. But who can see without wonder and amazement the tremendous Jonah, the last figure of the chapel, for the vaulting which curves forward from the wall is made by a triumph of art to appear straight,through the posture of the figure, which by the mastery of the drawing
and the light and shade, appears really to be bending backwards.
O, happy age O, blessed artists who have been able to refresh your darkened eyes at the fount of such clearness, and see difficulties made plain by this marvellous artist! His labours have removed the bandage from your eyes, and he has separated the true from the false which clouded the mind. Thank Heaven, then, and try to imitate Michelagnolo in all things.When the work was uncovered everyone rushed to see it from every part and remained dumbfounded. The Pope, being thus encouraged to greater designs, richly rewarded Michelagnolo, who sometimes said in speaking of the great favours showered
upon him by the Pope that he fully recognised his powers, and
if he sometimes used hard words, he healed them by signal gifts
and favours. Thus, when Michelagnolo once asked leave to go and
spend the feast of St. John in Florence, and requested money for
this, the Pope said, "When will this chapel be ready?" "When I can get it done, Holy Father." The Pope struck him with his mace, repeating, "When I can, when I can, I will make you finish it !" Michelagnolo, however, returned to his house to prepare for his journey to Florence, when the Pope sent Cursio, his chamberlain, with five hundred crowns to appease him and excuse the Pope, who feared what Michelagnolo might do. As Michelagnolo knew the Pope, and was really devoted to him, he laughed, especially as such things always turned to this advantage, and the Pope did everything to retain his good-will.
On the completion of the chapel the Pope directed Cardinal Santiquattro and the Cardinal of Agen, his nephew, to have his tomb finished on a smaller scale than at first proposed. Michelagnolo readily began it anew, hoping to complete it without the hindrance which afterwards caused him so much pain and trouble. It proved the bane of his life, and for some time made him appear ungrateful to the Pope who had so highly favoured him. On returning to the tomb he worked ceaselessly upon designs for the walls of the chapel; but envious Fortune would not allow him to complete the monument he had begun so superbly, for the death of Julius occurred then.1 It was abandoned at the election of Leo X., a Pope of no less worth and splendour, who, being the first Florentine Pope, desired to adorn his native city with some marvel executed by a great artist and worthy of his position. Accordingly he directed Michelagnolo to prepare designs for the facade of S. Lorenzo, the church of the Medici at Florence, as he was to direct the work, and so the tomb of Julius was abandoned. When Michelagnolo made every possible objection, saying that he was under obligation to Santiquattro and Agen, Leo replied that he had thought of this, and had induced them to release him, promising that Michelagnolo should do the figure for the tomb at Florence he had already begun to do. But this caused great dissatisfaction to the cardinals and Michelagnolo, who departed weeping.
Endless disputes now arose, because the facade should have been divided among several persons. Moreover, many artists flocked to Rome, and designs were prepared by Baccio d'Agnolo, Antonio da San Gallo, Andrea and Jacopo Sansovino, and the gracious Raphael of Urbino, who afterwards went to Florence with the Pope for the purpose: Michelagnolo therefore determined to make a model, not acknowledging any superior or guide in architecture. But his resolve to do without help led to tlie inactivity of himself and the other masters, who in despair returned to their accustomed avocations. Michelagnolo went to Carrara 2 with a commission to receive Iooo crowns from Jacopo Salviati. But Jacopo being closeted in a room with some citizens on certain affairs, Michelagnolo would not wait, but left at once for Carrara without a word. On hearing of Michelagnolo's arrival, Jacopo, who could not find him in Florence, sent the zooo crowns to Carrara. The messenger desired him to give a receipt, but Michelagnolo said that he was working for the Pope and not for himself, and it was not
(1) On 22 September, I5I3. (2) In I5I7.
take it with you for your requirements." Cristofano replied, I do not want money, take it for yourself. I shall be content to remain near you, and to live and die with you." "I am not in the habit of profiting by the labours of others," replied Vasari if you do not want it I will send it to your father Guido." Do not do that," said Cristofano, cc for he would be sure to put it to a bad use as he always does." At length he took it and went to Borgo, sick in body and troubled in mind. In a few days his grief at his brother's death, whom he had loved dearly, and a cruel disorder of the reins, caused his death. He received the sacraments, and distributed the money he had brought with him to the members of his house and the poor. It is said that his only cause of grief before his death was that he had left Vasari with too much on his hands in the duke's palace. Not long after the duke heard with sorrow of Cristofano's death, and ordered a marble bust, with the following epitaph, to be made and sent to the Borgo, where it as placed in S. Francesco:
D.O.M. CHRISTOPHORO GHERARDO BVRGENSI PINGENDI ARTE PRAESTANTISS. QUOD GE0RGIVS VASARIUS ARETINUS HUIUS ARTIS FACILE PRINcEPS IN EXORNANDO COSMI FLORENTIN. DUCIS PALATIO ILLIVS OPERAM QUAM MAXIME PROBAVERIT PICTORES HETRVCI POSVERE OBIIT. A.D. MDLVI. VIXIT ANN. LVI. M. III. D. VI.JACOPO DA FONTORMO, Painter of Florence (1494-I557)THE ancestors of Bartolommeo di Jacopo di Martino, the father of Jacopo da Pontormo, whose Life I now write, came, as some declare, from Ancisa of the Valdarno, famous as the home of the aneestors of M. Francesco Petrarca. But whatever their
place of origin, this Bartolommeo was a Florentine, and of the family of the Carucci. He is said to have been a pupil of Domenico del Ghirlandaj o, and being a painter of merit, who did many things in Valdarno, he ultimately went to work at Empoli, and took a wife at Pontormo nearby, called Alessandra, daughter of Pasquale di Zanobi and Mona Brigida, his wife. fhe fruit of this union was Jacopo, born in 1493. But the father dying in 1499, the mother in 1504, and the grandfather in 1506, the boy remained in the charge of Mona Brigida, his grandmother, who kept him several years in Pontormo, and had him taught reading, writing and the elements of Latin grammar. At the age of thirteen she took him to Florence, and put him in the Court of Wards, so that his small property might be taken charge of by that magistracy, as was the custom. After leaving him in the house of a cobbler, a distant relation, Mona Brigida returned to Pontormo, taking Jacopo's sister with her. But Mona Brigida dying soon after, Jacopo was forced to bring this sister to Florence and put her in the house of a relation called Niccolaio, who lived in the via de' Servi. But this child died in 1512 before being married. Jacopo had not been many months in Florence before Bernardo Vettori sent him to stay with Lionardo da Vinci, and then with Mariotto Albertinelli, Piero di Cosimo, and finally, in 1512, with Andrea del Sarto, with whom he did not remain long, for after he had done the cartoons for the arch of the Servites it does not seem that Andrea bore him any good will, whatever the cause may have been.
Jacopo's first work was a little Annunciation for a tailor, his friend. fhe tailor dying before this was finished, it remained in Jacopo's hands, who was then with Mariotto, who boasted of it, and showed it to all who visited his shop. It happened that Raphael came to Florence, and upon seeing this he marvelled, and foretold Jacopo's future success. Not long after, when Mariotto left Florence to do the panel begun by Fra' Bartolommeo at Viterbo, Jacopo, who was young, melancholy and lonely, remained without a master, and went of his own accord to Andrea del Sarto at the time when he had completed the series on St. Philip in the court of the Servites. fhese greatly pleased Jacopo, as did the style, design and everything else of Andrea. Jacopo therefore tried to imitate him, and before long he made marvellous progress in design and colouring, so that he seemed to have followed art for many years. Andrea having finished an Annunciation for the church of the friars of Sangallo, now destroyed, he gave the predella to Jacopo to do in oils. He made
a dead Christ, with two little angels weeping and holding torches. At the sides he did two prophets in circles, executed with the skill of a master. But Bronzino has said that he remembers having heard from Jacopo that Rossi also workedat the predella. Jacopo also assisted Andrea in many pictures and works on which he was continually engaged.
On the elevation of Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici to the papacy as Leo X., the friends of the house in Florence made numerous scutcheons of the Pope in stone, marble, canvas and fresco. The Servite friars, wishing to show their devotion to the house and the Pope, had a stone coat-of-arms of Leo made and placed in the middle of the arch of the first portico of the Nuniata, on the piazza, and soon after directed Andrea di Cosimo,1 the painter, to gild and decorate it with arabesques, of which he was an eXcellent master, and with devices of the Medici house, adding figures of Faith and Charity on either side. Andrea, feeling that he could not do so much by himself, resolved to giVe ithe figures to others, and calling Jacopo, who was not more than nineteen, he gave them to him, although he had some difficulty to persuade him, as the youth was unwilling at first to undertake a work in a place of such importance. However, he took courage, and although he was not so skilful in fresco as in oils, he accepted the work. While still with Andrea del Sarto, he withdrew to make the cartoons in S. Antonio at the Faenza gate, where he lived, and, that done, he one day took his master to see them. Andrea praised them loudly, but, whether through envy or some other cause, he never regarded Jacopo kindly again. Thus, when Jacopo sometimes went to his shop, it was shut, or he was chased away by the apprentices. Accordingly he withdrew and began to reduce his expenses, for he was very poor, and studied with great assiduity. When Andrea di Cosimo had finished gilding the arms, Jacopo began to finish the rest by himself, and moved by his desire to make a name, and aided by his natural grace and fertility, he executed the work with marvellous quickness, and as perfectly as an old and experienced master. With added courage, he felt he could do a much better work, and he had thought of breaking up the old one and making another after a design of his own. The friars, seeing the work was fimshed and that Jacopo came no more, went to Andrea and persuaded him to unveil his work. Andrea sought Jacopo to ask if he wished to retouch anything, and not finding him, for he was engrossed upon the new design, and would see no one, he removed the
(1) Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini.
scaffolding and uncovered the work. That same eUening, when Jacopo left his house to go to the Servites, it being night, to take down what he had done and set to work on the new design, he found the work unveiled and a crowd regarding it. He sought out Andrea, and wrathfully complained of his acting without him, telling him what he intended to do. Andrea answered, cc You do wrong to complain, for your work is so good that I am sure you could not do better, and as you will have no lack of employment, use these designs for something else." His work was of such beauty that for its new style and the sweetness of the heads of the two women and the charm of the infants it was the finest fresco ever seen till then. There are two other infants in the air holding a drapery oUer the Pope's arms, of unsurpassable beauty, while all the figures have the utmost relief, and their colouring cannot be over-praised. Michelagnolo, on seeing it, and knowing it to be the work of a youth of nineteen, said," This youth, if he lives and continues to pursue art, will attain to heaven. " The men of Pontormo, hearing of Jacopo's renown, sent for him and employed him to do the arms of Pope Leo over a door on the main street, with two lovely infants, but it has been all but destroyed by water. At the carnival of that year there were great rejoicings in Florence over the creation of Leo, and, among other festivities, two were carried out at the expense of two companies of lords and nobles of the city. The head of one of these, called the Diamond, was Sig. Giuliano de' Medici, the Pope's brother, and .it was so called because the diamond was the device of Lorenzo the elder, his father. That of the other, with a Branch as device, had Sig. Lorenzo, son of Piero de' Medici,. as its head, with a dried laurel branch, with new leaves springing forth, to show the revival of his grandfather's name. M. Andrea Dazzi, who was then professing Greek and Latin at the University of Florence, was charged by the Diamond company to devise something for a triumph. He arranged one like those of the Romans, with three beautiful wooden cars richly painted. The first represented Boyhood, with a row of boys; the second was Manhood, with persons who had done great things at that season of life; the third was Old Age, with men who had done great deeds when old. All the characters were most sumptuously dressed. The architects of these cars were Raffaello delle Viviole, Carota the carver, Andrea di Cosimo the painter, and Andrea del Sarto. The draperies of the figures were designed by Ser Piero da Vinci, Lionardo's father, and Bernardo di Giordano, while Jacopo Pontormo was charged to paint the three cars singlehanded, with scenes in
chiaroscuro, representing the transformations of the gods. These are now in the possession of Pietro Paolo Galeotti, an eXcellent goldsmith. The first car bore the device Erimus, the second Sumus, the third Fuimus. The canzone began: " Volano gli anni"etc.
Sig. Lorenzo, head of the Branch company, having seen these things and desiring to surpass them, gave the charge of all to Jacopo Nardi, a noble and learned man (to whom his native Florence was afterwards much bound). This Jacopo arranged Six triumphs, double in number to those of the Diamond. The first, drawn by oxen draped with grass, represented the golden age of Saturn and Janus. At the top of the car were Saturn with the scythe and two-headed Janus holding the keys of the temple of Peace, with Fury bound at his feet, and countless things pertaining to Saturn, beautifully coloured by Pontormo. Six pairs of shepherds accompanied this car, dressed in sable and martin"s fur, wearing shoes of antique pattern and with garlands on their heads of many kinds of leaves. The horses on which they rode were without saddles, but covered with the skins of lions, tigers and wolves, the gilded claws of which hung gracefully at the sides. The cruppers had gold cord and the spurs bore the heads of sheep, dogs and other animals. The bridles were made of various kinds of verdure and silver cord. Each shepherd had four footmen dressed as shepherds of
a simple kind in other skins, bearing torches made like dry branches and with pine-branches, very beautiful to see. The second car, drawn by two pairs of oxen draped with rich cloth, with garlands at their heads and large beads hanging from their gilt horns, carried Numa Pompilius, second King of the Romans, with the books of religion and all the priestly trappings and necessaries for sacrifice, as he was the first of the Romans to regulate religion and sacrifices. Six priests accompanied the car on handsome mules, their heads covered with cloth hoods embroidered with gold and silver ivy leaves, worked with mastery. They wore ancient sacerdotal vestments, with rich gold borders and fringes, some carrying a censer and some a gold vase or something similar. Their footmen were like Levites, whose torches resembled ancient candelabra. The third car represented the consulship of Titus Manlius Torquatus, consul after the end of the first Carthagenian war, and who governed so that Rome flourished in virtue and prosperity. This car, decorated with many fine ornaments by Pontormo, was drawn by eight fine horses, preceded by six pairs of sena-tors on horseback in togas covered with a gold web, accompanied by lictors with the fasces, axes and other instruments of justice. The fourth car, drawn by buffaloes dressed as elephants, represented Julius Caesar triumphing for his victory over Cleopatra, on a car painted with his most famous deeds by Pontormo. Six pairs of men-at-arms in rich and shining armour accompanied him, having gold fringes, and with their lances at their sides. Their half-armed footmen carried torches in the form of trophies of different kinds. The fifth car, drawn by winged horses like griffins, had Augustus, the ruler of the universe, accompanied by six pairs of poets on horseback7 crowned like Caesar with laurel and dressed' according to their provinces. Each poet bore a scroll inscribed with his name. On the sixth car, drawn by six pairs of heifers richly. caparisoned7 was the just Emperor Trajan, before whose car, richly painted by Pontormo, rode six pairs of doctors of law, with togas down to their feet and cloaks of ermine, such as they anciently wore. The footmen carrying torches were scribes, copyists and notaries5 with books and writings in their hands. After them came the car of the Golden Age, richiy made, with. many figures in relief by Baccio Bandinelli and beautiful paintings by Pontormo, among which the four cardinal Virtues were much admired. In the midst of the car was a great globe, upon which lay a man, as if dead, his arms all rusted, his back open and emerging therefrom a naked gilded child, representing the Golden Age revived by the creation of the Pope and the end of the Iron Age from which it issued. The dried branch putting forth new leaves had the same signification, although some said that it was an allusion to Lorenzo de" Medici, Duke of Urbino. The gilt boy, the child of a baker, who had been paid 10 crowns, died soon after of the effects. The canzone sung at the masquerade was composed by Jacopo Nardi; the first stanza ran thus:
Colui che da le leggi alla natura, E i vari stati e secoli dispone, D'ogni bene e cagione E il mal, quanto permette, al mondo dura: Onde, questa figura Contemplando, si vede Come con certo piede L'un secol dopo l'altro al mondo viene, E muta il bene in mal e'l mal in bene.1(1) He who makes Nature's laws and disposes of principalities and the ages is the source of all good, and when He allows it evil oppresses the world. Hence, in contemplating this figure you may see how surely one age follows another and how the good changes to ill and the ill to good.
From his work for this feast Pontormo won much advantage obtained in the city. Thus when Pope Leo afterwards came to Florence he was much employed on the preparations. With Baccio da Montelupo, a sculptor of the age, who made a wooden arch at the top of the via del Palagio, from the steps of Badia, the painted some beautiful scenes, which afterwards suffered from the negligence of those who had charge of them. One only remained, a Pallas tuning her instrument to the lyre of Apollo with much grace. The excellence of the other scenes may be judged from this.
In the same festivities Ridolfo Ghirlandajo was charged to embellish the Pope"s hall, adjoining the convent of S. Maria Novella, the ancient residence of the pontiffs in the city. Being pressed for time, he was forced to employ assistance. Having decorated all the other rooms, he charged Pontormo to do some frescoes in the chapel 1 where the Pope heard Mass every morning. Jacopo did a God the Father with cherubs, and a Veronica with the face of Christ on a handkerchief, a work that wains much admired though done in such haste. In a chapel S. Raffaello, behind the Archivescovado of Florence, he painted a Madonna and Child between St. Michael and St. Lucy, and two other saints kneeling, and a God the Father surrounded by seraphim in the lunette of the chapel. Maestro Jacopo, a
Servite
friar, afterwards allotted to him a part of the Servite cloister,a thing he had greatly desired, because Andrea del Sarto had
gone to France and left the work there unfinished. Jacopo made
the cartoons with great care, but being in poor circumstances,
and as he had to live while striving to acquire honour, he did
two beautiful figures above the door of the Women"s Hospital,
behind the church of the hospital of the priests, between the
piazza of S. Marco and the via di Sangallo, opposite the wall
of the sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. These were Christ as a
pilgrim receiving some women into the hospital, a work that has
always been deservedly praised. At the same time he painted
some pictures in oils for the masters of the mint on the car of
tlie Moneta, which goes in procession every St. John's day, the
car being made by Marco del Tasso. Over the door of the com-pany of la Cecilia, on the hill of Fiesole, he did a St. Cecilia
in fresco, holding roses, one of the most beautiful frescoes in
existence. When Maestro Jacopo, the Servite friar, had seen
these works, his desire was greatly kindled, and he hoped to(1) Done in15I3.
get Pontormo to finish the cloister, thinking that the competition with the other masters who had worked there would spur him to produce something extraordinarily fine. Jacopo did a Visitation in a manner somewhat more elegant than his wont, being moved as much by his desire for honour and glory as for gain. This gave his work much greater beauty, for the women, children, youths and old men are rendered so charming, in such harmonious colouring, that it is a marvel. The flesh-colouring of a boy seated on some steps and that of all the other figures is such that it cannot be surpassed for softness. By these and his other works Jacopo took rank beside Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio, who had laboured there. He finished the task in 1516, only receiving 16 crowns for it. I remember well that Francesco Pucci allotted to him the altarpiece of a chapel which he had erected in S. Michele Bisdomini, in the via de' Servi. Jacopo executed this with marvellous style and in brilliant it colouring. He represents the Virgin seated offering the Infant Jesus to St. Joseph, who is laughing in a wonderfully natural manner. Very beautiful also are the little St. John the Baptist and two other naked boys supporting a canopy. Here also are St. John the Evangelist, a fine old man, and a St. Francis kneeling, with clasped hands, and intently regarding the Virgin and Child, so that he seems to be breathing. No less fine is St. James at the side. It is the finest picture ever produced by this rare painter.1 I think it was afterwards that he did for Bartolommeo Lanfredini in Lung Arno, between the S. Trinita and the Carraia bridges, in a passage, two graceful boys in fresco above a door supporting a scutcheon. But Bronzino, who deserves credence in these things, declares that they were among the first things executed by Jacopo. If so, Pontormo deserves the more praise, for they are of unequalled beauty.
To continue: Jacopo next did a panel for the men of Pontormo5 which was placed in the chapel of the Madonna in their principal church of S. Agnolo. It represents St. Michael and St. John the Evangelist. At this time a youth called Giovanmaria Pichi of Borgo a S. Sepolcro was staying with Jacopo, and did very well, becoming a Servite friar afterwards, while he executed some works in the Pieve at S. Stefano. With Jacopo he painted a large Martyrdom of St. Quentin to be sent to the Borgo, but as Jacopo wished him to win honour, he retouched it, and being unable to leave it, he thus finished the whole, the picture may therefore be called his, so that it is no wonder
(1) Dated 1518.
that it is very beautiful. It is now in the Observantine church of S. Francesco at the Rorgo. Another apprentice, Giovanni Antonio Lappoli of Arezzo, mentioned elsewhere, drew himself in a mirtor while with Jacopo, who did not think the likeness good, and drew an admirable portrait of him himself. This is now at Arezzo in the house of the youth's heirs. Pontormo also portrayed two of his friends in one picturey one the son-in-law of Becuccio Becchieraio and another whose name I do not know. For Bartolommeo Ginori he did some hangings for use after his death, according to a Florentine custom. In the upper part he did a Virgin and Child on white taffeta, and the arms of the family beneath. In the middle of the hangings, formed of twentyfour pieces of white taffeta, he did two St. Bartholomews, two braccia high. This new style made all the others executed before ook poor and insignificant, and led to the large style of to-day which is very light and less costly. At the top of the garden and vineyard of the friars of S. Gallo outside the S. Gallo gate Jacopo did a dead Christ, a weeping Virgin and two cherubs in the air, in a chapel in a line with the entrance. One of the cherubs holds the cup and the other supports Christ's head. On one side is St. John in tears, with his arms open, on the other St. Augustine in the episcopal habit, leaning sadly and thoughtfully on his pastoral staff, contemplating the Saviours death. For M. Spina, familiar of Giovanm Salviati, he did the latter's arms, who had been created cardinal by Pope Leo,1 in a court opposite the principal door of the house, with the red hat and two cherubs, of great beauty and much valued by M. Filippo Spina as Pontormo's work. Jacopo also did the wood decoration for some apartments of Bierfrancesco Borgherini in conjunction with other masters, notably the history of Joseph in small figures of great beauty, on two chests. But his best work, which shows his genius in the vivacity of heads, composition of figures, variety of attitudes and beauty of invention, may be seen in this chamber of Borgherini, a Florentine nobleman, on the left of the side entrance. It is a representation in small figures of Joseph in Egypt receiving his father Jacob and all his brethren.: Among these figures he introduced Bronzino, his pupil, then a child, at the foot of the scene, seated on some steps, with a basket, a marvellously life-like and beautiful figure. If this picture had been large I venture to say that it would not be possible to match it for grace, perfection and excellence, and artists consider it Jacopo's best work. No wonder then that
(1) In I5I7. (2) Now in the National Gallery, London.
Borgherini valued it or that great men wished him to sell it to present to lords and princes.
Bierfrancesco having withdrawn to Lucca because of the siege of Florence, Giovanni Battista della Palla, who desired the ornaments of this room, with other things to be taken to France to present to King Francis in the name of the Signoria, induced the gonfaloniere and Signori to take it and pay the wife of Pierfrancesco; But when he went to the house the lady confronted him. "Do you venture to come here, vile bagman,'' she said, "to rob the decorations of noblemen and deprive the city of its richest possessions to adorn foreign countries hostile to us I do not wonder at you, who are a base-born man and the enemy of your country, but I marvel that the magistrates permit such abominable rascality. This bed, which is the object of your lust for money, is my marriage-bed, in honour of which my brother-in-law Salvi had all this decoration prepared, and I honour it in memory of him and for love of my husband, and I will defend it with my life. Leave this house with your baggage, and tell those who sent you that I will not allow any of these things to be removed from their places, and if those who trust in such a vile creature as you wish to present something to King Francis, let them despoil their own houses. If you are so rash as to enter this place again I will teach you the respect due by such as you to the houses of nobles." These words of Madonna Margherita, who was daughter of Ruberto Acciaiuoli, a noble and prudent citizen, being herself a lady of spirit, preserved these treasures for her house.
Giovannimaria Benintendi about the same time decorated an ante-chamber with pictures by various artists, imitating Jacopo's work for the Borgherini. Jacopo, being much encouraged by praise, did an Adoration of the Magi,1 and by dint of much study and diligence he rendered the heads and other parts varied, beautiful and worthy of all praise. For M. Goro da Pistoia, then secretary of the Medici, he did an admirable three-quarter figure of Cosimo de' Medici the elder,2 now in the house of M. Ottaviano de" Medici, in the possession of his son M. Alessandro, a youth of holy life, learned, and a worthy son of his father and of Madonna Francesca, daughter of Jacopo Salviati, and aunt of Duke Cosimo. By these works, especially the last, Pontormo had won the friendship of M. Ottaviano, and he was commissioned3 to paint the two ends of the great hall of Poggio a Caiano, where the two round windows
(1) Now in the Pitti Gallery. (2) Uffizi Gallery. (3) In 1521.
are, from the usual in such ceiling to the floor. Wishing to do better than a place, and in competition with the other painters engaged there, Jacopo showed himself over anxious, as he kept doing and effacing his things, though he was always making new discoveries for the embellishment of the work. Thus he represented a countryman seated with a pruning-knife in his hand for Vertumnus, executed with great beauty, and some infants there are very life-like and natural. In his Pomona and
Diana on the other side he perhaps involved their draperies
too much, though the whole work is beautiful and much praised.
But meanwhile Leo died, and the work was left unfinished, like
many others at Rome, Florence, Loreto and elsewhere, when
the world lost that true Maecenas. On returning to Florence Jacopo did a St. Augustine seated and giving the benediction, with two beautiful nudeinfants flying in the air. This is over an altar in the little church of the sisters of St. Clemente in the via di S. Gallo. He also completed a Pieta' with some nude angels, a beautiful work, highly valued by the Ragusan merchants, for whom he did it. It contained a fine landscape, mostly copied from a print of Albert Durer. He also did a Virgin and Child with some cherubs, now in the house of Alessandro Neroni, and another Madonna, different in style, for some Spaniards, which Bronzino was commissioned to buy for M. Bartolommeo Panciatichi at a sale many years after.
In 1522, when the plague borke out in Florence, so that many fled to escape the infection, Jacopo took the opportunity to leave the city. The prior of the Certosa, a house built by the Acciaiuoli, three miles from Florence, wished to have some fresco paintings at the corners of a large and beautiful cloister surrounding a lawn, and gave them to Jacopo, who readily accepted the work, and went there, accompanied by Bronzino only. Enjoying the quiet and solitude so dear to him, Jacopo thought it a good opportunity to study and to embellish and vary his style. Not long before a good number of delicate engravings by Albert Durer had come to Florence, and among others some scenes of the Passion of Christ, of the utmost perfection in beauty, variety in the costumes and invention. Jacopo proposed to make use of them in the cloister, expecting thus to give satisfaction to himself and to most of the Florentine artists, who with one accord praised these engravings. Jacopo therefore sought to endow his figures with the expressions, vigour and variety possessed by those of Albert, and
thus lost the natural sweetness and grace of his first manner, exchanging it for the German style, so that, though his later works are beautiful, his figures lack their former excellence and ace. At the entrance to the cloister he did Christ in the Garden, the darkness illuminated by the moon, so that it seems almost daylight. As Christ prays, Peter, James and John are sleeping, a marvellous imitation of Durer. Not far off, Judas is bringing the Jews, with a curious expression like that of all the soldiers, who are done in the German style, so that they excite our compassion for the artist, who took such pains to learn what others avoid, abandoning a good style which pleased everyone. Was not Pontormo aware that Germans and Flemings come to learn the Italian style which he made such efforts to shake off as if it was bad? Next this is Christ led before Pilate, thc Saviour displaying the humility of His innocence abandoned to wicked men, and Pilate's wife her compassion and fear of the divine judgment, and, as she pleads for Christ to her husband, she regards Him with a pitying wonder.Pilate is surrounded by soldiers, German in costume and expression, and anyone who did not know the artist might suppose this the work of an ultramontane. It is true that in the distance there is a servant of Pilate mounting some steps, carrying a basin and jug to wash his master's hands, very life-like, and showing something of Jacopo's old style. For a Resurrection in another corner Jacopo had the caprice to change his colouring, his brain always evolving new things, and he made it so sweet and good that if he had adopted another style than the German the work would have been most beautiful, the soldiers who are l in aslee in various attitudes, like death9 seeming unsur passable. He continued in another corner with Christ bearing the Cross, followed by the people of Jerusalem, the two naked thieves going before, between the executioners, some of whom are on foot and some mounted, with ladders, the title of the cross, hammers, nails, ropes and other tools. Behind a hillock is the Virgin with the Maries weeping as they regard Christ, who has fallen to the ground, while the Jews are beating Him and Veronica offers Him the handkerchief, accompanied by Old and young women weeping at the Saviour's sufferings. This scene proved much better than the others, perhaps because Jacopo recognised the harm done to his style by his study of German work, or because he had been warned by friends. Some naked Jews and heads of old men are finely executed in fresco, although he has preserved the German style for the whole. In the other corners he
continued with the Crucifixion and Deposition from the Cross. But he left them, intending to do these last, and did instead a Deposition in the same style, but with harmonious colouring. Besides a beautiful Magdalene kissing Christ's feet, two old men representing Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, although in the German style, have the most beautiful expression imaginable, with downy beards and soft colnuring.
As the quiet of the Certosa pleased Jacopo, he devoted several years to this work, and when the plague was over and he had returned to Florence, he continued to frequent the place, and obliged the friars in many ways. Aniong other things he did the portrait of a lay brother then living, and aged one hundred and twenty, over a door leading into the chapel, so well executed and so life-like that it alone excuses Pontormo for his fancies when in that lonely place far from men. For the prior's chamber he did a Nativity, with a light on Christ's face in the darkness, thrown by Joseph holding a lantern, of the same order of ideas that he derived from the German prints. Let no one blame Jacopo for imitating Albert Durer because many painters have done it and do so still. But he did wrong in adopting that stiff style for everything, the draperies, expression and attitudes, which should be avoided when borrowing the ideas, as he had a graceful and beautiful modern style. For the guest-chamber he did a large canvas in oils, without apparent effort, of Christ with Cleophas and Luke, of life-size,1 and, as he followed his genius, it proved a marvellous success, for among the servants he introdueed the portraits of some friars whom I have known, making marvellous likenesses.
Bronzino, while his master was thus engaged, pursued his study of painting, being encouraged thereto by Pontormo, who loved his pupils. Without ever having seen colouring in oils, he did a fine nude of St. Laurence on the gridiron on the wall over the cloister door leading to the church, showing signs of the excellence to which he afterwards attaincd, and delighting
Jacopo, who already foresaw his future success. Not long after, Ludovico di Gino Capponi having returned from Rome, and having brought the chapel in S. Felicith which Brunnellesco erected for the Barbadori, on the right on entering the church, resolved to have it richly decorated. He accordingly consulted his friend M. Niccolo Vespucci, a knight of Rhodes, who, being a friend of Jacopo, praised his genius, so that Ludovicoallotted the chapel to him. He built a screen and shut off the chapel
(1) Painted in 1528; now in the Accademia, Florence.
for three years. On thc vaulting he did God the Father surrounded by the four Patriarchs,afld at the fotir circles at the angles he did the Evangelists, giving one to Bronzino. I must add that Pontormo hardly ever made use of his apprentices, or allowed them to touch his own work, but when he did, usually for purposes of instruction, he let them do the whole alone, as Bronzino did here. Tn his works in the chapel Jacopo appears to have returned to this first manner, but not in the picture, as he devised a novelty, executing it in such level coloiiring that it is hard to distinguish the lights from the half-tints, and the half-tints from the shadows. It represents a dead Christ being carried to the sepulchre, with the Virgin and the other Maries, in an utterly different style from the first, showing how his brain was seeking for new fancies and was not content with holding fast to, one. The composition and eolouring are altogether different from the painting of the vaulting, and the four Evangelists, in a different style, are much better. On the window wall are the Virgin, and the angel annunciating, showing his curious ideas and how he never rested content. While he was engaged upon this work he would not allow even the patron to see it, in order that he might do it in his own way, and when it was finally uncovered, without his friends knowing anything about it, all Florence marvelled. For a chamber of the same Ludovico he did a Madonna in the same style, and represented a daughter of his, a very beautiful maiden, as St. Mary Magdalene. Near the monastery of Boldrone1 at the junction of the Cestello road with the one that mounts the hill to Cercina, two iniles from Florence, he did in a tabernacle Christ on the Cross, the Virgin weeping, St. John the Evangelist, St. Augustine and St. Julian, all in the German style, for he had not yet rid himself of the fancy, and not unlike those done at the Certosa. For the nuns of St. Anna at the S. Friano gate he did a panel of the Virgin and Child, St. Anne behind, St. Peter, St. Benedict, and other saints.1 The predclla in small figures represents the Signoria of Florence going in procession, with drums, fifes, macebearers, commendatories, and the rest of the household, because the panel was commissioned by the captain of the palace. While Jacopo was engaged upon this, Silvio Passerini, cardinal of Cortona, was sent to Rome, with Alcssandro and Ippolito de' Medici, by Clement VII., and Ottaviano the Magnificent, to whom the Pope recommended them, employed Pontormo to paint their portraits 2; he did excellent ones, although he did not
(1) Painted I543; now in the Louvre. (2) In I524.
depart much from his German style. With Ippolito he drew a favourite dog called Rodon, making it appear alive.1 He also drew Bishop Ardinghelii, afterwards cardina!, and for his friend
Filippo del Migliore he painted a Pomona in his house in the via Larga, where he seems to be attempting to throw off his German style somewhat. Gio. Battista della Palla, observing Jacopo to be daily becoming more famous and not having succeeded in getting his paintings and those of others to send to King Francis, resolved to send the king something by Pon- tormo, as he knew his Majesty desired it. He at length succeeded in inducing him to do a fine Resurrection of Lazarus, one of his best works, and it was sent among others to King Francis. The heads were very beautiful, and Lazarus reviving from the dead is marvellous, having the green about the eyes and dead flesh at the ends of his feet and hands. In a picture of one and a half braccia for the nuns of the hospital of the Innocenti, he did the history of the eleven thousand martyrs crucified in a wood by order of Diocletian,2 containing a cavalry battle and fine nudes, and some cherubs in the air shooting arrows at the executioners. The emperor is also surrounded by some fine nudes going to their death. This picture, admirable in every part, is now greatly valued by Don Vincenzio Borghini, master of the hospital, and a former friend of Jacopo. He made one like it for Carlo Neroni, with the martyrs only and the angel bap- tising, and Carlo's portrait. At the time of the siege of Florence he drew the portrait of Francesco Guardi, dressed as a soldier, a fine work. On the cover of this work Bronzino painted Pyg- malion praying Venus to make his statue live, as we read in the poets. At this time, after long toil, Jacopo obtained what he had long desired, a house of his own, where he could live as he pleased, for he bought one in the via della Colonna, opposite the nuns of S. Maria degli Angeli. Whcn the siege was over, Pope Clement directed Ottaviano de' Medici to have the hall of Poggio a Caiano completed. Franciabigio and Andrea del Sarto being dead, the care of it was entirely entrusted to Pon- tormo. After making his scaffolding, he began on the cartoons, but in the midst of his ceaseless fancies he did not begin to work. This might not have happened if Bronzino had been near, but he was then working at Imperiale, a place of the Duke of Urbino, near Pesaro, and although daily summoned by Jacopo he could not leave his post. When he had decorated a vaulting(1) Possibly the man with the dog in the Pitti Gallery. (2) Now in the Pitti Gallery, with a replica in the Uffizi.
at Imperiale with a fine nude cupid, tbe Prince Guidobaldo, who knew the youth's skill, commanded him to paint his portrait. But as the prince wished to be painted in some armour which he was expecting from Lombardy, Bronzino was forced to stay longer than he intended. Meanwhile he painted the case for a harpsichord, which greatly delighted the prince. Bronzino afterwards completed the portrait, greatly to the satisfaction of the prince.
Jacopo wrote so many times that at length Bronzino went, but could not succeed in inducing his master to make anything but cartoons, in spite of the entreaties of Ottaviano the Magnificent and Duke Alessandro. One of these cartoons, most of which are now in the house of Ludovico Capponi, represents Hercules crushing Antaeus, another Venus and Adonis, and a sheet of nudes playing ball. Sig. Alfonso Davalo, Marquis of il Guasto, having obtained a cartoon of a Noli me tangere by means of Fra Niccolo della Magna, by Michelagnolo, tried every way to induce Jacopo to execute it in painting, for Buonartoti liad said that no one could do it better. This work, when completed, was considered marvellous for the grandeur of Michelagnolo' s design and the colouring of Jacopo. When Sig. Alessandro Vitelli, then captain of the guard at Florence, had seen it, he made Jacopo do him another from the same cartoon and liad it placed in his house at Citta di Castello. It being seen how highly Michelagnolo esteemed Pontormo and how excellently the latter executed the designs of the former, Bartolommeo Bettini induced his friend Michelagnolo to make a cartoon of a nude Venus with a cupid kissing her, to be painted by Pontormo and put in the middle of a room of his, in the lunettes of which Bronzino had begun to paint Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, intending to represent the other Tuscan lyric poets there. Jacopo executed this cartoon at his ease, in a style known to all the world, so that I need not stop to praise It. These designs led Pontormo to consider the style of Michelagnolo, and he resolved to imitate it so far as he was able. He then saw his mistake in letting slip such work as that of Poggio a Caiano, and he blamed for it a long sickness and finally the death of Pope Clement, which stopped everything there. Jacopo had done a portrait of Amerigo Antinori, a youth very popular in Florence at that time. The portrait being universally praised, Duke Alessandro intimated to Jacopo that he desired a large one of himself. For greater convenience Jacopo made the fortrait on a half-sheet of paper with as much care as an illumina-
tion, and besides being a good likeness it contains every requisite it of a good painting. From this, which is now in Duke Cosimo's wardrobe, Jacopo copied another portrait of the duke holding a pen and drawing a woman's head. The duke gave this to Signora Taddea Malespina, sister of the Marchioness of Massa. The duke, wishing to reward Jacopo, told his servant Niccolo da Montaguto to get him to ask what he wanted and it would be granted. But so great was the pusillanimity, respect or modesty of this man that he only asked for enough money to redeem a mantle which he had pawned. When the duke heard this he laughed, and gave him 50 gold crowns and the offer of a pension, though Niccolo had hard work to make him accept it. Jacopo having finished the Venus from Bettini's cartoon with
marvellous success, it was not given to Bettini for the price which Jacopo had promised, but was taken out of Jacopo's hands by some fortune-hunters, almost by force, out of spite to Bettini, and then presented to Duke Alessandro, the cartoon being restored to Bettini. When Michelagnolo heard this he was sorry for his friend and bore a grudge against Jacopo, who, though he received 50 crowns from the duke, cannot be said to have defrauded Bettini, for he had only obeyed his prince's command. But some say it was Bettini's fault for wanting too much. With this money Pontormo had a chance of repairing his house. He began to build, but he did not do anything of importance. Thus, though some say he intended to spend a great deal for his state and make a convenient and artistic abode, yet it has rather the appearance of the dwelling of a fantastic and solitary man than a well-considered house. The room where he slept and sometimes worked was approaclied by a wooden ladder which he drew up after him, so that no one could come up without his knowledge or permission. But what aroused more dissatisfaction was that he would only work when he wished, and being often requested to do things by noble- men, and notably on one occasion by M. Ottaviano de' Medici, he would not serve them, but would then begin something for some plebeian instead at a low price. Thus Rossino, a clever mason, received from him in payment for some building a beautiful Madonna, upon which Jacopo took as much pains as the mason did over his work. Rossino also succeeded in obtaining from Jacopo a fine portrait of Cardinal Giulio de Medici, copied from one by Raphael, and also a beautiful crucifix. But though Ottaviano bought this from Rossino as a work of Jacopo, it is certain that it is by Bronzino, who didby himself while with Jacopo at the Certosa, although it remained in Pontormo's possession, I do not know why. These three paintings are now in the house of M. Alessandro de' Medici, Ottaviano's son. But although these proceedings and this solitary life of Pontormo's are blameworthy, it is easy to excuse him, and he might well do the works which he liked and leave the others without blame. No artist is bound to work except when and for whom he pleases, and he alone suffers from his course of action. As for solitude, I have always heard that it is the friend of study, but even if it were not, I do not think that we ought to blame one who, without offending God and his neighbour, lives after his own fashion in tlie way best suited to his temperament.
But to return to the works of Jacopo. Duke Alessandro having restored the villa of Careggi, built by Cosimo de' Medici the elder, two miles from Florence, and executed the decoration of the fountain and the labyrinth in the middle of an open court, directed that the two loggias facing it should be painted by Jacopo with assistance, in order that it might be done more quickly, and so that the conversation would render hini more cheerful and make him work without troubling his brain with various fancies. The duke himself sent for Jacopo, and asked liim to finish the work as soon as possible. Jacopo therefore sent for Bronzino, and in the five compartments of the vaulting made him do figures, namely Fortune, Justice, Victory, Peace and ty Fame, and at the sixth Jacopo himself did a Love. He then designed some cherubs in the oval of the vaulting with various animals, foreshortened from below all except one being coloured by Bronzino, who did excellently. While Jacopo and Bronzino were engaged upon these figures, Jacone, Pierfrancesco di Jacopo and others did the surrounding decoration, and so the whole work was soon finished, to the delight of the duke, who wished to have the other loggia painted. But there was not time, for the work being finished on I3 December, I536, the duke was assassinated by his kinsman Lorenzino on 6 January following. On the succession of Duke Cosimo, followed by the successful affair of Montemurlo, the work of Castello was begun, as related in tlie Life of Tribolo. The duke, to please Donna Maria, his mother, directed Jacopo to paint tlie first loggia on the left on entering the palace. Here, after designing the ornaments, he gave it to Bronzino to execute and to the others who liad worked at Careggi. He then shut himself up and continued the work at his ease, endeavouring to surpass the work at
Careggi, which he had not done entirely by himself. He could easily do so, for he received 8 crowns a month from the duke, whom he drew, young as he was, at the beginning of the work, with Donna Maria, his mother. The scaffolding having stood for five years, and no one being able to see what Jacopo had done, the lady became angry and one day commanded that it should be pulled down. But Jacopo had been warned, and obtaining some days' graee he retouched where he thought it necessary. he then devised a canvas to cover it when the quality were not there so that the air should not damage it, as had happened at Careggi. Great expectations had been raised, as it was thought
that Jacopo would have surpassed himself and produced a stupendous work. However, the work did not altogether realise these expectations, for, although many particulars are good, the figures are out of proportion and their attitudes seem strange and ill regulated. But Jacopo excused himself by saying that he did not like the place, because, being outside the city, it was exposed to the fury of the soldiers and other accidents. However, the air and time are gradually destroying it, as he did it in oils on dry lime. In the middle of the vaulting he did Saturn with tl,e sign of Capricorn, and Mars Hermaphroditus in the signsof Leo and Virgo, with some flying cherubs like those at Careggi. He then did large female figures, almost nude, of Philosophy, Astrology, Geometry, Music, Arithmetic and a Ceres, with small circular scenes in vanous tints appropriate to the figures. But although all this labour did not give great satisfaction, at least much less than was expected, the duke expressed himself as pleased, and employed Jacopo at every opportunity, for the artist was much esteemed by the people for his numerous beautiful works in the past.
The duke having brought to Florence the Flemings Giovanni Rosso and Niccolo,1 excellent masters of arras, to teach the art to the Florentines, directed that gold and silk hangings should be made for the council chamber of the Two Hundred, at a cost of 6o,ooo crowns, and that Jacopo and Bronzino should prepare cartoons of the history of Joseph. Jacopo having done one of the Death of Joseph announced to Jacob, and another of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, the duke and the masters did not like them, thinking them strange and unsuitable for the medium, and so Jacopo did no more. Returning to his accustomed work, he did a Madonna, presented by the duke to Don..., who took it to Spain. The duke, following in the footsteps of his ancestors, has
(1) John Rost and Nicholas Kercker.
always sought to decorate his city, and he now resolved to paint the principal chapel of the magnificent ehureh of S. Lorenzo, erected by Cosimo de' Medici the elder. He gave this to Jacopo either of his own notion or by means of M. Pierfraneesco Ricei, major-domo, as is said. Jacopo was delighted, because of the importance of the work, he being well advanced in years and feeling that he had such an opportunity to display his talents. Some say that when he heard the work had been allotted to him, notwithstanding that Franceseo Salviati, a famous painter, was in Florence and had decorated the audience-chamber of the palace of the Signoria, he declared he would show how designing and painting in fresco should be done, that other painters were commonplace, and similar insolent speeches. But as I always knew him to be a modest man who spoke well of all, as a good artist should, I do not believe he ever uttered such boasts, which are the sayings of vain and presumptuous men without talent or character. 1 would have preferred not to mention this except that I believe it to be my duty as a veracious historian. If such reports were circulated, they were spread abroad by the malicious, for Jacopo was always modest.
Having shut himself up alone in the chapel, Jacopo kept the place closed for eleven years, so that not a living soul entered it except himself. It is indeed true that some youths who were drawing in the sacristy of Michelagnolo climbed on to the roof, as boys will, and lifting the tiles and gilt bosses saw everything. When Jacopo heard it he took it very ill, but made no other sign except to cover up everything with more diligence than ever. Some say that he harassed and annoyed the youths greatly. He expected to surpass all the painters, even perhaps Michelagnolo, so it was said. In the upper part he did the creation of Adam and Eve, the Fall, the expulsion from Paradise, Tilling the Soil, the Sacrifice of Abel, the Death of Cain, the Blessing of the Seed of Noah, and the designing of the Ark. He decorated the lower walls, which are fifteen braccia square, with the Flood, containing a mass of drowned bodies, and Noah speaking with God, the general resurrection of the dead, with a universal and general confusion such as will probably take place on the last day. Opposite the altar, between the windows, is a row of nudes forming a ladder froni the earth to paradise, many dead being there, and two of them clotlied except the legs and arms, and holding lighted torches, forming the ends. At the top and in the middle he did Christ in majesty surrounded by nude angels, and raising the dead for judgment. I have never been able to under-
stand the meaning of this scene, but I know that Jacopo was an genious man and associated with the learned. I mean what he intended by Christ raising the dead, with God the Father beneath him creating Adam and Eve. At one corner are the Evangelists, nude figures with books in their hands, and I do not think he has anywhere observed the order of the scene, measure, time, variety of the heads, changes in the flesh-tints, or any rule, proportion or perspective. The whole is full of nudes, arranged, designed and coloured after his fashion, with so much melancholy as to afford little pleasure to the observer, for even I though a painter, do not understand it, and it seems to me that in this labour of eleven years Jacopo has sought to bewilder both himself and those who see the work.1 It contains some torsos with their shoulders turned forward and sides, done with marvellous study and labour, and Jacopo made clay models for nearly all. However, the work is not in his usual style, and everyone feels it to be without measure, the torsos being mostly large and the legs and arms small, not to speak of the heads, which lack that singular grace and excellence which he used to give and which afford such pleasure in his other paintings. He seems indeed to have taken pains with some parts and neglected others of more importance. Thus, whereas he lioped to surpass all artists, he fell far short of his own previous efforts, and so we see that when men wish to force Nature they ruin their natural endowments. But we cannot fail to pity him, for artists are prone to error like other men, and even Homer is said to have sometimes slept, while all of Jacopo's works contain some good parts, no matter how much he forced Nature. He died shortly before finishing this work, some say of grief and dissatisfaction with himself, but the truth is, he was old and worn out in making portraits, clay models and fresco-work, and he fell into a dropsy, of which lie died at the age of sixty-five. After his death many beautiful designs, cartoons and clay models were found in his house, and a fine Madonna in good style, apparently executed many years before. It was subsequently sold by his heirs to Piero Salviati. Jacopo was buried in the first cloister of tlie church of the Servites, below his own Visitation, being followed by all the painters, sculptors and architects. He was a frugal and temperate man, rather wretclied in his manner of life and clothing, and he almost always lived alone, without anyone to serve or cook for him. However, in his last years, lie adopted Battista Naldini, a youth of good intelligence, wlio took as much
(1) was uncovered in I558, but all wliite\vashed over in I738.
care of Jacopo as the latter would permit. Under Jacopo he made considerable progress in design, and excited the highest expectations. Pontormo's friends: especially at the end of his life, were Pierfrancesco Vernacci and Don Vincenzio Borghini, with whom he relaxed occasionally and dined with them. But he always cherished a great affection for Bronzino, who returned it, being grateful for the benefits received. Jacopo had strange notions, and was so fearful of death that he never allowed it to be mentioned, and he avoided dead bodies. He never went to feasts or to other places where crowds collected for fear of being crushed, and he was solitary beyond belief. Sometimes when he went to work he would fall into such deep thought that he came away at theend of the day without having done anything but think. This frequently occurred while he was engaged at S. Lorenzo, as may readily be believed, for when he had made up his mind he was not deterred by anything from carrying out what he had proposed, like a clever and skilful man.
FINISHED TO HERE!!!!!
SIMoNE MOSCA, Sculptor and Architect (I492-I553)No one except Simone Mosca of Settignano has ever equalled the beautiful works of the Greeks and Romans in bases, capitals, friezes, cornices, festoons, trophies, masks, candelabra, birds, arabesques, or other such carvings. In our own day he has shown by his genius that his predecessors in that work had not been able to imitate the excellence of the ancients or to adopt the true method of carving, for their works tend to be dry and crude in the turning of foliage, while he has made them rich and bold, with the finest leaves, flowers and fruits, not to speak of the birds gracefully carved in his festoons, so that we may say that he alone, with all respect to the others, has been able to rid marble of the hardness frequently given to it by sculptors, and made his things appear real; and we may say tlie same of his corniccs and other similar works, executed with grace and judgment.
Having studied design with great success in his childhood; and then become skilful in carving, he was taken to Rome by Maestro Antonio da Sangallo, who recognised his genius. There he began by doing some capitals and bases, and a frieze of III' I 7-`i3‚
it