received numerous favours from the general and other monks, besides
his payment. But he did not remain long there for the city was in
disorder owing to the feuds of the Guelph and Ghibelline parties and
was just then sacked. He removed with his family and his son Parri,
who was learning painting, to Florence, where he had a goodly number
of friends and relations. In that city, in order to pass the time, he
painted an Annunciation in a tabernacle outside the gate at S. Piero
Gattolini on the Roman road, where the way branches to Pozzolatico, a
work which is now half destroyed, and other pictures in another
tabernacle, where the ruin of Galluzzo is. Being afterwards invited
to Pisa to finish in the Campo Santo beneath the life of St Ranieri
the remainder of other subjects in a blank space, in order to unite
them to the scenes painted by Giotto, Simone of Siena, and Antonio of
Venice, he there executed in fresco six stories of St Petitus and St
Epirus. The first represents the saint as a young man, presented by
his mother to the Emperor Diocletian, and appointed general of the
armies which were to march against the Christians. As he is riding
with his troop Christ appears to him, and showing him a white cross
commands the youth not to persecute Him. Another scene represents the
angel of the Lord giving to the saint, while he is riding, the
banner of the Faith, with a white cross on a red field, which has
ever afterwards constituted the arms of the Pisans, because St Epirus
had besought God to give him a sign to wear against the enemy. Next
to this is another scene of a fierce battle engaged between the saint
and the Pagans, many armed angels fighting for the victory of the
former. Here Spinello produced many things worthy of consideration in
that day when art had not yet the ability nor any good method of
expressing the ideas of the mind in colour in a lively manner. Among
many other things in this composition are two soldiers, who have
seized each other by the beard, and are endeavouring to kill each
other with the naked rapiers which they hold in their disengaged
hands; their faces and all the movement of their limbs show the
desire of victory, their proud spirits being without fear and of the
highest courage. Also among those who are fighting on horseback there
is a finely executed knight who is fastening the head of an enemy to
earth with his lance, the other having fallen backward from his
terrified horse. Another scene shows the saint presented to the
Emperor Diocletian, who is questioning him about the faith, and who
afterwards consigns him to the torture, putting him in a furnace in
which he remains uninjured, whilst the servants who are very ready on
every side are burned in his stead. In short, all the acts of the
saint are shown, to his beheading, after which his soul is carried to
Heaven. The last scene shows the transportation of the bones and
relics of St Petitus from Alexandria to Pisa. The whole work in its
colouring and conception is the finest, most finished, and best
executed of Spinello's paintings, and this is shown by its present
excellent state of preservation, for its fresh appearance excites the
wonder of everyone who sees it. When this work in the Campo Santo was
completed, Spinello painted in the church of S. Francesco, in the
second chapel from the high altar, many stories of St Bartholomew, St
Andrew, St James, and St John the apostles, and he might perhaps have
remained longer at work in Pisa, because his paintings were admired
and rewarded there, but seeing the city thrown into an uproar and
turned upside down through the murder of M. Pietro Gambacorti by the
Lanfranchini, who were Pisan citizens, he once more removed to
Florence with all his family, for he was by this time an old man. He
remained there for one year only, and in the chapel of the
Macchiavelli in S. Croce, dedicated to SS. Philip and James, he did
many stories of the life and death of those saints. The picture of
the chapel he did at Arezzo, and sent it on from there in the year
1400, for he was anxious to return to his native place, or, to speak
more correctly, to the place which he looked upon as such. Having
thus returned thither at the age of seventy-seven or more, he was
lovingly received by his relations and friends, and remained there,
much loved and honoured, until the end of his life, which was in the
ninety-second year of his age. Although at the time of his return to
Arezzo he was quite an old man, and had enough property to enable him
to live without working, yet he could not remain idle, since he had
always been accustomed to work, and undertook to do some stories of
St Michael for the company of S. Agnolo in that city. These are
roughly drawn in red on the plastered wall, as was the most ordinary
method of the old artists, and as an example he did a single scene in
one corner, colouring it entirely, which gave considerable
satisfaction. Having afterwards agreed upon the price with the
wardens, he completed the entire front of the high altar,
representing Lucifer establishing his seat in the north, and the fall
of the angels who change into devils as they rain upon the earth. In
the air is St Michael fighting with the serpent of seven heads and
ten horns, and in the middle of the lower part is Lucifer already
changed into a hideous monster. It gave Spinello so much satisfaction
to make him horrible and distorted that it is said (so great is the
power of imagination) that the figure in the picture appeared to him
in a dream, and demanded when the artist had seen him so ugly, asking
why he did him so great an indignity with his brush. Spinello awoke
from his dream speechless from fear, and shook so violently that his
wife hastened to assist him. Yet he ran considerable risk of dying
suddenly, through the failure of the heart, owing to this misfortune,
and it caused his death a short while afterwards, until when he lived
in an utterly dispirited manner with wide open eyes. He died greatly
lamented by his friends, and left the world two sons--one called
Forzore was a goldsmith, who did some admirable work in _niello_ in
Florence; the other, Parri, who followed his father and pursued the
art of painting, far surpassing Spinello in design. The Aretines were
much grieved at this sad chance, although Spinello was old, at being
deprived of ability and excellence such as his. He died at the age of
ninety-two, and was buried in S. Agostino at Arezzo, where there is a
stone with a coat of arms made after a fancy of his own, containing a
hedgehog. Spinello was far better able to design than to put his
thoughts into practice, as our book of designs shows, which contains
two Evangelists and a St Louis by his hand, all very fine. His
portrait given above was taken by me from one which was in the old
Duomo before it was pulled down. His paintings were executed between
the years 1380 and 1400.
Gherardo Stamina, Painter of Florence.
Certainly those who travel far from home to dwell in other parts very
frequently do so to the advantage of their temperament, for by seeing
divers customs abroad, even if they be of rather an extraordinary
nature, they learn to be reasonable, kind and patient with
considerably greater ease than they would have done had they remained
at home. Indeed those who desire to refine men in their worldly
conversation need no other fire and no better cement than this,
because those who are naturally rough become gentle, and the gentle
become even more gracious. Gherardo di Jacopo Stamina, painter of
Florence, though rather hasty than good-natured, being very hard and
rough in his dealings, did more harm by this to himself than to his
friends, and it would have been even worse for him had he not
remained a long time in Spain, where he learned to be gentle and
courteous, for he there became so changed from his former nature that
when he returned to Florence a very large number of those who had
mortally hated him before his departure, received him with very great
friendliness and continued to cherish a great affection for him, so
gentle and courteous had he become. Gherardo was born in Florence in
the year 1354, and as he grew up and was naturally bent to the art of
designing, he was put with Antonio da Vinezia to learn to design and
to paint. In the space of many years he not only learned the art and
practice of colours, but had shown his ability by some things
produced in a good style; accordingly he left Antonio and began to
work on his own account. In the chapel of the Castellani at S. Croce,
which was given to him to paint by Michaele di Vanno, an honoured
citizen of that family, he did in fresco many stories of St Anthony
the abbot and of St Nicholas the bishop, in such a good style that
they attracted the attention of certain Spaniards then staying in
Florence on business, and ultimately led to his being invited to
Spain to their king, who saw and received him very gladly, there
being at that time a great lack of good painters in that country. Nor
was it a difficult matter to induce Gherardo to leave his country,
for as he had had hard words with some men after the affair of the
Ciompi and the appointment of Michele di Lando as gonfaloniere, he
was in considerable danger of his life. Accordingly he went to Spain
and did many things for the king there, and became rich and honoured
by the great rewards which he earned for his labours. At length
becoming desirous of showing himself to his friends in his improved
estate, he returned home and was warmly welcomed and received in a
very friendly manner by all his fellow-citizens. It was not long
before he was employed to paint the chapel of St Jerome in the
Carmine, where he did many stories of that saint, and in the story of
Paul, Eustace and Jerome he represented some of the Spanish habits of
the day with very happy invention and an abundance of fashions and
ideas in the attitudes of the figures. Among other things, in a scene
where St Jerome is receiving his earliest instruction, he represented
a master who has caused one boy to mount upon the back of another and
strikes him with the whip in such a manner that the poor child is
twisting his legs with pain and appears to be crying out and trying
to bite the ear of the boy who is holding him. The whole is executed
with much grace and lightness, and Gherardo appears to have delighted
in these touches of nature. In like manner, when St Jerome, being at
the point of death, is making his will, he has hit off some friars in
a delightful and realistic manner, for some are writing, others
listening attentively and looking about, observing all the words of
their master with great earnestness. This work won Stamina much fame
and a high rank among artists, and his courteous and mild manners
gave him a great reputation, so that his name was famous throughout
Tuscany and indeed in all Italy. Being at this time invited to Pisa to
paint the chapter-house of S. Niccola in that city, he sent in his
place Antonio Vite of Pistoia, because he did not wish to leave
Florence. Antonio, who had learned Stamina's style under him, did the
Passion of Jesus Christ there, completing it in its present form in
the year 1403, to the great delight of the Pisans. Afterwards, it is
said, he finished the chapel of the Pugliesi; and as the works which
he did there at S. Girolamo greatly pleased the Florentines, because
he had expressed in a lively manner many gestures and attitudes which
had not been attempted by any painters before his time, the Commune
of Florence in the year that Gabriel Maria, lord of Pisa, sold that
city to the Florentines for 200,000 scudi (after Giovanni Gambacorta
had stood a siege of thirteen months, although even he at length
agreed to the sale), employed Stamina to paint on a wall of the
Palazzo di parte Guelfa, St Denis the bishop, with two angels, and
below it an accurate representation of the city of Pisa. In the
execution of this he displayed such diligence in every detail,
especially in the colouring in fresco, that notwithstanding the
action of air and water and a northern aspect, the picture has always
remained in excellent condition, and even now it has all the
appearance of having been newly painted, an achievement worthy of
high praise. Gherardo having by this and other works acquired a great
reputation and much renown both at home and abroad, death, the
envious enemy of virtuous deeds, cut off at the height of his powers
the great promise of much better things than the world had yet seen
from him; and having come to his end unexpectedly in the forty-ninth
year of his age, he was buried with much pomp in the church of S.
Jacopo sopra Arno.
The pupils of Gherardo were Masolino da Panicale, who was at first an
excellent goldsmith and then a painter, and some others whom it is
not necessary to mention, as they did not possess any remarkable
talent.
The portrait of Gherardo occurs in the story of St Jerome, mentioned
above; he is one of the figures who are standing about the dying
saint, represented in profile with a hood about his head and a mantle
buttoned about him. In our book are some designs of Gherardo done
with the pen on parchment, which are of considerable excellence.
Lippo, Painter of Florence.
Invention has been, and always will be considered the true mother of
architecture, painting and poetry, as well as of all the superior
arts and of all the marvels produced by man. By its aid artists
develop their ideas, caprices and fancies, and are able to display
more variety, for all those who work at these honourable professions
always seek after a laudable diversity, and possess the power of
delicate flattery and of tactful criticism. Lippo, then, painter of
Florence, who was as varied and choice in his inventions as his works
were really unfortunate and his life short, was born at Florence
about the year of grace 1354; and although he took up the art of
painting somewhat late, when he was already a man, yet he was so far
assisted by natural inclination and by his fine talents that he soon
distinguished himself brilliantly. He first painted in Florence and
in S. Benedetto, a large and fine monastery outside the gate of the
Pinti belonging to the Camaldoline order, now destroyed; he did a
number a figures which were considered very beautiful, particularly
the whole of a chapel, which affords an example of how close study
quickly leads to great performances in anyone who honestly takes
pains with the desire for fame. Being invited to Arezzo from
Florence, he did for the chapel of the Magi in the church of S.
Antonio a large scene in fresco in which they are adoring Christ;
and in the Vescovado he did the chapel of St James and St Christopher
for the family of the Ubertini. All these things were very fine, for
the invention displayed in the composition of scenes and in the
colouring. He was the first who began, as it were, to play with his
figures, and to awaken the minds of those who came after him, a thing
which had never been done before, only attempted. After he had done
many things in Bologna and a meritorious picture at Pistoia, he
returned to Florence, where he painted the chapel of the Beccuti in
S. Maria Maggiore in the year 1383 with scenes from the life of St
John the evangelist. Following on from this chapel, which is beside
the principal one, on the left hand, six scenes from the life of
this saint are represented along the wall, by the same hand. Their
composition is excellent and they are well arranged, one scene in
particular being very vivid, namely, that in which St John causes St
Dionisius the Areopagite to put his vest on some dead men, who come
to life again in the name of Jesus Christ, to the great wonderment of
some who are present who can hardly believe their own eyes. The
foreshortening of some of the dead figures shows great art and proves
that Lippo was conscious of some of the difficulties of his
profession and endeavoured to some extent to overcome them. It was
Lippo also who painted the wings of the tabernacle of the church of
S. Giovanni, where are Andrea's angels and his St John, in relief,
doing some stories of St John the Baptist in tempera, with great
diligence. Being very fond of working in mosaic, he did some in that
church over the door leading towards the Misericordia, between the
windows, which was considered very beautiful and the best work in
mosaic produced in that place with them. In the same church he
further repaired some mosaics which had been damaged. Outside
Florence, in S. Giovanni fra l'Arcora, without the gate leading to
Faenza, he painted a number of figures in fresco beside Buffalmacco's
Crucifixion, which was considered very beautiful by all who saw them.
In certain small hospitals near the Fænza gate and in S. Antonio
inside that gate near the hospital, he did some poor men, in fresco,
in some varied styles and attitudes, very beautifully executed, and
in the cloister within he made, with beautiful and new invention, the
vision of St Anthony of the deceits of the world, and next to that
the desires and appetites of men, who are drawn hither and thither to
divers things of this world, the whole of the work being executed
with much consideration and judgment. Lippo also did mosaic work in
many places of Italy, and in the Guelph quarter at Florence he made a
figure with a glass head, while Pisa contains a number of his
productions. Yet in spite of all this he must be considered a really
unfortunate man, since at the present time the greater part of his
works have disappeared, having been destroyed in the siege of
Florence, and also because his career was terminated in a very tragic
manner; for being a quarrelsome man and liking turmoil belter than
quiet, he happened one morning to say some very insulting words to an
opponent at the tribunal of the Mercanzia, and that evening as he was
returning home, he was dogged by this man and stabbed in the breast
with a knife, so that in a few days he perished miserably. His
paintings were produced about 1410. There flourished at Bologna in
Lippo's time another painter whose name was also Lippo Dalmasi, who
was a worthy man, and among other things he painted a Madonna in the
year 1407, which may still be seen in S. Petronio at Bologna and
which is held in great veneration. He also painted in fresco the
tympanum above the door of S. Procolo, and in the church of S.
Francesco in the tribune of the high altar, he made a large Christ,
half length, and a St Peter and a St Paul, in a very graceful style.
Under these works may be seen his name written in large letters. He
also designed very fairly, as may be seen in our book, and he
afterwards taught the art to M. Galante da Bologna, who afterwards
designed much better than he, as may be seen in the same book in a
portrait of a figure dressed in a short coat with wide open sleeves.
Don Lorenzo, Monk of the Angeli of Florence, Painter.
I believe that it is a great joy to a good and religious person to
find some honourable employment for their hands whether it be
letters, music, painting or other liberal and mechanical arts which
involve no reproach but are on the contrary useful and helpful to
other men, for after the divine offices the time may be passed with
the pleasure taken in the easy labours of peaceful exercises. To
these advantages we may add that not only is such a monk esteemed and
valued by others during his life-time, except by such as are envious
and malignant, but he is honoured by all men after his death, for his
works and the good name which he has left behind him. Indeed whoever
spends his time in this manner, lives in quiet contemplation without
any danger from those ambitious stirrings which are almost always to
be seen among the idle and slothful, who are usually ignorant, to
their shame and hurt. If it should happen that a man of ability
acting thus is slandered by the malicious, the power of virtue is
such that time will reestablish his reputation and bury the malignity
of the evil disposed, while the man of ability will remain
distinguished and illustrious in the centuries which succeed. Thus
Don Lorenzo, painter of Florence, being a monk of the order of the
Camaldolines in the monastery of the Angeli (founded in 1294 by Fra
Giuttone of Arezzo of the order of the Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ,
or of the Rejoicing friars as the monks of that order were commonly
called), devoted so much time in his early years to design and to
painting, that he was afterwards deservedly numbered among the best
men of his age in that profession. The first works of this painter
monk, who adopted the style of Taddeo Gaddi and his school, were in
the monastery of the Angeli, where besides many of the things he
painted the high altar picture, which may still be seen in their
church. When completed it was placed there in the year 1413 as may be
seen by the letters written at the bottom of the frame. He also
painted a picture for the monastery of S. Benedetto of the same order
of the Camaldoli, outside the Pinti gate, destroyed at the siege of
Florence in 1529. It represented the Coronation of Our Lady and
resembled the one he had previously done for the church of the
Angeli. It is now in the first cloister of the monastery of the
Angeli, on the right hand side in the chapel of the Alberti. At the
same time, and possibly before, he painted in fresco the chapel and
altar picture of the Ardinghelli in S. Trinita, Florence, which was
then much admired, and into this he introduced portraits of Dante and
Petrarch. In S. Piero Maggiore he painted the chapel of the
Fioravanti and in a chapel of S. Piero Scheraggio he did the altar
picture, while in the church of S. Trinita he further painted the
chapel of the Bartolini. In S. Jacopo sopra Arno a picture by his
hand may still be seen, executed with infinite diligence, after the
manner of the time. Also in the Certosa outside Florence he painted
some things with considerable skill, and in S. Michele at Pisa, a
monastery of his own order, he did some very fair pictures. In
Florence, in the church of the Romiti (Hermits), which also belonged
to the Camaldolines, and which is now in ruins as well as the
monastery, leaving nothing but its name Camaldoli to that part beyond
the Arno, he did a crucifix on a panel, besides many other things,
and a St John, which were considered very beautiful. At last he fell
sick of a cruel abscess, and after lingering for many months he died
at the age of fifty-five, and was honourably buried by the monks in
the chapter-house of their monastery as his virtues demanded.
Experience shows that in the course of time many shoots frequently
spring from a single germ owing to the diligence and ability of men,
and so it was in the monastery of the Angeli, where the monks had
always paid considerable attention to painting and design. Don
Lorenzo was not the only excellent artist among them, but men
distinguished in design flourished there for a long time both before
and after him. Thus I cannot possibly pass over in silence one Don
Jacopo of Florence, who flourished a long time before D. Lorenzo,
because as he was the best and most methodical of monks, so he was
the best writer of large letters who has ever existed before or
since, not only in Tuscany but in all Europe, as is clearly testified
not only by the twenty large choir books which he left in his
monastery, the writing in which is most beautiful, the books
themselves being perhaps the largest in Italy, but an endless number
of other books which may still be found in Rome and in Venice and
many other places, notably in S. Michele and S. Mania at Murano, a
monastery of the Camaldoline order. By these works the good father
has richly deserved the honours accorded to him many years after he
had passed to a better life, his celebration in many Latin verses by
D. Paolo Orlandini, a very learned monk of the same monastery, as
well as the preservation of the right hand which wrote the books,
with great veneration in a tabernacle, together with that of another
monk, D. Silvestro, who illuminated the same books with no less
excellence, when the conditions of the time are taken into
consideration, than D. Jacopo had written them. I, who have seen them
many times, am lost in astonishment that they should have been
executed with such good design and with so much diligence at that
time, when all the arts of design were little better than lost, since
the works of these monks were executed about the year of grace 1350,
or a little before or after, as may be seen in each of the said
books. It is reported, and some old men relate that when Pope Leo X.
came to Florence he wished to see and closely examine these books,
since he remembered having heard them highly praised by the
Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici, his father; and that after he had
attentively looked through them and admired them as they were all
lying open on the choir-desks, he said, "If they were in accordance
with the rules of the Roman Church and not of the Camaldolines, I
should like some specimens for S. Peter's at Rome, for which I would
pay the monks a just price." There were, and perhaps still are, two
very fine ones at S. Peter's by the same monks. In the same monastery
of the Angeli is a quantity of very ancient embroidery, done in a
very fine style, with excellent designs by the fathers of the house
while they were in perpetual seclusion, with the title not of monks
but of hermits, and who never came out of the monastery as the nuns
and monks do in our day. This practice of seclusion lasted until
1470. But to return to D. Lorenzo. He taught Francesco Fiorentino,
who, after his death, did the tabernacle which is on the side of S.
Maria Novella at the head of the via della Scala leading to the
Pope's chamber. He also had another pupil, a Pisan, who painted in
the chapel of Rutilio di Ser Baccio Maggiolini, in the church of S.
Francesco at Pisa, Our Lady, a St Peter, St John the Baptist, St
Francis and St Ranieri, with three scenes of small figures in the
predella of the altar. This painting, executed in 1315, was
considered meritorious for a work done in tempera. In our book of
designs I have the theological virtues done by D. Lorenzo's hand in
chiaroscuro, with good design and a beautiful and graceful style, so
that they are perhaps better than the designs of any other master of
the time. Antonio Vite of Pistoia was a meritorious painter in
Lorenzo's time, and is said to have painted, among many other things
described in the life of Stamina, in the palace of the Geppo of
Prato, the life of Francesco di Marco, who was the founder of that
pious place.
Taddeo Bartoli, Painter of Siena.