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LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO
VASARI:
VOLUME VII. TRIBOLO TO IL SODOMA 1914
NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES
[Illustration: 1511-1574]
PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LIMITED 7 GRAFTON
ST. LONDON, W. 1912-14
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII
PAGE
NICCOLO, CALLED TRIBOLO 1
PIERINO [PIERO] DA VINCI 39
BACCIO BANDINELLI 53
GIULIANO BUGIARDINI 105
CRISTOFANO GHERARDI, CALLED DOCENO 115
JACOPO DA PONTORMO 145
SIMONE MOSCA 183
GIROLAMO AND BARTOLOMMEO GENGA, AND GIOVAN BATTISTA SAN
MARINO 197
MICHELE SAN MICHELE 215
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI, CALLED IL SODOMA 243
INDEX OF NAMES 259
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME VII
PLATES IN COLOUR
FACING PAGE
GIULIANO BUGIARDINI
Portrait of a Lady
Florence: Pitti, 140 106
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
Portrait of an Engraver
Paris: Louvre, 1241 174
PAOLO VERONESE (PAOLINO _or_ CALIARI)
Industry
Venice: Doges' Palace, Sala Anticollegio 216
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
The Vision of S. Catharine
Siena: S. Domenico 244
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
NICCOLO (TRIBOLO)
The Hercules Fountain
Florence: Villa Reale di Castello 24
NICCOLO (TRIBOLO)
The Assumption of the Virgin
Bologna: S. Petronio [1]
[Footnote 1: Illustrated with _Two Angels_, by Madonna
Properzia de' Rossi, vol. v., p. 126.]
PIERINO (PIERO) DA VINCI
Ugolino della Gherardesca and his Sons in the Tower of Famine
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum 48
BACCIO BANDINELLI
The Martyrdom of S. Lorenzo
Hereford: W. J. Davies' Collection 64
BACCIO BANDINELLI
Statue of Hercules and Cacus
Florence: Piazza della Signoria 72
BACCIO BANDINELLI
Statue of Giovanni delle Bande Nere
Florence: Piazza di S. Lorenzo 80
BACCIO BANDINELLI
Reliefs from the Choir Screen
Florence: Duomo 88
GIULIANO BUGIARDINI
The Martyrdom of S. Catharine
Florence: S. Maria Novella, Rucellai Chapel 110
GIORGIO VASARI and CRISTOFANO GHERARDI (DOCENO)
Detail: The Supper of S. Gregory the Great
Bologna: Accademia, 198 122
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
The Adoration of the Magi
Siena: S. Agostino 146
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
Duke Cosimo I. de' Medici
Florence: Uffizi, 1270 152
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
The Visitation
Florence: SS. Annunziata, Cloister 154
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
Joseph and his Kindred in Egypt
London: N. G., 1131 158
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
Detail: Vertumnus Fresco
Poggio a Caiano: Villa Reale 160
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
Detail: Vertumnus Fresco
Poggio a Caiano: Villa Reale 162
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
The Descent From the Cross
Florence: S. Felicita 168
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
The Martyrdom of the Forty Saints
Florence: Pitti, 182 170
SIMONE MOSCA and MICHELE SAN MICHELE
The Altar of the Three Kings
Orvieto: Duomo 190
SIMONE MOSCA
The Salutation
Orvieto: Duomo 192
GIROLAMO GENGA
Madonna and Child with Saints
Milan: Brera, 202 200
MICHELE SAN MICHELE
Porta del Palio
Verona 222
MICHELE SAN MICHELE
Cappella de' Pellegrini
Verona: S. Bernardino 224
MICHELE SAN MICHELE
_See also at p. 190 above_
Palazzo Grimani
Venice 230
PAOLO VERONESE (PAOLINO _or_ CALIARI)
The Feast in the House of Levi
Venice: Accademia, 203 238
PAOLO VERONESE (PAOLINO _or_ CALIARI)
Venice Enthroned, with Justice and Peace
Venice: Ducal Palace 240
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
Scene from the Life of S. Benedict
Monte Oliveto Maggiore 246
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
Scene from the Life of S. Benedict
Monte Oliveto Maggiore 246
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
Detail: the Marriage of Alexander and Roxana
Rome: Villa Farnesina 248
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
S. Sebastian
Florence: Uffizi, 1279 250
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
S. Ansano
Siena: Palazzo Pubblico 252
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
S. Francis
Siena: S. Bernardino, Oratory 252
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
The Adoration of the Magi
Siena: S. Agostino 254
GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI (IL SODOMA)
The Sacrifice of Isaac
Pisa: Duomo 256
NICCOLO, CALLED TRIBOLO
LIFE OF NICCOLO, CALLED TRIBOLO
SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT
Raffaello the carpenter, surnamed Il Riccio de' Pericoli, who lived
near the Canto a Monteloro in Florence, had born to him in the year
1500, as he used to tell me himself, a male child, whom he was pleased
to call at baptism, like his own father, Niccolo; and having perceived
that the boy had a quick and ready intelligence and a lofty spirit, he
determined, although he was but a poor artisan, that he should begin
straightway by learning to read and write well and cast accounts.
Sending him to school, therefore, it came about, since the child was
very vivacious and so high-spirited in his every action, that he was
always cramped for room and was a very devil both among the other boys
at school and everywhere else, always teasing and tormenting both
himself and others, that he lost his own name of Niccolo and acquired
that of Tribolo[2] to such purpose, that he was called that ever
afterwards by everyone.
[Footnote 2: Teasel.]
Now, Tribolo growing, his father, in order both to make use of him and
to curb the boy's exuberance, took him into his workshop and taught
him his own trade; but having seen in a few months that he was ill
suited for such a calling, being somewhat delicate, thin, and feeble
in health, he came to the conclusion that if he wished to keep him
alive, he must release him from the heavier labours of his craft and
set him to wood-carving. Having heard that without design, the father
of all the arts, the boy could not become an excellent master therein,
Raffaello resolved that he should begin by devoting all his time to
design, and therefore made him draw now cornices, foliage, and
grotesques, and now other things necessary to such a profession. And
having seen that in doing this the boy was well served both by his
head and by his hand, and reflecting, like a man of judgment, that
with him Niccolo could at best learn nothing else but to work by the
square, Raffaello first spoke of this with the carpenter Ciappino, who
was the very familiar friend of Nanni Unghero; and with his advice and
assistance, he placed Niccolo for three years with the said Nanni, in
whose workshop, where both joiner's work and carving were done, there
were constantly to be found the sculptor Jacopo Sansovino, the painter
Andrea del Sarto, and others, who afterwards became such able masters.
Now Nanni, who had in those days a passing good reputation for
excellence, was executing many works both in joinery and in carving
for the villa of Zanobi Bartolini at Rovezzano, without the Porta alla
Croce, for the palace of the Bartolini, which Giovanni, the brother of
that Zanobi, was having built at that time on the Piazza di S.
Trinita, and for the house and garden of the same man in Gualfonda;
and Tribolo, who was made to work by Nanni without discretion, always
having to handle saws, planes, and other common tools, and not being
capable, by reason of the feebleness of his body, of such exertions,
began to feel dissatisfied and to say to Riccio, when he asked for the
cause of his discontent, that he did not think that he could remain
with Nanni in that craft, and that therefore Raffaello should see to
placing him with Andrea del Sarto or Jacopo Sansovino, whom he had
come to know in Unghero's workshop, for the reason that with one or
the other of them he hoped to do better and to be sounder in health.
Moved by these reasons, then, and again with the advice and assistance
of Ciappino, Riccio placed Tribolo with Jacopo Sansovino, who took him
willingly, because he had known him in the workshop of Nanni Unghero,
and had seen that he worked well in design and even better in relief.
Jacopo Sansovino, when Tribolo, now restored to health, went to work
under him, was executing in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore,
in competition with Benedetto da Rovezzano, Andrea da Fiesole, and
Baccio Bandinelli, the marble statue of S. James the Apostle which is
still to be seen at the present day at that place together with the
others. And thus Tribolo, with these opportunities of learning, by
working in clay and drawing with great diligence, contrived to make
such proficience in that art, for which he felt a natural inclination,
that Jacopo, growing to love him more and more every day, began to
encourage him and to bring him forward by making him execute now one
thing and now another. Whereupon, although Sansovino had in his
workshop at that time Solosmeo da Settignano and Pippo del Fabro,
young men of great promise, seeing that Tribolo, having added skill in
the use of chisels to his good knowledge of working in clay and in
wax, not only equalled them but surpassed them by a great measure, he
began to make much use of him in his works. And after finishing the
Apostle and a Bacchus that he made for the house of Giovanni Bartolini
in Gualfonda, and undertaking to make for M. Giovanni Gaddi, his
intimate friend, a chimney-piece and a water-basin of hard sandstone
for his house on the Piazza di Madonna, he caused some large figures
of boys in clay, which were to go above the great cornice, to be made
by Tribolo, who executed them so extraordinarily well, that M.
Giovanni, having seen the beautiful manner and the genius of the young
man, commissioned him to execute two medallions of marble, which,
finished with great excellence, were afterwards placed over certain
doors in the same house.
Meanwhile there was a commission to be given for a tomb, a work of great
magnitude, for the King of Portugal; and since Jacopo had been the
disciple of Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino, and had the reputation
not only of having equalled his master, a man of great renown, but of
having a manner even more beautiful, that work, through the good offices
of the Bartolini, was allotted to him. Whereupon Jacopo made a most
superb model of wood, all covered with scenes and figures of wax, which
were executed for the most part by Tribolo; and these proving to be very
beautiful, the young man's fame so increased that Matteo di Lorenzo
Strozzi--Tribolo having now left Sansovino, thinking that he was by that
time able to work by himself--commissioned him to make some children of
stone, and shortly afterwards, being much pleased with them, two of
marble that are holding a dolphin which pours water into a fish-pond, a
work that is now to be seen at San Casciano, a place eight miles distant
from Florence, in the villa of that M. Matteo.
While these works were being executed by Tribolo in Florence, M.
Bartolommeo Barbazzi, a Bolognese gentleman who had gone there on some
business, remembered that a search was being made in Bologna for a
young man who could work well, to the end that he might be set to
making figures and scenes of marble for the facade of S. Petronio, the
principal church of that city. Wherefore he spoke to Tribolo, and
having seen some of his works, which pleased him, as also did the
young man's ways and other qualities, he took him to Bologna, where
Tribolo, with great diligence and with much credit to himself, in a
short time made the two Sibyls of marble that were afterwards placed
in the ornament of that door of S. Petronio which leads to the Della
Morte Hospital. These works finished, arrangements were being made to
give him greater things to do, and he was receiving many proofs of
love and affection from M. Bartolommeo, when the plague of the year
1525 began in Bologna and throughout all Lombardy; whereupon Tribolo,
in order to avoid that plague, made his way to Florence. After living
there during all the time that this contagious and pestilential
sickness lasted, he departed as soon as it had ceased, and returned,
in obedience to a summons, to Bologna, where M. Bartolommeo, not
allowing him to set his hand to any work for the facade, resolved,
seeing that many of his friends and relatives had died, to have a tomb
made for himself and for them. And so Tribolo, after finishing the
model, which M. Bartolommeo insisted on seeing completed before he did
anything else, went in person to Carrara to have the marbles
excavated, intending to rough-hew them on the spot and to lighten them
in such a manner, that they might not only be easier to transport, as
indeed they were, but also that the figures might come out larger. In
that place, in order not to waste his time, he blocked out two large
children of marble, which were taken to Bologna with beasts of burden,
unfinished as they were, together with the rest of the work; and after
the death of M. Bartolommeo, which caused such grief to Tribolo that
he returned to Tuscany, they were placed, with the other marbles, in
a chapel in S. Petronio, where they still are.
Having thus departed from Carrara, Tribolo, on his way back to
Florence, stayed in Pisa to visit the sculptor Maestro Stagio da
Pietrasanta, his very dear friend, who was executing in the Office of
Works of the Duomo in that city two columns with capitals of marble
all in open work, which were to stand one on either side of the
high-altar and the Tabernacle of the Sacrament; and each of these was
to have upon the capital an Angel of marble one braccio and three
quarters in height, with a candelabrum in the hand. At the invitation
of the said Stagio, having nothing else to do at that time, he
undertook to make one of those Angels: which being finished with all
the perfection that could be given to a delicate work of that size in
marble, proved to be such that nothing more could have been desired,
for the reason that the Angel, with the movement of his person, has
the appearance of having stayed his flight in order to uphold that
light, and the nude form has about it some delicate draperies which
are so graceful in their effect, and look so well on every side and
from every point of view, that words could not express their beauty.
But, having consumed much time in executing this work, since he cared
for nothing but his delight in art, and not having received for it
from the Warden the payment that he expected, he resolved that he
would not make the other Angel, and returned to Florence. There he met
with Giovan Battista della Palla, who at that time was not only
causing all the sculptures and pictures that he could to be executed
for sending to King Francis I in France, but was also buying antiques
of all sorts and pictures of every kind, provided only that they were
by the hands of good masters; and every day he was packing them up and
sending them off. Now, at the very moment when Tribolo returned,
Giovan Battista had an ancient vase of granite, of a very beautiful
shape, which he wished to arrange in such a manner that it might serve
for a fountain for that King. He therefore declared his mind to
Tribolo, and what he proposed to have done; and he, setting to work,
made him a Goddess of Nature, who, raising one arm, holds that vase,
the foot of which she has upon her head, with the hands, the first row
of breasts being adorned with some boys standing out entirely detached
from the marble, who are in various most beautiful attitudes, holding
certain festoons in their hands, while the next range of breasts is
covered with quadrupeds, and at her feet are many different kinds of
fishes. That figure was finished with such diligence and such
perfection, that it well deserved, after being sent to France together
with other works, to be held very dear by the King, and to be placed,
as a rare thing, in Fontainebleau.
Afterwards, in the year 1529, when preparations were being made for
the war against Florence and the siege, Pope Clement VII, wishing to
study the exact site of the city and to consider in what manner and in
what places his forces could be distributed to the best advantage,
ordained that a plan of the city should be made secretly, with all the
country for a mile around it--the hills, mountains, rivers, rocks,
houses, churches, and other things, and also the squares and streets
within, together with the walls and bastions surrounding it, and the
other defences. The charge of all this was given to Benvenuto di
Lorenzo della Volpaia, an able maker of clocks and quadrants and a
very fine astrologer, but above all a most excellent master in taking
ground-plans. This Benvenuto chose Tribolo as his companion, and that
with great judgment, for the reason that it was Tribolo who suggested
that this plan, for the better consideration of the height of the
mountains, the depth of the low-lying parts, and all other
particulars, should be made in relief; the doing of which was not
without much labour and danger, in that, staying out all night to
measure the roads and to mark the number of braccia between one place
and another, and also to measure the height of the summits of the
belfries and towers, drawing intersecting lines in every direction by
means of the compass, and going beyond the walls to compare the height
of the hills with that of the cupola, which they had marked as their
centre, they did not execute such a work save after many months; but
they used great diligence, for they made it of cork, for the sake of
lightness, and limited the whole plan to the space of four braccia,
and measured everything to scale. Having then been finished in this
manner, and being made in pieces, that plan was packed up secretly and
smuggled out of Florence in some bales of wool that were going to
Perugia, being consigned to one who had orders to send it to the
Pope, who made use of it continually during the siege of Florence,
keeping it in his chamber, and seeing from one day to another, from
letters and despatches, where and how the army was quartered, where
skirmishes took place, and, in short, all the incidents, arguments,
and discussions that occurred during that siege; all greatly to his
satisfaction, for it was in truth a rare and marvellous work.
The war finished--during the progress of which Tribolo executed some
works in clay for his friends, and for Andrea del Sarto, his dearest
friend, three figures of wax in the round, of which Andrea availed
himself in painting in fresco, on the Piazza, near the Condotta,
portraits from nature of three captains who had fled with the
pay-chests, depicted as hanging by one foot--Benvenuto, summoned by
the Pope, went to Rome to kiss the feet of his Holiness, and was
placed by him in charge of the Belvedere, with an honourable salary.
In that office, having often conversations with the Pope, Benvenuto,
when the occasion arose, did not fail to extol Tribolo as an excellent
sculptor and to recommend him warmly; insomuch that, the siege
finished, Clement made use of him. For, designing to give completion
to the Chapel of Our Lady at Loreto, which had been begun by Leo and
then abandoned on account of the death of Andrea Contucci of Monte
Sansovino, he ordained that Antonio da San Gallo, who had the charge
of executing that fabric, should summon Tribolo and set him to
complete some of those scenes that Maestro Andrea had left unfinished.
Tribolo, then, thus summoned by San Gallo by order of Clement, went
with all his family to Loreto, whither there likewise went Simone,
called Mosca, a very rare carver of marble, Raffaello da Montelupo,
Francesco da San Gallo the younger, Girolamo Ferrarese the sculptor, a
disciple of Maestro Andrea, Simone Cioli, Ranieri da Pietrasanta, and
Francesco del Tadda, all invited in order to finish that work. And to
Tribolo, in the distribution of the labours, there fell, as the work
of the greatest importance, a scene in which Maestro Andrea had
represented the Marriage of Our Lady.
Thereupon Tribolo made an addition to that scene, and had the notion
of placing among the many figures that are standing watching the
Marriage of the Virgin, one who in great fury is breaking his rod,
because it had not blossomed; and in this he succeeded so well, that
the suitor could not display with greater animation the rage that he
feels at not having had the good fortune that he desired. Which work
finished, and also that of the others, with great perfection, Tribolo
had already made many models of wax with a view to executing some of
those Prophets that were to go in the niches of that chapel, which was
now built and completely finished, when Pope Clement, after seeing
those works and praising them much, and particularly that of Tribolo,
determined that they should all return without loss of time to
Florence, in order to finish under the discipline of Michelagnolo
Buonarroti all those figures that were wanting in the sacristy and
library of S. Lorenzo, and the rest of the work, after the models of
Michelagnolo and with his assistance, with the greatest possible
speed, to the end that, having finished the sacristy, they might all
together be able, thanks to the proficience made under the discipline
of so great a man, also to finish the facade of S. Lorenzo. And in
order that there might be no manner of delay in doing this, the Pope
sent Michelagnolo back to Florence, and with him Fra Giovanni Angelo
de' Servi, who had executed some works in the Belvedere, to the end
that he might assist him in carving the marbles and might make some
statues, according as he should receive orders from Michelagnolo, who
caused him to make a S. Cosimo, which was to stand on one side of the
Madonna, with a S. Damiano, allotted to Montelupo, on the other.
These commissions given, Michelagnolo desired that Tribolo should make
two nude statues, which were to be one on either side of that of Duke
Giuliano, which he himself had already made; one was to be a figure of
Earth crowned with cypress, weeping with bowed head and with the arms
outstretched, and lamenting the death of Duke Giuliano, and the other
a figure of Heaven with the arms uplifted, all smiling and joyful, and
showing her gladness at the adornment and splendour that the soul and
spirit of that lord conferred upon her. But Tribolo's evil fortune
crossed him at the very moment when he was about to begin to work on
the statue of Earth; for, whether it was the change of air, or his
feeble constitution, or because he had been irregular in his way of
living, he fell ill of a grievous sickness, which, ending in a
quartan fever, hung about him many months, to his infinite vexation,
since he was tormented no less by his grief at having had to abandon
the work, and at seeing that the friar and Raffaello had taken
possession of the field, than by the illness itself. However, wishing
to conquer that illness, in order not to be left behind by his rivals,
whose name he heard celebrated more and more every day, feeble as he
was, he made a large model of clay for the statue of Earth, and, when
he had finished it, began to execute the work in marble, with such
diligence and assiduity, that the statue could be seen already all cut
out in front, when Fortune, who is always ready to oppose herself to
any fair beginning, by the death of Clement at a moment when nothing
seemed less likely, cut short the aspirations of all those excellent
masters who were hoping to acquire under Michelagnolo, besides
boundless profits, immortal renown and everlasting fame.
Stupefied by this misfortune and robbed of all his spirit, and being
also ill, Tribolo was living in utter despair, seeming not to be able
either in Florence or abroad to hit upon anything that might be to his
advantage; but Giorgio Vasari, who was always his friend and loved him
from his heart, and helped him all that he could, consoled him, saying
that he should not lose heart, because he would so contrive that Duke
Alessandro would give him something to do, by means of the favour of
the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, into whose service Giorgio had
introduced him on terms of no little intimacy. Wherefore Tribolo,
having regained a little courage, occupied himself, while measures
were being taken to assist him, with copying in clay all the figures
of marble in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo which Michelagnolo had
executed--namely, Dawn, Twilight, Day, and Night. And he succeeded in
doing them so well, that M. Giovan Battista Figiovanni, the Prior of
S. Lorenzo, to whom he presented the Night in return for having the
sacristy opened for him, judging it to be a rare work, presented it to
Duke Alessandro, who afterwards gave it to Giorgio Vasari, who was
living with his Excellency, knowing that Giorgio gave his attention to
such studies; which figure is now in his house at Arezzo, with other
works of art. Having afterwards copied, likewise in clay, the Madonna
made by Michelagnolo for the same sacristy, Tribolo presented it to
the above-named M. Ottaviano de' Medici, who had a most beautiful
ornament in squared work made for it by Battista del Cinque, with
columns, cornices, brackets, and other carvings very well executed.
Meanwhile, by the favour of him who was Treasurer to his Excellency,
and at the commission of Bertoldo Corsini, the proveditor for the
fortress which was being built at that time, out of three escutcheons
that were to be made by order of the Duke for placing on the bastions,
one on each, one four braccia in height was given to Tribolo to
execute, with two nude figures representing Victories; which
escutcheon, finished by him with great diligence and promptitude, with
the addition of three great masks that support the escutcheon and the
figures, so pleased the Duke, that he conceived a very great love for
Tribolo. Now shortly afterwards the Duke went to Naples to defend
himself before the Emperor Charles V, who had just returned from
Tunis, against many calumnies that had been laid upon him by some of
his citizens; and, having not only defended himself, but also obtained
from his Majesty his daughter Signora Margherita of Austria for wife,
he wrote to Florence that four men should be appointed who might cause
vast and splendid decorations to be prepared throughout the city, in
order to receive the Emperor, who was coming to Florence, with proper
magnificence. And I, having to distribute the various works at the
commission of his Excellency--who ordained that I should act in
company with the said four men, who were Giovanni Corsi, Luigi
Guicciardini, Palla Rucellai, and Alessandro Corsini--gave the
greatest and most difficult labours for that festival to Tribolo to
execute, which were four large statues. The first was a Hercules that
has just killed the Hydra, six braccia in height, in the round and
overlaid with silver, which was placed at that corner of the Piazza di
S. Felice that is at the end of the Via Maggio, with the following
inscription in letters of silver on the base: UT HERCULES LABORE ET
AERUMNIS MONSTRA EDOMUIT, ITA CAESAR VIRTUTE ET CLEMENTIA, HOSTIBUS
VICTIS SEU PLACATIS, PACEM ORBI TERRARUM ET QUIETEM RESTITUIT. Two
others were colossal figures eight braccia high, one representing the
River Bagrada, which was resting upon the skin of the serpent that was
brought to Rome, and the other representing the Ebro, with the horn of
Amaltheia in one hand and in the other the helm of a ship; both
coloured in imitation of bronze, with inscriptions on the bases; below
the Ebro, HIBERUS EX HISPANIA, and below the other, BAGRADAS EX
AFRICA. The fourth was a statue five braccia in height, on the Canto
de' Medici, representing Peace, who had in one hand an olive branch
and in the other a lighted torch, with which she was setting fire to a
pile of arms heaped up on the base on which she was placed; with the
following words: FIAT PAX IN VIRTUTE TUA. He did not finish, as he had
hoped to do, the horse seven braccia in length that was set up on the
Piazza di S. Trinita, upon which was to be placed the statue of the
Emperor in armour, because Tasso the wood-carver, who was much his
friend, did not show any promptitude in executing the base and the
other things in the way of wood-carving that were to be included in
the work, being a man who let time slip through his fingers in arguing
and jesting; and there was only just time to cover the horse alone
with tin-foil laid upon the still fresh clay. On the base were to be
read the following words:
IMPERATORI CAROLO AUGUSTO VICTORIOSISSIMO, POST DEVICTOS HOSTES,
ITALIAE PACE RESTITUTA ET SALUTATO FERDIN. FRATRE, EXPULSIS ITERUM
TURCIS AFRICAQUE PERDOMITA, ALEXANDER MED. DUX FLORENTIAE, D.D.
His Majesty having departed from Florence, a beginning was made with
the preparations for the nuptials, in expectation of his daughter, and
to the end that she and the Vice-Queen of Naples, who was in her
company, might be commodiously lodged according to the orders of his
Excellency in the house of M. Ottaviano de' Medici, an addition was
made to his old house in four weeks, to the astonishment of everyone;
and Tribolo, the painter Andrea di Cosimo, and I, in ten days, with
the help of about ninety sculptors and painters of the city, what with
masters and assistants, completed the preparations for the wedding in
so far as appertained to the house and its decorations, painting the
loggie, courtyards, and other spaces in a manner suitable for nuptials
of such importance. Among these decorations, Tribolo made, besides
other things, two Victories in half-relief that were one on either
side of the principal door, supported by two large terminal figures,
which also upheld the escutcheon of the Emperor, pendent from the
neck of a very beautiful eagle in the round. The same master also made
certain boys, likewise in the round, and large in size, which were
placed on either side of some heads over the pediments of various
doors; and these were much extolled.
Meanwhile, as the nuptials were in progress, Tribolo received letters
from Bologna, in which Messer Pietro del Magno, his devoted friend,
besought him that he should consent to go to Bologna, in order to make
for the Madonna di Galliera, where a most beautiful ornament of marble
was already prepared, a scene likewise of marble three braccia and a
half in extent. Whereupon Tribolo, happening to have nothing else to
do at that time, went thither, and after making a model of a Madonna
ascending into Heaven, with the Apostles below in various attitudes,
which, being very beautiful, gave great satisfaction, he set his hand
to executing it; but with little pleasure for himself, since the
marble that he was carving was that Milanese marble, saline, full of
emery, and bad in quality; and it seemed to him that he was wasting
his time, without feeling a particle of that delight that men find in
working those marbles which are a pleasure to carve, and which in the
end, when brought to completion, show a surface that has the
appearance of the living flesh itself. However, he did so much that it
was already almost finished, when I, having persuaded Duke Alessandro
to recall Michelagnolo from Rome, and also the other masters, in order
to finish the work of the sacristy begun by Clement, was arranging to
give him something to do in Florence; and I would have succeeded, but
in the meantime, by reason of the death of Alessandro, who was
murdered by Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici, not only was this
design frustrated, but the greatness and prosperity of art were thrown
into utter ruin.
Having heard of the Duke's death, Tribolo condoled with me in his
letters, beseeching me, after he had exhorted me to bear with
resignation the death of that great Prince, my gracious master, that
if I went to Rome, as he had heard that I, being wholly determined to
abandon Courts and to pursue my studies, was intending to do, I should
obtain some commission for him, for the reason that, if assisted by my
friends, he would do whatever I told him. But it so chanced that it
became in no way necessary for him to seek commissions in Rome. For
Signor Cosimo de' Medici, having been created Duke of Florence, as
soon as he had freed himself from the troubles that he had in the
first year of his rule by routing his enemies at Monte Murlo, began to
take some diversion, and in particular to frequent not a little the
villa of Castello, which is little more than two miles distant from
Florence. There he began to do some building, in order that he might
be able to live there comfortably with his Court, and little by
little--being encouraged in this by Maestro Pietro da San Casciano,
who was held to be a passing good master in those days, and was much
in the service of Signora Maria, the mother of the Duke, and had also
always been the master-builder and the former servant of Signor
Giovanni--he resolved to conduct to that place certain waters that he
had desired long before to bring thither. Whereupon a beginning was
made with building an aqueduct that was to receive all the waters from
the hill of Castellina, which was at a distance of a quarter of a mile
or more from Castello; and the work was pursued vigorously with a good
number of men. But the Duke recognizing that Maestro Pietro had
neither invention nor power of design enough to make in that place a
beginning that might afterwards in time receive that ornamentation
which the site and the waters required, one day that his Excellency
was on the spot, speaking of this with such men as Messer Ottaviano
de' Medici and Cristofano Rinieri, the friend of Tribolo and the old
servant of Signora Maria and of the Duke, they extolled Tribolo in
such a manner, as a man endowed with all those parts that were
requisite in the head of such a fabric, that the Duke gave Cristofano
a commission to make him come from Bologna. Which having been
straightway done by Rinieri, Tribolo, who could not have received any
better news than that he was to serve Duke Cosimo, set out immediately
for Florence, and, arriving there, was taken to Castello, where his
most illustrious Excellency, having heard from him what he thought
should be done in the way of decorative fountains, gave him a
commission to make the models. Whereupon he set his hand to these, and
was engaged upon them, while Maestro Pietro da San Casciano was
executing the aqueduct and bringing the waters to the place, when the
Duke, who meanwhile had begun, for the security of the city, to
surround with a very strong wall the bastions erected on the hill of
San Miniato at the time of the siege after the designs of
Michelagnolo, ordained that Tribolo should make an escutcheon of hard
stone, with two Victories, for an angle of the summit of a bastion
that faces Florence. But Tribolo had scarcely finished the escutcheon,
which was very large, and one of those Victories, a figure four
braccia high, which was held to be a very beautiful thing, when he was
obliged to leave that work incomplete, for the reason that, Maestro
Pietro having carried well on the making of the aqueduct and the
bringing of the waters, to the full satisfaction of the Duke, his
Excellency wished that Tribolo should begin to put into execution, for
the adornment of that place, the designs and models that he had
already shown to him, ordaining him for the time being a salary of
eight crowns a month, the same that was paid to San Casciano.
Now, in order that I may not become confused in describing the
intricacies of the aqueducts and of the ornaments of the fountains, it
may be well to say briefly some few words about the site and position
of Castello. The villa of Castello stands at the roots of Monte
Morello, below the Villa della Topaia, which is halfway up the slope;
it has before it a plain that descends little by little, for the space
of a mile and a half, down to the River Arno, and exactly where the
ascent of the mountain begins stands the palace, which was built in
past times by Pier Francesco de' Medici, after a very good design. The
principal front faces straight towards the south, overlooking a vast
lawn with two very large fish-ponds full of running water, which comes
from an ancient aqueduct made by the Romans in order to conduct water
from Valdimarina to Florence, and provided with a vaulted cistern
under the ground; and so it has a very beautiful and very pleasing
view. The fish-ponds in front are divided in the middle by a bridge
twelve braccia wide, which leads to an avenue of the same width,
bounded at the sides and covered above by an unbroken vault of
mulberry-trees, ten braccia in height, thus making a covered avenue
three hundred braccia in length, delightful for its shade, which opens
on to the high road to Prato by a gate placed between two fountains
that serve to give water to travellers and animals. On the eastern
side the same palace has a very beautiful pile of stable-buildings,
and on the western side a private garden into which one goes from the
courtyard of the stables, passing straight through the ground-floor of
the palace by way of the loggie, halls, and chambers on the level of
the ground; from which private garden one can enter by a door on the
west side into another garden, very large and all filled with
fruit-trees, and bounded by a forest of fir-trees that conceals the
houses of the labourers and others who live there, engaged in the
service of the palace and of the gardens. Next, that part of the
palace which faces north, towards the mountain, has in front of it a
lawn as long as the palace, the stables, and the private garden
altogether, and from this lawn one climbs by steps to the principal
garden, a place enclosed by ordinary walls, which, rising in a gentle
slope, stretches so well clear of the palace as it rises, that the
mid-day sun searches it out and bathes it all with its rays, as if
there were no palace in front; and at the upper end it stands so high
that it commands a view not only of the whole palace, but also of the
plain that is in front and around it, and likewise about the city. In
the middle of this garden is a forest of very tall and thickly-planted
cypresses, laurels, and myrtles, which, laid out in a circular shape,
have the form of a labyrinth, all surrounded by box-hedges two braccia
and a half in height, so even and grown with such beautiful order that
they have the appearance of a painting done with the brush; in the
centre of which labyrinth, at the desire of the Duke, Tribolo, as will
be described below, made a very beautiful fountain of marble. At the
principal entrance, where there is the first-mentioned lawn with the
two fish-ponds and the avenue covered with mulberry-trees, Tribolo
wished that the avenue should be so extended that it might stretch for
a distance of more than a mile, covered and shaped in like manner, and
might reach as far as the River Arno, and that the waters which ran
away from all the fountains, flowing gently in pleasant channels at
the sides of the avenue, and filled with various kinds of fishes and
crayfish, might accompany it down to that river.
As for the palace--to describe what has still to be done as well as
that which has been finished--he wished to make a loggia in front of
it, which, passing by an open courtyard, was to have on the side
where the stables are another palace as large as the old one, with the
same proportion of apartments, loggie, private garden, and the rest;
which addition would have made it a vast palace, with a most beautiful
facade. After passing the court from which one enters into the large
garden of the labyrinth, at the main entrance, where there is a vast
lawn, after climbing the steps that lead to that labyrinth, there came
a level space thirty braccia square, on which there was to be--and has
since been made--a very large fountain of white marble, which was to
spout upwards above ornaments fourteen braccia in height, while from
the mouth of a statue at the highest point was to issue a jet of water
rising to the height of six braccia. At either end of the lawn was to
be a loggia, one opposite to the other, each thirty braccia in length
and fifteen in breadth; and in the middle of each loggia was to be
placed a marble table twelve braccia in length, and on the outside a
basin of eight braccia, which was to receive the water from a vase
held by two figures. In the middle of the above-mentioned labyrinth
Tribolo had thought to achieve the most decorative effect with water
by means of jets and a very beautiful seat round the fountain, the
marble basin of which was to be, even as it was afterwards made, much
smaller than that of the large principal fountain; and at the summit
it was to have a figure of bronze spouting water. At the end of this
garden, in the centre, there was to be a gate with some children of
marble on both sides spouting water, with a fountain on either side,
and in the corners double niches in which statues were to be placed,
as in the others that are in the walls at the sides, at the opposite
ends of the avenues that cross the garden, which are all covered with
greenery distributed in various ways.
Through the above-mentioned gate, which is at the upper end of this
garden, above some steps, one enters into another garden, as wide as
the first, but of no great depth in the direct line, in comparison
with the mountain beyond. In this garden were to be two other loggie,
one on either side, and in the wall opposite to the gate, which
supports the soil of the mountain, there was to be in the centre a
grotto with three basins, with water playing into them in imitation of
rain. The grotto was to be between two fountains placed in the same
wall, and opposite to these, in the lower wall of the garden, were to
be two others, one on either side of the gate; so that the fountains
of this garden would have been equal in number to those of the other,
which is below it, and receives its water from the first, which is
higher. And this garden was to be all full of orange-trees, which
would have had--and will have, whenever that may be--a most favourable
situation, being defended by the walls and by the mountain from the
north wind and other harmful winds.
From this garden one climbs by two staircases of flint, one on either
side, to a forest of cypresses, fir-trees, holm-oaks, laurels, and
other evergreen trees, distributed with beautiful order, in the middle
of which, according to Tribolo's design, there was to be a most lovely
fish-pond, which has since been made. And because this part, gradually
narrowing, forms an angle, that angle, to the end that it might be
made flat, was to be blunted by the breadth of a loggia, from which,
after climbing some steps, might be seen in front the palace, the
gardens, the fountains, and all the plain below and about them, as far
as the Ducal Villa of Poggio a Caiano, Florence, Prato, Siena, and all
that is around for many miles.
Now the above-named Maestro Pietro da San Casciano, having carried his
work of the aqueduct as far as Castello, and having turned into it all
the waters of Castellina, was overtaken by a violent fever, and died
in a few days. Whereupon Tribolo, undertaking the charge of directing
all the building by himself, perceived that, although the waters
brought to Castello were in great abundance, nevertheless they were
not sufficient for all that he had made up his mind to do; not to
mention that, coming from Castellina, they did not rise to the height
that he required for his purposes. Having therefore obtained from the
Lord Duke a commission to conduct thither the waters of Petraia, a
place more than one hundred and fifty braccia above Castello, which
are good and very abundant, he caused a conduit to be made, similar to
the other, and so high that one can enter into it, to the end that
thus those waters of Petraia might come to the fish-pond through
another aqueduct with enough fall for the fish-pond and the great
fountain.
This done, Tribolo began to build the above-mentioned grotto,
proposing to make it with three niches, in a beautiful architectural
design, and likewise the two fountains that were one on either side of
it. In one of these there was to be a large statue of stone,
representing Monte Asinaio, which, pressing its beard, was to pour
water from its mouth into a basin that was to be in front of it; from
which basin the water, issuing by a hidden channel, and passing under
the wall, was to flow to the fountain that there is at the present day
behind the wall, at the end of the slope of the garden of the
labyrinth, pouring into the vase on the shoulder of the figure of the
River Mugnone, which is in a large niche of grey-stone decorated with
most beautiful ornaments, and all covered with sponge-stone. This
work, if it had been finished in all its perfection, even as it is in
part, would have had great similarity to the reality, since the
Mugnone rises from Monte Asinaio.
For the Mugnone, then, to describe that which has been done, Tribolo
made a figure of grey-stone, four braccia in length, and reclining in
a very beautiful attitude, which has upon one shoulder a vase that
pours water into a basin, and rests the other on the ground, leaning
upon it, with the left leg crossed over the right. And behind this
river is a woman representing Fiesole, wholly naked, issuing from
among the sponge-stones and rocks in the middle of the niche, and
holding in the hand a moon which is the ancient emblem of the people
of Fiesole. Below this niche is a very large basin supported by two
great Capricorns, which are one of the devices of the Duke; from which
Capricorns hang some festoons and masks of great beauty, and from
their lips issues the water from that basin, which is convex in the
middle, and has outlets at the sides; and all the water that overflows
pours away from the sides through the mouths of the Capricorns, and
then, after falling into the hollow base of the vase, flows through
the herb-beds that are round the walls of the garden of the labyrinth,
where there are fountains between the niches, and between the
fountains espaliers of oranges and pomegranates.
In the second garden described above, where Tribolo had intended that
there should be made the Monte Asinaio that was to supply water to the
Mugnone, there was to be on the other side, beyond the gate, a similar
figure of the Monte della Falterona; and even as this mountain is the
source of the River Arno, so the statue representing that river in the
garden of the labyrinth, opposite to the Mugnone, was to receive the
water from the Falterona. But since neither the figure of that
mountain nor its fountain has ever been finished, let us speak of the
fountain and figure of the River Arno, which were completed by Tribolo
to perfection. This river, then, holds its vase upon one thigh, lying
down and leaning with one arm on a lion, which holds a lily in its
paw, and the vase receives its water through the perforated wall,
behind which there was to be the Falterona, exactly in the manner in
which, as has been described, the statue of the River Mugnone also
receives its water; and since the long basin is in every way similar
to that of the Mugnone, I shall say no more about it, save this, that
it is a pity that the art and excellence of these works, which are
truly most beautiful, are not embodied in marble.
Then, continuing the work of the conduit, Tribolo caused the water
from the grotto to pass under the orange-garden and then under the
next garden, and thus brought it into the labyrinth, where, forming a
circle round all the middle of the labyrinth, in a good circumference
round the centre, he laid down the central pipe, through which the
fountain was to spout water. After which, taking the waters from the
Arno and the Mugnone, and bringing them together under the level of
the labyrinth by means of certain bronze pipes that were distributed
in beautiful order throughout that space, he filled that whole
pavement with very fine jets, in such a manner that it was possible by
turning a key to drench all those who came near to see the fountain.
Nor is one able to escape either quickly or with ease, because Tribolo
made round the fountain and the pavement, in which are the jets, a
seat of grey-stone supported by lion's paws, between which are sea
monsters in low-relief; which was a difficult thing to do, because he
chose, since the place was sloping and the square lay on the slant, to
make it level, and the same with the seat.