which he was assisted by the painter Rosso, whom he afterwards asked
more openly for the help that he desired. Having thus learned the
methods of colouring, he painted a picture in oils of the Holy Fathers
delivered from the Limbo of Hell by the Saviour, and also a larger
picture of Noah drunk with wine and revealing his nakedness in the
presence of his sons. He tried his hand at painting on the wall, on
fresh plaster, and executed on the walls of his house heads, arms,
legs, and torsi, coloured in various ways; but, perceiving that this
involved him in greater difficulties than he had expected, through
the drying of the plaster, he returned to his former study of working
in relief. He made a figure of marble, three braccia in height, of a
young Mercury with a flute in his hand, with which he took great
pains, and it was extolled and held to be a rare work; and afterwards,
in the year 1530, it was bought by Giovan Battista della Palla and
sent to France to King Francis, who held it in great estimation.
Baccio devoted himself with great study and solicitude to examining
and reproducing the most minute details of anatomy, persevering in
this for many months and even years. And certainly one can praise
highly in this man his desire for honour and excellence in art, and
for working well therein; spurred by which desire, and by the most
fiery ardour, with which, rather than with aptitude or dexterity in
art, he had been endowed by nature from his earliest years, Baccio
spared himself no fatigue, never relaxed his efforts for a moment, was
always intent either on preparing for work or on working, always
occupied, and never to be found idle, thinking that by continual work
he would surpass all others who had ever practised his art, and
promising this result to himself as the reward of his incessant study
and endless labour. Continuing, therefore, his zealous study, he not
only produced a great number of sheets drawn in various ways with his
own hand, but also contrived to get Agostino Viniziano, the engraver
of prints, to engrave for him a nude Cleopatra and a larger plate
filled with various anatomical studies, in order to see whether this
would be successful; and the latter plate brought him great praise.
He then set himself to make in wax, in full-relief, a figure one braccio
and a half in height of S. Jerome in Penitence, lean beyond belief,
which showed on the bones the muscles all withered, a great part of the
nerves, and the skin dry and wrinkled; and with such diligence was this
work executed by him, that all the craftsmen, and particularly Leonardo
da Vinci, pronounced the opinion that there had never been seen a better
thing of its kind, nor one wrought with greater art. This figure Baccio
carried to Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici and to his brother the
Magnificent Giuliano, and by its means he made himself known to them as
the son of the goldsmith Michelagnolo; and they, besides praising the
work, showed him many other favours. This was in the year 1512, when
they had returned to their house and their government. At this same time
there were being executed in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore
certain Apostles of marble, which were to be set up within the marble
tabernacles in those very places in that church where there are the
Apostles painted by the painter Lorenzo di Bicci. At the instance of the
Magnificent Giuliano there was allotted to Baccio a S. Peter, four
braccia and a half in height, which after a long time he brought to
completion; and, although it has not the highest perfection of
sculpture, nevertheless good design may be seen in it. This Apostle
remained in the Office of Works from the year 1513 down to 1565, in
which year Duke Cosimo, in honour of the marriage of Queen Joanna of
Austria, his daughter-in-law, was pleased to have the interior of S.
Maria del Fiore whitewashed, which church had never been touched from
the time of its erection down to that day, and to have four Apostles set
up in their places, among which was the S. Peter mentioned above.
Now in the year 1515, Pope Leo X passing through Florence on his way
to Bologna, the city, in order to do him honour, ordained, among many
other ornaments and festive preparations, that there should be made a
colossal figure of nine braccia and a half, which was to be placed
under an arch of the Loggia in the Piazza near the Palace; and this
was given to Baccio. This colossal figure was a Hercules, and from the
premature words of Baccio men expected that it would surpass the David
of Buonarroti, which stood there near it; but the act did not
correspond to the word, nor the work to the boast, and it robbed
Baccio of much of the estimation in which he had previously been held
by the craftsmen and by the whole city.
Pope Leo had allotted the work of the ornamentation in marble that
surrounds the Chamber of Our Lady at Loreto, with the statues and
scenes, to Maestro Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino, who had already
executed some of these with great credit to himself, and was then
engaged on others. Now at this time Baccio took to Rome, for the Pope,
a very beautiful model of a nude David who was holding Goliath under
him and was cutting off his head; which model he intended to execute
in bronze or in marble for that very spot in the court of the house of
the Medici in Florence where there once stood the David of Donato,
which, at the spoiling of the Medici Palace, was taken to the Palace
that then belonged to the Signori. The Pope, having praised Baccio,
but not thinking that the time had come to execute the David, sent him
to Loreto to Maestro Andrea, to the end that Andrea might give him one
of those scenes to do. Having arrived in Loreto, he was received
lovingly by Maestro Andrea and shown much kindness, both on account of
his fame and because the Pope had recommended him, and a piece of
marble was assigned to him from which he should carve the Nativity of
Our Lady. Baccio, after making the model, began the work; but, being a
person who was not able to endure a colleague or an equal, and had
little praise for the works of others, he also began to speak hardly
before the other sculptors who were there of the works of Maestro
Andrea, saying that he had no design, and he said the same of the
others, insomuch that in a short time he made himself disliked by them
all. Whereupon, all that Baccio had said of Maestro Andrea having come
to his ears, he, like a wise man, answered him lovingly, saying that
works are done with the hands and not with the tongue, that good
design is to be looked for not in drawings but in the perfection of
the work finished in stone, and, finally, that in future Baccio should
speak of him in a different tone. But Baccio answering him arrogantly
with many abusive words, Maestro Andrea could endure no more, and
rushed upon him in order to kill him; but Bandinelli was torn away
from him by some who intervened between them. Being therefore forced
to depart from Loreto, Baccio had his scene carried to Ancona; but he
grew weary of it, although it was near completion, and he went away
leaving it unfinished. This work was finished afterwards by Raffaello
da Montelupo, and placed together with the others of Maestro Andrea;
but it is by no means equal to them in excellence, although even so it
is worthy of praise.
Baccio, having returned to Rome, obtained a promise from the Pope,
through the favour of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, always ready to
assist the arts and their followers, that he should be commissioned to
execute some statue for the court of the Medici Palace in Florence.
Having therefore come to Florence, he made an Orpheus of marble, who
with his playing and his singing is charming Cerberus, and moving Hell
itself to compassion. He imitated in this work the Apollo of the
Belvedere at Rome, and it was very highly praised, and rightly,
because, although the Orpheus of Baccio is not in the attitude of the
Apollo Belvedere, nevertheless it reproduces very successfully the
manner of the torso and of all the members. The statue, when finished,
was carried by order of Cardinal Giulio, while he was governing
Florence, into the above-mentioned court, and placed on a carved base
executed by the sculptor Benedetto da Rovezzano. But since Baccio
never paid any attention to the art of architecture, he took no heed
of the genius of Donatello, who had made for the David that was there
before a simple column on which rested a cleft base in open-work, to
the end that one entering from without might see from the street-door
the inner door, that of the other court, opposite to him; and, not
having such foresight, he caused his statue to be placed on a broad
and wholly solid base, of such a kind that it blocks the view of him
who enters and covers the opening of the inner door, so that in
passing through the first door one does not see whether the palace
extends farther inwards or finishes in the first court.
Cardinal Giulio had caused a most beautiful villa to be erected below
Monte Mario at Rome, and wished to set up two giants in this villa;
and he had them executed in stucco by Baccio, who was always delighted
to make giants. These figures, eight braccia in height, stand one on
either side of the gate that leads into the wood, and they were held
to be reasonably beautiful. While Baccio was engaged on these works,
never abandoning his practice of drawing, he caused Marco da Ravenna
and Agostino Viniziano, the engravers of prints, to engrave a scene
drawn by him on a very large sheet, in which was the Slaughter of the
Innocents, so cruelly done to death by Herod. This scene, which was
filled by him with a quantity of nudes, both male and female, children
living and dead, and women and soldiers in various attitudes, made
known the fine draughtsmanship that he showed in figures and his
knowledge of muscles and of all the members, and it won him great
fame over all Europe. He also made a most beautiful model of wood,
with the figures in wax, of a tomb for the King of England, which in
the end was not carried out by Baccio, but was given to the sculptor
Benedetto da Rovezzano, who executed it in metal.
[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF S. LORENZO
(_After the painting by =Baccio Bandinelli=. Hereford: W. J. Davies'
Collection_)
_M.S._]
There had recently returned from France Cardinal Bernardo Divizio of
Bibbiena, who, perceiving that King Francis possessed not a single
work in marble, whether ancient or modern, although he much delighted
in such things, had promised his Majesty that he would prevail on the
Pope to send him some beautiful work. After this Cardinal there came
to the Pope two Ambassadors from King Francis, and they, having seen
the statues of the Belvedere, lavished all the praise at their command
on the Laocoon. Cardinals de' Medici and Bibbiena, who were with them,
asked them whether the King would be glad to have a work of that kind;
and they answered that it would be too great a gift. Then the Cardinal
said to them: "There shall be sent to his Majesty either this one or
one so like it that there shall be no difference." And, having
resolved to have another made in imitation of it, he remembered
Baccio, whom he sent for and asked whether he had the courage to make
a Laocoon equal to the original. Baccio answered that he was confident
that he could make one not merely equal to it, but even surpassing it
in perfection. The Cardinal then resolved that the work should be
begun, and Baccio, while waiting for the marble to come, made one in
wax, which was much extolled, and also executed a cartoon in
lead-white and charcoal of the same size as the one in marble. After
the marble had come and Baccio had caused an enclosure with a roof for
working in to be erected for himself in the Belvedere, he made a
beginning with one of the boys of the Laocoon, the larger one, and
executed this in such a manner that the Pope and all those who were
good judges were satisfied, because between his work and the ancient
there was scarcely any difference to be seen. But after setting his
hand to the other boy and to the statue of the father, which is in the
middle, he had not gone far when the Pope died. Adrian VI being then
elected, he returned with the Cardinal to Florence, where he occupied
himself with his studies in design. After the death of Adrian and
the election of Clement VII, Baccio went post-haste to Rome in order
to be in time for his coronation, for which he made statues and scenes
in half-relief by order of his Holiness. Then, having been provided by
the Pope with rooms and an allowance, he returned to his Laocoon, a
work which was executed by him in the space of two years with the
greatest excellence that he ever achieved. He also restored the right
arm of the ancient Laocoon, which had been broken off and never found,
and Baccio made one of the full size in wax, which so resembled the
ancient work in the muscles, in force, and in manner, and harmonized
with it so well, that it showed how Baccio understood his art; and
this model served him as a pattern for making the whole arm of his own
Laocoon. This work seemed to his Holiness to be so good, that he
changed his mind and resolved to send other ancient statues to the
King, and this one to Florence; and to Cardinal Silvio Passerino of
Cortona, his Legate in Florence, who was then governing the city, he
sent orders that he should place the Laocoon at the head of the second
court in the Palace of the Medici. This was in the year 1525.
This work brought great fame to Baccio, who, after finishing the
Laocoon, set himself to draw a scene on a sheet of royal folio laid
open, in order to carry out a design of the Pope, who wished to have
the Martyrdom of S. Cosimo and S. Damiano painted on one wall of the
principal chapel of S. Lorenzo in Florence, and on the other that of
S. Laurence, when he was put to death by Decius on the gridiron.
Baccio then drew with great subtlety the story of S. Laurence, in
which he counterfeited with much judgment and art figures both clothed
and nude, different attitudes and gestures in the bodies and limbs,
and various movements in those who are standing about S. Laurence,
engaged in their dreadful office, and in particular the cruel Decius,
who with threatening brow is urging on the fiery death of the innocent
Martyr, who, raising one arm to Heaven, recommends his spirit to God.
With this scene Baccio so satisfied the Pope, that he took steps to
have it engraved on copper by Marc'Antonio Bolognese, which was done
by Marc'Antonio with great diligence; and his Holiness created Baccio,
in order to do honour to his talents, a Chevalier of S. Pietro.
After these things Baccio returned to Florence, where he found that
Giovan Francesco Rustici, his first master, was painting a scene of
the Conversion of S. Paul; for which reason he undertook to make in a
cartoon, in competition with his master, a nude figure of a young S.
John in the desert, who is holding a lamb with the left arm and
raising the right to Heaven. Then, having caused a panel to be
prepared, he set himself to colour it, and when it was finished he
exposed it to view in the workshop of his father Michelagnolo,
opposite to the descent that leads from Orsanmichele to the Mercato
Nuovo. The design was praised by the craftsmen, but not so much the
colouring, because it was somewhat crude and painted in no beautiful
manner. But Baccio sent it as a present to Pope Clement, who had it
placed in his guardaroba, where it may still be found.
As far back as the time of Leo X there had been quarried at Carrara,
together with the marbles for the facade of S. Lorenzo in Florence,
another block of marble nine braccia and a half high and five braccia
wide at the foot. With this block of marble Michelagnolo Buonarroti
had thought of making a giant in the person of Hercules slaying Cacus,
intending to place it in the Piazza beside the colossal figure of
David formerly made by him, since both the one and the other, David
and Hercules, were emblems of the Palace. He had made several designs
and various models for it, and had sought to gain the favour of Pope
Leo and of Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, saying that the David had many
defects caused by the sculptor Maestro Andrea, who had first blocked
it out and spoiled it. But by reason of the death of Leo the facade of
S. Lorenzo was for a time abandoned, and also this block of marble.
Now afterwards, Pope Clement having conceived a desire to avail
himself of Michelagnolo for the tombs of the heroes of the house of
Medici, which he wished to have constructed in the Sacristy of S.
Lorenzo, it became once more necessary to quarry marbles; and the head
of these works, keeping the accounts of the expenses, was Domenico
Buoninsegni. This man tried to tempt Michelagnolo to make a secret
partnership with him in the matter of the stone-work for the facade of
S. Lorenzo; but Michelagnolo refused, not consenting that his genius
should be employed in defrauding the Pope, and Domenico conceived such
hatred against him that he went about ever afterwards opposing his
undertakings, in order to annoy and humiliate him, but this he did
covertly. He thus contrived to have the facade discontinued and the
sacristy pushed forward, which two works, he said, were enough to keep
Michelagnolo occupied for many years. And as for the marble for the
making of the giant, he urged the Pope that it should be given to
Baccio, who at that time had nothing to do; saying that through the
emulation of two men so eminent his Holiness would be served better
and with more diligence and promptitude, rivalry stimulating both the
one and the other in his work. The counsel of Domenico pleased the
Pope, and he acted in accordance with it. Baccio, having obtained the
marble, made a great model in wax, which was a Hercules who, having
fixed the head of Cacus between two stones with one knee, was
constraining him with great force with the left arm, holding him
crouching under his legs in a distorted attitude, wherein Cacus
revealed his suffering and the strain of the weight of Hercules upon
him, which was rending asunder every least muscle in his whole body.
Hercules, likewise, with his head bent down close against his enemy,
grinding and gnashing his teeth, was raising the right arm and with
great vehemence giving him another blow with his club, in order to
dash his head to pieces.
Michelagnolo, as soon as he had heard that the marble had been given
to Baccio, was very much displeased; but, for all the efforts that he
made in this matter, he was never able to turn the Pope from his
purpose, so completely had he been satisfied by Baccio's model; to
which reason were added his promises and boasts, for he boasted that
he would surpass the David of Michelagnolo, and he was also assisted
by Buoninsegni, who said that Michelagnolo desired everything for
himself. Thus was the city deprived of a rare ornament, such as that
marble would undoubtedly have been when shaped by the hand of
Buonarroti. The above-mentioned model of Baccio is now to be found in
the guardaroba of Duke Cosimo, by whom it is held very dear, and by
the craftsmen as a rare work.
Baccio was sent to Carrara to see this marble, and the Overseers of
the Works of S. Maria del Fiore were commissioned to transport it by
water, along the River Arno, as far as Signa. The marble having been
conveyed there, within a distance of eight miles from Florence, when
they set about removing it from the river in order to transport it by
land, the river being too low from Signa to Florence, it fell into the
water, and on account of its great size sank so deep into the sand,
that the Overseers, with all the contrivances that they used, were not
able to drag it out. For which reason, the Pope wishing that the
marble should be recovered at all costs, by order of the Wardens of
Works Pietro Rosselli, an old builder of great ingenuity, went to work
in such a manner that, having diverted the course of the water into
another channel and cut away the bank of the river, with levers and
windlasses he moved it, dragged it out of the Arno, and brought it to
solid ground, for which he was greatly extolled. Tempted by this
accident to the marble, certain persons wrote verses, both Tuscan and
Latin, ingeniously ridiculing Baccio, who was detested for his
loquacity and his evil-speaking against Michelagnolo and all the other
craftsmen. One among them took for his verses the following subject,
saying that the marble, after having been approved by the genius of
Michelagnolo, learning that it was to be mangled by the hands of
Baccio, had thrown itself into the river out of despair at such an
evil fate.
While the marble was being drawn out of the water, a difficult process
which took time, Baccio found, on measuring it, that it was neither
high enough nor wide enough to enable him to carve the figures of his
first model. Whereupon he went to Rome, taking the measurements with
him, and made known to the Pope how he was constrained by necessity to
abandon his first design and make another. He then made several
models, and out of their number the Pope was most pleased with one in
which Hercules had Cacus between his legs, and, grasping his hair, was
holding him down after the manner of a prisoner; and this one they
resolved to adopt and to carry into execution. On returning to
Florence, Baccio found that the marble had been conveyed into the
Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore by Pietro Rosselli, who had
first placed on the ground some planks of walnut-wood planed square,
and laid lengthways, which he kept changing according as the marble
moved forward, under which and upon those planks he placed some round
rollers well shod with iron, so that by pulling the marble with three
windlasses, to which he had attached it, little by little he brought
it with ease into the Office of Works. The block having been set up
there, Baccio began a model in clay as large as the marble and shaped
according to the last one which he had made previously in Rome; and he
finished it, working with great diligence, in a few months. But with
all this it appeared to many craftsmen that there was not in this
model that spirited vivacity that the action required, nor that which
he had given to his first model. Afterwards, beginning to work at the
marble, Baccio cut it away all round as far as the navel, laying bare
the limbs in front, and taking care all the time to carve the figures
in such a way that they might be exactly like those of the large model
in clay.
At this same time Baccio had undertaken to execute in painting an
altar-piece of considerable size for the Church of Cestello, and for
this he had made a very beautiful cartoon containing a Dead Christ
surrounded by the Maries, with Nicodemus and other figures; but, for a
reason that we shall give below, he did not paint the altar-piece. He
also made at this time, in order to paint a picture, a cartoon in
which was Christ taken down from the Cross and held in the arms of
Nicodemus, with His Mother, who was standing, weeping for Him, and an
Angel who was holding in his hands the Nails and the Crown of Thorns.
Setting himself straightway to colour it, he finished it quickly and
placed it on exhibition in the workshop of his friend Giovanni di
Goro, the goldsmith, in the Mercato Nuovo, in order to hear the
opinions of men and particularly what Michelagnolo said of it.
Michelagnolo was taken by the goldsmith Piloto to see it, and, after
he had examined every part, he said that he marvelled that so good a
draughtsman as Baccio should allow a picture so crude and wanting in
grace to leave his hands, that he had seen the most feeble painters
executing their works in a better manner, and that this was no art for
Baccio. Piloto reported Michelagnolo's judgment to Baccio, who, for
all the hatred that he felt against him, recognized that he spoke the
truth. Certainly Baccio's drawings were very beautiful, but in colours
he executed them badly and without grace, and he therefore resolved to
paint no more with his own hand; but he took into his service one who
handled colours passing well, a young man called Agnolo, the brother
of the excellent painter Franciabigio, who had died a few years
before. To this Agnolo he desired to entrust the execution of the
altar-piece for Cestello, but it remained unfinished, the reason of
which was the change of government in Florence, which took place in
the year 1527, when the Medici left Florence after the sack of Rome.
For Baccio did not think himself safe, having a private feud with a
neighbour at his villa of Pinzirimonte, who was of the popular party;
and after he had buried at that villa some cameos and little antique
figures of bronze, which belonged to the Medici, he went off to live
in Lucca. There he remained until the time when the Emperor Charles V
came to receive his crown at Bologna; whereupon he presented himself
before the Pope and then went with him to Rome, where he was given
rooms in the Belvedere, as before.