Chamber of Jove and beside that of Ops, it was decided that all the
history of Juno should be painted there; and so, after all the
ornamentation in stucco had been finished, with very rich carvings and
various compositions of figures, wrought after the cartoons of Vasari,
the same Vasari ordained that Cristofano should execute that work by
himself in fresco, desiring, since it was a work to be seen from near,
and of figures not higher than one braccio, that Gherardi should do
something beautiful in this, which was his peculiar profession.
Cristofano, then, executed in an oval on the vaulting a Marriage with
Juno in the sky, and in a picture on one side Hebe, Goddess of Youth,
and on the other Iris, who is pointing to the rainbow in the heavens.
On the same vaulting he painted three other quadrangular pictures, two
to match the others, and a larger one in a line with the oval in which
is the Marriage, and in the last-named picture is Juno seated in a car
drawn by peacocks. In one of the other two, which are on either side
of that one, is the Goddess of Power, and in the other Abundance with
the Cornucopia at her feet. And in two other pictures on the walls
below, over the openings of two doors, are two other stories of
Juno--the Transformation of Io, the daughter of the River Inachus,
into a Cow, and of Callisto into a Bear.
During the execution of that work his Excellency conceived a very
great affection for Cristofano, seeing him zealous and diligent in no
ordinary manner at his work; for the morning had scarcely broken into
day when Cristofano would appear at his labour, of which he had such a
love, and it so delighted him, that very often he would not finish
dressing before setting out. And at times, nay, frequently, it
happened that in his haste he put on a pair of shoes--all such things
he kept under his bed--that were not fellows, but of two kinds; and
more often than not he had his cloak wrong side out, with the hood on
the inside. One morning, therefore, appearing at an early hour at his
work, where the Lord Duke and the Lady Duchess were standing looking
at it, while preparations were being made to set out for the chase,
and the ladies and others of the Court were making themselves ready,
they noticed that Cristofano had as usual his cloak wrong side out and
the hood inside. At which both laughing, the Duke said: "What is your
idea in always wearing your cloak inside out?" "I know not, my Lord,"
answered Cristofano, "but I mean to find some day a kind of cloak that
shall have neither right side nor wrong side, and shall be the same on
both sides, for I have not the patience to think of wearing it in any
other way, since in the morning I generally dress and go out of the
house in the dark, besides that I have one eye so feeble that I can
see nothing with it. But let your Excellency look at what I paint, and
not at my manner of dressing." The Duke said nothing in answer, but
within a few days he caused to be made for him a cloak of the finest
cloth, with the pieces sewn and drawn together in such a manner that
there was no difference to be seen between outside and inside, and the
collar worked with braid in the same manner both inside and out, and
so also the trimming that it had round the edges. This being finished,
he sent it to Cristofano by a lackey, commanding the man that he
should give it to him on the part of the Duke. Having therefore
received the cloak very early one morning, Cristofano, without making
any further ceremony, tried it on and then said to the lackey: "The
Duke is a man of sense. Tell him that it suits me well."
Now, since Cristofano was thus careless of his person and hated
nothing more than to have to put on new clothes or to go about too
tightly constrained and confined in them, Vasari, who knew this humour
of his, whenever he observed that he was in need of any new clothes,
used to have them made for him in secret, and then, early one morning,
used to place these in his chamber and take away the old ones; and so
Cristofano was forced to put on those that he found. But it was
marvellous sport to stand and hear him raging with fury as he dressed
himself in the new clothes. "Look here," he would say, "what
devilments are these? Devil take it, can a man not live in his own way
in this world, without the enemies of comfort giving themselves all
this trouble?" One morning among others, Cristofano having put on a
pair of white hose, the painter Domenico Benci, who was also working
in the Palace with Vasari, contrived to persuade him to go with
himself, in company with other young men, to the Madonna
dell'Impruneta. There they walked, danced, and enjoyed themselves all
day, and in the evening, after supper, they returned home. Then
Cristofano, who was tired, went off straightway to his room to sleep;
but, when he set himself to take off his hose, what with their being
new and his having sweated, he was not able to pull off more than one
of them. Now Vasari, having gone in the evening to see how he was,
found that he had fallen asleep with one leg covered and the other
bare; whereupon, one servant holding his leg and the other pulling at
the stocking, they contrived to draw it off, while he lay cursing
clothes, Giorgio, and him who invented such fashions as--so he
said--kept men bound in chains like slaves. Nay, he grumbled that he
would take leave of them all and by hook or by crook return to S.
Giustino, where he was allowed to live in his own way and had not all
these restraints; and it was the devil's own business to pacify him.
It pleased him to talk seldom, and he loved that others also should
be brief in speaking, insomuch that he would have gone so far as to
have men's proper names very short, like that of a slave belonging to
M. Sforza, who was called "M." "These," said Cristofano, "are fine
names, and not your Giovan Francesco and Giovanni Antonio, which take
an hour's work to pronounce;" and since he was a good fellow at heart,
and said these things in his own jargon of the Borgo, it would have
made the Doleful Knight himself laugh. He delighted to go on
feast-days to the places where legends and printed pictures were sold,
and he would stay there the whole day; and if he bought some, more
often than not, while he went about looking at the others, he would
leave them at some place where he had been leaning. And never, unless
he was forced, would he go on horseback, although he was born from a
noble family in his native place and was rich enough.
Finally, his brother Borgognone having died, he had to go to the
Borgo; and Vasari, who had drawn much of the money of his salary and
had kept it for him, said to him: "See, I have all this money of
yours, it is right that you should take it with you and make use of it
in your requirements." "I want no money," answered Cristofano, "take
it for yourself. For me it is enough to have the luck to stay with you
and to live and die in your company." "It is not my custom," replied
Vasari, "to profit by the labour of others. If you will not have it, I
shall send it to your father Guido." "That you must not do," said
Cristofano, "for he would only waste it, as he always does." In the
end, he took the money and went off to the Borgo, but in poor health
and with little contentment of mind; and after arriving there, what
with his sorrow at the death of his brother, whom he had loved very
dearly, and a cruel flux of the reins, he died in a few days, after
receiving the full sacraments of the Church and distributing to his
family and to many poor persons the money that he had brought. He
declared a little before his death that it grieved him for no other
reason save that he was leaving Vasari too much embarrassed by the
great labours to which he had set his hand in the Palace of the Duke.
Not long afterwards, his Excellency having heard of the death of
Cristofano, and that with true regret, he caused a head of him to be
made in marble and sent it with the underwritten epitaph from Florence
to the Borgo, where it was placed in S. Francesco:
D. O. M.
CHRISTOPHORO GHERARDO BURGENSI
PINGENDI ARTE PRAESTANTISS.
QUOD GEORGIUS VASARIUS ARETINUS HUJUS
ARTIS FACILE PRINCEPS
IN EXORNANDO
COSMI FLORENTIN. DUCIS PALATIO
ILLIUS OPERAM QUAM MAXIME
PROBAVERIT,
PICTORES HETRUSCI POSUERE.
OBIIT A.D. MDLVI.
VIXIT AN. LVI, M. III, D. VI.
JACOPO DA PONTORMO
[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
(_After the painting by =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Siena: S. Agostino_)
_Anderson_]
LIFE OF JACOPO DA PONTORMO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
The ancestors--or rather, the elders of Bartolommeo di Jacopo di
Martino, the father of Jacopo da Pontormo, whose Life we are now about
to write--had their origin, so some declare, in Ancisa, a township in
the Upper Valdarno, famous enough because from it the ancestors of
Messer Francesco Petrarca likewise derived their origin. But, whether
it was from there or from some other place that his elders came, the
above-named Bartolommeo, who was a Florentine, and, so I have been
told, of the family of the Carrucci, is said to have been a disciple
of Domenico Ghirlandajo, and, after executing many works in the
Valdarno, as a painter passing able for those times, to have finally
made his way to Empoli to carry out certain labours, living there and
in the neighbouring places, and taking to wife at Pontormo a most
virtuous girl of good condition, called Alessandra, the daughter of
Pasquale di Zanobi and of his wife Monna Brigida. To this Bartolommeo,
then, there was born in the year 1493 our Jacopo. But the father
having died in the year 1499, the mother in the year 1504, and the
grandfather in the year 1506, Jacopo was left to the care of his
grandmother, Monna Brigida, who kept him for several years at
Pontormo, and had him taught reading, writing, and the first rudiments
of Latin grammar; and finally, at the age of thirteen, he was taken by
the same guardian to Florence, and placed with the Pupilli, to the end
that his small property might be safeguarded and preserved by that
board, as is the custom. And after settling the boy himself in the
house of one Battista, a shoemaker distantly related to him, Monna
Brigida returned to Pontormo, taking with her a sister of Jacopo's.
But not long after that, Monna Brigida herself having died, Jacopo
was forced to bring that sister to Florence, and to place her in the
house of a kinsman called Niccolaio, who lived in the Via de' Servi;
and the girl, also, following the rest of her family, died in the year
1512, before ever she was married.
But to return to Jacopo; he had not been many months in Florence when
he was placed by Bernardo Vettori with Leonardo da Vinci, and shortly
afterwards with Mariotto Albertinelli, then with Piero di Cosimo, and
finally, in the year 1512, with Andrea del Sarto, with whom, likewise,
he did not stay long, for the reason that, after Jacopo had executed
the cartoons of the little arch for the Servites, of which there will
be an account below, it appears that Andrea never again looked
favourably upon him, whatever may have been the reason. The first
work, then, that Jacopo executed at that time was a little
Annunciation for one his friend, a tailor; but the tailor having died
before the work was finished, it remained in the hands of Jacopo, who
was at that time with Mariotto, and Mariotto took pride in it, and
showed it as a rare work to all who entered his workshop. Now
Raffaello da Urbino, coming in those days to Florence, saw with
infinite marvel the work and the lad who had done it, and prophesied
of Jacopo that which was afterwards seen to come true. Not long
afterwards, Mariotto having departed from Florence and gone to Viterbo
to execute the panel-picture that Fra Bartolommeo had begun there,
Jacopo, who was young, solitary, and melancholy, being thus left
without a master, went by himself to work under Andrea del Sarto, at
the very moment when Andrea had finished the stories of S. Filippo in
the court of the Servites, which pleased Jacopo vastly, as did all his
other works and his whole manner and design. Jacopo having then set
himself to make every effort to imitate him, no long time passed
before it was seen that he had made marvellous progress in drawing and
colouring, insomuch that from his facility it seemed as if he had been
many years in art.
Now Andrea had finished in those days a panel-picture of the
Annunciation for the Church of the Friars of S. Gallo, which is now
destroyed, as has been related in his Life; and he gave the predella
of that panel-picture to Jacopo to execute in oils. Jacopo painted in
it a Dead Christ, with two little Angels who are weeping over Him and
illuminating Him with two torches, and, in two round pictures at the
sides, two Prophets, which were executed by him so ably, that they
have the appearance of having been painted not by a mere lad but by a
practised master; but it may also be, as Bronzino says, that he
remembers having heard from Jacopo da Pontormo himself that Rosso
likewise worked on this predella. And even as Andrea was assisted by
Jacopo in executing the predella, so also was he aided by him in
finishing the many pictures and works that Andrea continually had in
hand.
In the meantime, Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici having been elected
Supreme Pontiff under the title of Leo X, there were being made all
over Florence by the friends and adherents of that house many
escutcheons of the Pontiff, in stone, in marble, on canvas, and in
fresco. Wherefore the Servite Friars, wishing to give some sign of
their service and devotion to that house and Pontiff, caused the arms
of Leo to be made in stone, and placed in the centre of the arch in
the first portico of the Nunziata, which is on the piazza; and shortly
afterwards they arranged that it should be overlaid with gold by the
painter Andrea di Cosimo, and adorned with grotesques, of which he was
an excellent master, and with the devices of the house of Medici, and
that, in addition, on either side of it there should be painted a
Faith and a Charity. But Andrea di Cosimo, knowing that he was not
able to execute all these things by himself, thought of giving the two
figures to some other to do; and so, having sent for Jacopo, who was
then not more than nineteen years of age, he gave him those two
figures to execute, although he had no little trouble to persuade him
to undertake to do it, seeing that, being a mere lad, he did not wish
to expose himself at the outset to such a risk, or to work in a place
of so much importance. However, having taken heart, although he was
not as well practised in fresco as in oil-painting, Jacopo undertook
to paint those two figures. And, withdrawing--for he was still working
with Andrea del Sarto--to draw the cartoons at S. Antonio by the Porta
a Faenza, where he lived, in a short time he carried them to
completion; which done, one day he took his master Andrea to see
them. Andrea, after seeing them with infinite marvel and amazement,
praised them vastly; but afterwards, as has been related, whether it
was from envy or from some other reason, he never again looked with a
kindly eye on Jacopo; nay, Jacopo going several times to his workshop,
either the door was not opened to him or he was mocked at by the
assistants, insomuch that he retired altogether by himself, beginning
to live on the least that he could, for he was very poor, and to study
with the greatest assiduity.
[Illustration: DUKE COSIMO I. DE' MEDICI
(_After the painting by =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Florence: Uffizi, 1270_)
_Anderson_]
When Andrea di Cosimo, then, had finished gilding the escutcheon and
all the eaves, Jacopo set to work all by himself to finish the rest;
and being carried away by the desire to make a name, by his joy in
working, and by nature, which had endowed him with extraordinary grace
and fertility of genius, he executed that work with incredible
rapidity and with such perfection as could not have been surpassed by
an old, well-practised, and excellent master. Wherefore, growing in
courage through this experience, and thinking that he could do a much
better work, he took it into his head that he would throw to the
ground all that he had done, without saying a word to anyone, and
paint it all over again after another design that he had in his brain.
But in the meantime the friars, having seen that the work was finished
and that Jacopo came no more to his labour, sought out Andrea, and so
pestered him that he resolved to uncover it. Having therefore looked
for Jacopo, in order to ask him whether he wished to do any more to
the work, and not finding him, for the reason that he stayed shut up
over his new design and would not answer to anyone, Andrea had the
screen and scaffolding removed and the work uncovered. The same
evening Jacopo, having issued from his house in order to go to the
Servite convent, and, when it should be night, to throw to the ground
the work that he had done, and to put into execution the new design,
found the scaffolding taken away and everything uncovered, and a
multitude of people all around gazing at the work. Whereupon, full of
fury, he sought out Andrea, and complained of his having uncovered it
without his consent, going on to describe what he had in mind to do.
To which Andrea answered, laughing: "You are wrong to complain,
because the work that you have done is so good that, if you had it
to do again, you may take my word for it that you would not be able
to do it better. You will not want for work, so keep these designs for
another occasion." That work, as may be seen, was of such a kind and
so beautiful, what with the novelty of the manner, the sweetness in
the heads of those two women, and the loveliness of the graceful and
lifelike children, that it was the most beautiful work in fresco that
had ever been seen up to that time; and, besides the children with the
Charity, there are two others in the air holding a piece of drapery
over the escutcheon of the Pope, who are so beautiful that nothing
better could be done, not to mention that all the figures have very
strong relief and are so executed in colouring and in every other
respect that one is not able to praise them enough. And Michelagnolo
Buonarroti, seeing the work one day, and reflecting that a youth of
nineteen had done it, said: "This young man, judging from what may be
seen here, will become such that, if he lives and perseveres, he will
exalt this art to the heavens." This renown and fame being heard by
the men of Pontormo, they sent for Jacopo, and commissioned him to
execute in their stronghold, over a gate placed on the main road, an
escutcheon of Pope Leo with two little boys, which was very beautiful;
but already it has been little less than ruined by rain.
[Illustration: THE VISITATION
(_After the fresco by =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Florence: SS. Annunziata,
Cloister_)
_Anderson_]
At the Carnival in the same year, all Florence being gay and full of
rejoicing at the election of the above-named Leo X, many festive
spectacles were ordained, and among them two of great beauty and
extraordinary cost, which were given by two companies of noblemen and
gentlemen of the city. One of these, which was called the Diamante,[5]
had for its head the brother of the Pope, Signor Giuliano de' Medici,
who had given it that name because the diamond had been a device of
his father, the elder Lorenzo; and the head of the other, which had as
name and device the Broncone,[6] was Signor Lorenzo, the son of Piero
de' Medici, who had for his device a Broncone--that is, a dried trunk
of laurel growing green again with leaves, as it were to signify that
he was reviving and restoring the name of his grandfather.
[Footnote 5: Diamond.]
[Footnote 6: Trunk or branch.]
By the Company of the Diamante, then, a commission was given to M.
Andrea Dazzi, who was then lecturing on Greek and Latin Letters at the
Studio in Florence, to look to the invention of a triumphal
procession; whereupon he arranged one similar to those that the Romans
used to have for their triumphs, with three very beautiful cars
wrought in wood, and painted with rich and beautiful art. In the first
was Boyhood, with a most beautiful array of boys. In the second was
Manhood, with many persons who had done great things in their manly
prime. And in the third was Old Age, with many famous men who had
performed great achievements in their last years. All these persons
were very richly apparelled, insomuch that it was thought that nothing
better could be done. The architects of these cars were Raffaello
delle Vivole, Il Carota the wood-carver, the painter Andrea di Cosimo,
and Andrea del Sarto; those who arranged and prepared the dresses of
the figures were Ser Piero da Vinci, the father of Leonardo, and
Bernardino di Giordano, both men of beautiful ingenuity; and to Jacopo
da Pontormo alone it fell to paint all the three cars, wherein he
executed various scenes in chiaroscuro of the Transformations of the
Gods into different forms, which are now in the possession of Pietro
Paolo Galeotto, an excellent goldsmith. The first car bore, written in
very clear characters, the word "Erimus," the second "Sumus," and the
third "Fuimus"--that is, "We shall be," "We are," and "We have been."
The song began, "The years fly on...."
Having seen these triumphal cars, Signor Lorenzo, the head of the
Company of the Broncone, desiring that they should be surpassed, gave
the charge of the whole work to Jacopo Nardi, a noble and most learned
gentleman, to whom, for what he afterwards became, his native city of
Florence is much indebted. This Jacopo prepared six triumphal cars, in
order to double the number of those executed by the Diamante. The
first, drawn by a pair of oxen decked with herbage, represented the
Age of Saturn and Janus, called the Age of Gold; and on the summit of
the car were Saturn with the Scythe, and Janus with the two heads and
with the key of the Temple of Peace in the hand, and at his feet a
figure of Fury bound, with a vast number of things around appertaining
to Saturn, all executed most beautifully in different colours by the
genius of Pontormo. Accompanying this car were six couples of
Shepherds, naked but for certain parts covered by skins of marten and
sable, with footwear of various kinds after the ancient manner, and
with their wallets, and on their heads garlands of many kinds of
leaves. The horses on which these Shepherds sat were without saddles,
but covered with skins of lions, tigers, and lynxes, the paws of
which, overlaid with gold, hung at their sides with much grace and
beauty. The ornaments of their croups and of the grooms were of gold
cord, the stirrups were heads of rams, dogs, and other suchlike
animals, and the bridles and reins made with silver cord and various
kinds of verdure. Each Shepherd had four grooms in the garb of
shepherd-boys, dressed more simply in other skins, with torches
fashioned in the form of dry trunks and branches of pine, which made a
most beautiful sight.
Upon the second car, drawn by two pairs of oxen draped in the richest
cloth, with garlands on their heads and great paternosters hanging
from their gilded horns, was Numa Pompilius, the second King of Rome,
with the books of religion and all the sacerdotal instruments and the
things appertaining to sacrifices, for the reason that he was the
originator and first founder of religion and sacrifices among the
Romans. This car was accompanied by six priests on most beautiful
she-mules, their heads covered with hoods of linen embroidered with
silver and gold in a masterly pattern of ivy-leaves; and on their
bodies they had sacerdotal vestments in the ancient fashion, with
borders and fringes of gold all round, and in the hands one had a
thurible, another a vase of gold, and the rest other similar things.
At their stirrups they had attendants in the guise of Levites, and the
torches that these had in their hands were after the manner of ancient
candelabra, and wrought with beautiful artistry.
The third car represented the Consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus,
who was Consul after the end of the first Carthaginian war, and
governed in such a manner, that in his time there flourished in Rome
every virtue and every blessing. That car, upon which was Titus
himself, with many ornaments executed by Pontormo, was drawn by eight
most beautiful horses, and before it went six couples of Senators clad
in the toga, on horses covered with cloth of gold, accompanied by a
great number of grooms representing Lictors, with the fasces, axes,
and other things appertaining to the administration of justice.
The fourth car, drawn by four buffaloes disguised as elephants,
represented Julius Caesar in Triumph for the victory gained over
Cleopatra, the car being all painted by Pontormo with his most famous
deeds. That car was accompanied by six couples of men-at-arms clad in
rich and brightly shining armour all bordered with gold, with their
lances on their hips; and the torches that the half-armed grooms
carried had the form of trophies, designed in various ways.