Holy Spirit appearing in Tongues of Fire, which was a work worthy of
praise for the composition and for the beauty of the heads. At Bologna,
for the Church of S. Martino, he painted an altar-piece of the three
Magi, with most beautiful heads and figures; and at Ferrara, in company
with Benvenuto Garofalo, as has been related, the facade of the house of
Signor Battista Muzzarelli, and also the Palace of Coppara, a villa of
the Duke's, distant twelve miles from Ferrara; and, again, in Ferrara,
the facade of Piero Soncini in the Piazza near the Fishmarket, painting
there the Taking of Goletta by the Emperor Charles V. The same Girolamo
painted for S. Polo, a church of the Carmelite Friars in the same city,
a little altar-piece in oils of S. Jerome with two other Saints, of the
size of life; and for the Duke's Palace a great picture with a figure
large as life, representing Opportunity, and executed with beautiful
vivacity, movement and grace, and fine relief. He also painted a nude
Venus, life-size and recumbent, with Love beside her, which was sent to
Paris for King Francis of France; and I, who saw it at Ferrara in the
year 1540, can with truth affirm that it was very beautiful. He also
made a beginning with the decorations in the Refectory of S. Giorgio, a
seat of the Monks of Monte Oliveto at Ferrara, and executed a great part
of them; but he left the work unfinished, and it has been completed in
our own day by Pellegrino Pellegrini, a painter of Bologna.
[Illustration: SCENE FROM THE AENEID
(_After the painting by =Niccolo [Niccolo dell'Abate]=. Modena: R.
Galleria Estense_)
_Alinari_]
Now, if we were to seek to make particular mention of the pictures that
Girolamo executed for many lords and gentlemen, the story would be
longer than is our desire, and I shall speak of two only, which are most
beautiful. From a picture by the hand of Correggio that the Chevalier
Baiardo has at Parma, beautiful to a marvel, in which Our Lady is
putting a shirt on the Infant Christ, Girolamo made a copy so like it
that it seems the very same picture, and he made another copy from one
by the hand of Parmigiano, which is in the cell of the Vicar in the
Certosa at Pavia, doing this so well and with such diligence, that there
is no miniature to be seen that is wrought with more subtlety; and he
executed innumerable others with great care. And since Girolamo
delighted in architecture, and also gave his attention to it, in
addition to many designs of buildings that he made for private persons,
he served in that art, in particular, Cardinal Ippolito of Ferrara, who,
having bought the garden at Monte Cavallo in Rome which had formerly
belonged to the Cardinal of Naples, with many vineyards belonging to
individuals around it, took Girolamo to Rome, to the end that he might
serve him not only in the buildings, but also in the truly regal
ornaments of woodwork in that garden. In this he acquitted himself so
well, that everyone was struck with astonishment; and, indeed, I know
not what other man could have done better than he did in executing in
woodwork--which has since been covered with most beautiful
verdure--works so fine and so pleasingly designed in various forms and
in different kinds of temples, in which there may now be seen arranged
the richest and most beautiful ancient statues that there are in Rome,
some whole and some restored by Valerio Cioli, a Florentine sculptor,
and by others.
By these works Girolamo came into very great credit in Rome, and in the
year 1550 he was introduced by the above-named Cardinal, his lord, who
loved him dearly, into the service of Pope Julius III, who made him
architect over the works of the Belvedere, giving him rooms in that
place and a good salary. But, since that Pontiff could never be
satisfied in such matters, and, to make it worse, was hindered by
understanding very little of design, and would not have in the evening a
thing that had pleased him in the morning, and also because Girolamo had
to be always contending with certain old architects, to whom it seemed
strange to see a new man of little reputation preferred to themselves,
he resolved, having perceived their envy and possible malignity, and
also being rather cold by nature than otherwise, to retire. And so he
chose, as the better course, to return to the service of the Cardinal at
Monte Cavallo; for which action Girolamo was much commended, for it is
too wretched a life to have to be always contending all day long and on
every least detail with one person or another, and, as he used to say,
it is at times better to enjoy peace of mind on bread and water than to
sweat and strive amid grandeur and honours. Wherefore, after Girolamo
had executed for his lord the Cardinal a very beautiful picture, which,
when I saw it, pleased me very much, being now weary, he returned with
him to Ferrara, to enjoy the peace of his home with his wife and
children, leaving the hopes and rewards of fortune in the possession of
his adversaries, who received from that Pope the same as he had done,
neither more nor less.
While he was living thus at Ferrara, a part of the Castle was burned, I
know not by what mischance, and Duke Ercole gave the charge of restoring
it to Girolamo, who did it very well, adorning it as much as is possible
in that district, which suffers from a great dearth of stone wherewith
to make carvings and ornaments; for which he well deserved to be always
held dear by that lord, who rewarded him liberally for his labours.
Finally, after having executed these and many other works, Girolamo died
in the year 1556, at the age of fifty-five, and was buried in the Church
of the Angeli, beside his wife. He left two daughters, and also three
sons, Giulio, Annibale, and another.
Girolamo was a blithe spirit, very sweet and pleasing in his
conversation, and in his work somewhat slow and dilatory. He was of
middle stature, and he delighted beyond measure in music, and more in
the pleasures of love than was perhaps expedient. The buildings of his
patrons have been carried on since his death by the Ferrarese architect
Galasso, a man of the most beautiful genius, and of such judgment in
matters of architecture, that, in so far as may be seen from the
ordering of his designs, he would have demonstrated his worth much more
than he has done, if he had been employed in works of importance.
An excellent sculptor, and likewise a Ferrarese, has been Maestro
Girolamo, who, living at Recanati, has executed many works in marble at
Loreto after his master, Andrea Contucci, and has made many of the
ornaments round that Chapel or House of the Madonna. This master--since
the departure from that place of Tribolo, who was the last there, after
he had finished the largest scene in marble, which is at the back of the
chapel, wherein are the Angels carrying that house from Sclavonia into
the forest of Loreto--has laboured there continually from 1534 to the
year 1560, executing many works. The first of these was a seated figure
of a Prophet of three braccia and a half, which, being good and
beautiful, was placed in a niche that is turned towards the west; which
statue, having given satisfaction, was the reason that he afterwards
made all the other Prophets, with the exception of one, that facing
towards the east on the outer side, over against the altar, which is by
the hand of Simone Cioli of Settignano, likewise a disciple of Andrea
Sansovino. The rest of those Prophets, I say, are by the hand of Maestro
Girolamo, and are executed with much diligence and study and good skill
of hand. For the Chapel of the Sacrament the same master has made the
candelabra of bronze about three braccia in height, covered with foliage
and figures cast in the round, which are so well wrought that they are
things to marvel at. And a brother of Maestro Girolamo's, who is an able
master in similar works of casting, has executed many things in company
with him at Rome, and in particular a very large tabernacle of bronze
for Pope Paul III, which was to be placed in the chapel that is called
the Pauline in the Palace of the Vatican.
Among the Modenese, also, there have been at all times craftsmen
excellent in our arts, as has been said in other places, and as may be
seen from four panel-pictures, of which no mention was made in the
proper place because the master was not known; which pictures were
executed in distemper a hundred years ago in that city, and, for those
times, they are painted with diligence and very beautiful. The first is
on the high-altar of S. Domenico, and the others in the chapels that are
in the tramezzo[1] of that church. And there is living in the same
country at the present day a painter called Niccolo, who in his youth
painted many works in fresco about the Beccherie, which have no little
beauty, and for the high-altar of S. Piero, a seat of the Black Friars,
in an altar-piece, the Beheading of S. Peter and S. Paul, imitating in
the soldier who is cutting off their heads a similar figure by the hand
of Antonio da Correggio, much renowned, which is in S. Giovanni
Evangelista at Parma. Niccolo has been more excellent in fresco-painting
than in the other fields of painting, and, in addition to many works
that he has executed at Modena and Bologna, I understand that he has
painted some very choice pictures in France, where he still lives, under
Messer Francesco Primaticcio, Abbot of S. Martin, after whose designs
Niccolo has painted many works in those parts, as will be related in the
Life of Primaticcio.
[Footnote 1: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]
Giovan Battista, also, a rival of that Niccolo, has executed many works
in Rome and elsewhere, and in particular he has painted at Perugia, in
the Chapel of Signor Ascanio della Cornia, in S. Francesco, many
pictures of the life of S. Andrew the Apostle, in which he has acquitted
himself very well. In competition with the above-named Niccolo, the
Fleming Arrigo, a master of glass windows, has painted in the same place
an altar-piece in oils, containing the story of the Magi, which would be
beautiful enough if it were not somewhat confused and overloaded with
colours, which conflict with one another and destroy all the gradation;
but he has acquitted himself better in a window of glass designed and
painted by himself, and executed for the Chapel of S. Bernardino in S.
Lorenzo, in the same city. But to return to Giovan Battista; having gone
back after the above-named works to Modena, he has executed in the same
S. Piero, for which Niccolo painted the altar-piece, two great scenes at
the sides, of the actions of S. Peter and S. Paul, in which he has
acquitted himself with no ordinary excellence.
In the same city of Modena there have also been some sculptors worthy to
be numbered among the good craftsmen, for, in addition to Modanino, of
whom mention has been made in another place, there has been a master
called Il Modena, who has executed most beautiful works in figures of
terra-cotta, of the size of life and even larger; among others, those of
a chapel in S. Domenico at Modena, and for the centre of the dormitory
of S. Piero (a monastery of Black Friars, likewise in Modena), a
Madonna, S. Benedict, S. Giustina, and another Saint. To all these
figures he has given so well the colour of marble, that they appear as
if truly of that stone; not to mention that they all have beautiful
expressions of countenance, lovely draperies, and admirable proportions.
The same master has executed similar figures for the dormitory of S.
Giovanni Evangelista at Parma; and he has made a good number of figures
in the round and of the size of life for many niches on the outer side
of S. Benedetto at Mantua, in the facade and under the portico, which
are so fine that they have the appearance of marble.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH S. JOHN
(_After the terra-cotta by =Il Modena [Antonio Begarelli]=. Modena:
Museo Civico_)
_Alinari_]
In like manner Prospero Clemente, a sculptor of Modena, has been, and
still is, an able man in his profession, as is evident from the tomb of
Bishop Rangone, by his hand, in the Duomo of Reggio, wherein is a seated
statue of that prelate, as large as life, with two little boys, all very
well executed; which tomb he made at the commission of Signor Ercole
Rangone. In the Duomo of Parma, likewise, in the vaults below, there
is by the hand of Prospero the tomb of the Blessed Bernardo degli
Uberti, the Florentine, Cardinal and Bishop of that city, which was
finished in the year 1548, and much extolled.
Parma, also, has had at various times many excellent craftsmen and men
of fine genius, as has been said above, for, besides one Cristofano
Castelli, who painted a very beautiful altar-piece for the Duomo in the
year 1499, and Francesco Mazzuoli, whose Life has been written, there
have been many other able men in that city. Mazzuoli, as has been
related, executed certain works in the Madonna della Steccata, but left
that undertaking unfinished at his death, and Giulio Romano, having made
a coloured design on paper, which may be seen in that place by everyone,
directed that a certain Michelagnolo Anselmi, a Sienese by origin, but a
citizen of Parma by adoption, being a good painter, should carry that
cartoon into execution, wherein is the Coronation of Our Lady. This he
did excellently well, in truth, so that he well deserved that there
should be allotted to him a great niche--one of four very large niches
that are in that temple--opposite to that in which he had executed the
above-mentioned work after the design of Giulio. Whereupon, setting his
hand to this, he carried well on towards completion there the Adoration
of the Magi, with a good number of beautiful figures, making on the flat
arch, as was related before in the Life of Mazzuoli, the Wise Virgins
and the design of copper rosettes; but, when about a third of that work
remained for him to do, he died, and so it was finished by Bernardo
Soiaro of Cremona, as we shall relate in a short time. By the hand of
that Michelagnolo is the Chapel of the Conception in S. Francesco, in
the same city; and a Celestial Glory in the Chapel of the Cross in S.
Pier Martire.
Girolamo Mazzuoli, the cousin of Francesco, as has been told, continuing
the work in that Church of the Madonna, left unfinished by his kinsman,
painted an arch with the Wise Virgins and adorned it with rosettes.
Then, in the recess at the end, opposite to the principal door, he
painted the Holy Spirit descending in Tongues of Fire on the Apostles,
and in the last of the flat arches the Nativity of Jesus Christ, which,
although not yet uncovered, he has shown to us this year of 1566, to our
great pleasure, since it is a truly beautiful example of work in
fresco. The great central tribune of the same Madonna della Steccata,
which is being painted by Bernardo Soiaro, the painter of Cremona, will
also be, when finished, a rare work, and able to compare with the others
that are in that place. But of all these it cannot be said that the
cause has been any other than Francesco Mazzuoli, who was the first who
with beautiful judgment began the magnificent ornamentation of that
church, which, so it is said, was built after the designs and directions
of Bramante.
[Illustration: FOUR SAINTS
(_After =Begarelli=. Modena: S. Pietro_)
_Anderson_]
As for the masters of our arts in Mantua, besides what has been said of
them up to the time of Giulio Romano, I must say that he sowed the seeds
of his art in Mantua and throughout all Lombardy in such a manner that
there have been able men there ever since, and his own works are every
day more clearly recognized as good and worthy of praise. And although
Giovan Battista Bertano, the principal architect for the buildings of
the Duke of Mantua, has constructed in the Castle, over the part where
there are the waters and the corridor, many apartments that are
magnificent and richly adorned with stucco-work and pictures, executed
for the most part by Fermo Ghisoni, the disciple of Giulio, and by
others, as will be related, nevertheless he has not equalled those made
by Giulio himself. The same Giovan Battista has caused Domenico
Brusciasorzi to execute after his design for S. Barbara, the church of
the Duke's Castle, an altar-piece in oils truly worthy to be praised, in
which is the Martyrdom of that Saint. And, in addition, having studied
Vitruvius, he has written and published a work on the Ionic volute,
showing how it should be turned, after that author; and at the principal
door of his house at Mantua he has placed a complete column of stone,
and the flat module of another, with all the measurements of that Ionic
Order marked, and also the palm, inch, foot, and braccio of the
ancients, to the end that whoever so desires may be able to see whether
those measurements are correct or not. In the Church of S. Piero, the
Duomo of Mantua, which was the work and architecture of the above-named
Giulio Romano, since in renovating it he gave it a new and modern form,
the same Bertano has caused an altar-piece to be executed for each
chapel by the hands of various painters; and two of these he has had
painted after his own designs by the above-mentioned Fermo Ghisoni,
one for the Chapel of S. Lucia, containing that Saint and two children,
and the other for that of S. Giovanni Evangelista. Another similar
picture he caused to be executed by Ippolito Costa of Mantua, in which
is S. Agata with the hands bound and between two soldiers, who are
cutting and tearing away her breasts. Battista d'Agnolo del Moro of
Verona painted for the same Duomo, as has been told, the altar-piece
that is on the altar of S. Maria Maddalena, and Girolamo Parmigiano that
of S. Tecla. Paolo Farinato of Verona Bertano commissioned to execute
the altar-piece of S. Martino, and the above-named Domenico Brusciasorzi
that of S. Margherita; and Giulio Campo of Cremona painted that of S.
Gieronimo. And one that was better than any other, although all are very
beautiful, in which is S. Anthony the Abbot beaten by the Devil in the
form of a woman, who tempts him, is by the hand of Paolo Veronese. But
of all the craftsmen of Mantua, that city has never had a more able
master in painting than Rinaldo, who was a disciple of Giulio. By his
hand is an altar-piece in S. Agnese in that city, wherein is Our Lady in
the air, with S. Augustine and S. Jerome, which are very good figures;
but him death snatched from the world before his time.
In a very beautiful antiquarium and study made by Signor Cesare Gonzaga,
which is full of ancient statues and heads of marble, that lord has had
the genealogical tree of the House of Gonzaga painted, in order to adorn
it, by Fermo Ghisoni, who has acquitted himself very well in everything,
and especially in the expressions of the heads. The same Signor Cesare
has placed there, in addition, some pictures that are certainly very
rare, such as that of the Madonna with the Cat which Raffaello da Urbino
painted, and another wherein Our Lady with marvellous grace is washing
the Infant Jesus. In another little cabinet made for medals, which has
been beautifully wrought in ebony and ivory by one Francesco da
Volterra, who has no equal in such works, he has some little antique
figures in bronze, which could not be more beautiful than they are.
In short, between the last time that I saw Mantua and this year of 1566,
when I have revisited that city, it has become so much more beautiful
and ornate, that, if I had not seen it for myself, I would not believe
it; and, what is more, the craftsmen have multiplied there, and they
still continue to multiply. Thus, to that Giovan Battista Mantovano, an
excellent sculptor and engraver of prints, of whom we have spoken in the
Life of Giulio Romano and in that of Marc'Antonio Bolognese, have been
born two sons, who engrave copper-plates divinely well, and, what is
even more astonishing, a daughter, called Diana, who also engraves so
well that it is a thing to marvel at; and I who saw her, a very gentle
and gracious girl, and her works, which are most beautiful, was struck
with amazement.
Nor will I omit to say that in S. Benedetto, a very celebrated monastery
of Black Friars at Mantua, renovated by Giulio Romano after a most
beautiful design, are many works executed by the above-named craftsmen
of Mantua and other Lombards, in addition to those described in the Life
of the same Giulio. There are, then, works by Fermo Ghisoni, such as a
Nativity of Christ, two altar-pieces by Girolamo Mazzuoli, three by
Lattanzio Gambara of Brescia, and three others by Paolo Veronese, which
are the best. In the same place, at the head of the refectory, by the
hand of a certain Fra Girolamo, a lay-brother of S. Dominic, as has been
related elsewhere, is a picture in oils which is a copy of the very
beautiful Last Supper that Leonardo painted in S. Maria delle Grazie at
Milan, and copied so well, that I was amazed by it. Of which
circumstance I make mention again very willingly, having seen Leonardo's
original in Milan, this year of 1566, reduced to such a condition, that
there is nothing to be seen but a mass of confusion; wherefore the piety
of that good father will always bear testimony in that respect to the
genius of Leonardo da Vinci. By the hand of the same monk I have seen in
the above-named house of the Mint, at Milan, a picture copied from one
by Leonardo, in which are a woman that is smiling and S. John the
Baptist as a boy, counterfeited very well.
[Illustration: THE PURIFICATION OF THE VIRGIN
(_After the fresco by =Giulio Campi=. Cremona: S. Margherita_)
_Alinari_]
Cremona, as was said in the Life of Lorenzo di Credi and in other
places, has had at various times men who have executed in painting works
worthy of the highest praise. And we have already related that when
Boccaccio Boccaccino was painting the great recess of the Duomo at
Cremona and the stories of Our Lady throughout the church, Bonifazio
Bembi was also a good painter, and Altobello executed in fresco many
stories of Jesus Christ with much more design than have those of
Boccaccino. After these works Altobello painted in fresco a chapel in S.
Agostino of the same city, in a manner full of beauty and grace, as may
be seen by everyone. At Milan, in the Corte Vecchia--that is, the
courtyard, or rather, piazza of the Palace--he painted a standing figure
armed in the ancient fashion, much better than any of the others that
were executed there by many painters about the same time. After the
death of Bonifazio, who left unfinished the above-mentioned stories of
Christ in the Duomo of Cremona, Giovanni Antonio Licinio of Pordenone,
called in Cremona De' Sacchi, finished those stories begun by Bonifazio,
painting there in fresco five scenes of the Passion of Christ with a
grand manner in the figures, bold colouring, and foreshortenings that
have vivacity and force; all which things taught the good method of
painting to the Cremonese, and not in fresco only, but likewise in oils,
for the reason that in the same Duomo, placed against a pilaster in the
centre of the church, is an altar-piece by the hand of Pordenone that is
very beautiful. Camillo, the son of Boccaccino, afterwards imitated that
manner in painting in fresco the principal chapel of S. Gismondo,
without the city, and in other works, and so succeeded much better than
his father had done. That Camillo, however, being slow and even dilatory
in his work, did not paint much save small things and works of little
importance.