Agostino Busto, called Il Bambaja, of whom there has been an account in
the Life of Baccio da Montelupo. Agostino executed some works in S.
Marta, a convent of nuns in Milan, among which, although it is difficult
to obtain leave to enter that place, I have seen the tomb of Monsignor
de Foix, who died at Pavia,[5] in the form of many pieces of marble,
wherein are about ten scenes with little figures, carved with much
diligence, of the deeds, battles, victories, and triumphant assaults on
strongholds of that lord, and finally his death and burial. To put it
briefly, that work is such that I, gazing at it in amazement, stood for
a while marvelling that it was possible for works so delicate and so
extraordinary to be done with the hand and with tools of iron; for there
may be seen in that tomb, executed with the most marvellous carving,
decorations of trophies, arms of every kind, chariots, artillery, and
many other engines of war, and, finally, the body of that lord in
armour, large as life, and almost seeming to be full of gladness, as he
lies dead, at the victories that he had gained. And certainly it is a
pity that this work, which is well worthy to be numbered among the most
stupendous examples of the art, should be unfinished and left to lie on
the ground in pieces, and not built up in some place; wherefore I do not
marvel that some figures have been stolen from it, and then sold and set
up in other places. The truth is that there is so little humanity, or
rather, piety, to be found among men at the present day, that of all
those who were benefited and beloved by de Foix not one has ever felt a
pang for his memory or for the beauty and excellence of the work. By the
hand of the same Agostino Busto are some works in the Duomo, and, as
has been related, the tomb of the Biraghi in S. Francesco, with many
others that are very beautiful in the Certosa of Pavia.
[Footnote 5: Ravenna.]
A rival of Agostino was one Cristofano Gobbo, who also executed many
works in the facade of the above-named Certosa and in the church, and
that so well, that he can be numbered among the best sculptors that
there were in Lombardy at that time. And the Adam and Eve that are in
the east front of the Duomo of Milan, which are by his hand, are held to
be rare works, and such as can stand in comparison with any that have
been executed by other masters in those parts.
Almost at the same time there lived at Milan another sculptor called
Angelo, and by way of surname Ciciliano, who executed on the same side
(of the Duomo), and of equal size, a S. Mary Magdalene raised on high by
four little Angels, which is a very beautiful work, and by no means
inferior to those of Cristofano. That sculptor also gave his attention
to architecture, and executed, among other works, the portico of S.
Celso in Milan, which was finished after his death by Tofano, called
Lombardino, who, as was said in the Life of Giulio Romano, built many
churches and palaces throughout all Milan, and, in particular, the
convent, church, and facade of the Nuns of S. Caterina at the Porta
Ticinese, with many other buildings similar to these.
Silvio da Fiesole, labouring at the instance of Tofano in the works of
that Duomo, executed in the ornament of a door that faces between the
west and the north, wherein are several scenes from the life of Our
Lady, the scene containing her Espousal, which is very beautiful; and
that of equal size opposite to it, in which is the Marriage of Cana in
Galilee, is by the hand of Marco da Gra, a passing well-practised
sculptor. The work of these scenes is now being continued by a very
studious young man called Francesco Brambilari, who has carried one of
them almost to completion, a very beautiful work, in which are the
Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit. He has made, also, a drop-shaped
console of marble, all in open-work, with foliage and a group of
children that are marvellous; and over that work, which is to be placed
in the Duomo, there is to go a statue in marble of Pope Pius IV, one of
the Medici, and a citizen of Milan.
If there had been in that place the study of those arts that there is
in Rome and in Florence, those able masters would have done, and would
still be doing, astonishing things. And, in truth, they are greatly
indebted at the present day to the Chevalier Leone Lioni of Arezzo, who,
as will be told, has spent much time and money in bringing to Milan
casts of many ancient works, taken in gesso, for his own use and that of
the other craftsmen.
But to return to the Milanese painters; after Leonardo da Vinci had
executed there the Last Supper already described, many sought to imitate
him, and these were Marco Oggioni and others, of whom mention has been
made in Leonardo's Life. In addition to them, Cesare da Sesto, likewise
a Milanese, imitated him very well; and, besides what has been mentioned
in the Life of Dosso, he painted a large picture that is in the house of
the Mint in Milan, a truly abundant and beautiful work, in which is
Christ being baptized by John. By the same hand, also, in that place, is
a head of Herodias, with that of S. John the Baptist in a charger,
executed with most beautiful artistry. And finally he painted for S.
Rocco, without the Porta Romana, an altar-piece containing that Saint as
a very young man; with other pictures that are much extolled.
Gaudenzio, a Milanese painter, who in his lifetime was held to be an
able master, painted the altar-piece of the high-altar in S. Celso. In a
chapel of S. Maria delle Grazie he executed in fresco the Passion of
Jesus Christ, with figures of the size of life in strange attitudes; and
then, in competition with Tiziano, he painted an altar-piece for a place
below that chapel, in which, although he was very confident, he did not
surpass the works of the others who had laboured in that place.
Bernardino del Lupino, of whom some mention was made not very far back,
painted in Milan, near S. Sepolcro, the house of Signor Gian Francesco
Rabbia--that is, the facade, loggie, halls, and apartments--depicting
there many of the Metamorphoses of Ovid and other fables, with good and
beautiful figures, executed with much delicacy. And in the Monastero
Maggiore he painted all the great altar-wall with different stories, and
likewise, in a chapel, Christ scourged at the Column, with many other
works, which are all passing good.
[Illustration: GAUDENZIO FERRARI: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_Milan: Brera, 277. Panel_)]
And let this be the end of the above-written Lives of various Lombard
craftsmen.
[Illustration: S. PAUL
(_After the panel by =Gaudenzio [Gaudenzio Ferrari]=. Paris: Louvre,
1285_)
_Alinari_]
RIDOLFO, DAVID, AND BENEDETTO GHIRLANDAJO
LIVES OF RIDOLFO, DAVID, AND BENEDETTO GHIRLANDAJO
PAINTERS OF FLORENCE
Although it appears in a certain sense impossible that one who imitates
some man excellent in our arts, and follows in his footsteps, should not
become in great measure like him, nevertheless it may be seen that very
often the brothers and sons of persons of singular ability do not follow
their kinsmen in this respect, but fall away strangely from their
standard. Which comes to pass, I think, not because there are not in
them, through their blood, the same fiery spirit and the same genius,
but rather from another reason--that is, from overmuch ease and comfort
and from an over-abundance of means, which often prevent men from
becoming industrious and assiduous in their studies. Yet this rule is
not so fixed that the contrary does not sometimes happen.
David and Benedetto Ghirlandajo, although they had very good parts and
could have followed their brother Domenico in the matters of art, yet
did not do so, for the reason that after the death of that same brother
they strayed away from the path of good work, one of them, Benedetto,
spending a long time as a wanderer, and the other distilling his brains
away vainly in the study of mosaic. David, who had been much beloved by
Domenico, and who loved him equally, both living and dead, finished
after his death, in company with his brother Benedetto, many works begun
by Domenico, and in particular the altar-piece of the high-altar in S.
Maria Novella, that is, the part at the back, which now faces the choir;
and some pupils of the same Domenico finished the predella in little
figures, Niccolaio painting with great diligence, below the figure of
S. Stephen, a disputation of that Saint, while Francesco Granacci,
Jacopo del Tedesco, and Benedetto executed the figures of S. Antonino,
Archbishop of Florence, and S. Catharine of Siena. And they painted an
altar-picture of S. Lucia that is in that place, with the head of a
friar, near the centre of the church; and many other paintings and
pictures that are in the houses of various individuals.
After having been several years in France, where he worked and earned
not a little, Benedetto returned to Florence with many privileges and
presents that he had received from that King in testimony of his
talents. And finally, after having given his attention not only to
painting but also to miniatures, he died at the age of fifty.
David, although he drew and worked much, yet did not greatly surpass
Benedetto: and this may have come about from his being too prosperous,
and from not keeping his thoughts fixed on art, who is never found save
by him who seeks her, and, when found, must not be abandoned, or she
flies away. By the hand of David, in the garden of the Monks of the
Angeli in Florence, at the head of a path that is opposite to a door
that leads into that garden, are two figures in fresco at the foot of a
Crucifix--namely, S. Benedict and S. Romualdo--with some other similar
works, little worthy to have any record made of them. But, while David
himself would not give attention to art, it was not a little to his
credit that he caused his nephew Ridolfo, the son of Domenico, to devote
himself to it with all diligence, and set him on the right way; for that
Ridolfo, who was under the care of David, being a lad of beautiful
genius, was placed by him to practise painting, and provided with all
facilities for study by his uncle, who repented too late that he had not
studied that art, and had spent all his time on mosaic. David executed
on a thick panel of walnut-wood, which was to be sent to the King of
France, a Madonna in mosaic, with some Angels about her, which was much
extolled. And, living at Montaione, a township in Valdelsa, where he had
furnaces, glass, and wood at his command, he executed there many works
in glass and mosaic, and in particular some vases, which were presented
to the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici, the elder, and three heads, that
of S. Peter, that of S. Laurence, and that of Giuliano de' Medici, on a
dish of copper, which are now in the guardaroba of the Duke.
[Illustration: CHRIST BEARING THE CROSS
(_After the painting by =Ridolfo Ghirlandajo=. London: National Gallery,
1143_)
_Mansell_]
Meanwhile Ridolfo, drawing from the cartoon of Michelagnolo, was held to
be one of the best draughtsmen thus employed, and was therefore much
beloved by everyone, and particularly by Raffaello Sanzio of Urbino, who
at that time, also being a young man of great reputation, was living in
Florence, as has been related, in order to learn art. After Ridolfo had
studied from that cartoon, and had become well-practised in painting
under Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco, he already knew so much, according
to the judgment of the best masters, that Raffaello, when about to go to
Rome at the summons of Pope Julius II, left him to finish the blue
drapery and other little things that were wanting in the picture of a
Madonna that he had painted for some gentlemen of Siena; which picture
Ridolfo, after he had finished it with much diligence, sent to Siena.
And Raffaello had not been long in Rome before he sought in many ways to
attract Ridolfo to that city, but he, having never been out of sight of
the Cupola, as the saying goes, and not being able to reconcile himself
to living out of Florence, never accepted any proposal made to him that
would interfere with his living in that city.
For the Convent of the Nuns of Ripoli Ridolfo painted two altar-pieces
in oils: in one the Coronation of Our Lady, and in the other a Madonna
surrounded by certain Saints. For the Church of S. Gallo he painted in
an altar-piece Christ bearing the Cross, with a good number of soldiers,
and the Madonna and the other Maries, who are weeping in company with
John, while Veronica is offering the Sudarium to Christ; all showing
force and animation. That work, in which are many very beautiful heads,
taken from life and executed with lovingness, acquired a great name for
Ridolfo; and in it are portrayed his father and some lads who were
working with him, and, of his friends, Poggino, Scheggia, and Nunziata,
the head of the last-named being very lifelike. That Nunziata, although
he was a puppet-painter, was in some things a person of distinction, and
above all in preparing fireworks and the girandole that were made every
year for the festival of S. John; and, since he was an amusing and
facetious person, everyone took great pleasure in conversing with him. A
citizen once saying to him that he was displeased with certain painters
who could paint nothing but lewd things, and that he therefore wished
him to paint a picture of a Madonna that might be seemly, well advanced
in years and not likely to provoke lascivious thoughts, Nunziata painted
him one with a beard. Another meaning to ask from him a Christ on the
Cross for a ground-floor room where he lived in summer, and not being
able to say anything but "I want a Christ on the Cross for summer,"
Nunziata, who saw him to be a simpleton, painted him one in breeches.
But to return to Ridolfo. Having been commissioned to paint the Nativity
of Christ in an altar-piece for the Monastery of Cestello, he exerted
himself much, in order to surpass his rivals, and executed that work
with the greatest diligence and labour at his command, painting therein
the Madonna, who is adoring the Infant Christ, S. Joseph, and two
figures, S. Francis and S. Jerome, kneeling. He also made there a most
beautiful landscape, very like the Sasso della Vernia, where S. Francis
received the Stigmata, and above the hut some Angels that are singing;
and the whole work was very beautiful in colouring, and passing good in
relief. About the same time, after executing an altar-piece that went to
Pistoia, he set his hand to two others for the Company of S. Zanobi,
which is beside the canonical buildings of S. Maria del Fiore; which
altar-pieces were to stand on either side of the Annunciation that
Mariotto Albertinelli had formerly painted there, as was related in his
Life. Ridolfo, then, carried the two pictures to completion with great
satisfaction to the men of that Company, painting in one S. Zanobi
restoring a boy to life in the Borgo degli Albizzi in Florence, which is
a very lively and spirited scene, for there are in it many heads
portrayed from life, and some women who show very vividly their joy and
astonishment at seeing the boy reviving and the spirit returning to him.
In the other is the scene of the same S. Zanobi being carried dead by
six Bishops from S. Lorenzo, where he was first buried, to S. Maria del
Fiore, when, passing through the Piazza di S. Giovanni, an elm that was
there, all withered, on the spot where there is now a column of marble,
with a cross upon it in memory of the miracle, was no sooner touched
(through the will of God) by the coffin wherein was the holy corpse,
than it put forth leaves again and burst into bloom; which picture was
no less beautiful than the others by Ridolfo mentioned above.
[Illustration: THE MIRACLE OF S. ZANOBI
(_After the painting by =Ridolfo Ghirlandajo=. Florence: Uffizi, 1275_)
_Anderson_]
Now those works were executed by that painter while his uncle David was
still alive, and that good old man took the greatest pleasure in them,
thanking God that he had lived so long as to see the art of Domenico
come to life again, as it were, in Ridolfo. But finally, being
seventy-four years of age, while he was preparing, old as he was, to go
to Rome to take part in the holy Jubilee, he fell ill and died in the
year 1525, and received burial from Ridolfo in S. Maria Novella, where
the others of the Ghirlandajo family lie.
Ridolfo had a brother called Don Bartolommeo in the Angeli, a seat of
the Monks of Camaldoli in Florence, who was a truly religious, upright,
and worthy man; and Ridolfo, who loved him much, painted for him in the
cloister that opens into the garden--that is, in the loggia where there
are the stories of S. Benedict painted in verdaccio by the hand of Paolo
Uccello, on the right hand as one enters by the door of the garden--a
scene in which that same Saint, seated at table with two Angels beside
him, is waiting for bread to be sent for him into the grotto by Romanus,
but the Devil has cut the cord with stones; and the same Saint investing
a young man with the habit. But the best figure of all those that are on
that little arch, is the portrait of a dwarf who stood at the door of
the monastery at that time. In the same place, over the holy-water font
at the entrance into the church, he painted in fresco-colours a Madonna
with the Child in her arms, and some Angels about her, all very
beautiful. And in the cloister that is in front of the chapter-house, in
a lunette over the door of a little chapel, he painted in fresco S.
Romualdo with the Church of the Hermitage of Camaldoli in his hand: and
not long afterwards a very beautiful Last Supper that is at the head of
the refectory of the same monks, which he did at the commission of Don
Andrea Doffi the Abbot, who had been a monk of that monastery, and who
had his own portrait painted in a corner at the foot.
Ridolfo also executed three very beautiful stories of the Madonna, which
have the appearance of miniatures, on a predella in the little Church of
the Misericordia, in the Piazza di S. Giovanni. And for Matteo Cini, in
a little tabernacle on the corner of his house, near the Piazza di S.
Maria Novella, he painted Our Lady, S. Matthew the Apostle, and S.
Dominic, with two little sons of that Matteo on their knees, portrayed
from life; which work, although small, is very beautiful and full of
grace. For the Nuns of S. Girolamo, of the Order of S. Francesco de'
Zoccoli, on the heights of S. Giorgio, he painted two altar-pieces; in
one is S. Jerome in Penitence, very beautiful, with a Nativity of Jesus
Christ in the lunette above, and in the other, which is opposite to the
first, is an Annunciation, and in the lunette above S. Mary Magdalene
partaking of the Communion. In the Palace that is now the Duke's he
painted the chapel where the Signori used to hear Mass, executing in the
centre of the vaulting the most Holy Trinity, and in the other
compartments some little Angels who are holding the Mysteries of the
Passion, with some heads representing the twelve Apostles. In the four
corners he painted the four Evangelists in whole-length figures, and at
the head the Angel Gabriel bringing the Annunciation to the Virgin,
depicting in a kind of landscape the Piazza della Nunziata in Florence
as far as the Church of S. Marco; and all this work is executed
excellently well, with many beautiful ornaments. When it was finished,
he painted in an altar-piece, which was placed in the Pieve of Prato,
Our Lady presenting the Girdle to S. Thomas, who is with the other
Apostles. For Ognissanti, at the commission of Monsignor de' Bonafe,
Director of the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova, and Bishop of Cortona, he
executed an altar-piece with Our Lady, S. John the Baptist, and S.
Romualdo; and for the same patron, having served him well, he painted
some other works, of which there is no need to make mention. He then
copied the three Labours of Hercules (which Antonio del Pollaiuolo had
formerly painted in the Palace of the Medici), for Giovan Battista della
Palla, who sent them to France.
[Illustration: RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO: PORTRAIT OF A LADY
(_Florence: Pitti, 224. Panel_)]
After he had executed these and many other pictures, Ridolfo, happening
to have in his house all the appliances for working in mosaic which had
belonged to his uncle David and his father Domenico, and having also
learned something of that work from the uncle, determined that he would
try to do some work in mosaic with his own hand. Which having done, and
finding that he was successful, he undertook to decorate the arch that
is over the door of the Nunziata, wherein he made the Angel bringing
the Annunciation to Our Lady. But, since he had not the patience for
putting together all those little pieces, he never again did any work in
that field of art.
For a little church of the Company of Wool-carders at the head of the
Campaccio, he painted in an altar-piece the Assumption of the Madonna,
with a choir of Angels, and the Apostles about the Sepulchre. But by
misadventure, the room in which the picture was having been filled in
the year of the siege with green broom for making fascines, the damp so
softened the gesso that it all peeled away; wherefore Ridolfo had to
repaint it, and made in it his own portrait. At the Pieve of Giogoli, in
a tabernacle that is on the high road, he painted Our Lady with two
Angels; and in another tabernacle opposite to a mill of the Eremite
Fathers of Camaldoli, which is on the Ema, beyond the Certosa, he
painted many figures in fresco. By reason of all which works, Ridolfo,
finding himself sufficiently employed, and living comfortably with a
good income, would by no means rack his brains to do all that he could
have done in painting, but rather became disposed to live like a
gentleman and take life as it came.
For the visit of Pope Leo to Florence, he executed in company with his
young men and assistants all the festive preparations in the house of
the Medici, and decorated the Sala del Papa and the adjoining rooms,
causing the chapel to be painted by Pontormo, as has been related. In
like manner, for the nuptials of Duke Giuliano and Duke Lorenzo he
executed the decorations and some scenery for comedies; and, since he
was much beloved by those lords for his excellence, he received many
offices by their means, and was elected to the Collegio as an honoured
citizen. Ridolfo did not disdain also to make pennons, standards, and
other suchlike things in plenty, and I remember having heard him say
that three times he had painted the banners of the Potenze,[6] which
used every year to hold tournaments and keep the city festive. In short,
all sorts of works used to be executed in his shop, so that many young
men frequented it, each learning that which pleased him best.
[Footnote 6: See note on p. 59, Vol. VI.]
Thus Antonio del Ceraiolo, having been with Lorenzo di Credi, was then
with Ridolfo, and afterwards, having withdrawn by himself, executed many
works and portraits from life. In S. Jacopo tra Fossi there is by the
hand of this Antonio an altar-piece, with S. Francis and S. Mary
Magdalene at the foot of a Crucifix; and in the Church of the Servites,
behind the high-altar, a S. Michelagnolo copied from that by Ghirlandajo
in the Ossa of S. Maria Nuova.
Another disciple of Ridolfo, who acquitted himself very well, was
Mariano da Pescia, by whose hand is a picture of Our Lady, with the
Infant Christ, S. Elizabeth, and S. John, executed very well, in the
above-mentioned chapel of the Palace, which Ridolfo had previously
painted for the Signoria. The same Mariano painted in chiaroscuro the
whole house of Carlo Ginori, in the street which takes its name from
that family, executing there stories from the life of Samson, in a very
beautiful manner. And if this painter had enjoyed a longer life than he
did, he would have become an excellent master.
A disciple of Ridolfo, likewise, was Toto del Nunziata, who painted for
S. Piero Scheraggio, in company with his master, an altar-piece of Our
Lady, with the Child in her arms, and two Saints.
[Illustration: THE CRUCIFIXION WITH SS. FRANCIS AND MARY MAGDALENE
(_After the panel by =Antonio del Ceraiolo=. Florence: Accademia, 163_)
_Brogi_]