Credi, who was also with Andrea del Ceraiolo, called Michele, a young
man of an excellent nature, who executed his works with boldness and
without effort. This Michele, then, following the manner of Ridolfo,
approached him so closely that, whereas at the beginning he received
from his master a third of his earnings, they came to execute their
works in company, and shared the profits. Michele looked upon Ridolfo
always as a father, and loved him, and also was so beloved by him, that,
as one belonging to Ridolfo, he has ever been and still is known by no
other name but Michele di Ridolfo. These two, I say, loving each other
like father and son, executed innumerable works in company. First, for
the Church of S. Felice in Piazza, a place then belonging to the Monks
of Camaldoli, they painted in an altar-piece Christ and Our Lady in the
air, who are praying to God the Father for the people below, where some
Saints are kneeling. In S. Felicita they painted two chapels in fresco,
despatching them in an able manner; in one is the Dead Christ with the
Maries, and in the other the Assumption of Our Lady, with some Saints.
For the Church of the Nuns of S. Jacopo delle Murate they executed an
altar-piece at the commission of Bishop de' Bonafe of Cortona: and for
the Convent of the Nuns of Ripoli another altar-piece with Our Lady and
some Saints. For the Chapel of the Segni, below the organ in the Church
of S. Spirito, they painted, likewise in an altar-piece, Our Lady, S.
Anne, and many other Saints; for the Company of the Neri a picture of
the Beheading of S. John the Baptist; and for the Monachine in Borgo S.
Friano an altar-piece of the Annunciation. In another altar-piece, for
S. Rocco at Prato, they painted S. Rocco, S. Sebastian, and between them
Our Lady; and likewise, for the Company of S. Bastiano, beside S. Jacopo
sopra Arno, they executed an altar-piece containing Our Lady, S.
Sebastian, and S. James; with another for S. Martino alla Palma. And,
finally, they painted for S. Alessandro Vitelli a S. Anne in a picture
that was sent to Citta di Castello, and placed in the chapel of that
lord in S. Fiorido.
But, since the works and pictures that issued from Ridolfo's shop were
without number, and even more so the portraits from life, I shall say
only that a portrait was made by him of Signor Cosimo de' Medici when he
was very young, which was a most beautiful work, and very true to life;
which picture is still preserved in the guardaroba of his Excellency.
Ridolfo was a rapid and resolute painter in certain kinds of work, and
particularly in festive decorations; and thus, for the entry of the
Emperor Charles V into Florence, he executed in ten days an arch at the
Canto alla Cuculia, and another arch in a very short time at the Porta
al Prato for the coming of the most illustrious Lady, Duchess Leonora,
as will be related in the Life of Battista Franco. At the Madonna di
Vertigli, a seat of the Monks of Camaldoli, without the township of
Monte Sansovino, Ridolfo, having with him the above-named Battista
Franco and Michele, executed in chiaroscuro, in a little cloister, all
the stories of the life of Joseph; in the church, the altar-pieces of
the high-altar, and a Visitation of Our Lady in fresco, which is as
beautiful as any work in fresco that Ridolfo ever painted. But lovely
beyond all others, in the venerable aspect of the countenance, is the
figure of S. Romualdo, which is on that high-altar. They also executed
other pictures there, but it must suffice to have spoken of these.
Ridolfo painted grotesques on the vaulting of the Green Chamber in the
Palace of Duke Cosimo, and some landscapes on the walls, which much
pleased the Duke.
Finally, having grown old, Ridolfo lived a very happy life, having his
daughters married, and seeing his sons well started in the affairs of
commerce in France and at Ferrara. And, although afterwards he found
himself so oppressed by the gout that he stayed always in the house or
had to be carried in a chair, nevertheless he bore that infirmity with
great patience, and also some misfortunes suffered by his sons. Old as
he was, he felt a great love for the world of art, and insisted on being
told of, and at times on seeing, those works that he heard much praised,
such as buildings, pictures, and other suchlike things that were being
executed every day; and one day that the Lord Duke was out of Florence,
having had himself carried in his chair into the Palace, he dined there
and stayed the whole day, gazing at that Palace, which was so changed
and transformed from what it was before, that he did not recognize it;
and in the evening, when going away, he said: "I die happy, because I
shall be able to carry to our craftsmen in the next world the news that
I have seen the dead restored to life, the ugly rendered beautiful, and
the old made young." Ridolfo lived seventy-five years, and died in the
year 1560; and he was buried with his forefathers in S. Maria Novella.
His disciple Michele, who, as I have said, is called by no other name
than Michele di Ridolfo, has painted in fresco, since Ridolfo left the
world of art, three great arches over certain gates of the city of
Florence; at S. Gallo, Our Lady, S. John the Baptist, and S. Cosimo,
which are executed with very beautiful mastery; at the Porta al Prato,
other similar figures; and, at the Porta alla Croce, Our Lady, S. John
the Baptist, and S. Ambrogio; with altar-pieces and pictures without
number, painted with good mastery. And I, on account of his goodness and
capacity, have employed him several times, together with others, in the
works of the Palace, with much satisfaction to myself and everyone
besides. But that which pleases me most in him, in addition to his
being a truly honest, orderly, and God-fearing man, is that he has
always in his workshop a good number of young men, whom he teaches with
incredible lovingness.
A disciple of Ridolfo, also, was Carlo Portelli of Loro in the Valdarno
di Sopra, by whose hand are some altar-pieces and innumerable pictures
in Florence; as in S. Maria Maggiore, in S. Felicita, in the Nunnery of
Monticelli, and, at Cestello, the altar-piece of the Chapel of the
Baldesi on the right hand of the entrance into the church, wherein is
the Martyrdom of S. Romolo, Bishop of Fiesole.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA GIVING THE GIRDLE TO S. THOMAS
(_After the painting by =Ridolfo Ghirlandajo=. Prato: Duomo_)
_Brogi_]
GIOVANNI DA UDINE
LIFE OF GIOVANNI DA UDINE
PAINTER
In Udine, a city of Friuli, lived a citizen called Giovanni, of the
family of the Nanni, who was the first of that family to give attention
to the practice of embroidery, in which his descendants afterwards
followed him with such excellence, that their house was called no longer
De' Nanni but De' Ricamatori.[7] Among them, then, one Francesco, who
lived always like an honourable citizen, devoted to the chase and to
other suchlike exercises, had in the year 1494 a son, to whom he gave
the name Giovanni; and this son, while still a child, showed such
inclination to design that it was a thing to marvel at, for, following
behind his father in his hunting and fowling, whenever he had time he
was for ever drawing dogs, hares, bucks, and, in short, all the kinds of
birds and beasts that came into his hands; which he did in such a
fashion that everyone was astonished. Perceiving this inclination, his
father Francesco took him to Venice, and placed him to learn the art of
design with Giorgione da Castelfranco; but, while working under him, the
boy heard the works of Michelagnolo and Raffaello so extolled, that he
resolved at all costs to go to Rome. And so, having obtained from
Domenico Grimani, who was much his father's friend, letters of
introduction to Baldassarre Castiglioni, the Secretary of the Duke of
Mantua and a close friend of Raffaello da Urbino, he went off to that
city. There, having been placed by that Castiglioni in the school of the
young men of Raffaello, he learned excellently well the principles of
art, a thing which is of great importance, for the reason that when a
man begins by adopting a bad manner, it rarely happens that he can
abandon it without great difficulty, in order to learn a better.
[Footnote 7: Embroiderers.]
Giovanni, then, having been only a very short time under the discipline
of Giorgione in Venice, when he had once seen the sweet, graceful, and
beautiful manner of Raffaello, determined, like a young man of fine
intelligence, that he would at all costs attach himself to that manner.
And so, his brain and hand being equal to his noble intention, he made
so much proficience, that in a short time he was able to draw very well
and to work in colour with facility and grace, insomuch that, to put it
in a few words, he succeeded in counterfeiting excellently well every
natural object--animals, draperies, instruments, vases, landscapes,
buildings, and verdure; in which not one of the young men of that school
surpassed him. But, above all, he took supreme delight in depicting
birds of every kind, insomuch that in a short time he filled a book with
them, which was so well varied and so beautiful, that it was a
recreation and a delight to Raffaello. Living with Raffaello was a
Fleming called Giovanni, who was an excellent master in depicting
fruits, leaves, and flowers with a very faithful and pleasing likeness
to nature, although in a manner a little dry and laboured; and from him
Giovanni da Udine learned to make them as beautiful as his master, and,
what is more, with a certain soft and pastose manner that enabled him to
become, as will be related, supremely excellent in some fields of art.
He also learned to execute landscapes with ruined buildings and
fragments of antiquities, and likewise to paint landscapes and verdure
in colours on cloth, in the manner that has been followed after him not
only by the Flemings, but also by all the Italian painters.
Raffaello, who much loved the genius of Giovanni, in executing the
altar-picture of S. Cecilia that is in Bologna, caused him to paint the
organ which that Saint has in her hand; and he counterfeited it so well
from the reality, that it appears as if in relief, and also all the
musical instruments that are at the feet of the Saint. But what was of
much greater import was that he made his painting so similar to that of
Raffaello, that the whole appears as if by one and the same hand. Not
long afterwards, excavations being made at S. Pietro in Vincula, among
the ruins and remains of the Palace of Titus, in the hope of finding
figures, certain rooms were discovered, completely buried under the
ground, which were full of little grotesques, small figures, and scenes,
with other ornaments of stucco in low-relief. Whereupon, Giovanni going
with Raffaello, who was taken to see them, they were struck with
amazement, both the one and the other, at the freshness, beauty, and
excellence of those works, for it appeared to them an extraordinary
thing that they had been preserved for so long a time; but it was no
great marvel, for they had not been open or exposed to the air, which is
wont in time, through the changes of the seasons, to consume all things.
These grotesques--which were called grotesques from their having been
discovered in the underground grottoes--executed with so much design,
with fantasies so varied and so bizarre, with their delicate ornaments
of stucco divided by various fields of colour, and with their little
scenes so pleasing and beautiful, entered so deeply into the heart and
mind of Giovanni, that, having devoted himself to the study of them, he
was not content to draw and copy them merely once or twice; and he
succeeded in executing them with facility and grace, lacking nothing
save a knowledge of the method of making the stucco on which the
grotesques were wrought. Now many before him, as has been related, had
exercised their wits on this, but had discovered nothing save the method
of making the stucco, by means of fire, with gypsum, lime, colophony,
wax, and pounded brick, and of overlaying it with gold; and they had not
found the true method of making stucco similar to that which had been
discovered in those ancient chambers and grottoes. But at that time
works were being executed in lime and pozzolana, as was related in the
Life of Bramante, for the arches and the tribune at the back in S.
Pietro, all the ornaments of foliage, with the ovoli and other members,
being cast in moulds of clay, and Giovanni, after considering that
method of working with lime and pozzolana, began to try if he could
succeed in making figures in low-relief; and so, pursuing his
experiments, he contrived to make them as he desired in every part, save
that the outer surface did not come out with the delicacy and finish
that the ancient works possessed, nor yet so white. On which account he
began to think that it might be necessary to mix with the white lime of
travertine, in place of pozzolana, some substance white in colour;
whereupon, after making trial of various materials, he caused chips of
travertine to be pounded, and found that it answered passing well, but
that still the work was of a livid rather than a pure white, and also
rough and granular. But finally, having caused chips of the whitest
marble that could be found to be pounded and reduced to a fine powder,
and then sifted, he mixed it with white lime of travertine, and
discovered that thus he had succeeded without any doubt in making the
true stucco of the ancients, with all the properties that he had desired
therein. At which rejoicing greatly, he showed to Raffaello what he had
done; wherefore he, who was then executing by order of Pope Leo X, as
has been related, the Loggie of the Papal Palace, caused Giovanni to
decorate all the vaulting there in stucco, with most beautiful ornaments
bordered by grotesques similar to the antique, and with very lovely and
fantastic inventions, all full of the most varied and extravagant things
that could possibly be imagined. Having executed the whole of that
ornamentation in half-relief and low-relief, he then divided it up with
little scenes, landscapes, foliage, and various friezes, in which he
touched the highest level, as it were, that art can reach in that field.
In all this he not only equalled the ancients, but also, in so far as
one can judge from the remains that we have seen, surpassed them, for
the reason that these works of Giovanni's, in beauty of design, in the
invention of figures, and in colouring, whether executed in stucco or
painted, are beyond all comparison superior to those of the ancients
that are to be seen in the Colosseum, and to the paintings in the Baths
of Diocletian and in other places. In what other place are there to be
seen birds painted that are more lifelike and natural, so to speak, in
colouring, in the plumage, and in all other respects, than those that
are in the friezes and pilasters of the Loggie? And they are there in as
many varieties as Nature herself has been able to create, some in one
manner and some in another; and many are perched on bunches, ears, and
panicles, not only of corn, millet, and buckwheat, but of all the kinds
of cereals, vegetables, and fruits that earth has produced from the
beginning of time for the sustenance and nourishment of birds. As for
the fishes, likewise, the sea-monsters, and all the other creatures of
the water that Giovanni depicted in the same place, since the most that
one could say would be too little, it is better to pass them over in
silence rather than seek to attempt the impossible. And what should I
say of the various kinds of fruits and flowers without number that are
there, in all the forms, varieties, and colours that Nature contrives to
produce in all parts of the world and in all the seasons of the year?
What, likewise, of the various musical instruments that are there, all
as real as the reality? And who does not know as a matter of common
knowledge that--Giovanni having painted at the head of the Loggia, where
the Pope had not yet determined what should be done in the way of
masonry, some balusters to accompany the real ones of the Loggia, and
over them a carpet--who, I say, does not know that one day, a carpet
being urgently required for the Pope, who was going to the Belvedere, a
groom, who knew not the truth of the matter, ran from a distance to take
one of those painted carpets, being completely deceived? In short, it
may be said, without offence to other craftsmen, that of all works of
the kind this is the most beautiful, the most rare, and the most
excellent painting that has ever been seen by mortal eye. And, in
addition, I will make bold to say that this work has been the reason
that not Rome only but also all the other parts of the world have been
filled with this kind of painting, for, besides that Giovanni was the
restorer and almost the inventor of grotesques in stucco and of other
kinds, from this his work, which is most beautiful, whoever has wished
to execute such things has taken his exemplar; not to mention that the
young men that assisted Giovanni, who were many, and even, what with one
time and another, innumerable, learned from the true master and filled
every province with them.
Then, proceeding to execute the first range below those Loggie, Giovanni
used another and quite different method in the distribution of the
stucco-work and paintings on the walls and vaultings of the other
Loggie; but nevertheless those also were very beautiful, by reason of
the pleasing invention of the pergole of canes counterfeited in various
compartments, all covered with vines laden with grapes, and with
clematis, jasmine, roses, and various kinds of birds and beasts. Next,
Pope Leo, wishing to have painted the hall where the guard of
halberdiers have their quarters, on the level of the above-named Loggie,
Giovanni, in addition to the friezes of children, lions, Papal arms, and
grotesques that are round that hall, made some divisions on the walls
with imitations of variegated marbles of different kinds, similar to the
incrustations that the ancient Romans used to make on their baths,
temples, and other buildings, such as may be seen in the Ritonda and in
the portico of S. Pietro. In another hall beside that one, which was
used by the Chamberlains, Raffaello da Urbino painted in certain
tabernacles some Apostles in chiaroscuro, large as life and very
beautiful; and over the cornices of that work Giovanni portrayed from
life many parrots of various colours which his Holiness had at that
time, and also baboons, marmosets, civet-cats, and other strange
creatures. But this work had a short life, for the reason that Pope Paul
IV destroyed that apartment in order to make certain small closets and
little places of retirement, and thus deprived the Palace of a very rare
work; which that holy man would not have done if he had possessed any
taste for the arts of design. Giovanni painted the cartoons for those
hangings and chamber-tapestries that were afterwards woven in silk and
gold in Flanders, in which are certain little boys that are sporting
around various festoons, and as ornaments the devices of Pope Leo and
various animals copied from life. These tapestries, which are very rare
works, are still in the Palace at the present day. He also executed the
cartoons for some tapestries full of grotesques, which are in the first
rooms of the Consistory.
[Illustration: ARABESQUES
(_After the fresco by =Giovanni da Udine=. Rome: The Vatican, Loggia_)
_Anderson_]
While Giovanni was labouring at those works, the Palace of M. Giovan
Battista dall'Aquila, which had been erected at the head of the Borgo
Nuovo, near the Piazza di S. Pietro, had the greater part of the facade
decorated in stucco by the hand of the same master, which was held to be
a remarkable work. The same Giovanni executed the paintings and all the
stucco-work in the loggia of the villa that Cardinal Giulio de' Medici
caused to be built under Monte Mario, wherein are animals, grotesques,
festoons, and friezes of such beauty, that it appears as if in that work
Giovanni had sought to outstrip and surpass his own self. Wherefore he
won from that Cardinal, who much loved his genius, in addition to many
benefits that he received for his relatives, the gift of a canonicate
for himself at Civitale in Friuli, which was afterwards given by
Giovanni to a brother of his own. Then, having to make for the same
Cardinal, likewise at that villa, a fountain with the water spouting
through the trunk of an elephant's head in marble, he imitated in the
whole work and in every detail the Temple of Neptune, which had been
discovered a short time before among the ancient ruins of the Palazzo
Maggiore, all adorned with lifelike products of the sea, and wrought
excellently well with various ornaments in stucco; and he even surpassed
by a great measure the artistry of that ancient hall by giving great
beauty to those animals, shells, and other suchlike things without
number, and arranging them very well. After this he made another
fountain, but in a rustic manner, in the hollow of a torrent-bed
surrounded by a wood; causing water to flow in drops and fine jets from
sponge-stones and stalactites, with beautiful artifice, so that it had
all the appearance of a work of nature. On the highest point of those
hollow rocks and sponge-stones he fashioned a large lion's head, which
had around it a garland formed of maidenhair and other plants, trained
there with great artistry; and no one could believe what grace these
gave to that wild place, which was most beautiful in every part and
beyond all conception pleasing.
That work finished, after the Cardinal had made Giovanni a Chevalier of
S. Pietro, he sent him to Florence, to the end that, when a certain
chamber had been made in the Palace of the Medici (at that corner,
namely, where the elder Cosimo, the builder of that edifice, had made a
loggia for the convenience and assemblage of the citizens, as it was the
custom at that time for the most noble families to do), he might paint
and adorn it all with grotesques and stucco. That loggia having then
been enclosed after the design of Michelagnolo Buonarroti, and given the
form of a chamber, with two knee-shaped windows, which were the first to
be made in that manner, with iron gratings, for the exterior of a
palace, Giovanni adorned all the vaulting with stucco-work and painting,
making in a medallion the six balls, the arms of the House of Medici,
supported by three little boys executed in relief in attitudes of great
beauty and grace. Besides this, he made there many most beautiful
animals, and also many most lovely devices of gentlemen and lords of
that illustrious house, together with some scenes in half-relief,
executed in stucco; and on the field of the vaulting he did the rest of
the work in pictures, counterfeiting them after the manner of cameos in
black and white, and so well, that nothing better could be imagined.
There remained four arches beneath the vaulting, each twelve braccia in
breadth and six in height, which were not painted at that time, but many
years afterwards by Giorgio Vasari, as a young man of eighteen years,
when he was in the service of Duke Alessandro de' Medici, his first
lord, in the year 1535; which Giorgio executed there stories from the
life of Julius Caesar, in allusion to the above-named Cardinal Giulio,
who had caused the work to be done. Giovanni then executed on a little
barrel-shaped vault, beside that chamber, some works in stucco in the
lowest of low-relief, and likewise some pictures, which are exquisite;
but, although these pleased the painters that were in Florence at that
time, being wrought with boldness and marvellous mastery, and filled
with spirited and fantastic inventions, yet, since they were accustomed
to a laboured manner of their own and to doing everything that they
carried into execution with copies taken from life, they did not praise
them without reserve, not being altogether decided in their minds, nor
did they set themselves to imitate them, perhaps because they had not
the courage.