Agostino Chigi, which Raffaello had painted and was still engaged in
carrying to completion, a border of large festoons right round the
groins and squares of the vaulting, making there all the kinds of
fruits, flowers, and leaves, season by season, and fashioning them with
such artistry, that everything may be seen there living and standing out
from the wall, and as natural as the reality; and so many are the
various kinds of fruits and plants that are to be seen in that work,
that, in order not to enumerate them one by one, I will say only this,
that there are there all those that Nature has ever produced in our
parts. Above the figure of a Mercury who is flying, he made, to
represent Priapus, a pumpkin entwined in bind-weed, which has for
testicles two egg-plants, and near the flower of the pumpkin he
depicted a cluster of large purple figs, within one of which, over-ripe
and bursting open, the point of the pumpkin with the flower is entering;
which conceit is rendered with such grace, that no one could imagine
anything better. But why say more? To sum the matter up, I venture to
declare that in that kind of painting Giovanni surpassed all those who
have best imitated Nature in such works, for the reason that, besides
all the other things, even the flowers of the elder, of the fennel, and
of the other lesser plants are there in truly astonishing perfection.
There, likewise, may be seen a great abundance of animals in the
lunettes, which are encircled by those festoons, and certain little boys
that are holding in their hands the attributes of the Gods; and, among
other things, a lion and a sea-horse, being most beautifully
foreshortened, are held to be divine.
Having finished that truly extraordinary work, Giovanni executed a very
beautiful bathroom in the Castello di S. Angelo, and in the Papal
Palace, besides those mentioned above, many other small works, which for
the sake of brevity are passed over. Raffaello having then died, whose
loss much grieved Giovanni, and Pope Leo having also left this world,
there was no more place in Rome for the arts of design or for any other
art, and Giovanni occupied himself for many months on some works of
little importance at the villa of the above-named Cardinal de' Medici.
And for the arrival of Pope Adrian in Rome he did nothing but the small
banners of the Castle, which he had renewed twice in the time of Pope
Leo, together with the great standard that flies on the summit of the
highest tower. He also executed four square banners when the Blessed
Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, and S. Hubert, once Bishop of I know
not what city of Flanders, were canonized as Saints by the
above-mentioned Pope Adrian; of which banners, one, wherein is the
figure of that S. Antonino, was given to the Church of S. Marco in
Florence, where the body of the Saint lies, another, wherein is the
figure of S. Hubert, was placed in S. Maria de Anima, the church of the
Germans in Rome, and the other two were sent to Flanders.
Clement VII having then been elected Supreme Pontiff, with whom Giovanni
had a strait bond of service, he returned immediately from Udine,
whither he had gone to avoid the plague, to Rome; where having arrived,
he was commissioned to make a rich and beautiful decoration over the
steps of S. Pietro for the coronation of that Pope. And afterwards it
was ordained that he and Perino del Vaga should paint some pictures on
the vaulting of the old hall opposite to the lower apartments, which
lead from the Loggie, which he had painted before, to the apartments of
the Borgia Tower; whereupon Giovanni executed there a most beautiful
design in stucco-work, with many grotesques and various animals, and
Perino the cars of the seven planets. They had also to paint the walls
of that same hall, on which Giotto, according as is written by Platina
in the Lives of the Pontiffs, had formerly painted some Popes who had
been put to death for the faith of Christ, on which account that hall
was called for a time the Hall of the Martyrs. But the vaulting was
scarcely finished, when there took place that most unhappy sack of Rome,
and the work could not be pursued any further. Thereupon Giovanni,
having suffered not a little both in person and in property, returned
again to Udine, intending to stay there a long time; but in that he did
not succeed, for the reason that Pope Clement, after returning from
Bologna, where he had crowned Charles V, to Rome, caused Giovanni also
to return to that city, where he commissioned him first to make anew the
standards of the Castello di S. Angelo, and then to paint the ceiling of
the great chapel, the principal one in S. Pietro, where the altar of
that Saint is. Meanwhile, Fra Mariano having died, who had the office of
the Piombo, his place was given to Sebastiano Viniziano, a painter of
great repute, and to Giovanni a pension on the same of eighty
chamber-ducats.
Then, after the troubles of the Pontiff had in great measure ceased and
affairs in Rome had grown quiet, Giovanni was sent by his Holiness with
many promises to Florence, to execute in the new sacristy of S. Lorenzo,
which had been adorned with most excellent sculptures by Michelagnolo,
the ornaments of the tribune, which is full of sunk squares that
diminish little by little towards the central point. Setting his hand to
this, then, Giovanni carried it excellently well to completion with the
aid of many assistants, with most beautiful foliage, rosettes, and other
ornaments of stucco and gold; but in one thing he failed in judgment,
for the reason that on the flat friezes that form the ribs of the
vaulting, and on those that run crossways, so as to enclose the squares,
he made foliage, birds, masks, and figures that cannot be seen at all
from the ground, although they are very beautiful, by reason of the
distance, and also because they are divided up by other colours,
whereas, if he had painted them in colours without any other
elaboration, they would have been visible, and the whole work would have
been brighter and richer. There remained no more of the work to be
executed than he would have been able to finish in a fortnight, going
over it again in certain places, when there came the news of the death
of Pope Clement, and Giovanni was robbed of all his hopes, particularly
of that which he expected from that Pontiff as the reward and guerdon of
this work. Wherefore, having recognized, although too late, how
fallacious in most cases are the hopes based on the favour of Courts,
and how often those who put their trust in the lives of particular
Princes are left disappointed, he returned to Rome; but, although he
would have been able to live there on his offices and revenues, serving
also Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici and the new Pontiff, Paul III, he
resolved to repatriate himself and to return to Udine.
Carrying that intention into effect, therefore, he went back to live in
his native place with that brother to whom he had given the canonicate,
determined that he would never more handle a brush. But in this also he
was disappointed, for the reason that, having taken a wife and had
children by her, he was in a manner forced by the instinct that a man
naturally feels to bring up his children and to leave them in good
circumstances, to set himself once more to work. He painted, then, at
the entreaty of the father of the Chevalier Giovan Francesco di
Spilimbergo, a frieze in a hall, filling it with children, festoons,
fruits, and other things of fancy. After that, he adorned with lovely
paintings and works in stucco the Chapel of S. Maria at Civitale; and
for the Canons of the Duomo of that place he executed two most beautiful
standards. And for the Confraternity of S. Maria di Castello, at Udine,
he painted on a rich banner Our Lady with the Child in her arms, and an
Angel full of grace who is offering to her that Castello, which stands
on a hill in the centre of the city. At Venice, in the Palace of
Grimani, the Patriarch of Aquileia, he decorated with stucco-work and
paintings a very beautiful chamber in which are some lovely little
scenes by the hand of Francesco Salviati.
Finally, in the year 1550, Giovanni went to Rome to take part in the
most holy Jubilee, on foot and dressed poorly as a pilgrim, and in the
company of humble folk; and he stayed there many days without being
known by anyone. But one day, while going to S. Paolo, he was recognized
by Giorgio Vasari, who was riding in a coach to the same Pardon in
company with Messer Bindo Altoviti, who was much his friend. At first
Giovanni denied that it was he, but finally he was forced to reveal
himself and to confess that he had great need of Giorgio's assistance
with the Pope in the matter of the pension that he had from the Piombo,
which was being denied to him by one Fra Guglielmo, a Genoese sculptor,
who had received that office after the death of Fra Sebastiano. Giorgio
spoke of this matter to the Pope, which was the reason that the bond was
renewed, and afterwards it was proposed to exchange it for a canonicate
at Udine for Giovanni's son. But afterwards, being again defrauded by
that Fra Guglielmo, Giovanni went from Udine to Florence, after Pope
Pius had been elected, in the hope of being assisted and favoured by his
Excellency with that Pontiff, by means of Vasari. Having arrived in
Florence, then, he was presented by Giorgio to his most illustrious
Excellency, with whom he went to Siena, and then from there to Rome,
whither there also went the Lady Duchess Leonora; and in such wise was
he assisted by the kindness of the Duke, that he was not only granted
all that he desired, but also set to work by the Pope with a good salary
to give the final completion to the last Loggia, which is the one over
that which Pope Leo had formerly caused him to decorate. That finished,
the same Pope commissioned him to retouch all that first Loggia, which
was an error and a thing very ill considered, for the reason that
retouching it "a secco" caused it to lose all those masterly strokes
that had been drawn by Giovanni's brush in all the excellence of his
best days, and also the boldness and freshness that had made it in its
original condition so rare a work.
After finishing that work, Giovanni, being seventy years of age,
finished also the course of his life, in the year 1564, rendering up his
spirit to God in that most noble city which had enabled him for many
years to live with so much success and so great a name. Giovanni was
always, but much more in his last years, a God-fearing man and a good
Christian. In his youth he took pleasure in scarcely any other thing but
hunting and fowling; and his custom when he was young was to go hunting
on feast-days with his servant, at times roaming over the Campagna to a
distance of ten miles from Rome. He could shoot very well with the fusil
and the crossbow, and therefore rarely returned home without his servant
being laden with wild geese, ringdoves, wild ducks, and other creatures
such as are to be found in those marshy places. Giovanni, so many
declare, was the inventor of the ox painted on canvas that is made for
using in that pursuit, so as to fire off the fusil without being seen by
the wild creatures; and on account of those exercises of hunting and
fowling he always delighted to keep dogs and to train them by himself.
Giovanni, who deserves to be extolled among the greatest masters of his
profession, chose to be buried in the Ritonda, near his master Raffaello
da Urbino, in order not to be divided in death from him to whom in life
his spirit was always attached; and since, as has been told, each of
them was an excellent Christian, it may be believed that they are still
together in eternal blessedness.
BATTISTA FRANCO
LIFE OF BATTISTA FRANCO
PAINTER OF VENICE
Battista Franco of Venice, having given his attention in his early
childhood to design, went off at the age of twenty, as one who aimed at
perfection in that art, to Rome, where, after he had devoted himself for
some time with much study to design, and had seen the manner of various
masters, he resolved that he would not study or seek to imitate any
other works but the drawings, paintings, and sculptures of Michelagnolo;
wherefore, having set himself to make research, there remained no
sketch, study, or even any thing copied by Michelagnolo that he had not
drawn. Wherefore no long time passed before he became one of the first
draughtsmen who frequented the Chapel of Michelagnolo; and, what was
more, he would not for a time set himself to paint or to do any other
thing but draw. But in the year 1536, festive preparations of a grand
and sumptuous kind being arranged by Antonio da San Gallo for the coming
of the Emperor Charles V, in which, as has been related in another
place, all the craftsmen, good and bad, were employed, Raffaello da
Montelupo, who had to execute the decorations of the Ponte S. Angelo
with the ten statues that were placed upon it, having seen that Battista
was a young man of good parts and a finished draughtsman, resolved to
bring it about that he also should be employed, and by hook or by crook
to have some work given to him to do. And so, having spoken of this to
San Gallo, he so contrived that Battista was commissioned to execute in
fresco four large scenes in chiaroscuro on the front of the Porta
Capena, now called the Porta di S. Bastiano, through which the Emperor
was to enter.
In that work Battista, without having hitherto touched colours,
executed over the gate the arms of Pope Paul III and those of the
Emperor Charles, with a Romulus who was placing on the arms of the
Pontiff a Papal crown, and on those of the Emperor an Imperial crown;
which Romulus, a figure of five braccia, dressed in the ancient manner,
with a crown on the head, had on the right hand Numa Pompilius, and on
the left Tullus Hostilius, and above him these words--Quirinus Pater. In
one of the scenes that were on the faces of the towers standing on
either side of the gate, was the elder Scipio triumphing over Carthage,
which he had made tributary to the Roman people; and in the other, on
the right hand, was the triumph of the younger Scipio, who had ruined
and destroyed that same city. In one of the two pictures that were on
the exterior of the towers, on the front side, could be seen Hannibal
under the walls of Rome, driven back by the tempest, and in the other,
on the left, Flaccus entering by that gate to succour Rome against that
same Hannibal. All these scenes and pictures, being Battista's first
paintings, and in comparison with those of the others, were passing good
and much extolled. And, if Battista had begun from the first to paint
and from time to time to practise using colours and handling brushes,
there is no doubt that he would have surpassed many craftsmen; but his
obstinate adherence to a certain opinion that many others hold, who
persuade themselves that draughtsmanship is enough for him who wishes to
paint, did him no little harm. For all that, however, he acquitted
himself much better than did some of those who executed the scenes on
the arch of S. Marco, on which there were eight scenes, four on each
side, the best of which were painted partly by Francesco Salviati, and
partly by a certain Martino[8] and other young Germans, who had come to
Rome at that very time in order to learn. Nor will I omit to tell, in
this connection, that the above-named Martino, who was very able in
works in chiaroscuro, executed some battle scenes with such boldness and
such beautiful inventions in certain encounters and deeds of arms
between Christians and Turks, that nothing better could have been done.
And the marvellous thing was that Martino and his assistants executed
those canvases with such assiduity and rapidity, in order that the work
might be finished in time, that they never quitted their labour; and
since drink, and that good Greco, was continually being brought to
them, what with their being constantly drunk and inflamed with the heat
of the wine, and their facility in execution, they achieved wonders.
Wherefore, when Salviati, Battista, and Calavrese saw the work of these
men, they confessed that for him who wishes to be a painter it is
necessary to begin to handle brushes in good time; which matter having
afterwards considered more carefully in his own mind, Battista began not
to give so much study to finishing his drawings, and at times to use
colour.
[Footnote 8: Martin Heemskerk.]
Montelupo then going to Florence, where, in like manner, very great
preparations were being made for the reception of the above-named
Emperor, Battista went with him, and when they arrived they found those
preparations well on the way to completion; but Battista, being set to
work, made a base all covered with figures and trophies for the statue
on the Canto de' Carnesecchi that Fra Giovanni Agnolo Montorsoli had
executed. Having therefore become known among the craftsmen as a young
man of good parts and ability, he was much employed afterwards at the
coming of Madama Margherita of Austria, the wife of Duke Alessandro, and
particularly in the festive preparations that Giorgio Vasari made in the
Palace of Messer Ottaviano de' Medici, where that lady was to reside.
These festivities finished, Battista set himself to draw with the
greatest industry the statues of Michelagnolo that are in the new
Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, to which at that time all the painters and
sculptors of Florence had flocked to draw and to work in relief; and
among these Battista made no little proficience, but, nevertheless, it
was recognized that he had committed an error in never consenting to
draw from the life and to use colours, or to do anything but imitate
statues and little else besides, which had given his manner a hardness
and dryness that he was not able to shake off, nor could he prevent his
works from having a hard and angular quality, as may be seen from a
canvas in which he depicted with much pains and labour the Roman
Lucretia violated by Tarquinius. Consorting thus with the others and
frequenting that sacristy, Battista formed a friendship with the
sculptor Bartolommeo Ammanati, who was studying the works of Buonarroti
there in company with many others. And of such a kind was that
friendship, that Ammanati took Battista into his house, as well as Genga
of Urbino, and they lived thus in company for some time, attending with
much profit to the studies of art.
Duke Alessandro having then been done to death in the year 1536, and
Signor Cosimo de' Medici elected in his place, many of the servants of
the dead Duke remained in the service of the new, but others did not,
and among those who went away was the above-named Giorgio Vasari, who
returned to Arezzo, with the intention of having nothing more to do with
Courts, having lost Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, his first lord, and
then Duke Alessandro; but he brought it about that Battista was invited
to serve Duke Cosimo and to work in his guardaroba, where he painted in
a large picture Pope Clement and Cardinal Ippolito, copying them from a
work by Fra Sebastiano and from one by Tiziano, and Duke Alessandro from
a picture by Pontormo. This picture was not of that perfection that was
expected; but, having seen in the same guardaroba the cartoon of the
"Noli me tangere" by Michelagnolo, which Pontormo had previously
executed in colours, he set himself to make a cartoon like it, but with
larger figures; which done, he painted a picture from it wherein he
acquitted himself much better in the colouring. And the cartoon, which
he copied exactly after that of Michelagnolo, was executed with great
patience and very beautiful.
The affair of Monte Murlo having then taken place, in which the exiles
and rebels hostile to the Duke were routed and captured, Battista
depicted with beautiful invention a scene of the battle fought there,
mingled with poetic fantasies of his own, which was much extolled,
although there were recognized in the armed encounter and in the taking
of the prisoners many things copied bodily from the works and drawings
of Buonarroti. For the battle was in the distance, and in the foreground
were the huntsmen of Ganymede, who were standing there gazing at Jove's
Eagle carrying the young man away into Heaven; which part Battista took
from the design of Michelagnolo, in order to use it to signify that the
young Duke had risen by the grace of God from the midst of his friends
into Heaven, or some such thing. This scene, I say, was first drawn by
Battista in a cartoon, and then painted with supreme diligence in a
picture; and it is now, together with his other works mentioned above,
in the upper apartments of the Pitti Palace, which his most illustrious
Excellency has just caused to be completely finished.
Having thus been engaged on these and some other works in the service of
the Duke, until the time when he took to wife the Lady Donna Leonora of
Toledo, Battista was next employed in the festive preparations for those
nuptials, on the triumphal arch at the Porta al Prato, where Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo caused him to execute some scenes of the actions of Signor
Giovanni, father of Duke Cosimo. In one of these that lord could be seen
passing the Rivers Po and Adda, in the presence of Cardinal Giulio de'
Medici, who became Pope Clement VII, Signor Prospero Colonna, and other
lords; and in another was the scene of the delivering of San Secondo. On
the other side Battista painted in another scene the city of Milan, and
around it the Camp of the League, which, on departing, the above-named
Signor Giovanni leaves there. On the right flank of the arch he painted
on one side a picture of Opportunity, who, having her tresses all
unbound, was offering them with one hand to Signor Giovanni, and on the
other side Mars, who was likewise offering him his sword. In another
scene under the arch, by the hand of Battista, was Signor Giovanni
fighting between the Tesino and Biegrassa upon the Ponte Rozzo,
defending it, as it were like another Horatius, with incredible bravery.
Opposite to this was the Taking of Caravaggio, and in the centre of the
battle Signor Giovanni, who was passing fearlessly through fire and
sword in the midst of the hostile army. Between the columns, on the
right hand, there was in an oval Garlasso, taken by the same lord with a
single company of soldiers, and on the left hand, between the two other
columns, the bastion of Milan, likewise taken from the enemy. On the
fronton, which was at the back of anyone entering, was the same Signor
Giovanni on horseback under the walls of Milan, when, tilting in single
combat with a knight, he ran him through from side to side with his
lance. Above the great cornice, which reached out to the other cornice,
on which the pediment rested, in another large scene executed by
Battista with much diligence, there was in the centre the Emperor
Charles V, who, crowned with laurel, was seated on a rock, with the
sceptre in his hand; at his feet lay the River Betis with a vase that
poured water from two mouths, and beside that figure was the River
Danube, which, with seven mouths, was pouring its waters into the sea. I
shall not make mention here of the vast number of statues that
accompanied the above-named pictures and others on that arch, for the
reason that it is enough for me at the present moment to describe that
which concerns Battista Franco, and it is not my office to give an
account of all that was done by others in the festive preparations for
those nuptials and described at great length; besides which, having
spoken of the masters of those statues where the necessity arose, it
would be superfluous for me to say anything about them here, and
particularly because the statues are not now standing, so that they
cannot be seen and considered. But to return to Battista: the best thing
that he did for those nuptials was one of the ten above-mentioned
pictures which were in the decorations in the great court of the Medici
Palace, wherein he painted in chiaroscuro Duke Cosimo invested with all
the Ducal insignia. But, for all the diligence that he used there, he
was surpassed by Bronzino, and by others who had less design than
himself, in invention, in boldness, and in the treatment of the
chiaroscuro. For, as has been said before, pictures must be executed
with facility, and the parts set in their places with judgment, and
without that effort and that labour which make things appear hard and
crude; besides which, overmuch study often makes them come out heavy and
dark, and spoils them, while lingering over them so long takes away the
grace, boldness and excellence that facility is wont to give them. And
these qualities, although they come in great measure as gifts from
nature, can also in part be acquired by study and art.