in Valdichiana (which place was once attached to the Monastery of the
Angeli, of the Order of Camaldoli, in Florence, and is now an
independent body in place of the Monastery of S. Benedetto, which, being
without the Porta a Pinti, was destroyed on account of the siege of
Florence), Battista painted there the scenes in the cloister already
mentioned, while Ridolfo was executing the altar-piece and the
ornaments of the high-altar. These finished, as has been related in the
Life of Ridolfo, they adorned with other pictures that holy place, which
is very celebrated and renowned for the many miracles that are wrought
there by the Virgin Mother of the Son of God.
Battista then returned to Rome, at the very time when the Judgment of
Michelagnolo had just been uncovered; and, being a zealous student of
the manner and works of that master, he gazed at it very gladly, and in
infinite admiration made drawings of it all. And then, having resolved
to remain in Rome, at the commission of Cardinal Francesco Cornaro--who
had rebuilt the palace that he occupied beside S. Pietro, which looks
out on the portico in the direction of the Camposanto--he painted over
the stucco a loggia that looks towards the Piazza, making there a kind
of grotesques all full of little scenes and figures; which work,
executed with much labour and diligence, was held to be very beautiful.
About the same time, which was the year 1538, Francesco Salviati, having
painted a scene in fresco in the Company of the Misericordia, was to
give it the final completion and to set his hand to others, which many
private citizens desired to have painted; but, by reason of the rivalry
that there was between him and Jacopo del Conte, nothing more was done;
which hearing, Battista sought to obtain by this means an opportunity to
prove himself superior to Francesco and the best master in Rome; and he
so went to work, employing his friends and other means, that Monsignor
della Casa, after seeing a design by his hand, allotted the work to him.
Thereupon, setting his hand to it, he painted there in fresco S. John
the Baptist taken at the command of Herod and cast into prison. But,
although this picture was executed with much labour, it was not held to
be equal by a great measure to that of Salviati, from its having been
painted with very great effort and in a manner crude and melancholy,
while it had no order in the composition, nor in a single part any of
that grace and charm of colouring which Francesco's work possessed. And
from this it may be concluded that those men are deceived who, in
pursuing this art, give all their attention to executing well and with
a good knowledge of muscles a torso, an arm, a leg, or other member,
believing that a good grasp of that part is the whole secret; for the
reason that the part of a work is not the whole, and only he carries it
to perfect completion, in a good and beautiful manner, who, after
executing the parts well, knows how to make them fit in due proportion
into the whole, and who, moreover, so contrives that the composition of
the figures expresses and produces well and without confusion the effect
that it should produce. And, above all, care must be taken to make the
heads vivacious, spirited, gracious, and beautiful in the expressions,
the manner not crude, and the nudes so tinted with black that they may
have relief, melting gradually into the distance according as may be
required; to say nothing of the perspective-views, landscapes, and other
parts that good pictures demand, nor that in making use of the works of
others a man should proceed in such a manner that this may not be too
easily recognized. Battista thus became aware too late that he had
wasted time beyond all reason over the minutiae of muscles and over
drawing with too great diligence, while paying no attention to the other
fields of art.
[Illustration: TINTORETTO: BACCHUS AND ARIADNE
(_Venice: Doge's Palace, Salon Anticollegio. Canvas_)]
Having finished that work, which brought him little praise, Battista
transferred himself by means of Bartolommeo Genga to the service of the
Duke of Urbino, to paint a very large vaulting in the church and chapel
attached to the Palace of Urbino. Having arrived there, he set himself
straightway to make the designs according as the invention presented
itself in the work, without giving it any further thought and without
making any compartments. And so in imitation of the Judgment of
Buonarroti, he depicted in a Heaven the Glory of the Saints, who are
dispersed over that vaulting on certain clouds, with all the choirs of
the Angels about a Madonna, who, having ascended into Heaven, is
received by Christ, who is in the act of crowning her, while in various
separate groups stand the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Sibyls, the
Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, and the Virgins; which figures,
in their different attitudes, reveal their rejoicing at the advent of
that Glorious Virgin. This invention would certainly have given Battista
a great opportunity to prove himself an able master, if he had chosen a
better way, not only making himself well-practised in fresco-colours,
but also proceeding with better order and judgment than he displayed in
all his labour. But he used in this work the same methods as in all his
others, for he made always the same figures, the same countenances, the
same members, and the same draperies; besides which, the colouring was
without any charm, and everything laboured and executed with difficulty.
When all was finished, therefore, it gave little satisfaction to Duke
Guidobaldo, Genga, and all the others who were expecting great things
from that master, equal to the beautiful design that he had shown to
them in the beginning; for, in truth, in making beautiful designs
Battista had no peer and could be called an able man. Which recognizing,
the Duke thought that his designs would succeed very well if carried
into execution by those who were fashioning vases of clay so excellently
at Castel Durante, for which they had availed themselves much of the
prints of Raffaello da Urbino and other able masters; and he caused
Battista to draw innumerable designs, which, when put into execution in
that sort of clay, the most kindly of all that there are in Italy,
produced a rare result. Wherefore vases were made in such numbers and of
as many kinds as would have sufficed to do honour to the credence of a
King; and the pictures that were painted on them would not have been
better if they had been executed in oils by the most excellent masters.
Of these vases, which in the quality of the clay much resemble the kind
that was wrought at Arezzo in ancient times, in the days of Porsenna,
King of Tuscany, the above-named Duke Guidobaldo sent enough for a
double credence to the Emperor Charles V, and a set to Cardinal Farnese,
the brother of Signora Vittoria, his consort. And it is right that it
should be known that of this kind of paintings on vases, in so far as we
can judge, the Romans had none, for the vases of those times, filled
with the ashes of their dead or used for other purposes, are covered
with figures hatched and grounded with only one colour, either black, or
red, or white; nor have they ever that lustrous glazing or that charm
and variety of paintings which have been seen and still are seen in our
own times. Nor can it be said that, if perchance they did have such
things, the paintings have been consumed by time and by their having
been buried, for the reason that we see our own resisting the assaults
of time and every other danger, insomuch that it may even be said that
they might remain four thousand years under the ground without the
paintings being spoilt. Now, although vases and paintings of that kind
are made throughout all Italy, yet the best and most beautiful works in
clay are those that are wrought, as I have said, at Castel Durante, a
place in the State of Urbino, and those of Faenza, the best of which are
for the most part of a very pure white, with few paintings, and those in
the centre or on the edges, but delicate and pleasing enough.
But to return to Battista: for the nuptials of the above-mentioned Lord
Duke and Signora Vittoria Farnese, which took place afterwards at
Urbino, he, assisted by his young men, executed on the arches erected by
Genga, who was the head of the festive preparations, all the historical
pictures that were painted upon them. Now, since the Duke doubted that
Battista would not finish in time, the undertaking being very great, he
sent for Giorgio Vasari--who at that time was painting at Rimini, for
the White Friars of Scolca, of the Order of Monte Oliveto, a large
chapel in fresco and an altar-piece in oils for their high-altar--to the
end that he might go to the aid of Genga and Battista in those
preparations. But Vasari, feeling indisposed, made his excuses to his
Excellency and wrote to him that he should have no doubt, for the reason
that the talents and knowledge of Battista were such that he would have
everything finished in time, as indeed, in the end, he did. Giorgio then
going, after finishing his works at Rimini, to visit that Duke and to
make his excuses in person, his Excellency caused him to examine, to the
end that he might value it, the above-mentioned chapel that had been
painted by Battista, which Vasari much extolled, recommending the
ability of that master, who was largely rewarded by the great liberality
of that lord.
[Illustration: THE POOL OF BETHESDA
(_After the painting by =Jacopo Tintoretto=. Venice: S. Rocco_)
_Anderson_]
It is true, however, that Battista was not at that time in Urbino, but
in Rome, where he was engaged in drawing not only the statues but all
the antiquities of that city, and in making, as he did, a great book of
them, which was a praiseworthy work. Now, while Battista was giving his
attention to drawing in Rome, Messer Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara,
a man truly distinguished in certain forms of poetry, having got
together a company of various choice spirits, was causing very rich
scenery and decorations to be prepared in the large hall of S. Apostolo,
in order to perform comedies by various authors before gentlemen, lords,
and great persons. He had caused seats to be made for the spectators of
different ranks, and for the Cardinals and other great prelates he had
prepared certain rooms from which, through jalousies, they could see and
hear without being seen. And since in that company there were painters,
sculptors, architects, and men who were to perform the dramas and to
fulfil other offices, Battista and Ammanati, having been chosen of the
company, were given the charge of preparing the scenery, with some
stories and ornaments in painting, which Battista executed so well
(together with some statues that Ammanati made), that he was very highly
extolled for them. But the great expenses of that place exceeded the
means available, so that M. Giovanni Andrea and the others were forced
to remove the prospect-scene and the other ornaments from S. Apostolo
and to convey them into the new Temple of S. Biagio, in the Strada
Giulia. There, Battista having once more arranged everything, many
comedies were performed with extraordinary satisfaction to the people
and courtiers of Rome; and from this origin there sprang in time the
players who travel around, called the Zanni.
After these things, having come to the year 1550, Battista executed in
company with Girolamo Siciolante of Sermoneta, for Cardinal di Cesis, on
the facade of his palace, the coat of arms of Pope Julius III, who had
been newly elected Pontiff, with three figures and some little boys,
which were much extolled. That finished, he painted in the Minerva, in a
chapel built by a Canon of S. Pietro and all adorned with stucco, some
stories of the Madonna and of Jesus Christ in the compartments of the
vaulting, which were the best works that he had ever executed up to that
time. On one of the two walls he painted the Nativity of Jesus Christ,
with some Shepherds, and Angels that are singing over the hut, and on
the other the Resurrection of Christ, with many soldiers in various
attitudes about the Sepulchre; and above each of those scenes, in
certain lunettes, he executed some large Prophets. And finally, on the
altar-wall, he painted Christ Crucified, Our Lady, S. John, S. Dominic,
and some other Saints in the niches; in all which he acquitted himself
very well and like an excellent master.
But since his earnings were scanty and the expenses of Rome very great,
after having executed some works on cloth, which had not much success,
he returned to his native country of Venice, thinking by a change of
country to change also his fortune. There, by reason of his fine manner
of drawing, he was judged to be an able man, and a few days afterwards
he was commissioned to execute an altar-piece in oils for the Chapel of
Mons. Barbaro, Patriarch-elect of Aquileia, in the Church of S.
Francesco della Vigna; in which he painted S. John baptizing Christ in
the Jordan, in the air God the Father, at the foot two little boys who
are holding the vestments of Christ, in the angles the Annunciation, and
below these figures the semblance of a canvas superimposed, with a good
number of little nude figures of Angels, Demons, and Souls in Purgatory,
and with an inscription that runs--"In nomine Jesu omne genuflectatur."
That work, which was certainly held to be very good, won him much credit
and fame; indeed, it was the reason that the Frati de' Zoccoli, who have
their seat in that place, and who have charge of the Church of S. Giobbe
in Canareio, caused him to paint in the Chapel of the Foscari, in that
Church of S. Giobbe, a Madonna who is seated with the Child in her arms,
with a S. Mark on one side and a female Saint on the other, and in the
air some Angels who are scattering flowers. In S. Bartolommeo, at the
tomb of Cristofano Fuccheri, a German merchant, he executed a picture of
Abundance, Mercury, and Fame. For M. Antonio della Vecchia, a Venetian,
he painted in a picture with figures of the size of life and very
beautiful Christ crowned with Thorns, and about them some Pharisees, who
are mocking Him.
Meanwhile there had been built of masonry in the Palace of S. Marco,
after the design of Jacopo Sansovino, as will be related in the proper
place, the staircase that leads from the first floor upwards, and it had
been adorned with various designs in stucco by the sculptor Alessandro,
a disciple of Sansovino; and Battista painted very minute grotesques
over it all, and in certain larger spaces a good number of figures in
fresco, which have been extolled not a little by the craftsmen, and he
then decorated the ceiling of the vestibule of that staircase. Not long
afterwards, when, as has been related above, three pictures were given
to each of the best and most renowned painters of Venice to paint for
the Library of S. Marco, on the condition that he who should acquit
himself best in the judgment of those Magnificent Senators was to
receive, in addition to the usual payment, a chain of gold, Battista
executed in that place three scenes, with two Philosophers between the
windows, and acquitted himself very well, although he did not win the
prize of honour, as we said above.
After these works, having received from the Patriarch Grimani the
commission for a chapel in S. Francesco della Vigna, which is the first
on the left hand entering into the church, Battista set his hand to it
and began to make very rich designs in stucco over the whole vaulting,
with scenes of figures in fresco, labouring there with incredible
diligence. But--whether it was his own carelessness, or that he had
executed some works, perchance on very fresh walls, as I have heard say,
at the villas of certain gentlemen--before he had that chapel finished,
he died, and it remained incomplete. It was finished afterwards by
Federigo Zucchero of S. Agnolo in Vado, a young and excellent painter,
held to be among the best in Rome, who painted in fresco on the walls at
the sides Mary Magdalene being converted by the Preaching of Christ and
the Raising of her brother Lazarus, which are pictures full of grace.
And, when the walls were finished, the same Federigo painted in the
altar-piece the Adoration of the Magi, which was much extolled.
Extraordinary credit and fame have come to Battista, who died in the
year 1561, from his many printed designs, which are truly worthy to be
praised.
In the same city of Venice and about the same time there lived, as he
still does, a painter called Jacopo Tintoretto, who has delighted in all
the arts, and particularly in playing various musical instruments,
besides being agreeable in his every action, but in the matter of
painting swift, resolute, fantastic, and extravagant, and the most
extraordinary brain that the art of painting has ever produced, as may
be seen from all his works and from the fantastic compositions of his
scenes, executed by him in a fashion of his own and contrary to the use
of other painters. Indeed, he has surpassed even the limits of
extravagance with the new and fanciful inventions and the strange
vagaries of his intellect, working at haphazard and without design, as
if to prove that art is but a jest. This master at times has left as
finished works sketches still so rough that the brush-strokes may be
seen, done more by chance and vehemence than with judgment and design.
He has painted almost every kind of picture in fresco and in oils, with
portraits from life, and at every price, insomuch that with these
methods he has executed, as he still does, the greater part of the
pictures painted in Venice. And since in his youth he proved himself by
many beautiful works a man of great judgment, if only he had recognized
how great an advantage he had from nature, and had improved it by
reasonable study, as has been done by those who have followed the
beautiful manners of his predecessors, and had not dashed his work off
by mere skill of hand, he would have been one of the greatest painters
that Venice has ever had. Not that this prevents him from being a bold
and able painter, and delicate, fanciful, and alert in spirit.
[Illustration: THE LAST JUDGMENT
(_After the painting by =Jacopo Tintoretto=. Venice: S. Maria
dell'Orto_)
_Anderson_]
Now, when it had been ordained by the Senate that Jacopo Tintoretto and
Paolo Veronese, at that time young men of great promise, should each
execute a scene in the Hall of the Great Council, and Orazio, the son of
Tiziano, another, Tintoretto painted in his scene Frederick Barbarossa
being crowned by the Pope, depicting there a most beautiful building,
and about the Pontiff a great number of Cardinals and Venetian
gentlemen, all portrayed from life, and at the foot the Pope's chapel of
music. In all this he acquitted himself in such a manner, that the
picture can bear comparison with those of the others, not excepting that
of the above-named Orazio, in which is a battle that was fought at Rome
between the Germans of that Frederick and the Romans, near the Castello
di S. Angelo and the Tiber. In this picture, among other things, is a
horse in foreshortening, leaping over a soldier in armour, which is most
beautiful; but some declare that Orazio was assisted in the work by his
father Tiziano. Beside these Paolo Veronese, of whom there has been an
account in the Life of Michele San Michele, painted in his scene the
same Frederick Barbarossa presenting himself at Court and kissing the
hand of Pope Ottaviano, to the despite of Pope Alexander III; and, in
addition to that scene, which was very beautiful, Paolo painted over a
window four large figures: Time, Union, with a bundle of rods, Patience,
and Faith, in which he acquitted himself better than I could express in
words.
Not long afterwards, another scene being required in that hall,
Tintoretto so went to work with the aid of friends and other means, that
it was given to him to paint; whereupon he executed it in such a manner
that it was a marvel, and that it deserves to be numbered among the best
things that he ever did, so powerful in him was his determination that
he would equal, if not vanquish and surpass, his rivals who had worked
in that place. And the scene that he painted there--to the end that it
may be known also by those who are not of the art--was Pope Alexander
excommunicating and interdicting Barbarossa, and that Frederick
therefore forbidding his subjects to render obedience any longer to the
Pontiff. And among other fanciful things that are in this scene, that
part is most beautiful in which the Pope and the Cardinals are throwing
down torches and candles from a high place, as is done when some person
is excommunicated, and below is a rabble of nude figures that are
struggling for those torches and candles--the most lovely and pleasing
effect in the world. Besides all this, certain bases, antiquities, and
portraits of gentlemen that are dispersed throughout the scene, are
executed very well, and won him favour and fame with everyone. He
therefore painted, for places below the work of Pordenone in the
principal chapel of S. Rocco, two pictures in oils as broad as the width
of the whole chapel--namely, about twelve braccia each. In one he
depicted a view in perspective as of a hospital filled with beds and
sick persons in various attitudes who are being healed by S. Rocco; and
among these are some nude figures very well conceived, and a dead body
in foreshortening that is very beautiful. In the other is a story
likewise of S. Rocco, full of most graceful and beautiful figures, and
such, in short, that it is held to be one of the best works that this
painter has executed. In a scene of the same size, in the centre of the
church, he painted Jesus Christ healing the impotent man at the Pool of
Bethesda, which is also a work held to be passing good.
[Illustration: THE MIRACLE OF S. MARK
(_From the painting by =Jacopo Tintoretto=. Venice: Accademia_)
_Alinari_]