work of casting, but also exemplary in conduct, of supreme goodness, and
a great lover of the poor. Wherefore it is no marvel that he was
assisted most liberally in the hour of his need by the above-mentioned
Signor Piero with money and every other thing, for it is true beyond all
other truths that even in this life the good works that we do to our
neighbours for the love of God are repaid a thousand-fold. Rustici drew
very well, as may be seen, besides our own book, from the book of
drawings of the very reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini.
The above-mentioned Lorenzo Naldini, called Guazzetto, the disciple of
Rustici, has executed many works of sculpture excellently well in
France, but of these I have not been able to learn any particulars, any
more than of those of his master, who, it may well be believed, did not
stay all those years in France as good as idle, nor always occupied with
that horse of his. That Lorenzo possessed some houses beyond the Porta
a San Gallo, in the suburbs that were destroyed on account of the siege
of Florence, which houses were thrown to the ground together with the
rest by the people. That circumstance so grieved him, that, returning in
the year 1540 to revisit his country, when he was within a quarter of a
mile of Florence he put the hood of his cloak over his head, covering
his eyes, in order that, in entering by that gate, he might not see the
suburb and his own houses all pulled down. Wherefore the guards at the
gate, seeing him thus muffled up, asked him what that meant, and, having
heard from him why he had so covered his face, they laughed at him.
Lorenzo, after being a few months in Florence, returned to France,
taking his mother with him; and there he still lives and labours.
FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI
LIFE OF FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI
SCULPTOR
To one Michele d'Agnolo of Poggibonzi, in the village of Montorsoli,
which is three miles distant from Florence on the road to Bologna, where
he had a good farm of some size, there was born a male child, to whom he
gave the name of his father, Agnolo. That child, growing up, and having
an inclination for design, as could be readily seen, was placed by his
father, according to the advice of friends, to learn stone-cutting under
some masters who worked at the quarries of Fiesole, almost opposite to
Montorsoli. Agnolo continuing to ply the chisel with those masters, in
company with Francesco del Tadda, who was then a lad, and with others,
not many months had passed before he knew very well how to handle the
tools and to execute many kinds of work in that profession. Having then
contracted a friendship by means of Francesco del Tadda with Maestro
Andrea, a sculptor of Fiesole, the genius of the child so pleased that
master, that he conceived an affection for him, and began to teach him;
and thus he kept him in his workshop for three years. After which time,
his father Michele being dead, Agnolo went off in company with other
young stone-cutters to Rome, where, having been set to work on the
building of S. Pietro, he carved some of those rosettes that are in the
great cornices which encircle the interior of that temple, with much
profit to himself and a good salary. Having then departed from Rome, I
know not why, he placed himself in Perugia with a master stone-cutter,
who at the end of a year left him in charge of all his works. But,
recognizing that to stay at Perugia was not the life for him, and that
he was not learning, he went off, when the opportunity to depart
presented itself, to work on the tomb of M. Raffaello Maffei, called Il
Volterrano, at Volterra; and in that work, which was being made in
marble, he carved some things which showed that his genius was destined
some day to achieve a good result. Which labour finished, hearing that
Michelagnolo Buonarroti was setting to work at that time on the
buildings of the sacristy and library of S. Lorenzo the best carvers and
stone-cutters that could be found, he went off to Florence; where,
having been likewise set to work, among the first things that he did
were some ornaments from which Michelagnolo recognized that he was a
young man of most beautiful and resolute genius, and that, moreover, he
could do more in one day by himself alone than the oldest and best
practised masters could do in two. Wherefore he caused to be given to
him, boy as he was, the same salary as the older men were drawing.
These buildings being then suspended in the year 1527 on account of the
plague and for other reasons, Agnolo, not knowing what else to do, went
to Poggibonzi, from which place his father and grandfather had their
origin; and there he remained for a time with M. Giovanni Norchiati, his
uncle, a pious and well-lettered man, doing nothing but draw and study.
But in the end, seeing the world turned topsy-turvy, a desire came to
him to become a monk, and to give his attention in peace to the
salvation of his soul, and he went to the Hermitage of Camaldoli. There,
making trial of that life, and not being able to endure the discomforts,
fastings, and abstinences, he did not stay long; but nevertheless,
during the time that he was there, he became very dear to those Fathers,
for he was of an excellent disposition. And during that time his
diversion was to carve heads of men and of various animals, with
beautiful and fanciful inventions, on the ends of the staves, or rather,
sticks, that those holy Fathers carry when they go from Camaldoli to the
Hermitage or for recreation into the forest, at which time they have a
dispensation from silence. Having departed from the Hermitage with the
leave and good-will of the Principal, he went off to La Vernia, as one
who was drawn at all costs to become a monk, and stayed there awhile,
frequenting the choir and mixing with those Fathers; but that life,
also, did not please him, and, after having received information about
the life in many religious houses of Florence and Arezzo, he left La
Vernia and went to those places. And finally, not being able to settle
in any other in such a manner as to have facilities for attending both
to drawing and to the salvation of his soul, he became a friar in the
Ingesuati at Florence, without the Porta a Pinti, and was received by
them very willingly; for they gave their attention to making windows of
glass, and they hoped that he would be of great assistance and advantage
to them in that work. Now those Fathers, according to the custom of
their life and rule, do not say Mass, and keep for that purpose a priest
to say Mass every morning; and they had at that time as their chaplain a
certain Fra Martino of the Servite Order, a person of passing good
judgment and character. That Fra Martino, having recognized the young
man's genius, reflected that he was little able to exercise it among
those Fathers, who do nothing but say Paternosters, make windows of
glass, distil waters, and lay out gardens, with other suchlike pursuits,
and do not study or give their attention to letters; and he contrived to
say and do so much that the young man, going forth from the Ingesuati,
assumed the habit among the Servite Friars of the Nunziata in Florence
on the seventh day of October in the year 1530, receiving the name of
Fra Giovanni Agnolo. In the next year, 1531, having learned in the
meanwhile the ceremonies and offices of that Order, and studied the
works of Andrea del Sarto that are in that place, he made what they call
his profession; and in the year following, to the full satisfaction of
those Fathers and the contentment of his relatives, he chanted his first
Mass with much pomp and honour. Then, the images in wax of Leo, Clement,
and others of that most noble family, which had been placed there as
votive offerings, having been destroyed during the expulsion of the
Medici by some young men who were rather mad than valorous, the friars
determined that these should be made again, and Fra Giovanni Agnolo,
with the help of some of those men who gave their attention to the work
of fashioning such images, restored some that were old and consumed by
time, and made anew those of Pope Leo and Pope Clement, which are still
to be seen there, and a short time afterwards those of the King of
Bosnia and of the old Lord of Piombino. And in these works Fra Giovanni
Agnolo made no little proficience.
Meanwhile, Michelagnolo being in Rome with Pope Clement, who desired
that the work of S. Lorenzo should be continued, and had therefore had
him summoned, his Holiness asked him to find a young man who might
restore some ancient statues in the Belvedere, which were broken.
Whereupon Buonarroti, remembering Fra Giovanni Agnolo, proposed him to
the Pope, and his Holiness demanded him in a brief from the General of
the Servite Order, who gave him up because he could not do otherwise,
and very unwillingly. Arriving in Rome, then, the friar, labouring in
the rooms of the Belvedere that were given to him by the Pope to live
and work in, restored the left arm that was wanting to the Apollo and
the right arm of the Laocoon, which statues are in that place, and
likewise gave directions for restoring the Hercules. And, since the Pope
went almost every morning to the Belvedere for recreation and to say the
office, the friar made his portrait in marble, and that so well that the
work brought him much praise, and the Pope conceived a very great
affection for him, particularly because he saw him to be very studious
of the matters of art, and heard that he used to draw all night in order
to have new things every morning to show to the Pope, who much delighted
in them. During that time, a canonicate having fallen vacant at S.
Lorenzo, a church in Florence built and endowed by the House of Medici,
Fra Giovanni Agnolo, who by that time had laid aside the friar's habit,
obtained it for M. Giovanni Norchiati, his uncle, who was chaplain in
the above-named church.
[Illustration: S. COSMAS
(_After the marble by =Fra Giovanni Agnolo Montorsoli=. Florence: S.
Lorenzo, Medici Chapel_)
_Alinari_]
Finally, Pope Clement, having determined that Buonarroti should return
to Florence to finish the works of the sacristy and library of S.
Lorenzo, gave him orders, since many statues were wanting there, as will
be told in the Life of Michelagnolo himself, that he should avail
himself of the most able men that could be found, and particularly of
Fra Giovanni Agnolo, employing the same methods as had been adopted by
Antonio da San Gallo in order to finish the works of the Madonna di
Loreto. Having therefore made his way with the Frate to Florence,
Michelagnolo, in executing the statues of Duke Lorenzo and Duke
Giuliano, employed the Frate much in polishing them and in executing
certain difficult undercuttings; with which occasion Fra Giovanni Agnolo
learned many things from that truly divine man, standing with
attention to watch him at work, and observing every least thing. Now
among other statues that were wanting to the completion of that work,
there were lacking a S. Cosimo and a S. Damiano that were to be one on
either side of the Madonna, and Michelagnolo gave the S. Damiano to
Raffaello da Montelupo to execute, and to the Frate the S. Cosimo,
commanding the latter that he should work in the same rooms where he
himself had worked and was still working. Having therefore set his hand
with the greatest zeal to that work, the Frate made a large model of the
figure, which was retouched by Buonarroti in many parts; indeed,
Michelagnolo made with his own hand the head and the arms of clay, which
are now at Arezzo, held by Vasari among his dearest treasures in memory
of that great man. There were not wanting many envious persons who
blamed Michelagnolo for his action, saying that in allotting that statue
he had shown little judgment, and had made a bad choice; but the result
afterwards proved, as will be related, that Michelagnolo had shown
excellent judgment, and that the Frate was an able man. When
Michelagnolo, with the assistance of Fra Giovanni Agnolo, had finished
and placed in position the statues of Duke Giuliano and Duke Lorenzo,
being summoned by the Pope, who wished that arrangements should be made
for executing in marble the facade of S. Lorenzo, he went to Rome; but
he had not made a long stay there, when, Pope Clement dying, everything
was left unfinished. At Florence the statue of the Frate, unfinished as
it was, together with the other works, was thrown open to view, and was
very highly extolled; and in truth, whether it was his own study and
diligence, or the assistance of Michelagnolo, it proved in the end to be
an excellent figure, and the best that Fra Giovanni Agnolo ever made
among all that he executed in the whole of his life, so that it was
truly worthy to be placed where it was.
Buonarroti, being freed by the death of the Pope from his engagements at
S. Lorenzo, turned his attention to discharging his obligations in
connection with the tomb of Pope Julius II; but, since he had need of
assistance for this, he sent for the Frate. But Fra Giovanni Agnolo did
not go to Rome until he had finished entirely the image of Duke
Alessandro for the Nunziata, which he executed in a manner different
from the others, and very beautiful, in the form in which that lord may
still be seen, clad in armour and kneeling on a Burgundian helmet, and
with one hand to his breast, in the act of recommending himself to the
Madonna there. That image finished, he then went to Rome, and was of
great assistance to Michelagnolo in the work of the above-mentioned tomb
of Julius II.
Meanwhile Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici heard that Cardinal de Tournon
had to take a sculptor to France to serve the King, and he proposed to
him Fra Giovanni Agnolo, who, being much exhorted with good reasons by
Michelagnolo, went with that same Cardinal de Tournon to Paris. Arriving
there, he was introduced to the King, who received him very willingly,
and shortly afterwards assigned to him a good allowance, with the
command that he should execute four large statues. Of these the Frate
had not yet finished the models, when, the King being far away and
occupied in fighting with the English on the borders of his kingdom, he
began to be badly treated by the treasurers, not being able to draw his
allowances and have whatever he desired, according as had been ordained
by the King. At which feeling great disdain--for it appeared to him that
in proportion as these arts and the men of the arts were esteemed by
that magnanimous King, even so they were disprized and put to shame by
his Ministers--he departed, notwithstanding that the treasurers, who
became aware of his displeasure, paid him his overdue allowances down to
the last farthing. It is true that before setting out he gave both the
King and the Cardinal to know by means of letters that he wished to go
away.
Having therefore gone from Paris to Lyons, and from there through
Provence to Genoa, he had not been long there when, in company with some
friends, he went to Venice, Padua, Verona, and Mantua, seeing with great
pleasure buildings, sculptures, and pictures, and at times drawing them;
but above all did the pictures of Giulio Romano in Mantua please him,
some of which he drew with care. Then, having heard at Ferrara and
Bologna that his fellow-friars of the Servite Order were holding a
General Chapter at Budrione, he went there in order to see again many
who were his friends, and in particular the Florentine Maestro
Zaccheria, whom he loved most dearly. At his entreaty Fra Giovanni
Agnolo made in a day and a night two figures in clay of the size of
life, a Faith and a Charity, which, made in the semblance of white
marble, served to adorn a temporary fountain contrived by him with a
great vessel of copper, which continued to spout water during the whole
day when the Chapter was held, to his great credit and honour.
Having returned with the above-named Maestro Zaccheria from Budrione to
Florence, he made in his own Servite Convent, likewise of clay, and
placed in two niches of the chapter-house, two figures larger than life,
Moses and S. Paul, which brought him much praise. Being then sent to
Arezzo by Maestro Dionisio, the General of the Servites at that time,
who was afterwards made a Cardinal by Pope Paul III, and who felt
himself much indebted to Angelo, the General at Arezzo, who had brought
him up and taught him the appreciation of letters, Fra Giovanni Agnolo
executed for that General of Arezzo a beautiful tomb of grey sandstone
in S. Piero in that city, with many carvings and some statues, and upon
a sarcophagus the above-named General Angelo taken from life, and two
nude little boys in the round, who are weeping and extinguishing the
torches of human life, with other ornaments, which render that work very
beautiful. It was not yet completely finished, when, being summoned to
Florence by the proveditors for the festive preparations that Duke
Alessandro was then causing to be made for the visit to that city of the
Emperor Charles V, who was returning victorious from Tunis, the Frate
was forced to depart. Having arrived in Florence, he made on the Ponte a
S. Trinita, upon a great base, a figure of eight braccia, representing
the River Arno lying down, which from its attitude appeared to be
rejoicing with the Rhine, the Danube, the Bagradas, and the Ebro,
statues executed by others, over the coming of his Majesty; which Arno
was a very good and beautiful figure. On the Canto de' Carnesecchi the
same master made a figure, twelve braccia high, of Jason, Leader of the
Argonauts, but this, being of immoderate size, and the time short, did
not prove to have the perfection of the first; nor, indeed, did the
figure of August Gladness that he made on the Canto alla Cuculia. But,
everyone remembering the shortness of the time in which he executed
those works, they won much honour and fame for him both from the
craftsmen and from all others.
Having then finished the work at Arezzo, and hearing that Girolamo Genga
had a work to execute in marble at Urbino, the Frate went to seek him
out; but, not having come to any agreement, he took the road to Rome,
and, after staying there but a short time, went on to Naples, in the
hope that he might have to make the tomb of Jacopo Sannazzaro, a
gentleman of Naples, and a truly distinguished and most rare poet.
Sannazzaro had built at Margoglino, a very pleasant place with a most
beautiful view at the end of the Chiaia, on the shore, a magnificent and
most commodious habitation, which he enjoyed during his lifetime; and,
coming to his death, he left that place, which has the form of a
convent, with a beautiful little church, to the Order of Servite Friars,
enjoining on Signor Cesare Mormerio and the Lord Count d'Aliffe, the
executors of his will, that they should erect his tomb in that church,
built by himself, which was to be administered by the above-named
friars. When the making of it came to be discussed, Fra Giovanni Agnolo
was proposed by the friars to the above-named executors; and to him,
after he had gone to Naples, as has been related, that tomb was
allotted, for his models had been judged to be no little better than the
many others that had been made by various sculptors, the price being a
thousand crowns. Of which having received a good portion, he sent to
quarry the marbles Francesco del Tadda of Fiesole, an excellent carver,
whom he had commissioned to execute all the squared work and carving
that had to be done in that undertaking, in order to finish it more
quickly.
While the Frate was preparing himself to make that tomb, the Turkish
army having entered Puglia and the people of Naples being in no little
alarm on that account, orders were given that the city should be
fortified, and for that purpose there were appointed four men of
importance and of the best judgment. These men, wishing to make use of
competent architects, turned their thoughts to the Frate; but he, having
heard some rumour of this, and not considering that it was right for a
man of religion, such as he was, to occupy himself with affairs of war,
gave the executors to understand that he would do the work either in
Carrara or in Florence, and that at the appointed time it would be
finished and erected in its place. Having then made his way from Naples
to Florence, he straightway received a command from the Signora Donna
Maria, the mother of Duke Cosimo, that he should finish the S. Cosimo
that he had previously begun under the direction of Buonarroti, for the
tomb of the elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. Whereupon he set
his hand to it, and finished it; and that done, since the Duke had
already caused to be constructed a great part of the conduits for the
great fountain of his villa at Castello, and that fountain was to have
at the top, as a crowning ornament, a Hercules in the act of crushing
Antaeus, from whose mouth there was to issue, in place of breath, a jet
of water rising to some height, the Frate was commissioned to make for
this a model of considerable size; which pleasing his Excellency, it was
ordained that he should execute it and should go to Carrara to quarry
the marble.
To Carrara the Frate went very willingly, hoping with that opportunity
to carry forward the above-mentioned tomb of Sannazzaro, and in
particular a scene with figures in half-relief. While Fra Giovanni
Agnolo was there, then, Cardinal Doria wrote from Genoa to Cardinal
Cibo, who happened to be at Carrara, saying that, since Bandinelli had
not finished the statue of Prince Doria, and would now never finish it,
he should contrive to obtain for him some able man, a sculptor, who
might do it, for the reason that he had the charge of pressing on that
work. Which letter having been received by Cibo, who had long had
knowledge of the Frate, he did his utmost to send him to Genoa; but he
steadfastly declared that he could not and would not serve his most
reverend Highness until he had fulfilled the promise and obligation by
which he was bound to Duke Cosimo.