with Maestro Zaccheria to Pisa, where the Lord Duke and the Cardinal
were, to do reverence to their most illustrious lordships; and after he
had been received with much kindness and favour by those lords, and
informed by the Duke that after his return to Florence he would be given
a work of importance to execute, he went back. Then, having obtained
leave from his fellow-friars of the Nunziata by means of Maestro
Zaccheria, he erected in the centre of the chapter-house of that
convent, where many years before he had made the Moses and S. Paul of
stucco, as has been related above, a very beautiful tomb for himself and
for all such men of the arts of design, painters, sculptors, and
architects, as had not a place of their own in which to be buried;
intending to arrange by a contract, as he did, that those friars, in
return for the property that he was to leave to them, should be obliged
to say Mass on some feast-days and ordinary days in that chapter-house,
and that every year, on the day of the most Holy Trinity, a solemn
festival should be held there, and on the following day an office of the
dead for the souls of those buried in that place.
This design having then been imparted by Fra Giovanni Agnolo and Maestro
Zaccheria to Giorgio Vasari, who was very much their friend, they
discoursed together on the affairs of the Company of Design, which had
been created in the time of Giotto, and had a home in S. Maria Nuova in
Florence, which it had possessed from that time down to our own, as may
still be seen at the present day from a record at the high-altar of that
Hospital; and they thought with this occasion to revive it and set it up
again. For that Company had been removed from the above-mentioned
high-altar, as has been related in the Life of Jacopo di Casentino, to a
place under the vaulting of the same Hospital at the corner of the Via
della Pergola, and finally had been removed and driven from that place
also by Don Isidoro Montaguti, the Director of the Hospital, so that it
was almost entirely dispersed, and no longer assembled. Now, after Fra
Giovanni Agnolo, Maestro Zaccheria, and Giorgio had thus discoursed at
some length of the condition of that Company, and the Frate had spoken
of it with Bronzino, Francesco da San Gallo, Ammanati, Vincenzio de'
Rossi, Michele di Ridolfo, and many other sculptors and painters of the
first rank, and had declared his mind to them, when the morning of the
most Holy Trinity came, all the most noble and excellent craftsmen of
the arts of design, to the number of forty-eight, were assembled in the
above-named chapter-house, where a most beautiful festival had been
prepared, and where the tomb was already finished, and the altar so far
advanced that there were wanting only some figures of marble that were
going into it. There, after a most solemn Mass had been said, a
beautiful oration was made by one of those fathers in praise of Fra
Giovanni Agnolo, and of the magnificent liberality that he was showing
to the Company by presenting to them that chapter-house, that tomb, and
that chapel, in order to take possession of which, he said in
conclusion, it had been already arranged that the body of Pontormo,
which had been placed in a vault in the first little cloister of the
Nunziata, should be laid in the new tomb before any other. When,
therefore, the Mass and the oration were finished, they all went into
the church, where there were on a bier the remains of that Pontormo; and
then, having placed the bier on the shoulders of the younger men, with a
taper for each and also some torches, they passed around the Piazza and
carried it into the chapter-house, which, previously draped with cloth
of gold, they found all black and covered with painted corpses and other
suchlike things; and thus was Pontormo laid in the new tomb.
The Company then dispersing, the first meeting was ordained for the next
Sunday, when, besides settling the constitution of the Company, they
were to make a selection of the best and create an Academy, with the
assistance of which those without knowledge might learn, and those with
knowledge, spurred by honourable and praiseworthy emulation, might
proceed to make greater proficience. Giorgio, meanwhile, had spoken of
these matters with the Duke, and had besought him that he should favour
the study of these noble arts, even as he had favoured the study of
letters by reopening the University of Pisa, creating a college for
scholars, and making a beginning with the Florentine Academy; and he
found him as ready to assist and favour that enterprise as he could have
desired. After these things, the Servite Friars, having thought better
over the matter, came to a resolution, which they made known to the
Company, that they would not have their chapter-house used by them save
for holding festivals, offices, and burials, and would not have their
convent disturbed by the Company's meetings and assemblies, or in any
other way. Of which Giorgio having spoken with the Duke, demanding some
place from him, his Excellency said that he had thought of providing
them with one wherein they might not only be able to erect a building
for the Company, but also have room enough to work and demonstrate their
worth. And shortly afterwards he wrote through M. Lelio Torelli to the
Prior and Monks of the Angeli, giving them to understand that they were
to accommodate the above-named Company in the temple that had been begun
in their monastery by Filippo Scolari, called Lo Spano. The monks
obeyed, and the Company was provided with certain rooms, in which they
assembled many times with the gracious leave of those fathers, who
received them sometimes even in their own chapter-house with much
courtesy. But the Duke having been informed afterwards that some of
those monks were not altogether content that the Company's building
should be erected in their precincts, because the monastery would be
encumbered thereby, and the above-named temple, which the craftsmen said
that they wished to fill with their works, would do very well as it was,
so far as they were concerned, his Excellency made it known to the men
of the Academy, which had already made a beginning and had held the
festival of S. Luke in that temple, that the monks, so he understood,
were not very willing to have them in their house, and that therefore he
would not fail to provide them with another place. The same Lord Duke
also said, like the truly magnanimous Prince that he is, that he wished
not only always to favour that Academy, but also to be himself its
chief, guide, and protector, and that for that reason he would appoint
year by year a Lieutenant who might be present in his stead at all their
meetings. Acting on this promise, he chose as the first the reverend Don
Vincenzio Borghini, the Director of the Hospital of the Innocenti; and
for these favours and courtesies shown by the Lord Duke to his new
Academy, he was thanked by ten of the oldest and most excellent of its
members. But since the reformation of the Company and the rules of the
Academy are described at great length in the statutes that were drawn up
by the men elected and deputed for that purpose as reformers by the
whole body (who were Fra Giovanni Agnolo, Francesco da San Gallo, Agnolo
Bronzino, Giorgio Vasari, Michele di Ridolfo, and Pier Francesco di
Jacopo di Sandro), in the presence of the said Lieutenant, and with the
approval of his Excellency, I shall say no more about it in this place.
I must mention, however, that since the old seal and arms, or rather,
device of the Company, which was a winged ox lying down, the animal of
S. Luke the Evangelist, displeased many of them, it was ordained that
each one should give in words his suggestion for a new one, or show it
in a drawing, and then there were seen the most beautiful inventions and
the most lovely and extravagant fantasies that could be imagined. But
for all that it is not yet completely determined which of them is to be
accepted.
Meanwhile Martino, the disciple of the Frate, having come from Messina
to Florence, died in a few days, and was buried in the above-named tomb
that had been made by his master. And not long afterwards, in 1564, the
good father himself, Fra Giovanni Agnolo, who had been so excellent a
sculptor, was buried in the same tomb with most honourable obsequies, a
very beautiful oration being delivered in his praise in the Temple of
the Nunziata by the very reverend and most learned Maestro Michelagnolo.
Truly great is the debt that our arts for many reasons owe to Fra
Giovanni Agnolo, in that he bore infinite love to them and likewise to
their craftsmen; and of what great service has been and still is that
Academy, which may be said to have received its origin from him in the
manner that has been described, and which is now under the protection of
the Lord Duke Cosimo, and assembles by his command in the new sacristy
of S. Lorenzo, where there are so many works in sculpture by
Michelagnolo, may be recognized from this, that not only in the
obsequies of that Buonarroti (which, thanks to our craftsmen and to the
assistance of the Prince, were not merely magnificent, but little less
than regal, and which will be described in his Life), but also in many
other undertakings, the same men, from emulation, and from a desire not
to be unworthy of their Academy, have achieved marvellous things, and
particularly in the nuptials of the most illustrious Lord, Don Francesco
de' Medici, Prince of Florence and Siena, and of her Serene Highness,
Queen Joanna of Austria, which have been described fully and in due
order by others, and will be described again by us at great length in a
more convenient place.
And since not only in this good father, but also in many others of whom
we have spoken above, it has been seen, as it still continues to be,
that good Churchmen are useful and serviceable to the world in the arts
and in the other more noble exercises no less than in letters, in public
instruction, and in sacred councils, and that they have no reason to
fear comparison in this respect with others, it may be said that there
is probably no truth whatever in that which certain persons, influenced
more by anger or by some private spite than by reason and love of truth,
declare so freely of them--namely, that they devote themselves to such a
life because from poverty of spirit they have not, like other men, the
power to make a livelihood; for which may God forgive them. Fra Giovanni
Agnolo lived fifty-six years, and died on the last day of August, 1563.
FRANCESCO SALVIATI
LIFE OF FRANCESCO SALVIATI
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
The father of Francesco Salviati, whose Life we are now about to write,
and who was born in the year 1510, was a good man called Michelagnolo
de' Rossi, a weaver of velvets; and he, having not only this child but
also many others, both male and female, and being therefore in need of
assistance, had determined in his own mind that he would at all costs
make Francesco devote himself to his own calling of weaving velvets. But
the boy, who had turned his mind to other things, and did not like the
pursuit of that trade, although in the past it had been practised by
persons, I will not say noble, but passing rich and prosperous, followed
his father's wishes in that matter with no good-will. Indeed,
associating in the Via de' Servi, where his father had a house, with the
children of Domenico Naldini, their neighbour and an honoured citizen,
he showed himself all given to gentle and honourable ways, and much
inclined to design. In which matter he received no little assistance for
a time from a cousin of his own called Diacceto, a young goldsmith, who
had a passing good knowledge of design, in that he not only taught him
all that he knew, but also furnished him with many drawings by various
able men, over which, without telling his father, Francesco practised
day and night with extraordinary zeal. And Domenico Naldini, having
become aware of this, first examined the boy well, and then prevailed
upon his father, Michelagnolo, to place him in his uncle's shop to learn
the goldsmith's art; by reason of which opportunity for design Francesco
in a few months made so much proficience, that everyone was astonished.
In those days a company of young goldsmiths and painters used to
assemble together at times and go throughout Florence on feast-days
drawing the most famous works, and not one of them laboured more or with
greater love than did Francesco. The young men of that company were
Nanni di Prospero delle Corniole, the goldsmith Francesco di Girolamo
dal Prato, Nannoccio da San Giorgio, and many other lads who afterwards
became able men in their professions.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A MAN
(_After the panel by =Francesco Salviati [Francesco de' Rossi]=.
Florence: Uffizi, 1256_)
_Alinari_]
At this time Francesco and Giorgio Vasari, both being still boys, became
fast friends, and in the following manner. In the year 1523, Silvio
Passerini, Cardinal of Cortona, passing through Arezzo as the Legate of
Pope Clement VII, Antonio Vasari, his kinsman, took Giorgio, his eldest
son, to make his reverence to the Cardinal. And the Cardinal, finding
that the boy, who at that time was not more than nine years of age, had
been so well grounded in his first letters by the diligence of M.
Antonio da Saccone and of Messer Giovanni Pollastra, an excellent poet
of Arezzo, that he knew by heart a great part of the _AEneid_ of Virgil,
which he was pleased to hear him recite, and that he had learned to draw
from Guglielmo da Marcilla, the French painter--the Cardinal, I say,
ordained that Antonio should himself take the boy to Florence. There
Giorgio was settled in the house of M. Niccolo Vespucci, Knight of
Rhodes, who lived on the abutment of the Ponte Vecchio, above the Church
of the Sepolcro, and was placed with Michelagnolo Buonarroti; and this
circumstance came to the knowledge of Francesco, who was then living in
the Chiasso di Messer Bivigliano, where his father rented a great house
that faced on the Vacchereccia, employing many workmen. Whereupon, since
like always draws to like, he so contrived that he became the friend of
Giorgio, by means of M. Marco da Lodi, a gentleman of the above-named
Cardinal of Cortona, who showed to Giorgio a portrait, which much
pleased him, by the hand of Francesco, who a short time before had been
placed to learn painting with Giuliano Bugiardini. Meanwhile Vasari, not
neglecting the study of letters, by order of the Cardinal spent two
hours every day with Ippolito and Alessandro de' Medici, under their
master Pierio, an able man. And this friendship, contracted as described
above between Vasari and Francesco, became such that it never ceased
to bind them together, although, by reason of their rivalry and a
certain somewhat haughty manner of speech that Francesco had, some
persons thought otherwise.
When Vasari had been some months with Michelagnolo, that excellent man
was summoned to Rome by Pope Clement, to receive instructions for
beginning the Library of S. Lorenzo; and he was placed by him, before he
departed, with Andrea del Sarto. And devoting himself under him to
design, Giorgio was continually lending his master's drawings in secret
to Francesco, who had no greater desire than to obtain and study them,
as he did day and night. Afterwards Giorgio was placed by the
Magnificent Ippolito with Baccio Bandinelli, who was pleased to have the
boy with him and to teach him; and Vasari contrived to obtain Francesco
as his companion, with great advantage to them both, for the reason that
while working together they learned more and made greater progress in
one month than they had done in two years while drawing by themselves.
And the same did another young man who was likewise working under
Bandinelli at that time, called Nannoccio of the Costa San Giorgio, of
whom mention was made not long ago.
In the year 1527, the Medici being expelled from Florence, there was a
fight for the Palace of the Signoria, and a bench was thrown down from
on high so as to fall upon those who were assaulting the door; but, as
fate would have it, that bench hit an arm of the David in marble by
Buonarroti, which is beside the door on the Ringhiera, and broke it into
three pieces. These pieces having remained on the ground for three days,
without being picked up by anyone, Francesco went to the Ponte Vecchio
to find Giorgio, and told him his intention; and then, children as they
were, they went to the Piazza, and, without thinking of any danger, in
the midst of the soldiers of the guard, they took the pieces of that arm
and carried them to the house of Michelagnolo, the father of Francesco,
in the Chiasso di M. Bivigliano. From which house having afterwards
recovered them, Duke Cosimo in time caused them to be restored to their
places with pegs of copper.
After this, the Medici being in exile, and with them the above-mentioned
Cardinal of Cortona, Antonio Vasari took his son back to Arezzo, to the
no little regret of Giorgio and Francesco, who loved one another as
brothers. But they did not long remain separated from each other, for
the reason that after the plague, which came in the following August,
had killed Giorgio's father and the best part of his family, he was so
pressed with letters by Francesco, who also came very near dying of
plague, that he returned to Florence. There, working with incredible
zeal for a period of two years, being driven by necessity and by the
desire to learn, they made marvellous proficience, having recourse,
together with the above-named Nannoccio da San Giorgio, to the workshop
of the painter Raffaello da Brescia, under whom Francesco, being the one
who had most need to provide himself with the means to live, executed
many little pictures.
Having come to the year 1529, since it did not appear to Francesco that
staying in Brescia's workshop was doing him much good, he and Nannoccio
went to work with Andrea del Sarto, and stayed with him all the time
that the siege lasted, but in such discomfort, that they repented that
they had not followed Giorgio, who spent that year in Pisa with the
goldsmith Manno, giving his attention for four months to the goldsmith's
craft to occupy himself. Vasari having then gone to Bologna, at the time
when the Emperor Charles V was crowned there by Clement VII, Francesco,
who had remained in Florence, executed on a little panel a votive
picture for a soldier who had been murderously attacked in bed by
certain other soldiers during the siege; and although it was a paltry
thing, he studied it and executed it to perfection. That votive picture
fell not many years ago into the hands of Giorgio Vasari, who presented
it to the reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini, the Director of the Hospital
of the Innocenti, who holds it dear. For the Black Friars of the Badia
Francesco painted three little scenes on a Tabernacle of the Sacrament
made by the carver Tasso in the manner of a triumphal arch. In one of
these is the Sacrifice of Abraham, in the second the Manna, and in the
third the Hebrews eating the Paschal Lamb on their departure from Egypt;
and the work was such that it gave an earnest of the success that he has
since achieved. He then painted in a picture for Francesco Sertini, who
sent it to France, a Dalilah who was cutting off the locks of Samson,
and in the distance Samson embracing the columns of the temple and
bringing it down upon the Philistines; which picture made Francesco
known as the most excellent of the young painters that were then in
Florence.
Not long afterwards the elder Cardinal Salviati having requested
Benvenuto della Volpaia, a master of clock-making, who was in Rome at
that time, to find for him a young painter who might live with him and
paint some pictures for his delight, Benvenuto proposed to him
Francesco, who was his friend, and whom he knew to be the most competent
of all the young painters of his acquaintance; which he did all the more
willingly because the Cardinal had promised that he would give the young
man every facility and all assistance to enable him to study. The
Cardinal, then, liking the young Francesco's qualities, said to
Benvenuto that he should send for him, and gave him money for that
purpose. And so, when Francesco had arrived in Rome, the Cardinal, being
pleased with his method of working, his ways, and his manners, ordained
that he should have rooms in the Borgo Vecchio, and four crowns a month,
with a place at the table of his gentlemen. The first works that
Francesco (to whom it appeared that he had been very fortunate) executed
for the Cardinal were a picture of Our Lady, which was held to be very
beautiful, and a canvas of a French nobleman who is running in chase of
a hind, which, flying from him, takes refuge in the Temple of Diana: of
which work I keep the design, drawn by his hand, in my book, in memory
of him. That canvas finished, the Cardinal caused him to portray in a
very beautiful picture of Our Lady a niece of his own, married to Signor
Cagnino Gonzaga, and likewise that lord himself.
Now, while Francesco was living in Rome, with no greater desire than to
see his friend Giorgio Vasari in that city, Fortune was favourable to
his wishes in that respect, and even more to Vasari. For, Cardinal
Ippolito having parted in great anger from Pope Clement for reasons that
were discussed at the time, but returning not long afterwards to Rome
accompanied by Baccio Valori, in passing through Arezzo he found
Giorgio, who had been left without a father and was occupying himself as
best he could; wherefore, desiring that he should make some proficience
in art, and wishing to have him near his person, he commanded Tommaso
de' Nerli, who was Commissary there, that he should send him to Rome as
soon as he should have finished a chapel that he was painting in fresco
for the Monks of S. Bernardo, of the Order of Monte Oliveto, in that
city. That commission Nerli executed immediately, and Giorgio, having
thus arrived in Rome, went straightway to find Francesco, who joyfully
described to him in what favour he was with his lord the Cardinal, and
how he was in a place where he could satisfy his hunger for study;
adding, also: "Not only do I enjoy the present, but I hope for even
better things, for, besides seeing you in Rome, with whom, as the young
friend nearest to my heart, I shall be able to study and discuss the
matters of art, I also live in hope of entering the service of Cardinal
Ippolito de' Medici, from whose liberality, as well as from the favour
of the Pope, I may look for greater things than I have at present; and
this will happen without a doubt if a certain young man, who is expected
from abroad, does not arrive." Giorgio, although he knew that the young
man who was expected was himself, and that the place was being kept for
him, yet would not reveal himself, because of a certain doubt that had
entered his mind as to whether the Cardinal might not have another in
view, and also from a wish not to declare a circumstance that might
afterwards fall out differently. Giorgio had brought a letter from the
above-named Commissary Nerli to the Cardinal, which, after having been
five days in Rome, he had not yet presented. Finally Giorgio and
Francesco went to the Palace and found in what is now the Hall of Kings
Messer Marco da Lodi, who had formerly been with the Cardinal of
Cortona, as was related above, but was then in the service of Medici. To
him Giorgio presented himself, saying that he had a letter from the
Commissary of Arezzo that was to be delivered to the Cardinal, and
praying that he should give it to him; which Messer Marco was promising
to do immediately, when at that very moment the Cardinal himself
appeared there. Whereupon Giorgio, coming forward before him, presented
the letter and kissed his hands; and he was received graciously, and
shortly afterwards given into the charge of Jacopone da Bibbiena, the
master of the household, who was commanded to provide him with rooms and
with a place at the table of the pages. It appeared a strange thing to
Francesco that Giorgio should not have confided the matter to him; but
he was persuaded that he had done it for the best and with a good
intention.