behind S. Spirito, near Francesco, the two devoted themselves in company
all that winter to the study of art, with much profit, leaving no
noteworthy work, either in the Palace or in any other part of Rome, that
they did not draw. And since, when the Pope was in the Palace, they were
not able to stay there drawing at their ease, as soon as his Holiness
had ridden forth to the Magliana, as he often did, they would gain
admittance by means of friends into those apartments to draw, and would
stay there from morning till night without eating anything but a little
bread, and almost freezing with cold. Cardinal Salviati having then
commanded Francesco that he should paint in fresco in the chapel of his
Palace, where he heard Mass every morning, some stories of the life of
S. John the Baptist, Francesco set himself to study nudes from life, and
Giorgio with him, in a bath-house near there; and afterwards they made
some anatomical studies in the Campo Santo.
The spring having then come, Cardinal Ippolito, being sent by the Pope
to Hungary, ordained that Giorgio should be sent to Florence, and should
there execute some pictures and portraits that he had to despatch to
Rome. But in the July following, what with the fatigues of the past
winter and the heat of summer, Giorgio fell ill and was carried by
litter to Arezzo, to the great sorrow of Francesco, who also fell sick
and was like to die. However, being restored to health, Francesco was
commissioned by Maestro Filippo da Siena, at the instance of Antonio
L'Abacco, a master-worker in wood, to paint in fresco in a niche over
the door at the back of S. Maria della Pace, a Christ speaking with S.
Filippo, and in two angles the Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation;
which pictures, much pleasing Maestro Filippo, were the reason that he
caused him to paint the Assumption of Our Lady in the same place, in a
large square space that was not yet painted in one of the eight sides of
that temple. Whereupon Francesco, reflecting that he had to execute that
work not merely in a public place, but in a place where there were
pictures by the rarest masters--Raffaello da Urbino, Rosso, Baldassarre
da Siena, and others--put all possible study and diligence into
executing it in oils on the wall, so that it proved to be a beautiful
picture, and was much extolled; and excellent among other figures is
held to be the portrait that he painted there of the above-named Maestro
Filippo with the hands clasped. And since Francesco lived, as has been
told, with Cardinal Salviati, and was known as his protege, he began to
be called and known by no other name but Cecchino Salviati, and he kept
that name to the day of his death.
Pope Clement VII being dead and Paul III elected, M. Bindo Altoviti
caused Francesco to paint on the facade of his house at the Ponte S.
Agnolo the arms of the new Pontiff, with some large nude figures, which
gave infinite satisfaction. About the same time he made a portrait of
that Messer Bindo, which was a very good figure and a beautiful
portrait; and this was afterwards sent to his villa of S. Mizzano in the
Valdarno, where it still is. He then painted for the Church of S.
Francesco a Ripa a very beautiful altar-picture of the Annunciation in
oils, which was executed with the greatest diligence. For the coming of
Charles V to Rome in the year 1535, he painted for Antonio da San Gallo
some scenes in chiaroscuro, which were placed on the arch that was made
at S. Marco; and these pictures, as has been said in another place, were
the best that there were in all those festive decorations.
Afterwards Signor Pier Luigi Farnese, who had been made Lord of Nepi at
that time, wishing to adorn that city with new buildings and pictures,
took Francesco into his service, giving him rooms in the Belvedere; and
there Francesco painted for him on large canvases some scenes in gouache
of the actions of Alexander the Great, which were afterwards carried
into execution and woven into tapestries in Flanders. For the same Lord
of Nepi he decorated a large and very beautiful bathroom with many
scenes and figures executed in fresco. Then, the same lord having been
created Duke of Castro, for his first entry rich and most beautiful
decorations were made in that city under the direction of Francesco, and
at the gate an arch all covered with scenes, figures, and statues,
executed with much judgment by able men, and in particular by
Alessandro, called Scherano, a sculptor of Settignano. Another arch, in
the form of a facade, was made at the Petrone, and yet another on the
Piazza, which arches, with regard to the woodwork, were executed by
Battista Botticelli; and in these festive preparations, among other
things, Francesco made a beautiful perspective-scene for a comedy that
was performed.
About the same time, Giulio Camillo, who was then in Rome, having made a
book of his compositions in order to send it to King Francis of France,
had it all illustrated by Francesco Salviati, who put into it all the
diligence that it is possible to devote to such a work. Cardinal
Salviati, having a desire to possess a picture in tinted woods (that is,
in tarsia) by the hand of Fra Damiano da Bergamo, a lay-brother of S.
Domenico at Bologna, sent him a design done in red chalk by the hand of
Francesco, as a pattern for its execution; which design, representing
King David being anointed by Samuel, was the best thing that Cecchino
Salviati ever drew, and truly most rare. After this, Giovanni da
Cepperello and Battista Gobbo of San Gallo--who had caused the
Florentine painter Jacopo del Conte, then a young man, to paint in the
Florentine Company of the Misericordia in S. Giovanni Decollato, under
the Campidoglio at Rome, namely, in the second church where they hold
their assemblies, a story of that same S. John the Baptist, showing the
Angel appearing to Zacharias in the Temple--commissioned Francesco to
paint below that scene another story of the same Saint, namely, the
Visitation of Our Lady to S. Elizabeth. That work, which was finished in
the year 1538, he executed in fresco in such a manner, that it is worthy
to be numbered among the most graceful and best conceived pictures that
Francesco ever painted, in the invention, in the composition of the
scene, in the method and the attention to rules for the gradation of the
figures, in the perspective and the architecture of the buildings, in
the nudes, in the draped figures, in the grace of the heads, and, in
short, in every part; wherefore it is no marvel if all Rome was struck
with astonishment by it. Around a window he executed some bizarre
fantasies in imitation of marble, and some little scenes that have
marvellous grace. And since Francesco never wasted any time, while he
was engaged on that work he executed many other things, and also
drawings, and he coloured a Phaethon with the Horses of the Sun, which
Michelagnolo had drawn. All these things Salviati showed to Giorgio, who
after the death of Duke Alessandro had gone to Rome for two months;
saying to him that, once he had finished a picture of a young S. John
that he was painting for his master Cardinal Salviati, a Passion of
Christ on canvas that was to be sent to Spain, and a picture of Our Lady
that he was painting for Raffaello Acciaiuoli, he wished to turn his
steps to Florence in order to revisit his native place, his relatives,
and his friends, for his father and mother were still alive, to whom he
was always of the greatest assistance, and particularly in settling two
sisters, one of whom was married, and the other is a nun in the Convent
of Monte Domini.
Coming thus to Florence, where he was received with much rejoicing by
his relatives and friends, it chanced that he arrived there at the very
moment when the festive preparations were being made for the nuptials of
Duke Cosimo and the Lady Donna Leonora di Toledo. Wherefore he was
commissioned to paint one of the already mentioned scenes that were
executed in the courtyard, which he accepted very willingly; and that
was the one in which the Emperor was placing the Ducal crown on the head
of Duke Cosimo. But being seized, before he had finished it, with a
desire to go to Venice, Francesco left it to Carlo Portelli of Loro, who
finished it after Francesco's design; which design, with many others by
the same hand, is in our book.
Having departed from Florence and made his way to Bologna, Francesco
found there Giorgio Vasari, who had returned two days before from
Camaldoli, where he had finished the two altar-pieces that are in the
tramezzo[17] of the church, and had begun that of the high-altar; and
Vasari was arranging to paint three great panel-pictures for the
refectory of the Fathers of S. Michele in Bosco, where he kept Francesco
with him for two days. During that time, some of his friends made
efforts to obtain for him the commission for an altar-piece that was to
be allotted by the men of the Della Morte Hospital. But, although
Salviati made a most beautiful design, those men, having little
understanding, were not able to recognize the opportunity that Messer
Domeneddio[18] had sent them of obtaining for Bologna a work by the hand
of an able master. Wherefore Francesco went away in some disdain,
leaving some very beautiful designs in the hands of Girolamo Fagiuoli,
to the end that he might engrave them on copper and have them printed.
[Footnote 17: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]
[Footnote 18: A method of alluding to the Deity, which, in
its playful simplicity, is quite impossible in English.]
Having arrived in Venice, he was received courteously by the Patriarch
Grimani and his brother Messer Vettorio, who showed him a thousand
favours. For that Patriarch, after a few days, he painted in oils, in an
octagon of four braccia, a most beautiful Psyche to whom, as to a
Goddess, on account of her beauty, incense and votive offerings are
presented; which octagon was placed in a hall in the house of that lord,
wherein is a ceiling in the centre of which there curve some festoons
executed by Camillo Mantovano, an excellent painter in representing
landscapes, flowers, leaves, fruits, and other suchlike things. That
octagon, I say, was placed in the midst of four pictures each two
braccia and a half square, executed with stories of the same Psyche, as
was related in the Life of Genga, by Francesco da Forli; and the octagon
is not only beyond all comparison more beautiful than those four
pictures, but even the most beautiful work of painting that there is in
all Venice. After that, in a chamber wherein Giovanni Ricamatori of
Udine had executed many works in stucco, he painted some little figures
in fresco, both nude and draped, which are full of grace. In like
manner, in an altar-piece that he executed for the Nuns of the Corpus
Domini at Venice, he painted with much diligence a Dead Christ with the
Maries, and in the air an Angel who has the Mysteries of the Passion in
the hands. He made the portrait of M. Pietro Aretino, which, as a rare
work, was sent by that poet to King Francis, with some verses in praise
of him who had painted it. And for the Nuns of S. Cristina in Bologna,
of the Order of Camaldoli, the same Salviati, at the entreaty of Don
Giovan Francesco da Bagno, their Confessor, painted an altar-piece with
many figures, a truly beautiful picture, which is in the church of that
convent.
Then, having grown weary of the life in Venice, as one who remembered
that of Rome, and considering that it was no place for men of design,
Francesco departed in order to return to Rome. And so, making a detour
by Verona and Mantua, in the first of which places he saw the many
antiquities that are there, and in the other the works of Giulio Romano,
he made his way back to Rome by the road through Romagna, and arrived
there in the year 1541. There, having rested a little, the first works
that he made were the portrait of Messer Giovanni Gaddi and that of
Messer Annibale Caro, who were much his friends. Those finished, he
painted a very beautiful altar-piece for the Chapel of the Clerks of the
Chamber in the Pope's Palace. And in the Church of the Germans he began
a chapel in fresco for a merchant of that nation, painting on the vault
above the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit, and in a picture that is
half-way up the wall Jesus Christ rising from the dead, with the
soldiers sleeping round the Sepulchre in various attitudes,
foreshortened in a bold and beautiful manner. On one side he painted S.
Stephen, and on the other side S. George, in two niches; and at the foot
he painted S. Giovanni Limosinario, who is giving alms to a naked
beggar, with a Charity on one side of him, and on the other side S.
Alberto, the Carmelite Friar, between Logic and Prudence. And in the
great altar-picture, finally, he painted in fresco the Dead Christ with
the Maries.
Having formed a friendship with Piero di Marcone, a Florentine
goldsmith, and having become his gossip, Francesco made to Piero's wife,
who was also his gossip, after her delivery, a present of a very
beautiful design, which was to be painted on one of those round baskets
in which food is brought to a newly-delivered woman. In that design
there was the life of man, in a number of square compartments containing
very beautiful figures, both on one side and on the other; namely, all
the ages of human life, each of which rested on a different festoon
appropriate to the particular age and the season. In that bizarre
composition were included, in two long ovals, figures of the sun and
moon, and between them Sais, a city of Egypt, standing before the Temple
of the Goddess Pallas and praying for wisdom, as if to signify that on
behalf of newborn children one should pray before any other thing for
wisdom and goodness. That design Piero held ever afterwards as dear as
if it had been, as indeed it was, a most beautiful jewel.
Not long afterwards, the above-named Piero and other friends having
written to Francesco that he would do well to return to his native
place, for the reason that it was held to be certain that he would be
employed by the Lord Duke Cosimo, who had no masters about him save such
as were slow and irresolute, he finally determined (trusting much, also,
in the favour of M. Alamanno, the brother of the Cardinal and uncle of
the Duke) to return to Florence. Having arrived, therefore, before
attempting any other thing, he painted for the above-named M. Alamanno
Salviati a very beautiful picture of Our Lady, which he executed in a
room in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore that was occupied by
Francesco dal Prato, who at that time, from being a goldsmith and a
master of tausia,[19] had set himself to casting little figures in
bronze and to painting, with much profit and honour. In that same place,
then, which that master held as the official in charge of the woodwork
of the Office of Works, Francesco made portraits of his friend Piero di
Marcone and of Avveduto del Cegia, the dresser of minever-furs, who was
also much his friend; which Avveduto, besides many other things by the
hand of Francesco that he possesses, has a portrait of Francesco
himself, executed in oils with his own hand, and very lifelike.
[Footnote 19: Damascening.]
[Illustration: JUSTICE
(_After the fresco by =Francesco Salviati [Francesco de' Rossi]=.
Florence: Bargello_)
_Alinari_]
The above-mentioned picture of Our Lady, being, after it was finished,
in the shop of the wood-carver Tasso, who was then architect of the
Palace, was seen by many persons and vastly extolled; but what caused it
even more to be considered a rare picture was that Tasso, who was
accustomed to censure almost everything, praised it to the skies. And,
what was more, he said to M. Pier Francesco, the majordomo, that it
would be an excellent thing for the Duke to give Francesco some work of
importance to execute; whereupon M. Pier Francesco and Cristofano
Rinieri, who had the ear of the Duke, played their part in such a way,
that M. Alamanno spoke to his Excellency, saying to him that Francesco
desired to be commissioned to paint the Hall of Audience, which is in
front of the Chapel of the Ducal Palace, and that he cared nothing about
payment; and the Duke was content that this should be granted to him.
Whereupon Francesco, having made small designs of the Triumph of Furius
Camillus and of many stories of his life, set himself to contrive the
division of that hall according to the spaces left by the windows and
doors, some of which are high and some low; and there was no little
difficulty in making that division in such a way that it might be
well-ordered and might not disturb the sequence of the stories. In the
wall where there is the door by which one enters into the hall, there
were two large spaces, divided by the door. Opposite to that, where
there are the three windows that look out over the Piazza, there were
four spaces, but not wider than about three braccia each. In the
end-wall that is on the right hand as one enters, wherein are two
windows that likewise look out on the Piazza, but in another direction,
there were three similar spaces, each about three braccia wide; and in
the end-wall that is on the left hand, opposite to the other, what with
the marble door that leads into the chapel, and a window with a grating
of bronze, there remained only one space large enough to contain a work
of importance. On the wall of the chapel, then--within an ornament of
Corinthian columns that support an architrave, which has below it a
recess, wherein hang two very rich festoons, and two pendants of various
fruits, counterfeited very well, while upon it sits a naked little boy
who is holding the Ducal arms, namely, those of the Houses of Medici and
Toledo--he painted two scenes; on the right hand Camillus, who is
commanding that the schoolmaster shall be given up to the vengeance of
his young scholars, and on the other the same Camillus, while the army
is in combat and fire is burning the stockades and tents of the camp, is
routing the Gauls. And beside that, where the same range of pilasters
continues, he painted a figure of Opportunity, large as life, who has
seized Fortune by the locks, and some devices of his Excellency, with
many ornaments executed with marvellous grace. On the main wall, where
there are two great spaces divided by the principal door, he painted two
large and very beautiful scenes. In the first are the Gauls, who,
weighing the gold of the tribute, add to it a sword, to the end that the
weight may be the greater, and Camillus, full of rage, delivers
himself from the tribute by force of arms; which scene is very
beautiful, and crowded with figures, landscapes, antiquities, and vases
counterfeited very well and in various manners in imitation of gold and
silver. In the other scene, beside the first, is Camillus in the
triumphal chariot, drawn by four horses; and on high is Fame, who is
crowning him. Before the chariot are priests very richly apparelled,
with the statue of the Goddess Juno, and holding vases in their hands,
and with some trophies and spoils of great beauty. About the chariot are
innumerable prisoners in various attitudes, and behind it the soldiers
of the army in their armour, among whom Francesco made a portrait of
himself, which is so good that it seems as if alive. In the distance,
where the triumphal procession is passing, is a very beautiful picture
of Rome, and above the door is a figure of Peace in chiaroscuro, who is
burning the arms, with some prisoners; all which was executed by
Francesco with such diligence and study, that there is no more beautiful
work to be seen.
On the wall towards the west he painted in a niche in one of the larger
spaces, in the centre, a Mars in armour, and below that a nude figure
representing a Gaul,[20] with a crest on the head similar to that of a
cock; and in another niche a Diana with a skin about her waist, who is
drawing an arrow from her quiver, with a dog. In the two corners next
the other two walls are two figures of Time, one adjusting weights in a
balance, and the other tempering the liquid in two vases by pouring one
into the other. On the last wall, which is opposite to the chapel and
faces towards the north, in a corner on the right hand, is the Sun
figured in the manner wherein the Egyptians represent him, and in the
other corner the Moon in the same manner. In the middle is Favour,
represented as a nude young man on the summit of the wheel, with Envy,
Hatred, and Malice on one side, and on the other side Honours, Pleasure,
and all the other things described by Lucian. Above the windows is a
frieze all full of most beautiful nudes, as large as life, and in
various forms and attitudes; with some scenes likewise from the life of
Camillus. And opposite to the Peace that is burning the arms is the
River Arno, who, holding a most abundant horn of plenty, raises with
one hand a curtain and reveals Florence and the greatness of her
Pontiffs and the heroes of the House of Medici. He painted there,
besides all that, a base that runs round below those scenes, and niches
with some terminal figures of women that support festoons; and in the
centre are certain ovals with scenes of people adorning a Sphinx and the
River Arno.
[Footnote 20: A play on the word Gallo, which means both Gaul
and cock.]