study that are possible; and, although he had many contradictions, he
carried it to a happy conclusion, desiring to leave in his native city a
work worthy of himself and of so great a Prince. Francesco was by nature
melancholy, and for the most part he did not care to have anyone about
him when he was at work. But nevertheless, when he first began that
undertaking, almost doing violence to his nature and affecting an open
heart, with great cordiality he allowed Tasso and others of his friends,
who had done him some service, to stand and watch him at work, showing
them every courtesy that he was able. But when he had gained a footing
at Court, as the saying goes, and it seemed to him that he was in good
favour, returning to his choleric and biting nature, he paid them no
attention. Nay, what was worse, he used the most bitter words according
to his wont (which served as an excuse to his adversaries), censuring
and decrying the works of others, and praising himself and his own works
to the skies. These methods, which displeased most people and likewise
certain craftsmen, brought upon him such odium, that Tasso and many
others, who from being his friends had become his enemies, began to give
him cause for thought and for action. For, although they praised the
excellence of the art that was in him, and the facility and rapidity
with which he executed his works so well and with such unity, they were
not at a loss, on the other hand, for something to censure. And since,
if they had allowed him to gain a firm footing and to settle his
affairs, they would not have been able afterwards to hinder or hurt him,
they began in good time to give him trouble and to molest him. Whereupon
many of the craftsmen and others, banding themselves together and
forming a faction, began to disseminate among the people of importance a
rumour that Salviati's work was not succeeding, and that he was
labouring by mere skill of hand, and devoting no study to anything that
he did. In which, in truth, they accused him wrongly, for, although he
never toiled over the execution of his works, as they themselves did,
yet that did not mean that he did not study them and that his works had
not infinite grace and invention, or that they were not carried out
excellently well. Not being able to surpass his excellence with their
works, those adversaries wished to overwhelm it with such words and
reproaches; but in the end truth and excellence have too much force. At
first Francesco made light of such rumours, but later, perceiving that
they were growing beyond all reason, he complained of it many times to
the Duke. But, since it began to be seen that the Duke, to all
appearance, was not showing him such favours as he would have liked, and
it seemed that his Excellency cared nothing for those complaints,
Francesco began to fall from his position in such a manner, that his
adversaries, taking courage from that, sent forth a rumour that his
scenes in the hall were to be thrown to the ground, because they did not
give satisfaction and had in them no particle of excellence. All these
calumnies, which were pressed against him with incredible envy and
malice by his adversaries, had reduced Francesco to such a state, that,
if it had not been for the goodness of Messer Lelio Torelli, Messer
Pasquino Bertini, and others of his friends, he would have retreated
before them, which was exactly what they desired. But the above-named
friends, exhorting him continually to finish the work of the hall and
others that he had in hand, restrained him, even as was done by many
other friends not in Florence, to whom he wrote of these persecutions.
And Giorgio Vasari, among others, answering a letter that Salviati wrote
to him on the matter, exhorted him always to have patience, because
excellence is refined by persecution as gold by fire; adding that a time
was about to come when his art and his genius would be recognized, and
that he should complain of no one but himself, in that he did not yet
know men's humours, and how the people and the craftsmen of his own
country were made. Thus, notwithstanding all these contradictions and
persecutions that poor Francesco suffered, he finished that
hall--namely, the work that he had undertaken to execute in fresco on
the walls, for the reason that on the ceiling, or rather, soffit, there
was no need for him to do any painting, since it was so richly carved
and all overlaid with gold, that among works of that kind there is none
more beautiful to be seen. And as a finish to the whole the Duke caused
two new windows of glass to be made, with his devices and arms and those
of Charles V; and nothing could be better in that kind of work than the
manner in which they were executed by Battista del Borro, an Aretine
painter excellent in that field of art.
After that, Francesco painted for his Excellency the ceiling of the hall
where he dines in winter, with many devices and little figures in
distemper; and a most beautiful study which opens out over the Green
Chamber. He made portraits, likewise, of some of the Duke's children;
and one year, for the Carnival, he executed in the Great Hall the
scenery and prospect-view for a comedy that was performed, and that with
such beauty and in a manner so different from those that had been done
in Florence up to that time, that they were judged to be superior to
them all. Nor is this to be marvelled at, since it is very certain that
Francesco was always in all his works full of judgment, and well-varied
and fertile in invention, and, what is more, he had a perfect knowledge
of design, and had a more beautiful manner than any other painter in
Florence at that time, and handled colours with great skill and
delicacy. He also made a head, or rather, a portrait, of Signor Giovanni
de' Medici, the father of Duke Cosimo, which was very beautiful; and it
is now in the guardaroba of the same Lord Duke. For Cristofano Rinieri,
who was much his friend, he painted a most beautiful picture of Our
Lady, which is now in the Udienza della Decima. For Ridolfo Landi he
executed a picture of Charity, which could not be more lovely than it
is; and for Simone Corsi, likewise, he painted a picture of Our Lady,
which was much extolled. For M. Donato Acciaiuoli, a knight of Rhodes,
with whom he always maintained a particular intimacy, he executed
certain little pictures that are very beautiful. And he also painted in
an altar-piece Christ showing to S. Thomas, who would not believe that
He had newly risen from the dead, the marks of the blows and wounds that
He had received from the Jews; which altar-piece was taken by Tommaso
Guadagni into France, and placed in the Chapel of the Florentines in a
church at Lyons.
Francesco also depicted at the request of the above-named Cristofano
Rinieri and of Maestro Giovanni Rosto, the Flemish master of tapestry,
the whole story of Tarquinius and the Roman Lucretia in many cartoons,
which, being afterwards put into execution in tapestries woven in silk,
floss-silk, and gold, proved to be a marvellous work. Which hearing, the
Duke, who was at that time having similar tapestries, all in silk and
gold, made in Florence by the same Maestro Giovanni for the Sala de'
Dugento, and had caused cartoons with the stories of the Hebrew Joseph
to be executed by Bronzino and Pontormo, as has been related, commanded
that Francesco also should make a cartoon, which was that with the
interpretation of the dream of the seven fat and seven lean kine. Into
that cartoon Francesco put all the diligence that could possibly be
devoted to such a work, and that is required for pictures that are to be
woven; for there must be fantastic inventions and variety of composition
in the figures, and these must stand out one from another, so that they
may have strong relief, and they must come out bright in colouring and
rich in the costumes and vestments. That piece of tapestry and the
others having turned out well, his Excellency resolved to establish the
art in Florence, and caused it to be taught to some boys, who, having
grown to be men, are now executing most excellent works for the Duke.
Francesco also executed a most beautiful picture of Our Lady, likewise
in oils, which is now in the chamber of Messer Alessandro, the son of M.
Ottaviano de' Medici. For the above-named M. Pasquino Bertini he painted
on canvas yet another picture of Our Lady, with Christ and S. John as
little children, who are smiling over a parrot that they have in their
hands; which was a very pleasing and fanciful work. And for the same man
he made a most beautiful design of a Crucifix, about one braccio high,
with a Magdalene at the foot, in a manner so new and so pleasing that it
is a marvel; which design M. Salvestro Bertini lent to Girolamo Razzi,
his very dear friend, who is now Don Silvano, and two pictures were
painted from it by Carlo of Loro, who has since executed many others,
which are dispersed about Florence.
Giovanni and Piero d'Agostino Dini had erected in S. Croce, on the
right hand as one enters by the central door, a very rich chapel of
grey sandstone and a tomb for Agostino and others of their family; and
they gave the commission for the altar-piece of that chapel to
Francesco, who painted in it Christ taken down from the Cross by Joseph
of Arimathaea and Nicodemus, and at the foot the Madonna in a swoon, with
Mary Magdalene, S. John, and the other Maries. That altar-piece was
executed by Francesco with so much art and study, that not only the nude
Christ is very beautiful, but all the other figures likewise are well
disposed and coloured with relief and force; and although at first the
picture was censured by Francesco's adversaries, nevertheless it won him
a great name with men in general, and those who have painted others
after him out of emulation have not surpassed him. The same Francesco,
before he departed from Florence, painted the portrait of the
above-mentioned M. Lelio Torelli, and some other works of no great
importance, of which I know not the particulars. But, among other
things, he brought to completion a design of the Conversion of S. Paul
that he had drawn long before in Rome, which is very beautiful; and he
had it engraved on copper in Florence by Enea Vico of Parma, and the
Duke was content to retain him in Florence until that should be done,
with his usual salary and allowances. During that time, which was in the
year 1548, Giorgio Vasari being at Rimini in order to execute in fresco
and in oils the works of which we have spoken in another place,
Francesco wrote him a long letter, informing him in exact detail how his
affairs were passing in Florence, and, in particular, that he had made a
design for the principal chapel of S. Lorenzo, which was to be painted
by order of the Lord Duke, but that with regard to that work infinite
mischief had been done against him with his Excellency, and, among other
things, that he held it almost as certain that M. Pier Francesco, the
majordomo, had not presented his design, so that the work had been
allotted to Pontormo. And finally he said that for these reasons he was
returning to Rome, much dissatisfied with the men and the craftsmen of
his native country.
[Illustration: THE DEPOSITION
(_After the painting by =Francesco Salviati [Francesco de' Rossi]=.
Florence: S. Croce, the Refectory_)
_Alinari_]
Having thus returned to Rome, he bought a house near the Palace of
Cardinal Farnese, and, while he was occupying himself with executing
some works of no great importance, he received from that Cardinal,
through M. Annibale Caro and Don Giulio Clovio, the commission to
paint the Chapel of the Palace of S. Giorgio, in which he executed an
ornament of most beautiful compartments in stucco, and a vaulting in
fresco with stories of S. Laurence and many figures, full of grace, and
on a panel of stone, in oils, the Nativity of Christ, introducing into
that work, which was very beautiful, the portrait of the above-named
Cardinal. Then, having another work allotted to him in the
above-mentioned Company of the Misericordia (where Jacopo del Conte had
painted the Preaching and the Baptism of S. John, in which, although he
had not surpassed Francesco, he had acquitted himself very well, and
where some other works had been executed by the Venetian Battista Franco
and by Pirro Ligorio), Francesco painted, on that part that is exactly
beside his own picture of the Visitation, the Nativity of S. John,
which, although he executed it excellently well, was nevertheless not
equal to the first. At the head of that Company, likewise, he painted
for M. Bartolommeo Bussotti two very beautiful figures in fresco--S.
Andrew and S. Bartholomew, the Apostles--which are one on either side of
the altar-piece, wherein is a Deposition from the Cross by the hand of
the same Jacopo del Conte, which is a very good picture and the best
work that he had ever done up to that time.
In the year 1550, Julius III having been elected Supreme Pontiff,
Francesco painted some very beautiful scenes in chiaroscuro for the arch
that was erected above the steps of S. Pietro, among the festive
preparations for the coronation. And then, in the same year, a sepulchre
with many steps and ranges of columns having been made in the Minerva by
the Company of the Sacrament, Francesco painted upon it some scenes and
figures in terretta, which were held to be very beautiful. In a chapel
of S. Lorenzo in Damaso he executed two Angels in fresco that are
holding a canopy, the design of one of which is in our book. In the
refectory of S. Salvatore del Lauro at Monte Giordano, on the principal
wall, he painted in fresco, with a great number of figures, the Marriage
of Cana in Galilee, at which Jesus Christ turned water into wine; and at
the sides some Saints, with Pope Eugenius IV, who belonged to that
Order, and other founders. Above the door of that refectory, on the
inner side, he painted a picture in oils of S. George killing the
Dragon, and he executed that whole work with much mastery, finish, and
charm of colouring. About the same time he sent to Florence, for M.
Alamanno Salviati, a large picture in which are Adam and Eve beside the
Tree of Life in the Earthly Paradise, eating the Forbidden Fruit, which
is a very beautiful work. For Signor Ranuccio, Cardinal Sant'Agnolo, of
the House of Farnese, Francesco painted with most beautiful fantasy two
walls in the hall that is in front of the great hall in the Farnese
Palace. On one wall he depicted Signor Ranuccio the Elder receiving from
Eugenius IV his baton as Captain-General of Holy Church, with some
Virtues, and on the other Pope Paul III, of the Farnese family, who is
giving the baton of the Church to Signor Pier Luigi, while there is seen
approaching from a distance the Emperor Charles V, accompanied by
Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and by other lords portrayed from life; and
on that wall, besides the things described above and many others, he
painted a Fame and a number of other figures, which are executed very
well. It is true, indeed, that the work received its final completion,
not from him, but from Taddeo Zucchero of Sant'Agnolo, as will be
related in the proper place. He gave completion and proportion to the
Chapel of the Popolo, which Fra Sebastiano Viniziano had formerly begun
for Agostino Chigi, but had not finished; and Francesco finished it, as
has been described in the Life of Fra Sebastiano. For Cardinal Riccio of
Montepulciano he painted a most beautiful hall in his Palace in the
Strada Giulia, where he executed in fresco various pictures with many
stories of David; and, among others, one of Bathsheba bathing herself in
a bath, with many other women, while David stands gazing at her, is a
scene very well composed and full of grace, and as rich in invention as
any other that there is to be seen. In another picture is the Death of
Uriah, in a third the Ark, before which go many musical instruments, and
finally, after some others, a battle that is being fought between David
and his enemies, very well composed. And, to put it briefly, the work of
that hall is all full of grace, of most beautiful fantasies, and of many
fanciful and ingenious inventions; the distribution of the parts is done
with much consideration, and the colouring is very pleasing. To tell the
truth, Francesco, feeling himself bold and fertile in invention, and
having a hand obedient to his brain, would have liked always to have on
his hands works large and out of the ordinary. And for no other reason
was he strange in his dealings with his friends, save only for this,
that, being variable and in certain things not very stable, what pleased
him one day he hated the next; and he did few works of importance
without having in the end to contend about the price, on which account
he was avoided by many.
After these works, Andrea Tassini, having to send a painter to the King
of France, in the year 1554 sought out Giorgio Vasari, but in vain, for
he said that not for any salary, however great, or promises, or
expectations, would he leave the service of his lord, Duke Cosimo; and
finally Andrea came to terms with Francesco and took him to France,
undertaking to recompense him in Rome if he were not satisfied in
France. Before Francesco departed from Rome, as if he thought that he
would never return, he sold his house, his furniture, and every other
thing, excepting the offices that he held. But the venture did not
succeed as he had expected, for the reason that, on arriving in Paris,
where he was received kindly and with many courtesies by M. Francesco
Primaticcio, painter and architect to the King, and Abbot of S. Martin,
he was straightway recognized, so it is said, as the strange sort of man
that he was, for he saw no work either by Rosso or by any other master
that he did not censure either openly or in some subtle way. Everyone
therefore expecting some great work from him, he was set by the Cardinal
of Lorraine, who had sent for him, to execute some pictures in his
Palace at Dampierre. Whereupon, after making many designs, finally he
set his hand to the work, and executed some pictures with scenes in
fresco over the cornices of chimney-pieces, and a little study full of
scenes, which are said to have shown great mastery; but, whatever may
have been the reason, these works did not win him much praise. Besides
that, Francesco was never much liked there, because he had a nature
altogether opposed to that of the men of that country, where, even as
those merry and jovial men are liked and held dear who live a free life
and take part gladly in assemblies and banquets, so those are, I do not
say shunned, but less liked and welcomed, who are by nature, as
Francesco was, melancholy, abstinent, sickly, and cross-grained. For
some things he might have deserved to be excused, since his habit of
body would not allow him to mix himself up with banquets and with eating
and drinking too much, if only he could have been more agreeable in
conversation. And, what was worse, whereas it was his duty, according to
the custom of that country and that Court, to show himself and pay court
to others, he would have liked, and thought that he deserved, to be
himself courted by everyone.
In the end, the King being occupied with matters of war, and likewise
the Cardinal, and himself being disappointed of his salary and promised
benefits, Francesco, after having been there twenty months, resolved to
return to Italy. And so he made his way to Milan, where he was
courteously received by the Chevalier Leone Aretino in the house that he
has built for himself, very ornate and all filled with statues ancient
and modern, and with figures cast in gesso from rare works, as will be
told in another place; and after having stayed there a fortnight and
rested himself, he went on to Florence. There he found Giorgio Vasari
and told him how well he had done not to go to France, giving him an
account that would have driven the desire to go there, no matter how
great, out of anyone. From Florence he returned to Rome, and there
entered an action against those who had guaranteed his allowances from
the Cardinal of Lorraine, and compelled them to pay him in full; and
when he had received the money he bought some offices, in addition to
others that he held before, with a firm resolve to look after his own
life, knowing that he was not in good health and that he had wholly
ruined his constitution. Notwithstanding that, he would have liked to be
employed in great works; but in this he did not succeed so readily, and
he occupied himself for a time with executing pictures and portraits.
Pope Paul IV having died, Pius was elected, likewise the Fourth of that
name, who, much delighting in building, availed himself of Pirro Ligorio
in matters of architecture; and his Holiness ordained that Cardinals
Alessandro Farnese and Emulio should cause the Great Hall, called the
Hall of Kings, to be finished by Daniello da Volterra, who had begun it.
That very reverend Farnese did his utmost to obtain the half of that
work for Francesco, and in consequence there was a long contention
between Daniello and Francesco, particularly because Michelagnolo
Buonarroti exerted himself in favour of Daniello, and for a time they
arrived at no conclusion. Meanwhile, Vasari having gone with Cardinal
Giovanni de' Medici, the son of Duke Cosimo, to Rome, Francesco related
to him his many difficulties, and in particular that in which, for the
reasons just given, he then found himself; and Giorgio, who much loved
the excellence of the man, showed him that up to that time he had
managed his affairs very badly, and that for the future he should let
him (Vasari) manage them, for he would so contrive that in one way or
another the half of that Hall of Kings would fall to him to execute,
which Daniello was not able to finish by himself, being a slow and
irresolute person, and almost certainly not as able and versatile as
Francesco. Matters standing thus, and nothing more being done for the
moment, not many days afterwards Giorgio himself was requested by the
Pope to paint part of that Hall, but he answered that he had one three
times larger to paint in the Palace of his master, Duke Cosimo, and, in
addition, that he had been so badly treated by Pope Julius III, for whom
he had executed many labours in the Vigna on the Monte and elsewhere,
that he no longer knew what to expect from certain kinds of men; adding
that he had painted for the Palace of the same Pontiff, without being
paid, an altar-piece of Christ calling Peter and Andrew from their nets
on the Sea of Tiberias (which had been taken away by Pope Paul IV from a
chapel that Julius had built over the corridor of the Belvedere, and
which was to be sent to Milan), and that his Holiness should cause it to
be either paid for or restored to him. To which the Pope said in
answer--and whether it was true or not, I do not know--that he knew
nothing of that altar-piece, but wished to see it; whereupon it was sent
for, and, after his Holiness had seen it, but in a bad light, he was
content that it should be restored.
The discussion about the Hall being then resumed, Giorgio told the Pope
frankly that Francesco was the first and best painter in Rome, that his
Holiness would do well to employ him, since no one could serve him
better, and that, although Buonarroti and the Cardinal of Carpi favoured
Daniello, they did so more from the motive of friendship, and perhaps
out of animosity, than for any other reason. But to return to the
altar-piece; Giorgio had no sooner left the Pope than he sent it to the
house of Francesco, who afterwards had it taken to Arezzo, where, as we
have related in another place, it has been deposited by Vasari with a
rich, costly, and handsome ornament, in the Pieve of that city. The
affairs of the Hall of Kings remaining in the condition that has been
described above, when Duke Cosimo departed from Siena in order to go to
Rome, Vasari, who had gone as far as that with his Excellency,
recommended Salviati warmly to him, beseeching him to make interest on
his behalf with the Pope, and to Francesco he wrote as to all that he
was to do when the Duke had arrived in Rome. In all which Francesco
departed in no way from the advice given him by Giorgio, for he went to
do reverence to the Duke, and was welcomed by his Excellency with an
aspect full of kindness, and shortly afterwards so much was said to his
Holiness on his behalf, that the half of the above-mentioned Hall was
allotted to him. Setting his hand to the work, before doing any other
thing he threw to the ground a scene that had been begun by Daniello; on
which account there were afterwards many contentions between them. The
Pontiff was served in matters of architecture, as has been already
related, by Pirro Ligorio, who at first had much favoured Francesco, and
would have continued to favour him; but Francesco paying no more
attention either to Pirro or to any other after he had begun to work,
this was the reason that Ligorio, from being his friend, became in a
certain sort his adversary, and of this very manifest signs were seen,
for Pirro began to say to the Pope that since there were many young
painters of ability in Rome, and he wished to have that Hall off his
hands, it would be a good thing to allot one scene to each of them, and
thus to see it finished once and for all. These proceedings of Pirro's,
to which it was evident that the Pope was favourable, so displeased
Francesco, that in great disdain he retired from the work and all the
contentions, considering that he was held in little estimation. And so,
mounting his horse and not saying a word to anyone, he went off to
Florence, where, like the strange creature that he was, without giving a
thought to any of the friends that he had there, he took up his abode
in an inn, as if he did not belong to the place and had no acquaintance
there nor anyone who cared for him in any way. Afterwards, having kissed
the hands of the Duke, he was received with such kindness, that he might
well have looked for some good result, if only he had been different in
nature and had adhered to the advice of Giorgio, who urged him to sell
the offices that he had in Rome and to settle in Florence, so as to
enjoy his native place with his friends and to avoid the danger of
losing, together with his life, all the fruits of his toil and grievous
labours. But Francesco, moved by sensitiveness and anger, and by his
desire to avenge himself, resolved that he would at all costs return to
Rome in a few days. Meanwhile, moving from that inn at the entreaty of
his friends, he retired to the house of M. Marco Finale, the Prior of S.
Apostolo, where he executed a Pieta in colours on cloth of silver for M.
Jacopo Salviati, as it were to pass the time, with the Madonna and the
other Maries, which was a very beautiful work. He renewed in colours a
medallion with the Ducal arms, which he had made on a former occasion
and placed over a door in the Palace of Messer Alamanno. And for the
above-named M. Jacopo he made a most beautiful book of bizarre costumes
and various headdresses of men and horses for masquerades, for which he
received innumerable courtesies from the liberality of that lord, who
lamented the strange and eccentric nature of Francesco, whom he was
never able to attract into his house on this occasion, as he had done at
other times.