friend, reminded him that, being rich, advanced in years, weak in
health, and little fitted for more fatigues, he should think of living
in peace and shun strife and contention, which he would have been able
to do with ease, having acquired honour and property in plenty, if he
had not been too avaricious and desirous of gain. He exhorted him, in
addition, to sell the greater part of the offices that he possessed and
to arrange his affairs in such a manner, that in any emergency or any
misfortune that might happen he might be able to remember his friends
and those who had given him faithful and loving service. Francesco
promised that he would do right both in word and deed, and confessed
that Giorgio had spoken the truth; but, as happens to most of the men
who think that time will last for ever, he did nothing more in the
matter. Having arrived in Rome, Francesco found that Cardinal Emulio had
distributed the scenes of the Hall, giving two of them to Taddeo
Zucchero of Sant' Agnolo, one to Livio da Forli, another to Orazio da
Bologna, yet another to Girolamo da Sermoneta, and the rest to others.
Which being reported by Francesco to Giorgio, whom he asked whether it
would be well for him to continue the work that he had begun, he
received the answer that it would be a good thing, after making so many
little designs and large cartoons, to finish at least one picture,
notwithstanding that the greater part of the work had been allotted to
so many others, all much inferior to him, and that he should make an
effort to approach as near as possible in his work to the pictures by
Buonarroti on the walls and vaulting of the Sistine Chapel, and to those
of the Pauline; for the reason that after his work was seen, the others
would be thrown to the ground, and all, to his great glory, would be
allotted to him. And Giorgio warned him to give no thought to profit or
money, or to any vexation that he might suffer from those in charge of
the work, telling him that the honour was much more important than any
other thing. Of all these letters and of the replies, the originals, as
well as copies, are among those that we ourselves treasure in memory of
so great a man, who was our dearest friend, and among those by our own
hand that must have been found among his possessions.
After these things Francesco was living in an angry mood, in no way
certain as to what he wished to do, afflicted in mind, feeble in body,
and weakened by everlasting medicines, when finally he fell ill with the
illness of death, which carried him in a short time to the last
extremity, without having given him time to make a complete disposal of
his possessions. To a disciple called Annibale, the son of Nanni di
Baccio Bigio, he left sixty crowns a year on the Monte delle Farine,
fourteen pictures, and all his designs and other art possessions. The
rest of his property he left to Suor Gabriella, his sister, a nun,
although I understand that she did not receive, as the saying goes, even
the "cord of the sack." However, there must have come into her hands a
picture painted on cloth of silver, with embroidery around it, which he
had executed for the King of Portugal or of Poland, whichever it was,
and left to her to the end that she might keep it in memory of him. All
his other possessions, such as the offices that he had bought after
unspeakable fatigues, all were lost.
Francesco died on S. Martin's Day, the 11th of November, in the year
1563, and was buried in S. Gieronimo, a church near the house where he
lived. The death of Francesco was a very great loss to art, seeing that,
although he was fifty-four years of age and weak in health, he was
continually studying and working, cost what it might; and at the very
last he had set himself to work in mosaic. It is evident that he was
capricious, and would have liked to do many things; and if he had found
a Prince who could have recognized his humour and could have given him
works after his fancy, he would have achieved marvellous things, for, as
we have said, he was rich, fertile, and most exuberant in every kind of
invention, and a master in every field of painting. He gave great beauty
and grace to every kind of head, and he understood the nude as well as
any other painter of his time. He had a very graceful and delicate
manner in painting draperies, arranging them in such a way that the nude
could always be perceived in the parts where that was required, and
clothing his figures in new fashions of dress; and he showed fancy and
variety in headdresses, foot-wear, and every other kind of ornament. He
handled colours in oils, in distemper, and in fresco in such a manner,
that it may be affirmed that he was one of the most able, resolute,
bold, and diligent craftsmen of our age, and to this we, who associated
with him for so many years, are well able to bear testimony. And
although there was always between us a certain proper emulation, by
reason of the desire that good craftsmen have to surpass one another,
none the less, with regard to the claims of friendship, there was never
any lack of love and affection between us, although each of us worked in
competition in the most famous places in Italy, as may be seen from a
vast number of letters that are in my possession, as I have said,
written by the hand of Francesco. Salviati was affectionate by nature,
but suspicious, acute, subtle, and penetrative, and yet ready to believe
anything; and when he set himself to speak of some of the men of our
arts, either in jest or in earnest, he was likely to give offence, and
at times touched them to the quick. It pleased him to mix with men of
learning and great persons, and he always held plebeian craftsmen in
detestation, even though they might be able in some field of art. He
avoided such persons as always speak evil, and when the conversation
turned on them he would tear them to pieces without mercy. But most of
all he abhorred the knaveries that craftsmen sometimes commit, of which,
having been in France, and having heard something of them, he was only
too well able to speak. At times, in order to be less weighed down by
his melancholy, he used to mingle with his friends and force himself to
be cheerful. But in the end his strange nature, so irresolute,
suspicious, and solitary, did harm to no one but himself.
His dearest friend was Manno, a Florentine goldsmith in Rome, a man rare
in his profession and excellent in character and goodness of heart.
Manno is burdened with a family, and if Francesco had been able to
dispose of his property, and had not spent all the fruits of his labours
on offices, only to leave them to the Pope, he would have left a great
part of them to that worthy man and excellent craftsman. Very dear to
him, likewise, was the above-mentioned Avveduto dell'Avveduto, a dresser
of minever-furs, who was the most loving and most faithful friend that
Francesco ever had; and if he had been in Rome when Francesco died,
Salviati would probably have arranged certain of his affairs with better
judgment than he did.
[Illustration: MEDAL OF POPE CLEMENT VII
(_After =Francesco dal Prato=. London: British Museum_)]
His disciple, also, was the Spaniard Roviale, who executed many works in
company with him, and by himself an altar-piece containing the
Conversion of S. Paul for the Church of S. Spirito in Rome. And Salviati
was very well disposed towards Francesco di Girolamo dal Prato, in
company with whom, as has been related above, he studied design while
still a child; which Francesco was a man of most beautiful genius, and
drew better than any other goldsmith of his time; and he was not
inferior to his father Girolamo, who executed every kind of work with
plates of silver better than any of his rivals. It is said that Girolamo
succeeded with ease in any kind of work; thus, having beaten the plate
of silver with certain hammers, he placed it on a piece of plank, and
between the two a layer of wax, tallow and pitch, producing in that way
a material midway between soft and hard, and then, beating it with iron
instruments both inwards and outwards, he caused it to come out in
whatever shapes he desired--heads, breasts, arms, legs, backs, and any
other thing that he wished or was demanded from him by those who caused
votive offerings to be made, in order to attach them to those holy
images that were to be found in any place where they had received
favours or had been heard in their prayers. Francesco, then, not
attending only to the making of votive offerings, as his father did,
worked also at tausia and at inlaying steel with gold and silver after
the manner of damascening, making foliage, figures, and any other kind
of work that he wished; in which manner of inlaid work he made a
complete suit of armour for a foot-soldier, of great beauty, for Duke
Alessandro de' Medici. Among many medals that the same man made, those
were by his hand, and very beautiful, which were placed in the
foundations of the fortifications at the Porta a Faenza, with the head
of the above-named Duke Alessandro; together with others in which there
was on one side the head of Pope Clement VII, and on the other a nude
Christ with the scourges of His Passion. Francesco also delighted in the
work of sculpture, and cast some little figures in bronze, full of
grace, which came into the possession of Duke Alessandro. And the same
master polished and carried to great perfection four similar figures,
made by Baccio Bandinelli--namely, a Leda, a Venus, a Hercules, and an
Apollo--which were given to the same Duke. Being dissatisfied, then,
with the goldsmith's craft, and not being able to give his attention to
sculpture, which calls for too many resources, Francesco, having a good
knowledge of design, devoted himself to painting; and since he was a
person who mixed little with others, and did not care to have it known
more than was inevitable that he was giving his attention to painting,
he executed many works by himself. Meanwhile, as was related at the
beginning, Francesco Salviati came to Florence, and he worked at the
picture for M. Alamanno in the rooms that the other Francesco occupied
in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore; wherefore with that
opportunity, seeing Salviati's method of working, he applied himself to
painting with much more zeal than he had done up to that time, and
executed a very beautiful picture of the Conversion of S. Paul, which is
now in the possession of Guglielmo del Tovaglia. And after that, in a
picture of the same size, he painted the Serpents raining down on the
Hebrew people, and in another he painted Jesus Christ delivering the
Holy Fathers from the Limbo of Hell; which two last-named pictures, both
very beautiful, now belong to Filippo Spini, a gentleman who much
delights in our arts. Besides many other little works that Francesco dal
Prato executed, he drew much and well, as may be seen from some designs
by his hand that are in our book of drawings. He died in the year 1562,
and his death much grieved the whole Academy, because, besides his
having been an able master in art, there was never a more excellent man
than Francesco.
[Illustration: THE RECONCILIATION OF POPE ALEXANDER III AND FREDERICK
BARBAROSSA
(_After the fresco by =Giuseppe del Salviati [Giuseppe Porta]=. Rome:
The Vatican, Sala Regia_)
_Anderson_]
Another pupil of Francesco Salviati was Giuseppe Porta of Castelnuovo
della Garfagnana, who, out of respect for his master, was also called
Giuseppe Salviati. This Giuseppe, having been taken to Rome as a boy, in
the year 1535, by an uncle, the secretary of Monsignor Onofrio
Bartolini, Archbishop of Pisa, was placed with Salviati, under whom he
learned in a short time not only to draw very finely, but also to use
colour excellently well. He then went with his master to Venice, where
he formed so many connections with noble persons, that, being left there
by Francesco, he made up his mind that he would choose that city as his
home; and so, having taken a wife there, he has lived there ever since,
and he has worked in few other places but Venice. He painted long ago
the facade of the house of the Loredani on the Campo di S. Stefano, with
scenes very pleasingly coloured in fresco and executed in a beautiful
manner. He painted, likewise, that of the Bernardi at S. Polo, and
another behind S. Rocco, which is a very good work. Three other facades
he has painted in chiaroscuro, very large and covered with various
scenes--one at S. Moise, the second at S. Cassiano, and the third at S.
Maria Zebenigo. He has also painted in fresco, at a place called
Treville, near Treviso, the whole of the Palace of the Priuli, a rich
and vast building, both within and without; of which building there will
be a long account in the Life of Sansovino; and at Pieve di Sacco he has
painted a very beautiful facade. At Bagnuolo, a seat of the Friars of
S. Spirito at Venice, he has executed an altar-piece in oils; and for
the same fathers he has painted the ceiling, or rather, soffit of the
refectory in the Convent of S. Spirito, with a number of compartments
filled with painted pictures, and a most beautiful Last Supper on the
principal wall. For the Hall of the Doge, in the Palace of S. Marco, he
has painted the Sibyls, the Prophets, the Cardinal Virtues, and Christ
with the Maries, which have won him vast praise; and in the
above-mentioned Library of S. Marco he painted two large scenes, in
competition with the other painters of Venice of whom mention has been
made above. Being summoned to Rome by Cardinal Emulio after the death of
Francesco, he finished one of the larger scenes that are in the Hall of
Kings, and began another; and then, Pope Pius IV having died, he
returned to Venice, where the Signoria commissioned him to paint a
ceiling with pictures in oils, which is at the head of the new staircase
in the Palace.
The same master has painted six very beautiful altar-pieces in oils, one
of which is on the altar of the Madonna in S. Francesco della Vigna, the
second on the high-altar in the Church of the Servites, the third is
with the Friars Minors, the fourth in the Madonna dell'Orto, the fifth
at S. Zaccheria, and the sixth at S. Moise; and he has painted two at
Murano, which are beautiful and executed with much diligence and in a
lovely manner. But of this Giuseppe, who is still alive and is becoming
a very excellent master, I say no more for the present, save that, in
addition to his painting, he devotes much study to geometry. By his hand
is the Volute of the Ionic Capital that is to be seen in print at the
present day, showing how it should be turned after the ancient measure;
and there is to appear soon a work that he has composed on the subject
of geometry.
A disciple of Francesco, also, was one Domenico Romano, who was of great
assistance to him in the hall that he painted in Florence, and in other
works. Domenico engaged himself in the year 1550 to Signor Giuliano
Cesarino, and he does not work on his own account.
DANIELLO RICCIARELLI
LIFE OF DANIELLO RICCIARELLI
PAINTER AND SCULPTOR OF VOLTERRA
Daniello, when he was a lad, learned to draw a little from Giovanni
Antonio Sodoma, who went at that time to execute certain works in the
city of Volterra; and when Sodoma had gone away he made much greater and
better proficience under Baldassarre Peruzzi than he had done under the
discipline of the other. But to tell the truth, for all that, he
achieved no great success at that time, for the reason that in
proportion as he devoted great effort and study to seeking to learn,
being urged by a strong desire, even so, on the other hand, did his
brain and hand fail him. Wherefore in his first works, which he executed
at Volterra, there is evidence of very great, nay, infinite labour, but
not yet any promise of a grand or beautiful manner, nor any grace,
charm, or invention, such as have been seen at an early hour in many
others who have been born to be painters, and who, even in their first
beginnings, have shown facility, boldness, and some indication of a good
manner. His first works, indeed, seem in truth as if done by a
melancholic, being full of effort and executed with much patience and
expenditure of time.
But let us come to his works, leaving aside those that are not worthy of
attention; in his youth he painted in fresco at Volterra the facade of
M. Mario Maffei, in chiaroscuro, which gave him a good name and won him
much credit. But after he had finished it, perceiving that he had there
no competition that might spur him to seek to rise to greater heights,
and that there were no works in that city, either ancient or modern,
from which he could learn much, he determined at all costs to go to
Rome, where he heard that there were not at that time many who were
engaged in painting, excepting Perino del Vaga. Before departing, he
resolved that he would take some finished work that might make him
known; and so, having painted a canvas in oils of Christ Scourged at the
Column, with many figures, to which he devoted all possible diligence,
availing himself of models and portraits from life, he took it with him.
And, having arrived in Rome, he had not been long there before he
contrived by means of friends to show that picture to Cardinal Triulzi,
whom it satisfied in such a manner that he not only bought it, but also
conceived a very great affection for Daniello; and a short time
afterwards he sent him to work in a village without Rome belonging to
himself, called Salone, where he had built a very large house, which he
was having adorned with fountains, stucco-work, and paintings, and in
which at that very time Gian Maria da Milano and others were decorating
certain rooms with stucco and grotesques. Arriving there, then,
Daniello, both out of emulation and from a desire to serve that lord,
from whom he could hope to win much honour and profit, painted various
things in many rooms and loggie in company with the others, and in
particular executed many grotesques, full of various little figures of
women. But the work that proved to be more beautiful than all the rest
was a story of Phaethon, executed in fresco with figures of the size of
life, and a very large River God that he painted there, which is a very
good figure; and all these works, since the above-named Cardinal went
often to see them, and took with him now one and now another of the
Cardinals, were the reason that Daniello formed a friendship and bonds
of service with many of them.
Afterwards, Perino del Vaga, who at that time was painting the Chapel of
M. Agnolo de' Massimi in the Trinita, having need of a young man who
might help him, Daniello, desiring to make proficience, and drawn by his
promises, went to work with him and assisted him to execute certain
things in the work of that chapel, which he carried to completion with
much diligence. Now, before the sack of Rome Perino had painted on the
vaulting of the Chapel of the Crocifisso in S. Marcello, as has been
related, the Creation of Adam and Eve in figures of the size of life,
and in much larger figures two Evangelists, S. John and S. Mark, which
were not yet completely finished, since the figure of S. John was
wanting from the middle upwards; and the men of that Company resolved,
when the affairs of Rome had finally become settled again, that the same
Perino should finish the work. But he, having other work to do, made the
cartoons and had it finished by Daniello, who completed the S. John that
had been left unfinished, painted all by himself the two other
Evangelists, S. Luke and S. Matthew, between them two little boys that
are holding a candelabrum, and, on the arch of the wall that contains
the window, two Angels standing poised on their wings in the act of
flight, who are holding in their hands the Mysteries of the Passion of
Jesus Christ; and he adorned the arch richly with grotesques and little
naked figures of great beauty. In short, he acquitted himself
marvellously well in all that work, although he took a considerable time
over it.
[Illustration: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
(_After the fresco by =Daniello Ricciarelli=. Rome: SS. Trinita dei
Monti_)
_Anderson_]