pastose, and very far removed from the hardness often seen. He was very
abundant in his compositions, and he made his heads, hands, and nudes
very beautiful, keeping them free of the many crudities over which
certain painters labour beyond all reason, in order to make it appear
that they understand anatomy and art; to which kind of men there often
happens that which befell him who, from his seeking to be in his speech
more Athenian than the Athenians, was recognized by a woman of the
people to be no Athenian. Taddeo also handled colours with much
delicacy, and he had great facility of manner, for he was much assisted
by nature; but at times he sought to make too much use of it. He was so
desirous of having something of his own, that he continued for a time to
accept any sort of work for the sake of gain; but for all that he
executed many, nay, innumerable works worthy of great praise. He kept a
number of assistants in order to finish his works, for the reason that
it is not possible to do otherwise. He was sanguine, hasty, and quick to
take offence, and, in addition, much given to the pleasures of love; but
nevertheless, although he was strongly inclined by nature to such
pleasures, he contrived to conduct his affairs with a certain degree of
decency, and very secretly. He was loving with his friends, and whenever
he could help them he never spared himself.
At his death he left the work in the Trinita not yet uncovered, and the
Great Hall in the Farnese Palace unfinished, and so also the works of
Caprarola, but nevertheless these all remained in the hands of his
brother Federigo, whom the patrons of the works are content to allow to
give them completion, as he will do; and, in truth, Federigo will be
heir to the talents of Taddeo no less than to his property. Taddeo was
given burial by Federigo in the Ritonda of Rome, near the tabernacle
where Raffaello da Urbino, his fellow-countryman, is buried; and
certainly they are well placed, one beside the other, for the reason
that even as Raffaello died at the age of thirty-seven and on the same
day that he was born, which was Good Friday, so Taddeo was born on the
first day of September, 1529, and died on the second day of the same
month in the year 1566. Federigo is minded, if it should be granted to
him, to restore the other tabernacle in the Ritonda, and to make some
memorial in that place to his loving brother, to whom he knows himself
to be deeply indebted.
Now, since mention has been made above of Jacopo Barozzi of Vignuola,
saying that after his architectural designs and directions the most
illustrious Cardinal Farnese has built his rich and even regal villa of
Caprarola, let me relate that the same Jacopo Barozzi of Vignuola, a
Bolognese painter and architect, who is now fifty-eight years of age,
was placed in his childhood and youth to learn the art of painting in
Bologna, but did not make much proficience, because he did not receive
good guidance at the beginning. And also, to tell the truth, he had by
nature much more inclination for architecture than for painting, as was
clearly manifest even at that time from his designs and from the few
works of painting that he executed, for there were always to be seen in
them pieces of architecture and perspective; and so strong and potent in
him was that inclination of nature, that he may be said to have learned
almost by himself, in a short time, both the first principles and also
the greatest difficulties, and that very well. Wherefore, almost before
he was known, various designs with most beautiful and imaginative
fantasies were seen to issue from his hand, executed for the most part
at the request of M. Francesco Guicciardini, at that time Governor of
Bologna, and for others of his friends; which designs were afterwards
put into execution in tinted woods inlaid after the manner of tarsia, by
Fra Damiano da Bergamo, of the Order of S. Domenico in Bologna. Vignuola
then went to Rome to work at painting, and to obtain from that art the
means to assist his poor family; and at first he was employed at the
Belvedere with Jacopo Melighini of Ferrara, the architect of Pope Paul
III, drawing some architectural designs for him. But afterwards, there
being in Rome at that time an academy of most noble lords and gentlemen
who occupied themselves in reading Vitruvius (among whom were M.
Marcello Cervini, who afterwards became Pope, Monsignor Maffei, M.
Alessandro Manzuoli, and others), Vignuola set himself in their service
to take complete measurements of all the antiquities of Rome, and to
execute certain works after their fancy; which circumstance was of the
greatest assistance to him both for learning and for profit. Meanwhile
Francesco Primaticcio, the Bolognese painter, of whom there will be an
account in another place, had arrived in Rome, and he made much use of
Vignuola in making moulds of a great part of the antiques in Rome, in
order to take those moulds into France, and then to cast from them
statues in bronze similar to the antiques; which work having been
despatched, Primaticcio, in going to France, took Vignuola with him, in
order to make use of him in matters of architecture and to have his
assistance in casting in bronze the above-mentioned statues of which
they had made the moulds; which things, both the one and the other, he
did with much diligence and judgment. After two years had passed, he
returned to Bologna, according to the promise made by him to Count
Filippo Pepoli, in order to attend to the building of S. Petronio. In
that place he consumed several years in discussions and disputes with
certain others who were his competitors in the affairs there, without
doing anything but design and cause to be constructed after his plans
the canal that brings vessels into Bologna, whereas before that they
could not come within three miles; than which work none better or more
useful was ever executed, although Vignuola, the originator of an
enterprise so useful and so praiseworthy, was poorly rewarded for it.
Pope Julius III having been elected in the year 1550, by means of Vasari
Vignuola was appointed architect to his Holiness, and there was given to
him the particular charge of conducting the Acqua Vergine and of
superintending the works at the Vigna of Pope Julius, who took Vignuola
into his service most willingly, because he had come to know him when he
was Legate in Bologna. In that building, and in other works that he
executed for that Pontiff, he endured much labour, but was badly
rewarded for it. Finally Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, having recognized
the genius of Vignuola, to whom he always showed much favour, desired,
in carrying out the building of his Palace at Caprarola, that the whole
work should spring from the fanciful design and invention of Vignuola.
And, in truth, the judgment of that lord in making choice of so
excellent an architect was no less than the greatness of his mind in
setting his hand to an edifice so noble and grand, which, although it is
in a place where it can be enjoyed but little by men in general, being
out of the way, yet is none the less marvellous in its site, and very
suitable for one who wishes at times to withdraw from the vexations and
tumult of the city. This edifice, then, has the form of a pentagon, and
is divided into four sets of apartments, without counting the front
part, where the principal door is; in which front part is a loggia forty
palms in breadth and eighty in length. On one side there curves in a
round form a spiral staircase, ten palms wide across the steps, and
twenty palms across the space in the centre, which gives light to the
staircase, which curves from the base to the third or uppermost story;
and these steps are all supported by double columns with cornices, which
curve in a round in accordance with the staircase. The whole is a rich
and well-varied work, beginning with the Doric Order, and continuing in
the Ionic, the Corinthian, and the Composite, with a wealth of
balusters, niches, and other fanciful ornaments, which make it a rare
thing, and most beautiful. Opposite to this staircase--namely, at the
other of the corners that are one on either side of the above-mentioned
loggia of the entrance--there is a suite of rooms that begins in a
circular vestibule equal in breadth to the staircase, and leads to a
great hall on the ground floor, eighty palms long and forty broad. This
hall is wrought in stucco and painted with stories of Jove--namely, his
birth, his being nursed by the Goat Amaltheia, and her coronation, with
two other stories on either side of the last-named, showing her being
placed in the heavens among the forty-eight Heavenly Signs, and another
similar story of the same Goat, which alludes, as also do the others, to
the name of Caprarola. On the walls of this hall are perspective-views
of buildings drawn by Vignuola and coloured by his son-in-law, which are
very beautiful and make the room seem larger than it is. Beside this
hall is a smaller hall of forty palms, which comes exactly at the next
corner, and in it, besides the works in stucco, are painted things that
are all significant of Spring. Continuing from this little hall towards
the other angle (that is, towards the point of the pentagon, where a
tower has been begun), one goes into three chambers, each forty palms
broad and thirty long. In the first of these are various inventions
executed in stucco and painting, representing Summer, to which season
this first chamber is dedicated. In that which follows there is painted
and wrought in the same manner the season of Autumn; and in the last,
which is sheltered from the north, and decorated likewise in the same
manner, there is represented in a similar kind of work the season of
Winter.
So far we have spoken (with regard to the floor that is over the
underground rooms of the basement, cut out of the tufa, where there are
rooms for the servants, kitchens, larders, and wine-cellars) of the half
of this pentagonal edifice--namely, of the part on the right hand.
Opposite to that part, on the left hand, there are rooms exactly equal
in number and of the same size. Within the five angles of the pentagon
Vignuola has made a circular court, into which all the apartments of the
edifice open with their doors; which doors, I mean, all open into the
circular loggia surrounding the court, which is eighteen palms in
breadth, while the diameter of the remaining space in the court is
ninety-five palms and five inches. The pilasters of the loggia (which is
divided up by niches), supporting the arches and the vaulting, are in
couples, with a niche in the centre, and twenty in number; and each
couple covers a breadth of fifteen palms, which is also the breadth of
the space of the arches. Around the loggia, at the angles that form the
shape of the round, are four spiral staircases, which lead from the
basement of the palace up to the top, for the convenience of the edifice
and of the rooms. And there are reservoirs that collect the rain-water,
which feed a very large and beautiful cistern in the centre; to say
nothing of the windows and innumerable other conveniences, which make
this building appear to be, as indeed it is, a rare and most beautiful
fabric. And, besides having the site and form of a fortress, it is
furnished on the outer side with an oval flight of steps, with ditches
all around, and with drawbridges made with beautiful invention and in a
novel manner, which lead into gardens full of rich and well-varied
fountains, graceful parterres of verdure, and, in short, all that is
required for a truly regal villa.
Now, ascending by the great spiral staircase from the level of the court
to the other apartment above, one finds already finished, over the part
of which we have spoken, an equal number of rooms, and also the chapel,
which is opposite to the principal round staircase on this floor. In the
hall that is exactly above that of Jove, and of equal size, there are
painted by the hands of Taddeo and his young men, with very rich and
beautiful ornaments of stucco, the actions of the illustrious men of the
House of Farnese. On the vaulting are compartments with six scenes, four
square and two round, which follow right round the cornice of this hall,
and in the centre are three ovals, accompanied along their length by two
smaller and rectangular pictures, in one of which is painted Fame, and
in the other Bellona. In the first of the three ovals is Peace, in the
central oval the ancient arms of the House of Farnese, with the
helmet-crest, above which is the Unicorn, and in the last is Religion.
In the first of the six above-mentioned scenes, which is a round, is
Guido Farnese, with many persons, all well executed, about him, and with
this inscription below:
GUIDO FARNESIUS, URBIS VETERIS PRINCIPATUM CIVIBUS IPSIS
DEFERENTIBUS ADEPTUS, LABORANTI INTESTINIS DISCORDIIS CIVITATI,
SEDITIOSA FACTIONE EJECTA, PACEM ET TRANQUILLITATEM RESTITUIT,
ANNO 1323.
In an oblong picture is Pietro Niccolo Farnese, who is delivering
Bologna, with this inscription below:
PETRUS NICOLAUS, SEDIS ROMANAE POTENTISSIMIS HOSTIBUS MEMORABILI
PRAELIO SUPERATIS, IMMINENTI OBSIDIONIS PERICULO BONONIAM LIBERAT,
ANNO SALUTIS 1361.
In the rectangular picture next to this is Pietro Farnese, elected
Captain of the Florentines, with this inscription:
PETRUS FARNESIUS, REIP. FLORENTINAE IMPERATOR, MAGNIS PISANORUM
COPIIS ... URBEM FLORENTIAM TRIUMPHANS INGREDITUR, ANNO 1362.
In the other round picture, which is opposite to that described above,
is another Pietro Farnese, who routs the enemies of the Roman Church at
Orbatello, with his inscription.
In one of the two other rectangular pictures, which are of equal size,
is Signor Ranieri Farnese, elected General of the Florentines in place
of the above-named Signor Pietro, his brother, with this inscription:
RAINERIUS FARNESIUS A FLORENTINIS DIFFICILI REIP. TEMPORE IN
PETRI FRATRIS MORTUI LOCUM COPIARUM OMNIUM DUX DELIGITUR, ANNO
1362.
In the last picture is Ranuccio Farnese, chosen by Eugenius III as
General of the Church, with this inscription:
RANUTIUS FARNESIUS, PAULI TERTII PAPAE AVUS, EUGENIO TERTIO P.M.
ROSAE AUREAE MUNERE INSIGNITUS, PONTIFICII EXERCITUS IMPERATOR
CONSTITUITUR, ANNO CHRISTI 1435.
In short, there are on this vaulting vast numbers of most beautiful
figures, besides the stucco-work and other ornaments overlaid with gold.
On the walls are eight scenes, two to each wall. On the first, in a
scene on the right hand as one enters, is Pope Julius III confirming
Duke Ottavio and the Prince his son in the possession of Parma and
Piacenza, in the presence of Cardinal Farnese, Sant'Agnolo his brother,
the Camarlingo Santa Fiore, the elder Salviati, Chieti, Carpi, Polo, and
Morone, all being portraits from life; with this inscription:
JULIUS III, P.M., ALEXANDRO FARNESIO AUCTORE, OCTAVIO FARNESIO,
EJUS FRATRI, PARMAM AMISSAM RESTITUIT, ANNO SALUTIS 1550.
In the second scene is Cardinal Farnese going to Worms as Legate to the
Emperor Charles V, and his Majesty and the Prince, his son, are coming
forth to meet him, with a vast multitude of Barons, and among them the
King of the Romans; with the proper inscription. On the wall on the left
hand as one enters, in the first scene, is the war fought against the
Lutherans in Germany, where Duke Ottavio Farnese was Legate, in the year
1546, with the inscription; and in the second are the above-named
Cardinal Farnese and the Emperor with his sons, who are all four under a
baldachin carried by various persons portrayed from life, among whom is
Taddeo, the master of the work, with a company of many lords all around.
On one of the head-walls, or rather, ends, are two scenes, and between
them an oval, in which is the portrait of King Philip, with this
inscription:
PHILIPPO HISPANIARUM REGI MAXIMO, OB EXIMIA IN DOMUM FARNESIAM
MERITA.
In one of the scenes is Duke Ottavio taking Madama Margherita of Austria
as his wife, with Pope Paul III in the centre, and portraits of
Cardinal Farnese the younger, the Cardinal of Carpi, Duke Pier Luigi,
M. Durante, Eurialo da Cingoli, M. Giovanni Riccio of Montepulciano, the
Bishop of Como, Signora Livia Colonna, Claudia Mancina, Settimia, and
Donna Maria di Mendoza. In the other is Duke Orazio taking as his wife
the daughter of King Henry of France, with this inscription:
HENRICUS II, VALESIUS, GALLORUM REX, HORATIO FARNESIO CASTRI DUCI
DIANAM FILIAM IN MATRIMONIUM COLLOCAT, ANNO SALUTIS 1552.
In which scene, besides the portrait of Diana herself with the royal
mantle, and that of her husband Duke Orazio, are portraits of Caterina
de' Medici, Queen of France, Marguerite, the sister of the King, the
King of Navarre, the Constable, the Duke of Guise, the Duke of Nemours,
the Admiral Prince of Conde, the younger Cardinal of Lorraine, Guise not
yet a Cardinal, Signor Piero Strozzi, Madame de Montpensier, and
Mademoiselle de Rohan.
On the other head-wall, opposite to that already described, are likewise
two other scenes, with the oval in the centre, in which is the portrait
of King Henry of France, with this inscription:
HENRICO FRANCORUM REGI MAX. FAMILIAE FARNESIAE CONSERVATORI.
In one of the scenes (namely, in that which is on the right hand) Pope
Paul III is investing Duke Orazio, who is kneeling, with a priestly
robe, and making him Prefect of Rome, with Duke Pier Luigi close at
hand, and other lords around; and with these words:
PAULUS III P.M. HORATIUM FARNESIUM NEPOTEM, SUMMAE SPEI
ADOLESCENTEM, PRAEFECTUM URBIS CREAT, ANNO SAL. 1549.
And in this scene are portraits of the Cardinal of Paris, Viseo, Morone,
Badia, Trento, Sfondrato, and Ardinghelli. In the other scene, beside
the last-named, the same Pope is giving the General's baton to Pier
Luigi and his sons, who were not yet Cardinals; with portraits of the
Pope, Pier Luigi Farnese, the Camarlingo, Duke Ottavio, Orazio, the
Cardinal of Capua, Simonetta, Jacobaccio, San Jacopo, Ferrara, Signor
Ranuccio Farnese as a young man, Giovio, Molza, Marcello Cervini, who
afterwards became Pope, the Marquis of Marignano, Signor Giovan Battista
Castaldo, Signor Alessandro Vitelli, and Signor Giovan Battista
Savelli.
Coming now to the little hall which is beside the hall just described,
and which is above the Hall of Spring, in the vaulting, which is adorned
with a vast and rich decoration in stucco and gold, in the recess in the
centre, there is the Coronation of Pope Paul III, with four spaces that
form a cruciform inscription, with these words:
PAULUS III FARNESIUS, PONTIFEX MAXIMUS, DEO ET HOMINIBUS
APPROBANTIBUS, SACRA TIARA SOLEMNI RITU CORONATUR, ANNO SALUTIS
1534, III NON. NOVEMB.
Then follow four scenes above the cornice--namely, one over every wall.
In the first the Pope is blessing the galleys at Civita Vecchia, when
about to send them to Tunis in Barbary in the year 1535. In the next the
same Pope is excommunicating the King of England in the year 1537; with
the proper inscription. In the third is a fleet of galleys which the
Emperor and the Venetians fitted out against the Turk, with the
authority and assistance of the Pontiff, in the year 1538. In the
fourth, Perugia having rebelled against the Church, the people of that
city go to seek pardon in the year 1540. On the walls of the same little
hall are four large scenes, one to each wall, with windows and doors
between. In the first large scene the Emperor Charles V, having returned
victorious from Tunis, is kissing the feet of Pope Paul, of the Farnese
family, in Rome, in the year 1535. In the next, which is above the door
on the left hand, is the story of the peace that Pope Paul III brought
about at Busseto between the Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France,
in the year 1538; in which scene are these portraits--the elder Bourbon,
King Francis, King Henry, the elder Lorenzo, Tournon, the younger
Lorenzo, the younger Bourbon, and two sons of King Francis. In the third
the same Pope is making Cardinal di Monte his Legate at the Council of
Trent; and there are innumerable portraits. In the last, which is
between two windows, the same Pontiff is creating many Cardinals in
preparation for the Council, among whom there are four who became Popes
in succession after him--Julius III, Marcello Cervini, Paul IV, and Pius
IV. To put it briefly, this little hall is very richly adorned with all
that is required in such a place.
In the first chamber next to the little hall, which is dedicated to
Dress, and likewise richly wrought in stucco and gold, there is in the
centre a Sacrifice, with three nude figures, among which is an armed
figure of Alexander the Great, who is casting some garments of skin upon
the fire; and in many other scenes that are in the same place, one sees
how men discovered the way to make garments from plants and other wild
products; but it would take too long to seek to describe the whole in
full. From this chamber one enters into a second, dedicated to Sleep,
for which, when Taddeo had to paint it, he received the inventions given
below from the Commendatore Annibale Caro, at the commission of the
Cardinal; and, to the end that the whole may be the better understood,
we shall write here the advice of Caro in his own words, which are
these--
"The subjects that the Cardinal has commanded me to give you for the
pictures in the Palace of Caprarola, it is not enough for them to be
explained by word of mouth, because, besides the invention, we must
look to the disposition of the figures, the attitudes, the colours,
and a number of other considerations, all in accordance with the
descriptions that I find of the things that appear to me to be
suitable; wherefore I shall put down on paper all that occurs to me in
the matter, as briefly and as distinctly as I shall be able. And first
with regard to the chamber with the flat vaulting--for of any other,
up to the present, he has not given me the charge--it appears to me
that since it is destined to contain the bed for the person of his
most illustrious lordship, there must be executed there things in
keeping with the place and out of the common both in the invention and
in the workmanship. Now, to declare my conception first in general, I
would have a Night painted there, because, besides that it would be
appropriate to sleep, it would be a subject not very customary and
different from those of the other rooms, and would give you an
occasion of executing rare and beautiful works in your art, since the
strong lights and dark shadows that go into such a subject are wont to
give no little grace and relief to the figures; and it would please me
to have the time of this Night close upon the dawn, to the end that
the things represented there may be visible without improbability. And
to come to the details and to their disposition, it is necessary that
we come to an understanding first about the situation and the
distribution of the chamber. Let us say, then, that it is divided, as
indeed it is, into vaulting and walls, or facades, as we wish to call
them. The vaulting has a sunk oval in the centre and four great
spandrels at the corners, which, drawing together little by little and
continuing one with the other along the facades, embrace the
above-mentioned oval. The walls, also, are four, and between the
spandrels they form four lunettes.