COSIMO AND PIERO DE’ MEDICI IN THEIR RELATION TO ART.
THE early years of Cosimo de’ Medici were passed during the great
revolution in art by which realism, united with reminiscences of the
antique, enforced its claims, and, superseding the Gothic and Pisan
styles in architecture and sculpture, restricted that of Giotto, in
painting, to a narrow circle of recognised types. Art had struck out
for itself these new paths before Cosimo became ruler of the whole
state; but he influenced its rapid development by his active sympathy
and by a liberality rarely equalled by private individuals or even
by princes. Independently of the encouragement he afforded to talent
in his princely capacity, he gave honourable commissions to artists
from his own resources. In personal intercourse with them he united
a thorough knowledge of art with a sympathetic affability which did
equal honour to them and to himself. His two favourite architects,
Brunelleschi and Michelozzo, have been already mentioned. The former
died eighteen years before him, the latter survived him about six
years. He justly valued their genius, and promoted a friendly
understanding between them while employing both on important works.
It was Brunelleschi who continued the building of the church of San
Lorenzo and the abbey of Fiesole.
After the days of Giovanni di Bicci both branches of the Medici seem
to have been reunited. The church of San Lorenzo was the parish church
of Cosimo’s branch, and the burial-place of both. As early as 1415
there had been a talk of enlarging this sacred edifice, which dated
from the earliest years of Christianity. Three years later a street
at the back, the Via de’ Preti—a name ill-suited to the occupations
of its inhabitants—was assigned to the Chapter for the purpose of
enlargement. They began to rebuild the choir in 1419.[119] With other
members of wealthy families, Giovanni de’ Bicci, having pledged himself
to build some chapels, undertook the sacristy, which, for harmony of
proportions, both in its cupola and ground-plan, and for the excellence
of its decorations, claims the highest admiration. What the father had
begun the son continued on a larger scale. On September 23, 1440—while
the building of the new church was proceeding under the direction of
Brunelleschi, the older one still being in use—Cosimo buried his
brother Lorenzo there. Upon this occasion Pope Eugene IV. sent the
cardinals and prelates of his court with the banner of the church and
his own, and 100 wax candles. Two years later Cosimo proceeded to
complete the choir and cupola on condition of gaining the right of
patronage for himself and his heirs, in return for which privilege he
gave the chapter a state bond for 40,000 florins towards the expenses
of the building. On May 15, 1457, the court of the Canonica was
begun; it was finished, as well as the high altar and those in the
transepts, four years after, and finally the high altar was consecrated
by Archbishop Orlando Bonarli on August 9, 1461. Two years before,
a college for young clergy had been opened near the church, which
retains its chapter to this day.[120] San Lorenzo is a basilica with
columns. It has arches resting on an entablature laid on the capitals,
a square end to the choir, a cupola, a flat roof, and chapels of no
great depth. A walk through the cloisters of the Canonica recalls times
long gone by. Two ranges of arcades enclose the quadrangle and lead to
the little dwellings of the canons and to the famous library, which,
in its present form, is a work of later days. The mighty dome of the
cathedral and the bell-tower of Giotto look down into these cloisters,
the stillness of which contrasts with the din of the busy streets
around; while its whole appearance reminds the spectator of the homely
simplicity, the frugality, and noble generosity which prevailed at the
time of its erection.
The work said to have been executed for Cosimo at Fiesole by
Brunelleschi was scarcely less important. At the foot of the hill
there, in the valley of the Mugnone, lay the old abbey church,
believed to be the original cathedral of the Etruscan city. In 1439,
by command of Pope Eugene IV., it was handed over by the Benedictines
to the regular canons of St. Augustine; and Cosimo de’ Medici, who
was a friend of the Prior—Don Timoteo of Verona—began the new
building. The church still retains the middle compartment of its
original façade, belonging to the præ-Gothic period. Containing a
nave and chapels of considerable dimensions, the building is simple
and artistic. Doubts have been thrown on Vasari’s assertion that it
is really Brunelleschi’s, it being quite unlike his other works.[121]
The building of the convent presented many difficulties on account of
the slope of the ground, and was finished by Cosimo’s son in 1466. It
has long been diverted from its original use, but continued to be the
domicile of the founder and his family, whose arms were carved upon
it, at a later period. Here the Platonic Academy held its meetings,
and here a great-grandson of Cosimo donned the purple as cardinal, and
another—Giuliano, Duke of Nemours—drew his last breath. In later days
the church was enriched with many beautiful works of art; but in vain
do we look round the great building, which neither Brunelleschi nor
Cosimo lived to see completed, for the learned men and the collection
of books that were once in a double sense its best ornaments.[122]
Brunelleschi’s work in the neighbourhood of the city was surpassed
in grandeur by a building of Michelozzo’s within the walls. In 1436
the Medici brothers obtained from Pope Eugene IV. the cession of the
Silvestrine[123] convent of San Marco to the Dominicans of Fiesole, who
had just settled beside the little church of San Giorgio, on the left
bank of the Arno. In the following year the rebuilding of the convent
and restoration of the church was begun; not without difficulties
on the part of the former owners, who actually entered a protest at
the Council of Basle. The cost of reconstruction was borne mainly by
the Medici, with some assistance from the community. The church was
consecrated on the feast of the Epiphany, 1442, by Cardinal Acciapacci,
Archbishop of Capua, in presence of the Pope and his court.[124] A
considerable portion of the convent was finished in 1443; but the whole
was not completed till eight years later. The traces of Michelozzo’s
hand are no longer to be seen in the church; the choir and apse were
rebuilt two hundred years after him.
It is impossible to walk through the great courts, the broad vaulted
corridors, the endless rows of cells opening into the passages, and
the noble library, without remembering that this convent was the scene
of many famous events in peace and war that influenced the fate of
the city, and left their mark in the history not of Italy only, but
of the human mind.[125] Cosimo was continually employing Michelozzo,
who, besides the family palace, built for him the Noviciate of Sta.
Croce and the adjoining chapel; remodelled the villas at Careggi,
Cafaggiuolo, and Trebbio, and executed other works, some of them beyond
the Tuscan border. Among the latter was the decoration of the palace
at Milan, entrusted to him by Francesco Sforza, for which purpose
Michelozzo visited that city. Here also he built for Pigello Portinari,
director of the Medicean bank, a chapel in Sant’ Eustorgio after the
model of that of the Pazzi in Sta. Croce. Cosimo’s sons employed him
likewise. He is commonly believed to have designed for Piero the
elegant chapel of the Annunziata, over whose altar hangs the thirteenth
century picture of the Annunciation, which gave rise to the building
of the church. This building, a quadrangular open chapel, with fluted
Corinthian columns of marble supporting a richly decorated entablature,
and enclosed by an elegant brass trellis, was executed by Pagno di
Lapo Partigiani, a sculptor of Fiesole, and consecrated by Cardinal
Guillaume d’Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen, on Christmas day,
1452.[126]
About the same time, Michelozzo executed for Piero the marble
tabernacle destined to contain a figure of Christ in the nave of the
basilica of San Miniato. It consists of a canopy supported on composite
marble columns and pilasters, the interior richly decorated with
rose-coloured ornaments of glazed earth in square panels. On the frieze
is the Medicean device, the three feathers with the diamond ring and
the motto _Semper_, on the arch the escutcheon of the Calimala guild,
in relief. Inside the tabernacle stands the altar with painting and
_predella_.[127] For Giovanni, Cosimo’s younger son, Michelozzo built
on the heights of Fiesole a villa, visible from a great distance,
which afterwards passed to the Mozzi family. The architect was also
employed by connections of the Medici. For Giovanni Tornabuoni he
built the great palace near Sta. Trinità, which still gives its name
to the street. To gain more space, it afterwards became necessary to
demolish the front part of this palace, which, with its ground floor of
rustic-work and its plain arched windows, had a somewhat sombre effect.
While Michelozzo’s time was chiefly taken up by the Medici,
Brunelleschi was active in other quarters. The progress and final
completion of his great work, the dome of the cathedral, has already
been mentioned. On August 30, 1436, the roofing-in was celebrated by
the pealing of all the bells in the city and the chanting of a _Te
Deum_. Eight years later the scaffolding was raised for building the
lantern, which was begun in 1446, shortly before the death of the great
master, who was succeeded by Michelozzo.[128] His beautiful arcade at
the Foundling Hospital has been mentioned. The similar loggia of San
Paolo was placed opposite Sta. Maria Novella, at the southern end of
the piazza. He built a chapel for the Pazzi family in the front court
of the convent of Sta. Croce. Its walls are covered with Corinthian
pilasters, high niches, and terra-cotta alto-rilievos; the cupola rests
on two side-arches richly panelled and decorated with designs in glazed
earth; the pendants being ornamented with terra-cotta rilievos of the
Evangelists. Decoration and colour are here kept just within the limits
of good taste. Andrea de’ Pazzi began the building, which was finished
by his son Jacopo, so that Brunelleschi can hardly have lived to see
its completion.[129] The official residence of the Capitani di parte
Guelfa in the Via delle Terme, rebuilt by Brunelleschi, still exists,
though with many alterations. The architect saw only the beginnings
of his second greatest work, the palace of Luca Pitti. In Vasari’s
time, when Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence, purchased the
unfinished building—appropriately called, by an art-writer of those
days, _muraglia_—the original plan was no longer to be found. Many
alterations were made in succeeding centuries down to the present, when
the extensive wings, intended as halls, were built. But the façade has
kept its original stamp, and Vasari’s words remain true—that Tuscan
architecture has produced no richer or grander creation. This grandeur
is united with the greatest simplicity; and it is the absence of all
ornament upon the three stages of rustic-work, with their gigantic
bow-windows, crowned with galleries, which gives the building its
peculiar character. The palace is said to have been begun in 1440, long
before the time of Luca Pitti’s ephemeral greatness.[130] His villa
at Rusciano was begun about the time of Brunelleschi’s death, so that
the great artist saw little of the execution of his plan, which was
carried on by Luca Fancelli. While Brunelleschi here aimed at attaining
the whole effect by the majesty and harmony of the proportions, in the
palace of Jacopo de’ Pazzi he allowed more play to decoration.
It is doubtful whether Cosimo de’ Medici employed the most learned
artist of the time, Leon Batista Alberti. His chief works in Florence,
with one exception, were executed for the Rucellai. Among them may be
mentioned the palace, the loggia, the upper part of the façade of Sta.
Maria Novella, finished in 1470; and the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre
at San Pancrazio, an imitation of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
at Jerusalem.[131] The Rucellai palace, in which are retained the
bow-windows divided by small columns, points to the days of Bramante.
It exhibits a combination of flat decorative pilasters of various
orders with smooth rustic-work, antique ornaments on the rectangular
doors, and traces of the square form in the bow-windows. Alberti
also made designs for another work, which has given occasion to so
many objections that its defects have been attributed to alterations
by another hand. This is the choir of the Annunziata, commenced in
1451 by Lodovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, who, as victorious
commander-in-chief of the Republic, desired to found a memorial at
once of his piety and his thankfulness. A quarter of a century elapsed
before the building was finished by Luca Fancelli. The exterior is
octagonal, the interior round, with several chapels in irregular
order, and numerous windows round the base of the large cupola, which
is closed, and was ornamented in the seventeenth century with figures
in fresco. In our own day redecoration has given to the choir as
well as the rest of this dazzlingly-gilt church a thoroughly modern
appearance.[132]
Sculpture, no less than architecture, was in full activity. Here
also we find in the foremost rank those artists whom the Medici had
attached to themselves; among whom Donatello stood first, while his
pupils benefited by the favour shown to him. The Medici mansion was
full of Donatello’s works. Over the arches in the front court are eight
medallions by him, with reliefs in marble; and he restored many of the
antique heads over the doors. His other works are all scattered. During
Cosimo’s exile, the bronze David with his foot on the head of Goliath
was taken away and set up in the palace-yard of the Signoria. The owner
seems to have been shy of reclaiming it, and finally, in May 1476, his
grandsons sold it to the municipality.[133] During the second exile
of the Medici, another work of Donatello’s was taken from their house
and placed at the great gate of the same palace, with an inscription
recalling the events of 1494.[134] This is the group of Judith and
Holofernes, full of expression, but forced and offending against the
rules of plastic composition. A loss to be regretted is that of the
bronze bust of Madonna Contessina, which Donatello executed for her
husband.
San Lorenzo still contains many of his works, placed there by the
indefatigable benefactor of this church. Besides the decorations of the
sacristy, &c., there are the reliefs on the pulpits; artistically they
are in fault by their superabundance and want of repose, but the fault
is one of a man of talent. In point of technical execution, they show
a distinct retrogression when compared with contemporary works. It was
not only in works of this kind that Donatello displayed an extravagance
that belies the sense of beauty. He did so even in the dancing children
executed in marble relief for the organ at Sta. Maria del Fiore.
Vespasiano da Bisticci describes Cosimo’s attachment to this man. ‘He
was,’ says he,[135] ‘a great friend of Donatello, and of all painters
and sculptors. Finding there was little work for the latter, and not
liking Donatello to remain inactive, he entrusted to him the pulpits
and the doors of the sacristy at San Lorenzo; giving orders that
whatever he needed for his own requirements and those of his four
assistants should be paid to him weekly from the Medici bank.’ As
Donatello did not dress to Cosimo’s liking, the latter presented him
with a cloak and hood, an upper garment to wear under the cloak, and
a whole suit, sending all this to him on the morning of a feast day.
Donatello put the new things on a few times only, declining to wear
them any longer, lest ‘people should think he had grown effeminate.’
How thoroughly Donatello was regarded as belonging to the Medici
household is shown by the fact that the Marquis Ludovico Gonzaga once
asked Cosimo to send the artist to Mantua to execute a shrine modelled
in 1450, to be set up during the expected visit of Pope Pius II.[136]
Many other artists were on confidential terms with Cosimo and his
family. Michelozzo’s two sons belonged almost to the family circle.
In the last years of Cosimo, Donatello could no longer work, so his
generous patron maintained him, and recommended him to his son Piero.
The latter gave him a farm, as he said, ‘to provide him with bread
and wine.’ The artist, however, gave back the gift in legal form, not
wishing to embitter his life with household cares; whereupon Piero had
the value of the produce assigned to him at the bank. In 1462 Piero
granted him space for a vault in San Lorenzo, near the sacristy; and
here, where so many of his works are to be seen, he was buried in 1468,
not far from those who had so valued him during life.[137]
After Donatello, most closely connected with the Medici, father and
son, were two masters who, while fairly admitting the claims of the
realistic principle, carried it out in a different spirit and in more
ideal forms. Lorenzo Ghiberti, who finished the second door of the
Baptistery in 1452, with the help of his son Vettorio, and in spite
of his seventy-two years, undertook the commission for a third. He
continued till the later years of Cosimo busily engaged on the rich
silver reredos, in which Michelozzo, Verocchio, Bernardo Cennini,
Antonio Pollaiuolo, and others, had a share. He also designed the great
rose-window of Sta. Maria del Fiore, at which Francesco di Domenico
Livi of Gambassi, who learned glass-painting in Germany, was working
in 1436, and Bernardo di Francesco in 1443. Glass-painting in the true
sense of the word was then just beginning to flourish; until that
time coloured windows had been produced by simply putting variously
tinted glass together in mosaic patterns. Many trod in the steps of
Francesco Livi: notably Ser Guasparre da Volterra, who worked in the
cathedral at Siena; while in Florence, Pisa, and Arezzo, the art was
practised by the Jesuates of the order of the B. Giovanni Colombini,
who were established in Florence in 1438, in the convent of San Giusto
before Porta Pinti, and there built the great church which was pulled
down in 1529. It was chiefly by them that Sta. Maria del Fiore, Sta.
Croce, San Michele, and other buildings, were glazed with coloured
windows.[138]
In 1440 Ghiberti finished for the cathedral the shrine of St. Zanobi,
one of his finest works. To Piero de’ Medici he furnished goldsmith’s
work which brought him great admiration and commissions from Pope
Eugene IV. Besides this master, now growing old, the Medici employed
a younger one, Luca della Robbia. His style is graceful rather than
grand; full of tender and lively expression of feeling, and pleasing
execution in drapery and grouping. His works in the cathedral
show equal fertility of invention and technical skill. One is the
marble relief for the organ gallery, representing a boy and girl
playing and dancing, executed in 1438 as a companion-piece to that
of Donatello;[139] and the other, not so good, is the door of the
sacristy, finished in 1463, with its bronze reliefs of the Madonna,
the Evangelists, and the Fathers of the Church.[140] The monument to
Benozzo Federighi, Bishop of Fiesole[141] (who died in 1450), with the
figure lying on the bier, displays his capabilities in this direction.
But Luca della Robbia is less distinguished by his sculptures in marble
and brass than by the reliefs in glazed earth which, called after him,
were supplied by his descendants for 100 years. They still abound in
Florence and the whole of Tuscany, even to the mountain convents of the
Apennines and the modest churches of remote towns, while numbers of
them have wandered into foreign lands. Anyone taking a walk in Florence
may enjoy these charming creations: lunettes or groups above the doors
of churches and houses, medallions of infants on the portico of the
Foundling Hospital, heads of saints, tabernacles, heraldic escutcheons,
some plain white on a blue ground, some with a judicious mixture of
colours and a rich border of entwined leaves and fruit. These works
form an almost inexhaustible treasury, with a marked character of
graceful earnestness and truth to nature; a help to architecture as
long as the decorative element kept its place in the old manner, which
in the fourteenth century employed both glass and colour. But they were
invaluable for interior decoration, for which Brunelleschi used work in
‘Terra della Robbia’ in the Pazzi chapel. Luca himself decorated for
Cosimo de’ Medici a room in his palace and the buildings in Sta. Croce,
and for Piero the tabernacle in San Miniato; in the latter church he
also assisted in giving to the chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal the
charm of harmonious perfection.
In the last years of Cosimo de’ Medici grew up a whole generation of
younger sculptors. Their most important works are sepulchral monuments,
which became richer and grander as time went on. Formerly people had,
as a rule, been content with sarcophagi more or less decorated, like
that of Noferi, the father of Palla Strozzi, who died in 1418 and
is buried in the sacristy of Sta. Trinità, beneath an arch resting
on elegant corbels, and on the edges of which are seen pretty genii
playing. Twenty or thirty years later these simple monuments were still
the most usual, even for men of importance. Neri Capponi lies in the
church of the Santo Spirito in a marble coffin bearing on the front
his portrait in relief between two genii; Orlando de’ Medici rests in
that of the SS. Annunziata in a sarcophagus ornamented with his coat of
arms, and occupying with rich architectural accessories the whole side
of a chapel. These were both works of Simone, whom tradition makes a
brother of Donatello.[142] But talented artists soon attempted greater
things. Desiderio da Settignano (so called after the pleasantly
situated little village, two miles east of the city, where Michel
Angelo was nursed by a stonemason’s wife) was a pupil of Donatello,
and thus came into contact with the Medici, who employed him in San
Lorenzo. In the Strozzi palace may be seen his fine thoughtful marble
bust of Marietta, daughter of Filippo Strozzi the elder and Fiammetta
Adimari. His masterpiece is the monument of Carlo Marsuppini in Sta.
Croce, a figure of the dead man resting on the sarcophagus in a niche
crowned by a lunette, with a Madonna in relief.[143] Notwithstanding
some overloading in the accessories, it shows what he might have
become had he not died in 1464, at the early age of thirty-six. The
sarcophagus, resting on lions’ claws and richly adorned with flowers,
leaves, and streaming ribands, is one of the most beautiful productions
of decorative sculpture. Desiderio had many emulators, to whom we owe
some of the finest monuments of this kind. Among them were the brothers
Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino. The former, who worked a good deal
out of Florence as architect to the Popes, does not seem to have been
employed by the Medici. The only thing he is said to have done for them
is a marble fountain, decorated with children and dolphins, in one of
the courts of their palace; and of its fate nothing is known. But the
city contains excellent works by both, exhibiting a similarity to Della
Robbia’s style. Two of Bernardo’s works are the graceful monument to
Beata Villana in Sta. Maria Novella, and that of Leonardo Bruni in
Sta. Croce.[144] The conception, proportions, and technical finish of
these works entitle them to rank among the best productions of a period
rich in monuments. The most perfect work of the kind, however, is that
by Antonio Rossellino to the Cardinal of Portugal, in San Miniato al
Monte. James of Portugal, nephew of King Alfonso V., had come in bad
health to Florence, where he died in 1459 aged twenty-six. In the
basilica, then belonging to the Olivetans, where he was buried, was
built a chapel, unrivalled in symmetry of form and beauty of detail.
The roof is set off with reliefs in glazed earth, the walls are inlaid
with marble, the altar, the bishop’s throne, and the floor of _opus
Alexandrinum_ are admirable. What was formerly the altar-piece—by
Pollaiuolo—is now in the Uffizi. The monument stands in a large niche,
with a curtain slightly drawn back. The sarcophagus is an imitation of
the coffer afterwards used for the tomb of Pope Clement XII. in the
Lateran. The figure of the departed, wearing his mitre, rests on a pall
held by two seated boys; an architectural wall-drapery is terminated by
a cornice, at each end of which is a kneeling angel bearing a crown and
a palm-branch; in the arch above are the Virgin and Child surrounded
by a rich garland and upheld by angels in relief. The figure of the
cardinal surpasses all else of its kind in grace, dignity, and beauty,
while in technical work it is perfection. The head and the folded hands
were modelled from nature.[145] A blessed peace seems diffused over
the whole figure, which realizes what Vespasiano da Bisticci says of
the departed, whom he had known in life: ‘He was outwardly handsome,
but his soul was more beautiful than his body; and by the holiness of
his life and conversation he was fitted to stand beside the saints of
old.’[146]
To these artists must be added Mino da Fiesole, who, though a pupil
of Desiderio da Settignano—his senior only by a few years—seemed
to have formed himself more on the model of Donatello. His groups of
figures in relief, of which the chief are at Rome, are not always
happy; his monumental statues, of which the two most remarkable in
Florence are of later date, have great dignity and beauty. In his
portrait-heads there is a peculiar delicacy and truth, indicating
careful study of nature, and of which the bust of Bishop Leonardo
Salutati, in the cathedral of Fiesole, is an excellent example.[147]
In the Medici house were busts by him of Piero and his wife, the
former of which is now in the Uffizi. In ornamentation, particularly
in arabesque, Mino is inferior to none; and it is impossible to
mistake his influence in this respect at Rome, where, from the time
of Nicolas V., the number of monuments rapidly increased. The works
of Giuliano da Majano in Florence, where he was occupied in 1463-1465
with inlaid woodwork for San Domenico, near Fiesole, and the sacristy
of Sta. Maria del Fiore, are of much less importance. Neither he nor
Antonio Filarete, founder of the great door of St. Peter’s, are known
to have done any work for the Medici. That the latter was one of their
_protégés_, however, may be seen not only by the dedication to Piero of
his treatise on architecture, but also by a letter addressed by him to
Piero from Milan, December 20, 1451, thanking him for a recommendation
to Francesco Sforza: ‘I am at your service for whatever I can do.
Dispose of me as you please. Commend me to his Excellency your father,
and your brother Giovanni. With God’s help, I hope to do honour here
both to myself and you; I say to you, because for your sake and in
consequence of your recommendation his Lordship shows me great favour.
He thinks of appointing me chief architect to the cathedral, which
naturally meets with opposition, I being a stranger; but I hope they
will yield to their lord’s desire.’[148]
The goldsmith’s art, which in the preceding century had reached great
perfection in Tuscan cities and was closely connected with sculpture,
attained through niello-work to engraving on copperplate. The name of
Maso Finiguerra, who executed the celebrated pyx for the Baptistery in
1452, is inseparable from the history of the Medicean splendour.
For painting, whether in its general development or its particular
productions, the period under consideration is less important than for
the sister arts, at least as far as the Medici are concerned. The two
greatest masters, in different lines, of the first half of the century,
Masaccio and Fra Angelico, continued to adorn Florence with their
works. The former, at his death in 1443, left unfinished the Brancacci
chapel in San Pietro del Carmine, the high school of all later works of
the kind. Unluckily, the fresco has perished in which he represented
the consecration of the church in 1422, with a group of remarkable men
of the time: Giovanni d’Averardo de’ Medici, Niccolò da Uzzano, Baccio
Valori, Lorenzo Ridolfi, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masolino da Panicale,
and others. Fra Angelico decorated the chapter-house, corridors,
and cells of the convent of San Marco with his wall-pictures, which
represent religious art in its loveliest bloom, a free modification of
the principles of Giotto’s school. He was busy here till Eugene IV.
called him to Rome, where he painted the two chapels in the Vatican for
this Pope and his successor, Nicolas V. He died in 1455. His greatest
pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, followed his master from Rome to Orvieto, and
in 1459 painted the private chapel of the Medici, his most pleasing
work. The ‘Adoration of the Angels’ is here represented amid a rich
landscape, with choirs of angels, numerous spectators, and festive
scenes, painted with a cheerful colouring that recalls Gentile da
Fabriano. Later, when painting in San Gemignano and at Pisa, Gozzoli
was still connected with the Medici, and in his first fresco in the
Campo Santo, the ‘Curse of Ham,’ a group in the foreground represents
the members of the family as he had known them in earlier years.
The realistic tendency exhibited by Masaccio grew more prominent in
Paolo Uccello, who was evidently influenced by sculpture, especially by
Donatello. In some of his most important frescoes, those in Sta. Maria
Novella, representing the history of the Creation, and the figure of
John Hawkwood in Sta. Maria del Fiore,[149] the very colouring, grey
upon grey, aims at producing the effect of sculpture. This painter’s
study of perspective made him exaggerate that branch of his art.
The austerity of Andrea dal Castagno’s style is not softened by the
colouring. The repulsive expression of his group of St. John and St.
Francis in Sta. Croce supports the legend of the murder of Domenico
Veneziano, which has adhered to Andrea’s name till our own day, though
he died four years before his supposed victim.[150] The most important
works he has left are the figures of sibyls and of famous men, executed
in a hall of the villa formerly belonging to the Pandolfini at
Legnaia, but now removed to the National Museum at the Palace of the
Podestà. The characteristic figures, among whom are Nicola Acciaiuolo
and Pippo Spano, produce a great effect. Neither Andrea nor Uccello
seems to have been employed by the Medici, who did, however, engage
Domenico Veneziano, Andrea’s fellow-worker on the lost frescoes in Sta.
Maria Nuova, a painter much influenced by Fra Angelico. The repeated
occurrence of the Medici’s patron saints, Cosmo and Damian, in pictures
of which the origin cannot be clearly traced, points to the conclusion
that they were commissions from the family or their friends. But the
painter most highly favoured by Cosimo and his sons was Fra Filippo
Lippi, whose manners and conversation were as great a scandal to the
Carmelite order as Fra Angelico’s whole life was an ornament to that
of St. Dominic. Disorderly, loose in morals, always in difficulties
and need of money, he yet gained patrons by his undeniable talent,
which unites force and animation to Angelico’s intensity of feeling.
Lippi’s grouping and composition is various, free, and rich, showing
a realistic study of nature. He worked a great deal for the Medici,
who made presents of his pictures to the Pope and King Alfonso, and
procured him commissions abroad. His greatest work, the frescoes in the
chapel in the choir of the Collegiate Church of Prato, was finished
for the Provost Carlo de’ Medici, whose likeness may be seen in the
representation of the burial of St. Stephen. It was through Cosimo,
who had many connections in Umbria, that Fra Filippo went to Spoleto,
where he executed in the cathedral the scenes from the history of the
Madonna which were finished after his death in 1469 by his assistant
Fra Diamante.
Among the painters employed by Cosimo and his sons were the two
Peselli, Giuliano d’Arrigo, and his grandson Pesellino; the former
followed the artistic tendencies represented by Giotto, the latter
was an earnest disciple of the realistic school. Much of the Medici
furniture was painted by them, according to a fashion of the time,
continued till the middle of the sixteenth century. Presses and coffers
(_cassoni_) were ornamented with compositions of small figures, taken
from history, sacred or profane, animals, hunting-scenes, &c. In the
Florentine collections are many paintings of this kind, even down to
Andrea del Sarto and his friends and pupils, the original destination
of which is shown by their form. They were not all Florentines who
painted for the Medici. A Veronese, Matteo de’ Pasti, wrote to Piero
in 1441, that he trusted to send him works such as he had never
before seen.[151] He probably alluded to the convex tablets (now in
the Uffizi collection) representing scenes from Petrarca’s triumphs,
which were doubtless intended to decorate a room. The various dealings
of the Medici with Flanders, from the time of Cosimo, contributed to
draw attention in Florence to the Van Eyck school of painting, which
influenced Italian art in the fifteenth century, particularly in point
of technicalities. It was through Tommaso Portinari, director of the
Medici bank at Bruges, that the church of the hospital of Sta. Maria
Nuova—an old foundation of the family—obtained the most important
work of the Flemish school to be found in Tuscany. This was the
masterpiece of Hugo van der Goes, the ‘Adoration of the Shepherds,’
containing portraits of the members of the donor’s family.[152] The
Flemish pictures mentioned by Vasari as being in the possession of the
Medici (one of them, a portrait of Tommaso Portinari, is now in the
Pitti Palace), prove the interest awakened by these works, great as was
their difference in conception from Italian art.
It is easy to imagine that other branches of artistic industry
were furthered by this artistically inclined family at a period of
such varied activity, and that their house kept constantly filling
with treasures of all kinds. For it was the pride of the princes
and rich citizens—and even of such as had to deny themselves many
of the comforts of life in order to satisfy a noble passion—to
surround themselves with ancient and modern works, to decorate
halls, staircases, and courts with marbles and other antiquities; to
collect old coins and intaglios; to deck their rooms with statues and
sculptures by living artists, with handsome furniture, silver plate,
rich silken hangings and carpets.
Among the records of the Rinuccini family are notes of the cost of
goldsmiths’ work furnished by Finiguerra and Pollaiuolo.[153] Cosimo’s
love for these things was shared by his brother Lorenzo and both
his sons. An inventory of the antique coins, cameos, gems, mosaic
tablets; and enamels preserved in the house in the Via Larga, mentions
100 gold and 503 silver coins, a number of intaglios set as seals
and rings, Greek and Roman mosaic tablets, valuable vases, precious
stones to the value of more than thirty thousand gold florins.[154]
The silver plate here, as well as at the villas, was not reckoned
in. Mention has already been made of the travelling antiquaries who
carried about with them manuscripts and objects of art, and were
at once scholars and colporteurs. But purchases were also made for
the Medici abroad. Antiquities came from Rome, Naples, Viterbo, and
other places. Donatello was accustomed to restore injured antique
marbles, a custom which was later carried to extremes, and led to
mischief. Worked carpets (Arazzi) came from Flanders, where Bruges
was the chief emporium for works of art, though Antwerp fairs were
often visited.[155] A letter of Carlo de’ Medici to his half-brother
Giovanni, written from Rome, apparently in the autumn of 1451,[156]
shows that Cardinal Barbo, afterwards Pope Paul II., was in competition
with the Medici, and was not above a little gentle compulsion: ‘I
bought some time ago about thirty silver medals from an assistant cf
Pisanello, who is lately dead. I know not how Monsignore di San Marco
heard of it, but, meeting me accidentally in the church of the Santi
Apostoli, he took me by the hand, and would not let me go till he had
got me to his house and taken all I had about me—rings and coins to
the value of about twenty florins. There was no getting them back, and
in the end I have had to let him keep the things, after a vain appeal
to the Pope.’ The complaint is repeated in a letter of 1455. As we
shall see, however, such losses were more than made up to the Medici at
the death of Paul II.
Such were the relations of Cosimo and his sons to art-life in Florence.
The great movement had begun before they took the helm of the state;
but they exercised great and beneficial influence on its development,
and always set a praiseworthy example to their fellow-citizens. In
this respect they thoroughly understood their time. The tone and
manner of their relations with artists is particularly attractive; it
was inspired by true refinement of feeling. Merchant princes as they
were, whose help was generally coveted, they kept up a confidential
intercourse with men of talent, as among friends and equals. In
the requests addressed to them there is no tone of servility; the
traditions of free citizenship continued in all social relations. So
it was also at a later period, when Cosimo’s grandson had attained
the position of a ruling prince; Lorenzo’s bearing was the same,
and contributed not a little to his powerful influence over his
fellow-men. In many cases, as with Antonio Squarcialupi, the musician
and organ-builder, he merely continued a connection begun by his
father, uncle, and grandfather. Antonio, who in his writings adopted
the pseudonym Degli Organi, belonged to an old family who had once been
‘Signori’ at Poggibonzi in the Elsa valley, and who on account of their
rank were long excluded from office. It was not till 1453 that Antonio
became a member of one of the smaller guilds, though before that time
he was intimate with the Medici household. After spending some time at
Naples with King Alfonso, in 1450, he wrote from Siena on November 26
to Giovanni de’ Medici at Volterra, as follows:[157] ‘Dearest gossip,
dutiful greeting and salutation! As you doubtless know, it is now
about a month since I returned from Naples. Since then it has never
ceased raining, or I should have come to see you. The bad weather has
hindered me not only from coming, but also from writing, as I kept
waiting for the sky to clear. Now, God be thanked for all things. If
I were to tell you about Naples, and the majesty of the king and his
court, there would be so much to say that I must needs take all the
scriveners in Rome into my employ for five days. So for the present I
will say nothing about it, and will only tell you that Cardinal Sta.
Maria sets great store by his organ; wherein he is quite right, for
truly it deserves it. I promise you on your return the satisfaction of
hearing one which cannot fail to please you. It is destined for Antonio
di Migliorino, who I trust will not object to my letting you see and
hear it. Now I will trouble you no further. Commend me above all to
Madonna Contessina, Messer Piero, and all the rest.’
In the spring of 1438, Domenico Veneziano wrote from Perugia to Piero
as follows:[158] ‘Noble and honoured sir, greeting. I have to inform
you that by God’s grace I am in good health, and hope to see you well
and happy. I have made inquiries after you at various times, and never
received any news save through Manno Donati, who told me that you were
at Ferrara in very good health, which gave me great pleasure. Had I
known your place of abode sooner, I would have written to you, both
for my own satisfaction and as it is fitting. My position is in truth
far below yours, but my hearty attachment to you and all yours gives
me boldness to write to you, to whom I owe so much.’ One-and-twenty
years later this same Piero, then at Careggi, was thus addressed by
Benozzo Gozzoli, who was painting the chapel in the Medici house at
Florence:[159] ‘My dearest friend, I informed your Magnificence in a
previous letter that I am in need of forty florins, and begged you to
advance them to me; for now is the time to buy corn and many other
things that I want, whereby I shall save, and get rid of a heavy load
of care. I had resolved to ask nothing of you till you had seen my
work, but I now find myself compelled to ask this favour. Therefore, be
indulgent; God knows I am endeavouring to please you. I also reminded
you to send to Venice for some ultramarine, for in the course of
this week one wall will be finished, and for the other I shall need
ultramarine. The brocades and other things can then be finished as
well as the figures, or even sooner. I am working with all possible
diligence. I have nothing more to add save my salutations.’
These confidential relations between the Medici and the artists did
not prevent them from carefully settling minor details when giving
an order, such as the use of ultramarine and gold, and still smaller
matters. Even with regard to the actual composition remarks were not
spared, not merely concerning the saints to be placed in the Madonna
pictures and other votive tablets, but also as to other figures and
accessories. Piero de’ Medici was not satisfied with some angels that
Benozzo had introduced in the chapel; the painter defended them, but
added that he could put a cloud to cover them. Needless to say that all
matters of business—prices, instalments of payment and work, &c.—were
settled with scrupulous exactness. This belonged to the character of
the time, and to the Florentine love of order and mercantile habits;
a characteristic which never fails, and remained in the Medici nature
even in Cosimo’s magnificent grandson. Strict supervision was indeed
necessary in the case of these colossal undertakings. It was more
especially needful with a disorderly man like Filippo Lippi, who passed
his whole life in want of his own making; witness his letters to Piero
and Giovanni de’ Medici: ‘If there is a wretched monk in Florence,
it is I!’ His protectors pitied him and judged his sins leniently,
if we rightly understand the remark in one of Giovanni’s letters, to
the effect that they had a laugh over Fra Filippo’s error. It refers
presumably to the well-known story of the elopement of Spinetta Buti
from the convent at Prato, where she was being educated; a story the
details of which, as in other instances, are inaccurately given by
Vasari.[160] The interest taken by the Medici in this painter descended
to Lorenzo. On his return from Rome he wanted to have Fra Filippo’s
mortal remains brought from Spoleto to Florence, and when this was
refused, he assisted Filippo’s son in erecting a monument in Spoleto
Cathedral.
It was in the time of Cosimo that the written history of art began
its first feeble efforts. Its forerunner was Cennino Cennini of Colle
in the Elsa valley, a pupil of Angelo Gaddi apparently at Padua,
where he was in the service of Francesco da Carrara. Towards the end
of the fourteenth century he wrote a book on painting, which is of
great value for the study of artistic practice before the victory of
oil-painting over tempera, as it is also for the history of modelling,
casting, plaster-work, gilding, &c.[161] This book treats merely of
technicalities; but in Lorenzo Ghiberti’s commentaries an unfinished
treatise on architecture and the proportion of figures is combined
with notices of ancient art and also of modern, from its re-awakening
in the second half of the thirteenth century down to the writer’s
own time and works.[162] The latter portion is the principal source
whence Giorgio Vasari drew his knowledge of past times. Ghiberti’s
contemporary Filarete has given many notices, valuable for the history
of art, referring to Medicean times, in his treatise on architecture,
which he dedicated—in styles differing according to the persons and
circumstances, to two patrons, Piero de’ Medici and Francesco Sforza,
in 1460.[163] These notices, as well as technical remarks, were also
made use of by Vasari, whose judgment on Filarete’s confused book is
just, though rather severely expressed.