IT would take too long to describe in detail all the many and divers
pieces of work which I executed for a great variety of men. At present I
need only say that I devoted myself with sustained diligence and
industry to acquiring mastery in the several branches of art which I
enumerated a short while back. And so I went on labouring incessantly at
all of them; but since no opportunity has presented itself as yet for
describing my most notable performances, I shall wait to report them in
their proper place before very long. The Sienese sculptor, Michel
Agnolo, of whom I have recently been speaking, was at that time making
the monument of the late Pope Adrian. Giulio Romano went to paint for
the Marquis of Mantua. The other members of the club betook themselves
in different directions, each to his own business; so that our company
of artists was well-nigh altogether broken up.
About this time there fell into my hands some little Turkish poniards;
the handle as well as the blade of these daggers was made of iron, and
so too was the sheath. They were engraved by means of iron implements
with foliage in the most exquisite Turkish style, very neatly filled in
with gold. The sight of them stirred in me a great desire to try my own
skill in that branch, so different from the others which I practiced;
and finding that I succeeded to my satisfaction, I executed several
pieces. Mine were far more beautiful and more durable than the Turkish,
and this for divers reasons. One was that I cut my grooves much deeper
and with wider trenches in the steel; for this is not usual in Turkish
work. Another was that the Turkish arabesques are only composed of arum
leaves a few small sunflowers; [1] and though these have a certain
grace, they do not yield so lasting a pleasure as the patterns which we
use. It is true that in Italy we have several different ways of
designing foliage; the Lombards, for example, construct very beautiful
patterns by copying the leaves of briony and ivy in exquisite curves,
which are extremely agreeable to the eye; the Tuscans and the Romans
make a better choice, because they imitate the leaves of the acanthus,
commonly called bear’s-foot, with its stalks and flowers, curling in
divers wavy lines; and into these arabesques one may excellently well
insert the figures of little birds and different animals, by which the
good taste of the artist is displayed. Some hints for creatures of this
sort can be observed in nature among the wild flowers, as, for instance,
in snap-dragons and some few other plants, which must be combined and
developed with the help of fanciful imaginings by clever draughtsmen.
Such arabesques are called grotesques by the ignorant. They have
obtained this name of grotesques among the moderns through being found
in certain subterranean caverns in Rome by students of antiquity; which
caverns were formerly chambers, hot-baths, cabinets for study, halls,
and apartments of like nature. The curious discovering them in such
places (since the level of the ground has gradually been raised while
they have remained below, and since in Rome these vaulted rooms are
commonly called grottoes), it has followed that the word grotesque is
applied to the patterns I have mentioned. But this is not the right term
for them, inasmuch as the ancients, who delighted in composing monsters
out of goats, cows, and horses, called these chimerical hybrids by the
name of monsters; and the modern artificers of whom I speak, fashioned
from the foliage which they copied monsters of like nature; for these
the proper name is therefore monsters, and not grotesques. Well, then, I
designed patterns of this kind, and filled them in with gold, as I have
mentioned; and they were far more pleasing to the eye than the Turkish.
It chanced at that time that I lighted upon some jars or little antique
urns filled with ashes, and among the ashes were some iron rings inlaid
with gold (for the ancients also used that art), and in each of the
rings was set a tiny cameo of shell. On applying to men of learning,
they told me that these rings were worn as amulets by folk desirous of
abiding with mind unshaken in any extraordinary circumstance, whether of
good or evil fortune. Hereupon, at the request of certain noblemen who
were my friends, I undertook to fabricate some trifling rings of this
kind; but I made them of refined steel; and after they had been well
engraved and inlaid with gold, they produced a very beautiful effect;
and sometimes a single ring brought me more than forty crowns, merely in
payment for my labour.
It was the custom at that epoch to wear little golden medals, upon which
every nobleman or man of quality had some device or fancy of his own
engraved; and these were worn in the cap. Of such pieces I made very
many, and found them extremely difficult to work. I have already
mentioned the admirable craftsman Caradosso, who used to make such
ornaments; and as there were more than one figure on each piece, he
asked at least a hundred gold crowns for his fee. This being so-not,
however, because his prices were so high, but because he worked so
slowly-I began to be employed by certain noblemen, for whom, among other
things, I made a medal in competition with that great artist, and it had
four figures, upon which I had expended an infinity of labour. These men
of quality, when they compared my piece with that of the famous
Caradosso, declared that mine was by far the better executed and more
beautiful, and bade me ask what I liked as the reward of my trouble; for
since I had given them such perfect satisfaction, they wished to do the
like by me. I replied that my greatest reward and what I most desired
was to have rivalled the masterpieces of so eminent an artist; and that
if their lordships thought I had, I acknowledged myself to be most amply
rewarded. With this I took my leave, and they immediately sent me such a
very liberal present, that I was well content; indeed there grew in me
so great a spirit to do well, that to this event I attributed what will
afterwards be related of my progress.
Note 1. 'Gichero,' arum maculatum, and 'clizia,' the sunflower.