Produced by Mark C. Orton, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
[Transcriber's note: Bold text is marked with =."
Obvious printer's errors have been corrected,
all other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
has been maintained.]
LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO
VASARI:
VOLUME IV. FILIPPINO LIPPI TO DOMENICO PULIGO 1913
NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES
[Illustration: 1511-1574]
PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LIMITED 7 GRAFTON
ST. LONDON, W. 1912-14
CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV
PAGE
FILIPPO LIPPI, CALLED FILIPPINO 1
BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO 11
FRANCESCO FRANCIA 21
PIETRO PERUGINO [PIETRO VANNUCCI, _OR_ PIETRO DA CASTEL DELLA
PIEVE] 31
VITTORE SCARPACCIA [CARPACCIO], AND OTHER VENETIAN AND LOMBARD
PAINTERS 49
JACOPO, CALLED L'INDACO 63
LUCA SIGNORELLI [LUCA DA CORTONA] 69
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD PART 77
LEONARDO DA VINCI 87
GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO 107
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO 115
PIERO DI COSIMO 123
BRAMANTE DA URBINO 135
FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO [BACCIO DELLA PORTA] 149
MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI 163
RAFFAELLINO DEL GARBO 173
TORRIGIANO 181
GIULIANO AND ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO 189
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO [RAFFAELLO SANZIO] 207
GUGLIELMO DA MARCILLA [GUILLAUME DE MARCILLAC] 251
SIMONE, CALLED IL CRONACA [SIMONE DEL POLLAIUOLO] 263
DOMENICO PULIGO 277
INDEX OF NAMES 285
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME IV
PLATES IN COLOUR
FACING PAGE
FILIPPO LIPPI (FILIPPINO)
The Vision of S. Bernard
Florence: Church of the Badia 2
BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO
The Madonna in Glory
San Gimignano: Palazzo Pubblico 14
BENEDETTO BUONFIGLIO
Madonna, Child, and Three Angels
Perugia: Pinacoteca 18
FRANCESCO FRANCIA
Pietà
London: N.G., 180 26
PIETRO PERUGINO
Apollo and Marsyas
Paris: Louvre, 1509 34
PIETRO PERUGINO
Triptych: The Madonna adoring, with the Archangels
Michael, Raphael, and Tobit
London: N.G., 288 42
VITTORE SCARPACCIA (CARPACCIO)
The Vision of S. Ursula
Venice: Accademia, 578 56
VINCENZIO CATENA
S. Jerome in his Study
London: N.G., 694 58
GIOVAN BATTISTA DA CONIGLIANO (CIMA)
Detail: Tobit and the Angel
Venice: Accademia, 592 58
LUCA SIGNORELLI
Pan
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 79A 72
ANDREA VERROCCHIO
The Baptism in Jordan
Florence: Accademia, 71 92
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Monna Lisa
(formerly) Paris: Louvre, 1601 102
GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO
Figures in a Landscape
Venice: Prince Giovanelli's Collection 110
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
Antiope
Paris: Louvre, 1118 118
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
The Adoration of the Magi
Milan: Brera, 427 122
PIERO DI COSIMO
The Death of Procris
London: N.G., 698 126
FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO
The Deposition from the Cross
Florence: Pitti, 64 152
MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI
The Salutation
Florence: Uffizi, 1259 168
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
S. George and the Dragon
S. Petersburg: Hermitage, 39 210
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
Angelo Doni
Florence: Pitti, 61 214
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
The Three Graces
Chantilly, 38 242
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
Baldassare Gastiglione
Paris: Louvre, 1505 248
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
FACING PAGE
FILIPPO LIPPI (FILIPPINO)
The Liberation of S. Peter
Florence: S. Maria Del Carmine 6
FILIPPO LIPPI (FILIPPINO)
S. John the Evangelist Raising Drusiana from the Dead
Florence: S. Maria Novella, Strozzi Chapel 8
FILIPPO LIPPI (FILIPPINO)
The Adoration of the Magi
Florence: Uffizi, 1257 10
BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO
Frederick III Crowning the Poet Æneas Sylvius
Siena: Sala Piccolominea 16
BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO
Pope Alexander VI Adoring the Risen Christ
Rome: the Vatican, Borgia Apartments 16
FRANCESCO FRANCIA AND A PUPIL
Medals
London: British Museum 22
FRANCESCO FRANCIA
Madonna and Child, with Saints
Bologna: S. Giacomo Maggiore, Bentivoglio Chapel 24
PIETRO PERUGINO
The Deposition
Florence: Pitti, 164 38
PIETRO PERUGINO
Christ Giving the Keys to S. Peter
Rome: Sistine Chapel 40
PIETRO PERUGINO
Fortitude and Temperance, with Warriors
Perugia: Collegio Del Cambio 40
GIOVANNI (LO SPAGNA)
Madonna and Child, with Saints
Assisi: Lower Church 46
STEFANO DA VERONA (DA ZEVIO)
The Madonna and Child with S. Catharine in a Rose Garden
Verona: Gallery, 559 52
ALDIGIERI DA ZEVIO (ALTICHIERO)
Presentation to the Madonna of Three Knights of the Cavalli
Family
Verona: S. Anastasia 54
VITTORE SCARPACCIA (CARPACCIO)
S. George and the Dragon
Venice: S. Giorgio Degli Schiavoni 56
MARCO BASSITI (BASAITI)
Christ on the Mount of Olives
Venice: Accademia, 69 60
GIOVANNI BUONCONSIGLI
Pietà
Vicenza: Pinacoteca, 22 60
LUCA SIGNORELLI
Detail: The Last Judgment
Orvieto: Duomo 74
LEONARDO DA VINCI
The Adoration of the Magi
Florence: Uffizi, 1252 94
LEONARDO DA VINCI
The Last Supper
Milan: S. Maria delle Grazie 96
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Cartoon: The Madonna and Child with S. Anne
London: Burlington House 98
LEONARDO DA VINCI (?)
Fragment of Cartoon: The Battle of the Standard
Oxford: Ashmolean Museum 104
GIOVAN ANTONIO BOLTRAFFIO
Man and Woman Praying
Milan: Brera, 281 104
GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO
Portrait of a Young Man
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 12A 112
GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO
Judith
S. Petersburg: Hermitage, 112 112
GIORGIONE DA CASTELFRANCO (?)
Caterina, Queen of Cyprus
Milan: Crespi Collection 114
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
Detail: S. Thomas and S. James the Less
Parma: S. Giovanni Evangelista 120
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
The Madonna and Child with S. Jerome
Parma: Gallery, 351 120
PIERO DI COSIMO
Perseus delivering Andromeda
Florence: Uffizi, 1312 128
PIERO DI COSIMO
Venus, Mars, and Cupid
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 107 130
PIERO DI COSIMO
Francesco Giamberti
Hague: Royal Museum, 255 134
BRAMANTE DA URBINO
Interior of Sacristy
Milan: S. Satiro 138
BRAMANTE DA URBINO
Tempietto
Rome: S. Pietro in Montorio 142
BRAMANTE DA URBINO
Palazzo Giraud
Rome 146
FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO
The Holy Family
Rome: Corsini Gallery, 579 154
FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO
S. Mark
Florence: Pitti, 125 158
FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO
God the Father, with SS. Mary Magdalen and Catharine
Lucca: Gallery, 12 160
MARIOTTO ALBERTINELLI
The Madonna enthroned, with Saints
Florence: Accademia, 167 166
RAFFAELLINO DEL GARBO
The Resurrection
Florence: Accademia, 90 176
TORRIGIANO
Tomb of Henry VII
London: Westminster Abbey 186
GIULIANO DA SAN GALLO
Façade of S. Maria delle Carceri
Prato 194
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
Lo Sposalizio
Milan: Brera, 472 212
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
Maddalena Doni
Florence: Pitti, 59 212
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
"The School of Athens"
Rome: The Vatican 216
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
The "Disputa del Sacramento"
Rome: The Vatican 222
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
The Mass of Bolsena
Rome: The Vatican 224
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals
Florence: Pitti, 40 230
RAFFAELLO DA URBINO
The Transfiguration
Rome: The Vatican 240
SIMONE (IL CRONACA)
Detail of Cornice
Florence: Palazzo Strozzi 266
NICCOLÒ GROSSO
Iron Link-holder
Florence: Palazzo Strozzi 268
NICCOLÒ GROSSO
Iron Lantern
Florence: Palazzo Strozzi 268
SIMONE (IL CRONACA)
Interior of Sacristy
Florence: S. Spirito 270
DOMENICO PULIGO (?)
Madonna and Child, with Saints
Florence: S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi 280
FILIPPO LIPPI
[Illustration: FILIPPO LIPPI (FILIPPINO): THE VISION OF S. BERNARD
(_Florence: Church of the Badia. Panel_)]
LIFE OF FILIPPO LIPPI, CALLED FILIPPINO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
There was at this same time in Florence a painter of most beautiful
intelligence and most lovely invention, namely, Filippo, son of Fra
Filippo of the Carmine, who, following in the steps of his dead
father in the art of painting, was brought up and instructed, being
still very young, by Sandro Botticelli, notwithstanding that his
father had commended him on his death-bed to Fra Diamante, who was
much his friend--nay, almost his brother. Such was the intelligence
of Filippo, and so abundant his invention in painting, and so
bizarre and new were his ornaments, that he was the first who showed
to the moderns the new method of giving variety to vestments, and
embellished and adorned his figures with the girt-up garments of
antiquity. He was also the first to bring to light grotesques, in
imitation of the antique, and he executed them on friezes in
terretta or in colours, with more design and grace than the men
before him had shown; wherefore it was a marvellous thing to see the
strange fancies that he expressed in painting. What is more, he
never executed a single work in which he did not avail himself with
great diligence of Roman antiquities, such as vases, buskins,
trophies, banners, helmet-crests, adornments of temples, ornamental
head-dresses, strange kinds of draperies, armour, scimitars, swords,
togas, mantles, and such a variety of other beautiful things, that
we owe him a very great and perpetual obligation, seeing that he
added beauty and adornment to art in this respect.
In his earliest youth he completed the Chapel of the Brancacci in
the Carmine at Florence, begun by Masolino, and left not wholly
finished by Masaccio on account of his death. Filippo, therefore,
gave it its final perfection with his own hand, and executed what
was lacking in one scene, wherein S. Peter and S. Paul are restoring
to life the nephew of the Emperor. In the nude figure of this boy he
portrayed the painter Francesco Granacci, then a youth; and he also
made portraits of the Chevalier, Messer Tommaso Soderini, Piero
Guicciardini, father of Messer Francesco the historian, Piero del
Pugliese, and the poet Luigi Pulci; likewise Antonio Pollaiuolo, and
himself as a youth, as he then was, which he never did again
throughout the whole of his life, so that it has not been possible
to find a portrait of him at a more mature age. In the scene
following this he portrayed Sandro Botticelli, his master, and many
other friends and people of importance; among others, the broker
Raggio, a man of great intelligence and wit, who executed in relief
on a conch the whole Inferno of Dante, with all the circles and
divisions of the pits and the nethermost well in their exact
proportions, and all the figures and details that were most
ingeniously imagined and described by that great poet; which conch
was held in those times to be a marvellous thing.
Next, in the Chapel of Francesco del Pugliese at Campora, a seat of
the Monks of the Badia, without Florence, he painted a panel in
distemper of S. Bernard, to whom Our Lady is appearing with certain
angels, while he is writing in a wood; which picture is held to be
admirable in certain respects, such as rocks, books, herbage, and
similar things, that he painted therein, besides the portrait from
life of Francesco himself, so excellent that he seems to lack
nothing save speech. This panel was removed from that place on
account of the siege, and placed for safety in the Sacristy of the
Badia of Florence. In S. Spirito in the same city, for Tanai de'
Nerli, he painted a panel with Our Lady, S. Martin, S. Nicholas, and
S. Catherine; with a panel in the Chapel of the Rucellai in S.
Pancrazio, and a Crucifix and two figures on a ground of gold in S.
Raffaello. In front of the Sacristy of S. Francesco, without the
Porta a S. Miniato, he made a God the Father, with a number of
children. At Palco, a seat of the Frati del Zoccolo, without Prato,
he painted a panel; and in the Audience Chamber of the Priori in
that territory he executed a little panel containing the Madonna, S.
Stephen, and S. John the Baptist, which has been much extolled. On
the Canto al Mercatale, also in Prato, in a shrine opposite to the
Nuns of S. Margherita, and near some houses belonging to them, he
painted in fresco a very beautiful Madonna, with a choir of
seraphim, on a ground of dazzling light. In this work, among other
things, he showed art and beautiful judgment in a dragon that is at
the feet of S. Margaret, which is so strange and horrible, that it
is revealed to us as a true fount of venom, fire, and death; and the
whole of the rest of the work is so fresh and vivacious in
colouring, that it deserves infinite praise.
He also wrought certain things in Lucca, particularly a panel in a
chapel of the Church of S. Ponziano, which belongs to the Monks of
Monte Oliveto; in the centre of which chapel there is a niche
containing a very beautiful S. Anthony in relief by the hand of
Andrea Sansovino, a most excellent sculptor. Being invited to go to
Hungary by King Matthias, Filippo refused, but made up for this by
painting two very beautiful panels for that King in Florence, and
sending them to him; and in one of these he made a portrait of the
King, taken from his likeness on medals. He also sent certain works
to Genoa; and beside the Chapel of the High-Altar in S. Domenico at
Bologna, on the left hand, he painted a S. Sebastian on a panel,
which was a thing worthy of much praise. For Tanai de' Nerli he
executed another panel in S. Salvadore, without Florence; and for
his friend Piero del Pugliese he painted a scene with little
figures, executed with so much art and diligence that when another
citizen besought him to make a second like it, he refused, saying
that it was not possible to do it.
After these things he executed a very great work in Rome for the
Neapolitan Cardinal, Olivieri Caraffa, at the request of the elder
Lorenzo de' Medici, who was a friend of that Cardinal. While going
thither for that purpose, he passed through Spoleto at the wish of
Lorenzo, in order to give directions for the making of a marble tomb
for his father Fra Filippo at the expense of Lorenzo, who had not
been able to obtain his body from the people of Spoleto for removal
to Florence. Filippo, therefore, made a beautiful design for the
said tomb, and Lorenzo had it erected after that design (as has
been told in another place), sumptuous and beautiful. Afterwards,
having arrived in Rome, Filippo painted a chapel in the Church of
the Minerva for the said Cardinal Caraffa, depicting therein scenes
from the life of S. Thomas Aquinas, and certain most beautiful
poetical compositions ingeniously imagined by himself, for he had a
nature ever inclined to this. In the scene, then, wherein Faith has
taken Infidelity captive, there are all the heretics and infidels.
Hope has likewise overcome Despair, and so, too, there are many
other Virtues that have subjugated the Vice that is their opposite.
In a disputation is S. Thomas defending the Church "ex cathedra"
against a school of heretics, and holding vanquished beneath him
Sabellius, Arius, Averroes, and others, all clothed in graceful
garments; of which scene we have in our book of drawings the
original design by Filippo's own hand, with certain others by the
same man, wrought with such mastery that they could not be bettered.
There, too, is the scene when, as S. Thomas is praying, the Crucifix
says to him, "Bene scripsisti de me, Thoma"; while a companion of
the Saint, hearing that Crucifix thus speaking, is standing amazed
and almost beside himself. In the panel is the Virgin receiving the
Annunciation from Gabriel; and on the main wall there is her
Assumption into Heaven, with the twelve Apostles round the
sepulchre. The whole of this work was held, as it still is, to be
very excellent and wrought perfectly for a work in fresco. It
contains a portrait from life of the said Cardinal Olivieri Caraffa,
Bishop of Ostia, who was buried in this chapel in the year 1511, and
afterwards removed to the Piscopio in Naples.
[Illustration: THE LIBERATION OF S. PETER
(_After the fresco by =Filippo Lippi (Filippino)=. Florence: S.
Maria del Carmine_)
_Anderson_]
Having returned to Florence, Filippo undertook to paint at his
leisure the Chapel of the elder Filippo Strozzi in S. Maria Novella,
and he actually began it; but, having finished the ceiling, he was
compelled to return to Rome, where he wrought a tomb with
stucco-work for the said Cardinal, and decorated with gesso a little
chapel beside that tomb in a part of the same Church of the Minerva,
together with certain figures, some of which were executed by his
disciple, Raffaellino del Garbo. The chapel described above was
valued by Maestro Lanzilago of Padua and by the Roman Antonio, known
as Antoniasso, two of the best painters that were then in Rome,
at 2,000 ducats of gold, without the cost of the blues and of the
assistants. Having received this sum, Filippo returned to Florence,
where he finished the aforesaid Chapel of the Strozzi, which was
executed so well, and with so much art and design, that it causes
all who see it to marvel, by reason of the novelty and variety of
the bizarre things that are seen therein--armed men, temples, vases,
helmet-crests, armour, trophies, spears, banners, garments, buskins,
head-dresses, sacerdotal vestments, and other things--all executed
in so beautiful a manner that they deserve the highest commendation.
In this work there is the scene of Drusiana being restored to life
by S. John the Evangelist, wherein we see most admirably expressed
the marvel of the bystanders at beholding a man restore life to a
dead woman by a mere sign of the cross; and the greatest amazement
of all is seen in a priest, or rather philosopher, whichever he may
be, who is clothed in ancient fashion and has a vase in his hand. In
the same scene, likewise, among a number of women draped in various
manners, there is a little boy, who, terrified by a small spaniel
spotted with red, which has seized him with its teeth by one of his
swathing-bands, is running round his mother and hiding himself among
her clothes, and appears to be as much afraid of being bitten by the
dog as his mother is awestruck and filled with a certain horror at
the resurrection of Drusiana. Next to this, in the scene where S.
John himself is being boiled in oil, we see the wrath of the judge,
who is giving orders for the fire to be increased, and the flames
reflected on the face of the man who is blowing at them; and all the
figures are painted in beautiful and varied attitudes. On the other
side is S. Philip in the Temple of Mars, compelling the serpent,
which has slain the son of the King with its stench, to come forth
from below the altar. In certain steps the painter depicted the hole
through which the serpent issued from beneath the altar, and so well
did he paint the cleft in one of the steps, that one evening one of
Filippo's lads, wishing to hide something, I know not what, from the
sight of someone who was knocking for admittance, ran up in haste in
order to conceal it in the hole, being wholly deceived by it.
Filippo also showed so much art in the serpent, that its venom,
fetid breath, and fire, appear rather real than painted. Greatly
extolled, too, is his invention in the scene of the Crucifixion of
that Saint, for he imagined to himself, so it appears, that the
Saint was stretched on the cross while it lay on the ground, and
that afterwards the whole was drawn up and raised on high by means
of ropes, cords, and poles; which ropes and cords are wound round
certain fragments of antiquities, pieces of pillars, and bases, and
pulled by certain ministers. On the other side the weight of the
said cross and of the Saint who is stretched nude thereon is
supported by two men, on the one hand by a man with a ladder, with
which he is propping it up, and on the other hand by another with a
pole, upholding it, while two others, setting a lever against the
base and stem of the cross, are balancing its weight and seeking to
place it in the hole made in the ground, wherein it had to stand
upright. But why say more? It would not be possible for the work to
be better either in invention or in drawing, or in any other respect
whatsoever of industry or art. Besides this, it contains many
grotesques and other things wrought in chiaroscuro to resemble
marble, executed in strange fashion with invention and most
beautiful drawing.
[Illustration: S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST RAISING DRUSIANA FROM THE DEAD
(_After the fresco by =Filippo Lippi [Filippino]=. Florence: S.
Maria Novella, Strozzi Chapel_)
_Anderson_]
For the Frati Scopetini, also, at S. Donato, without Florence, which
is called Scopeto and is now in ruins, he painted a panel with the
Magi presenting their offerings to Christ, finished with great
diligence, wherein he portrayed the elder Pier Francesco de' Medici,
son of Lorenzo di Bicci, in the figure of an astrologer who is
holding a quadrant in his hand, and likewise Giovanni, father of
Signor Giovanni de' Medici, and another Pier Francesco, brother of
that Signor Giovanni, and other people of distinction. In this work
are Moors, Indians, costumes of strange shapes, and a most bizarre
hut. In a loggia at Poggio a Cajano he began a Sacrifice in fresco
for Lorenzo de' Medici, but it remained unfinished. And for the
Nunnery of S. Geronimo, above the Costa di S. Giorgio in Florence,
he began the panel of the high-altar, which was brought nearly to
completion after his death by the Spaniard Alonzo Berughetta, but
afterwards wholly finished by other painters, Alonzo having gone to
Spain. In the Palazzo della Signoria he painted the panel of the
hall where the Council of Eight held their sittings, and he made the
design for another large panel, with its ornament, for the Sala
del Consiglio; which design his death prevented him from beginning
to put into execution, although the ornament was carved; which
ornament is now in the possession of Maestro Baccio Baldini, a most
excellent physician of Florence, and a lover of every sort of
talent. For the Church of the Badia of Florence he made a very
beautiful S. Jerome; and he began a Deposition from the Cross for
the high-altar of the Friars of the Nunziata, but only finished the
figures in the upper half of the picture, for, being overcome by a
most cruel fever and by that contraction of the throat that is
commonly known as quinsy, he died in a few days at the age of
forty-five.
Thereupon, having ever been courteous, affable, and kindly, he was
lamented by all those who had known him, and particularly by the
youth of his noble native city, who, in their public festivals,
masques, and other spectacles, ever availed themselves, to their
great satisfaction, of the ingenuity and invention of Filippo, who
has never had an equal in things of that kind. Nay, he was so
excellent in all his actions, that he blotted out the stain (if
stain it was) left to him by his father--blotted it out, I say, not
only by the excellence of his art, wherein he was inferior to no man
of his time, but also by the modesty and regularity of his life,
and, above all, by his courtesy and amiability; and how great are
the force and power of such qualities to conciliate the minds of all
men without exception, is only known to those who either have
experienced or are experiencing it. Filippo was buried by his sons
in S. Michele Bisdomini, on April 13, 1505; and while he was being
borne to his tomb all the shops in the Via de' Servi were closed, as
is done sometimes for the obsequies of great men.
Among the disciples of Filippo, who all failed by a great measure to
equal him, was Raffaellino del Garbo, who made many works, as will
be told in the proper place, although he did not justify the
opinions and hopes that were conceived of him while Filippo was
alive and Raffaellino himself still a young man. The fruits, indeed,
are not always equal to the blossoms that are seen in the spring.
Nor did any great success come to Niccolò Zoccolo, otherwise known
as Niccolò Cartoni, who was likewise a disciple of Filippo, and
painted at Arezzo the wall that is over the altar of S. Giovanni
Decollato; a little panel, passing well done, in S. Agnesa; a panel
over a lavatory in the Abbey of S. Fiora, containing a Christ who is
asking for water from the woman of Samaria; and many other works,
which, since they were commonplace, are not mentioned.
[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
(_After the panel by =Filippo Lippi (Filippino)=. Florence: Uffizi,
1257_)
_Alinari_]
BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO
LIFE OF BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO
PAINTER OF PERUGIA
Even as many are assisted by fortune without being endowed with much
talent, so, on the contrary, there is an infinite number of able men
who are persecuted by an adverse and hostile fortune; whence it is
clearly manifest that she acknowledges as her children those who
depend upon her without the aid of any talent, since it pleases her
to exalt by her favour certain men who would never be known through
their own merit; which is seen in Pinturicchio of Perugia, who,
although he made many works and was assisted by various helpers,
nevertheless had a much greater name than his works deserved.
However, he was a man who had much practice in large works, and ever
kept many assistants to aid him in his labours. Now, having worked
at many things in his early youth under his master Pietro da
Perugia,[1] receiving a third of all that was earned, he was
summoned to Siena by Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini to paint the
library made by Pope Pius II in the Duomo of that city. It is true,
indeed, that the sketches and cartoons for all the scenes that he
painted there were by the hand of Raffaello da Urbino, then a youth,
who had been his companion and fellow-disciple under the same
Pietro, whose manner the said Raffaello had mastered very well. One
of these cartoons is still to be seen at the present day in Siena,
and some of the sketches, by the hand of Raffaello, are in our book.
[Illustration: BERNARDINO PINTURICCHIO: THE MADONNA IN GLORY
(_San Gimignano. Panel_)]
Now the stories in this work, wherein Pinturicchio was aided by many
pupils and assistants, all of the school of Pietro, were divided
into ten pictures. In the first is painted the scene when the said
Pope Pius II was born to Silvio Piccolomini and Vittoria, and was
called Æneas, in the year 1405, in Valdorcia, at the township of
Corsignano, which is now called Pienza after the name of that Pope,
who afterwards enriched it with buildings and made it a city; and in
this picture are portraits from nature of the said Silvio and
Vittoria. In the same is the scene when, in company with Cardinal
Domenico of Capranica, he is crossing the Alps, which are covered
with ice and snow, on his way to the Council of Bâle. In the second
the Council is sending Æneas on many embassies--namely, to Argentina
(three times), to Trent, to Constance, to Frankfurt, and to Savoy.
In the third is the sending of the same Æneas by the Antipope Felix
as ambassador to the Emperor Frederick III, with whom the ready
intelligence, the eloquence, and the grace of Æneas found so much
favour that he was given the poet's crown of laurel by Frederick
himself, who made him his Protonotary, received him into the number
of his friends, and appointed him his First Secretary. In the fourth
he is sent by Frederick to Eugenius IV, by whom he was made Bishop
of Trieste, and then Archbishop of Siena, his native city. In the
fifth scene the same Emperor, who is about to come to Italy to
receive the crown of Empire, is sending Æneas to Telamone, a port of
the people of Siena, to meet his wife, Leonora, who was coming from
Portugal. In the sixth Æneas is going to Calistus IV,[2] at the
bidding of the said Emperor, to induce him to make war against the
Turks; and in this part, Siena being harassed by the Count of
Pittigliano and by others at the instigation of King Alfonso of
Naples, that Pontiff is sending him to treat for peace. This
effected, war is planned against the Orientals; and he, having
returned to Rome, is made a Cardinal by the said Pontiff. In the
seventh, Calistus being dead, Æneas is seen being created Supreme
Pontiff, and called Pius II. In the eighth the Pope goes to Mantua
for the Council about the expedition against the Turks, where the
Marquis Lodovico receives him with most splendid pomp and incredible
magnificence. In the ninth the same Pope is placing in the catalogue
of saints--or, as the saying is, canonizing--Catherine of Siena, a
holy woman and nun of the Preaching Order. In the tenth and last,
while preparing a vast expedition against the Turks with the help
and favour of all the Christian Princes, Pope Pius dies at
Ancona; and a hermit of the Hermitage of Camaldoli, a holy man, sees
the soul of the said Pontiff being borne by Angels into Heaven at
the very moment of his death, as may also be read. Afterwards, in
the same picture, the body of the same Pope is seen being borne from
Ancona to Rome by a vast and honourable company of lords and
prelates, who are lamenting the death of so great a man and so rare
and holy a Pontiff. The whole of this work is full of portraits from
the life, so numerous that it would be a long story to recount their
names; and it is all painted with the finest and most lively
colours, and wrought with various ornaments of gold, and with very
well designed partitions in the ceiling. Below each scene is a Latin
inscription, which describes what is contained therein. In the
centre of this library the said Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini,
nephew of the Pope, placed the three Graces of marble, ancient and
most beautiful, which are still there, and which were the first
antiquities to be held in price in those times. This library,
wherein are all the books left by the said Pius II, was scarcely
finished, when the same Cardinal Francesco, nephew of the aforesaid
Pontiff, Pius II, was created Pope, choosing the name of Pius III in
memory of his uncle. Over the door of that library, which opens into
the Duomo, the same Pinturicchio painted in a very large scene,
occupying the whole extent of the wall, the Coronation of the said
Pope Pius III, with many portraits from life; and beneath it may be
read these words:
PIUS III SENENSIS, PII SECUNDI NEPOS, MDIII, SEPTEMBRIS XXI,
APERTIS ELECTUS SUFFRAGIIS, OCTAVO OCTOBRIS CORONATUS EST.
When Pinturicchio was working with Pietro Perugino and painting at
Rome in the time of Pope Sixtus, he had also been in the service of
Domenico della Rovere, Cardinal of San Clemente; wherefore the said
Cardinal, having built a very beautiful palace in the Borgo Vecchio,
charged Pinturicchio to paint the whole of it, and to make on the
façade the coat of arms of Pope Sixtus, with two little boys as
supporters. The same master executed certain works for Sciarra Colonna
in the Palace of S. Apostolo; and no long time after--namely, in the
year 1484--Innocent VIII, the Genoese, caused him to paint certain
halls and loggie in the Palace of the Belvedere, where, among other
things, by order of that Pope, he painted a loggia full of landscapes,
depicting therein Rome, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Naples,
after the manner of the Flemings; and this, being a thing not
customary at that time, gave no little satisfaction. In the same
place, over the principal door of entrance, he painted a Madonna in
fresco. In S. Pietro, in the chapel that contains the Lance which
pierced the side of Christ, he painted a panel in distemper, with the
Madonna larger than life, for the said Innocent VIII; and he painted
two chapels in the Church of S. Maria del Popolo, one for the
aforesaid Domenico della Rovere, Cardinal of San Clemente, who was
afterwards buried therein, and the other for Cardinal Innocenzio Cibo,
wherein he also was afterwards buried; and in each of these chapels he
portrayed the Cardinal who had caused him to paint it. In the Palace
of the Pope he painted certain rooms that look out upon the courtyard
of S. Pietro, the ceilings and paintings of which were renovated a few
years ago by Pope Pius IV. In the same palace Alexander VI caused
Pinturicchio to paint all the rooms that he occupied, together with
the whole of the Borgia Tower, wherein he wrought stories of the
liberal arts in one room, besides decorating all the ceilings with
stucco and gold; but, since they did not then know the method of
stucco-work that is now in use, the aforesaid ornaments are for the
most part ruined. Over the door of an apartment in the said palace he
portrayed the Signora Giulia Farnese in the countenance of a Madonna,
and, in the same picture, the head of Pope Alexander in a figure that
is adoring her.
Bernardino was much given to making gilt ornaments in relief for his
pictures, to satisfy people who had little understanding of his art
with the more showy lustre that this gave them, which is a most
barbarous thing in painting. Having then executed a story of S.
Catherine in the said apartments, he depicted the arches of Rome in
relief and the figures in painting, insomuch that, the figures being
in the foreground and the buildings in the background, the things
that should recede stand out more prominently than those that should
strike the eye as the larger--a very grave heresy in our art.
[Illustration: FREDERICK III CROWNING THE POET ÆNEAS SYLVIUS
(_After the fresco by =Bernardino Pinturicchio=. Siena: Sala
Piccolominea_)
_Brogi_]
In the Castello di S. Angelo he painted a vast number of rooms with
grotesques; and in the Great Tower, in the garden below, he painted
stories of Pope Alexander, with portraits of the Catholic Queen,
Isabella; Niccolò Orsino, Count of Pittigliano; Gianjacomo Trivulzi,
and many other relatives and friends of the said Pope, in particular
Cæsar Borgia and his brother and sisters, with many talented men of
those times. At Monte Oliveto in Naples, in the Chapel of Paolo
Tolosa, there is a panel with an Assumption by the hand of
Pinturicchio. This master made an infinite number of other works
throughout all Italy, which, since they are of no great excellence,
and wrought in a superficial manner, I will pass over in silence.
Pinturicchio used to say that a painter could only give the greatest
relief to his figures when he had it in himself, without owing
anything to principles or to others. He also made works in Perugia,
but these were few. In the Araceli he painted the Chapel of S.
Bernardino; and in S. Maria del Popolo, where, as we have said, he
painted the two chapels, he made the four Doctors of the Church on
the vaulting of the principal chapel.
[Illustration: POPE ALEXANDER VI ADORING THE RISEN CHRIST
(_After the fresco by =Bernardino Pinturicchio=. Rome: The Vatican,
Borgia Apartments_)
_Anderson_]
Afterwards, having reached the age of fifty-nine, he was
commissioned to paint the Nativity of Our Lady on a panel in S.
Francesco at Siena. To this he set his hand, and the friars assigned
to him a room to live in, which they gave to him, as he wished,
empty and stripped of everything, save only a huge old chest, which
appeared to them too awkward to remove. But Pinturicchio, like the
strange and whimsical man that he was, made such an outcry at this,
and repeated it so often, that finally in despair the friars set
themselves to carry it away. Now their good fortune was such, that
in removing it there was broken a plank which contained 500 Roman
ducats of gold; at which Pinturicchio was so displeased, and felt so
aggrieved at the good luck of those poor friars, that it can hardly
be imagined--nay, he took it so much to heart, being unable to get
it out of his thoughts, that it was the death of him. His pictures
date about the year 1513.
A companion and friend of Pinturicchio, although he was a much older
man, was Benedetto Buonfiglio, a painter of Perugia, who executed
many works in company with other masters in the Papal Palace at
Rome. In the Chapel of the Signoria in Perugia, his native city, he
painted scenes from the life of S. Ercolano, Bishop and Protector of
that city, and in the same place certain miracles wrought by S.
Louis. In S. Domenico he painted the story of the Magi on a panel in
distemper, and many saints on another. In the Church of S.
Bernardino he painted a Christ in the sky, with S. Bernardino
himself, and a multitude below. In short, this master was in no
little repute in his native city before Pietro Perugino had come to
be known.
Another friend of Pinturicchio, associated with him in not a few of
his works, was Gerino Pistoiese, who was held to be a diligent
colourist and a faithful imitator of the manner of Pietro Perugino,
with whom he worked nearly up to his death. He did little work in
his native city of Pistoia; but for the Company of the Buon Gesù in
Borgo San Sepolcro he painted a Circumcision in oil on a panel,
which is passing good. In the Pieve of the same place he painted a
chapel in fresco; and on the bank of the Tiber, on the road that
leads to Anghiari, he painted another chapel, also in fresco, for
the Commune. And he painted still another chapel in the same place,
in S. Lorenzo, an abbey of the Monks of Camaldoli. By reason of all
these works he made so long a stay in the Borgo that he almost
adopted it as his home. He was a sorry fellow in matters of art,
labouring with the greatest difficulty, and toiling with such pains
at the execution of a work, that it was a torture to him.
[Illustration: BENEDETTO BUONFIGLIO: MADONNA, CHILD AND THREE ANGELS
(_Perugia: Pinacoteca. Panel_)]
At this same time there was a painter in the city of Foligno,
Niccolò Alunno, who was held to be excellent, for it was little the
custom before Pietro Perugino's day to paint in oil, and many were
held to be able men who did not afterwards justify this opinion.
Niccolò therefore gave no little satisfaction with his works, since,
although he only painted in distemper, he portrayed the heads of his
figures from life, so that they appeared alive, and his manner won
considerable praise. In S. Agostino at Foligno there is a panel by
his hand with a Nativity of Christ, and a predella with little
figures. At Assisi he painted a banner that is borne in processions,
besides the panel of the high-altar in the Duomo, and another panel
in S. Francesco. But the best painting that Niccolò ever did was in
a chapel in the Duomo, where, among other things, there is a
Pietà, with two angels who are holding two torches and weeping so
naturally, that I do not believe that any other painter, however
excellent, would have been able to do much better. In the same place
he also painted the façade of S. Maria degli Angeli, besides many
other works of which there is no need to make mention, it being
enough to have touched on the best. And let this be the end of the
Life of Pinturicchio, who, besides his other qualities, gave no
little satisfaction to many princes and lords because he finished
and delivered his works quickly, which is their pleasure, although
such works are perchance less excellent than those that are made
slowly and deliberately.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Pietro Perugino.
[2] This seems to be an error for Calistus III.
FRANCESCO FRANCIA
[Illustration: MEDALS
(_London: British Museum_)
1. ULISSE MUSOTTI 3. FRANCESCO ALIDOSI
2. GIOVANNI II BENTIVOGLIO 4. BERNARDO ROSSI
(_After_ Francesco Francia) (_After_ a pupil of Francesco Francia)]
LIFE OF FRANCESCO FRANCIA
GOLDSMITH AND PAINTER OF BOLOGNA
Francesco Francia, who was born in Bologna in the year 1450, of
parents who were artisans, but honest and worthy enough, was
apprenticed in his earliest boyhood to the goldsmith's art, in which
calling he worked with intelligence and spirit; and as he grew up he
became so well proportioned in person and appearance, and so sweet and
pleasant in manner and speech, that he was able to keep the most
melancholy of men cheerful and free from care with his talk; for which
reason he was beloved not only by all those who knew him, but also by
many Italian princes and other lords. While working as a goldsmith,
then, he gave attention to design, in which he took so much pleasure,
that his mind began to aspire to higher things, and he made very great
progress therein, as may be seen from many works in silver that he
executed in his native city of Bologna, and particularly from certain
most excellent works in niello. In this manner of work he often put
twenty most beautiful and well-proportioned little figures within a
space no higher than the breadth of two fingers and not much more in
length. He also enamelled many works in silver, which were destroyed
at the time of the ruin and exile of the Bentivogli. In a word, he did
everything that can be done in that art better than any other man.
But that in which he delighted above all, and in which he was truly
excellent, was the making of dies for medals, wherein he was the
rarest master of his day, as may be seen in some that he made with a
most lifelike head of Pope Julius II, which bear comparison with
those of Caradosso; not to mention that he made medals of Signor
Giovanni Bentivogli, in which he appears alive, and of an infinite
number of princes, who would stop in Bologna on their way through
the city, whereupon he would make their portraits in wax for medals,
and afterwards, having finished the matrices of the dies, he would
send them; for which, besides immortal fame, he also received very
rich presents. As long as he lived he was ever Master of the Mint in
Bologna, for which he made the stamps of all the dies, both under
the rule of the Bentivogli and also during the lifetime of Pope
Julius, after their departure, as is proved by the coins struck by
that Pope on his entrance into the city, which had on one side his
head portrayed from life, and on the other these words: BONONIA PER
JULIUM A TYRANNO LIBERATA. So excellent was he held in this
profession, that he continued to make the dies for the coinage down
to the time of Pope Leo; and the impressions of his dies are so
greatly prized, and those who have some hold them in such esteem,
that money cannot buy them.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS
(_After the panel by =Francesco Francia=. Bologna: S. Giacomo
Maggiore, Bentivoglio Chapel_)
_Anderson_]
Now it came to pass that Francia, being desirous of greater glory,
and having known Andrea Mantegna and many other painters who had
gained wealth and honours by their art, determined to try whether he
could succeed in that part of painting which had to do with colour;
his drawing was already such that it could well bear comparison with
theirs. Thereupon, having made arrangements to try his hand, he
painted certain portraits and some little things, keeping in his
house for many months men of that profession to teach him the means
and methods of colouring, insomuch that, having very good judgment,
he soon acquired the needful practice. The first work that he made
was a panel of no great size for Messer Bartolommeo[3] Felicini, who
placed it in the Misericordia, a church without Bologna; in which
panel there is a Madonna seated on a throne, with many other
figures, and the said Messer Bartolommeo portrayed from life. This
work, which was wrought in oil with the greatest diligence, was
painted by him in the year 1490; and it gave such satisfaction in
Bologna, that Messer Giovanni Bentivogli, desiring to honour his own
chapel, which was in S. Jacopo in that city, with works by this new
painter, commissioned him to paint a panel with the Madonna in the
sky, two figures on either side of her, and two angels below
sounding instruments; which work was so well executed by Francia,
that he won from Messer Giovanni, besides praise, a most honourable
present. Wherefore Monsignore de' Bentivogli, impressed by this
work, caused him to paint a panel containing the Nativity of Christ,
which was much extolled, for the high-altar of the Misericordia;
wherein, besides the design, which is not otherwise than beautiful,
the invention and the colouring are worthy of nothing but praise. In
this work he made a portrait of Monsignore de' Bentivogli from the
life (a very good likeness, so it is said by those who knew him),
clothed in that very pilgrim's dress in which he returned from
Jerusalem. He also painted a panel in the Church of the Nunziata,
without the Porta di S. Mammolo, representing the Madonna receiving
the Annunciation from the Angel, with two figures on either side,
which is held to be a very well executed work.
Now that Francia's works had spread his fame abroad, even as his
painting in oil had brought him both profit and repute, so he
determined to try whether he would succeed as well at working in
fresco. Messer Giovanni Bentivogli had caused his palace to be
painted by diverse masters of Ferrara and Bologna, and by certain
others from Modena; but, having seen Francia's experiments in
fresco, he determined that this master should paint a scene on one
wall of an apartment that he occupied for his own use. There Francia
painted the camp of Holofernes, guarded by various sentinels both on
foot and on horseback, who were keeping watch over the pavilions;
and the while that they were intent on something else, the sleeping
Holofernes was seen surprised by a woman clothed in widow's
garments, who, with her left hand, was holding his hair, which was
wet with the heat of wine and sleep, and with her right hand she was
striking the blow to slay her enemy, the while that an old wrinkled
handmaid, with the true air of a most faithful slave, and with her
eyes fixed on those of her Judith in order to encourage her, was
bending down and holding a basket near the ground, to receive
therein the head of the slumbering lover. This scene was one of the
most beautiful and most masterly that Francia ever painted, but it
was thrown to the ground in the destruction of that edifice at the
time of the expulsion of the Bentivogli, together with another scene
over that same apartment, coloured to look like bronze, and
representing a disputation of philosophers, which was excellently
wrought, with his conception very well expressed. These works
brought it about that he was loved and honoured by Messer Giovanni
and all the members of his house, and, after them, by all the city.
In the Chapel of S. Cecilia, which is attached to the Church of S.
Jacopo, he painted two scenes wrought in fresco, in one of which he
made the Marriage of Our Lady with Joseph, and in the other the
Death of S. Cecilia--a work held in great esteem by the people of
Bologna. And, indeed, Francia gained such mastery and such
confidence from seeing his works advancing towards the perfection
that he desired, that he executed many pictures, of which I will
make no mention, it being enough for me to point out, to all who may
wish to see his works, only the best and most notable. Nor did his
painting hinder him from carrying on both the Mint and his other
work of making medals, as he had done from the beginning. Francia,
so it is said, felt the greatest sorrow at the departure of Messer
Giovanni Bentivogli, for he had received such great benefits from
Messer Giovanni, that it caused him infinite grief; however, like
the prudent and orderly man that he was, he kept at his work. After
his parting from his patron, he painted three panels that went to
Modena, in one of which there was the Baptism of Christ by S. John;
in the second, a very beautiful Annunciation; and in the last, which
was placed in the Church of the Frati dell' Osservanza, a Madonna in
the sky with many figures.
[Illustration: FRANCESCO FRANCIA: PIETÀ
(_London: National Gallery, 180. Panel_)]
The fame of so excellent a master being spread abroad by means of so
many works, the cities contended with one another to obtain his
pictures. Whereupon he painted a panel for the Black Friars of S.
Giovanni in Parma, containing a Dead Christ in the lap of Our Lady,
surrounded by many figures; which panel was universally held to be a
most beautiful work; and the same friars, therefore, thinking that
they had been well served, induced him to make another for a house
of theirs at Reggio in Lombardy, wherein he painted a Madonna with
many figures. At Cesena, likewise for the church of these friars, he
executed another panel, painting therein the Circumcision of Christ,
with lovely colouring. Nor would the people of Ferrara consent to
be left behind by their neighbours; nay, having determined to adorn
their Duomo with works by Francia, they commissioned him to paint a
panel, on which he made a great number of figures; and they named it
the panel of Ognissanti. He painted one in S. Lorenzo at Bologna,
with a Madonna, a figure on either side, and two children below,
which was much extolled; and scarcely had he finished this when he
had to make another in S. Giobbe, representing a Crucifixion, with
that Saint kneeling at the foot of the Cross, and two figures at the
sides.