other portraits from nature, which are very lifelike and beautiful;
of which we still have proof in three most beautiful heads in oils
by his hand, which are in the study of the Very Reverend Grimani,
Patriarch of Aquileia. One represents David--and it is reported to
be his own portrait--with long locks reaching to the shoulders, as
was the custom of those times; it is so vivacious and so fresh in
colouring that it seems to be living flesh, and there is armour on
the breast, as there is on the arm with which he is holding the
severed head of Goliath. The second is a much larger head, portrayed
from nature; one hand is holding the red cap of a commander, and
there is a cape of fur, below which is one of the old-fashioned
doublets. This is believed to represent some military leader. The
third is that of a boy, as beautiful as could be, with fleecy hair.
These works demonstrate the excellence of Giorgione, and no less the
affection which that great Patriarch has ever borne to his genius,
holding them very dear, and that rightly. In Florence, in the house
of the sons of Giovanni Borgherini, there is a portrait by his hand
of the said Giovanni, taken when he was a young man in Venice, and
in the same picture is the master who was teaching him; and there
are no two heads to be seen with better touches in the flesh-colours
or with more beautiful tints in the shadows. In the house of Anton
de' Nobili there is another head of a captain in armour, very lively
and spirited, which is said to be one of the captains whom Consalvo
Ferrante took with him to Venice when he visited Doge Agostino
Barberigo; at which time, it is related, Giorgione made a
portrait of the great Consalvo in armour, which was a very rare
work, insomuch that there was no more beautiful painting than this
to be seen, and Consalvo took it away with him. Giorgione made many
other portraits which are scattered throughout many parts of Italy;
all very beautiful, as may be believed from that of Leonardo
Loredano, painted by Giorgione when Leonardo was Doge, which I saw
exhibited on one Ascension day, when I seemed to see that most
illustrious Prince alive. There is also one at Faenza, in the house
of Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, an excellent engraver of cameos and
crystals; which work, executed for his father-in-law, is truly
divine, since there is such a harmony in the gradation of the
colours that it appears to be rather in relief than painted.
Giorgione took much delight in painting in fresco, and one among
many works that he executed was the whole of a façade of the Ca
Soranzo on the Piazza di S. Polo; wherein, besides many pictures and
scenes and other things of fancy, there may be seen a picture
painted in oils on the plaster, a work which has withstood rain,
sun, and wind, and has remained fresh up to our own day. There is
also a Spring, which appears to me to be one of the most beautiful
works that he painted in fresco, and it is a great pity that time
has consumed it so cruelly. For my part, I know nothing that injures
works in fresco more than the sirocco, and particularly near the
sea, where it always brings a salt moisture with it.
There broke out at Venice, in the year 1504, in the Fondaco de'
Tedeschi by the Ponte del Rialto, a most terrible fire, which
consumed the whole building and all the merchandise, to the very
great loss of the merchants; wherefore the Signoria of Venice
ordained that it should be rebuilt anew, and it was speedily
finished with more accommodation in the way of living-rooms, and
with greater magnificence, adornment, and beauty. Thereupon, the
fame of Giorgione having grown great, it was ordained after
deliberation by those who had charge of the matter, that Giorgione
should paint it in fresco with colours according to his own fancy,
provided only that he gave proof of his genius and executed an
excellent work, since it would be in the most beautiful place and
most conspicuous site in the city. And so Giorgione put his hand to
the work, but thought of nothing save of making figures according
to his own fancy, in order to display his art, so that, in truth,
there are no scenes to be found there with any order, or
representing the deeds of any distinguished person, either ancient
or modern; and I, for my part, have never understood them, nor have
I found, for all the inquiries that I have made, anyone who
understands them, for in one place there is a woman, in another a
man, in diverse attitudes, while one has the head of a lion near
him, and another an angel in the guise of a Cupid, nor can one tell
what it may all mean. There is, indeed, over the principal door,
which opens into the Merceria, a woman seated who has at her feet
the severed head of a giant, almost in the form of a Judith; she is
raising the head with her sword, and speaking with a German, who is
below her; but I have not been able to determine for what he
intended her to stand, unless, indeed, he may have meant her to
represent Germany. However, it may be seen that his figures are well
grouped, and that he was ever making progress; and there are in it
heads and parts of figures very well painted, and most vivacious in
colouring. In all that he did there he aimed at being faithful to
nature, without any imitation of another's manner; and the work is
celebrated and famous in Venice, no less for what he painted therein
than through its convenience for commerce and its utility to the
commonwealth.
He executed a picture of Christ bearing the Cross, with a Jew
dragging him along, which in time was placed in the Church of S.
Rocco, and which now, through the veneration that many feel for it,
works miracles, as all may see. He worked in various places, such as
Castelfranco, and throughout the territory of Treviso, and he made
many portraits for Italian Princes; and many of his works were sent
out of Italy, as things truly worthy to bear testimony that if
Tuscany had a superabundance of craftsmen in every age, the region
beyond, near the mountains, was not always abandoned and forgotten
by Heaven.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
(_After the painting by =Giorgione da Castelfranco=. Berlin: Kaiser
Friedrich Museum, 12A_)
_Bruckmann_]
It is related that Giorgione, at the time when Andrea Verrocchio was
making his bronze horse, fell into an argument with certain
sculptors, who maintained, since sculpture showed various attitudes
and aspects in one single figure to one walking round it, that for
this reason it surpassed painting, which only showed one side
of a figure. Giorgione was of the opinion that there could be shown
in a painted scene, without any necessity for walking round, at one
single glance, all the various aspects that a man can present in
many gestures--a thing which sculpture cannot do without a change of
position and point of view, so that in her case the points of view
are many, and not one. Moreover, he proposed to show in one single
painted figure the front, the back, and the profile on either side,
a challenge which brought them to their senses; and he did it in the
following way. He painted a naked man with his back turned, at whose
feet was a most limpid pool of water, wherein he painted the
reflection of the man's front. At one side was a burnished cuirass
that he had taken off, which showed his left profile, since
everything could be seen on the polished surface of the piece of
armour; and on the other side was a mirror, which reflected the
other profile of the naked figure; which was a thing of most
beautiful and bizarre fancy, whereby he sought to prove that
painting does in fact, with more excellence, labour, and effect,
achieve more at one single view of a living figure than does
sculpture. And this work was greatly extolled and admired, as
something ingenious and beautiful.
[Illustration: JUDITH
(_After the painting by =Giorgione da Castelfranco=. S. Petersburg:
Hermitage, 112_)
_M.S._]
He also made a portrait from life of Caterina, Queen of Cyprus,
which I once saw in the hands of the illustrious Messer Giovanni
Cornaro. There is in our book a head coloured in oils, the portrait
of a German of the Fugger family, who was at that time one of the
chief merchants in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, which is an admirable
work; together with other sketches and drawings made by him with the
pen.
While Giorgione was employed in doing honour both to himself and to
his country, and frequenting many houses in order to entertain his
various friends with his music, he became enamoured of a lady, and
they took much joy, one with another, in their love. Now it happened
that in the year 1511 she became infected with plague, without,
however, knowing anything about it; and Giorgione, visiting her as
usual, caught the plague in such a manner, that in a short time, at
the age of thirty-four, he passed away to the other life, not
without infinite grief on the part of his many friends, who loved
him for his virtues, and great hurt to the world, which thus lost
him. However, they could bear up against this hurt and loss, in that
he left behind him two excellent disciples in Sebastiano, the
Venetian, who afterwards became Friar of the Piombo[12] at Rome, and
Tiziano da Cadore, who not only equalled him, but surpassed him
greatly; of both of whom we will speak at the proper time,
describing fully the honour and benefit that they have conferred on
art.
[Illustration: CATERINA, QUEEN OF CYPRUS
(_After the painting by =Giorgione da Castelfranco= (?). Milan:
Crespi Collection_)
_Anderson_]
FOOTNOTE:
[12] Signet-office, for the sealing of Papal Bulls and
other papers of the Papal Court.
ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
LIFE OF ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO
PAINTER
I do not wish to leave that country wherein our great mother Nature,
in order not to be thought partial, gave to the world extraordinary
men of that sort with which she had already for many and many a year
adorned Tuscany; among whom was one endowed with an excellent and
very beautiful genius, by name Antonio da Correggio, a most rare
painter, who acquired the modern manner so perfectly, that in a few
years, what with his natural gifts and his practice in art, he
became a most excellent and marvellous craftsman. He was very timid
by nature, and with great discomfort to himself he was continually
labouring at the exercise of his art, for the sake of his family,
which weighed upon him; and although it was a natural goodness that
impelled him, nevertheless he afflicted himself more than was right
in bearing the burden of those sufferings which are wont to crush
mankind. He was very melancholy in his practice of art, a slave to
her labours, and an unwearying investigator of all the difficulties
of her realm; to which witness is borne by a vast multitude of
figures in the Duomo of Parma, executed in fresco and well finished,
which are to be found in the great tribune of the said church, and
are seen foreshortened from below with an effect of marvellous
grandeur.
Antonio was the first who began to work in the modern manner in
Lombardy; wherefore it is thought that if he, with his genius, had
gone forth from Lombardy and lived in Rome, he would have wrought
miracles, and would have brought the sweat to the brow of many who
were held to be great men in his time. For, his works being such as
they are without his having seen any of the ancient or the best of
the modern, it necessarily follows that, if he had seen them, he
would have vastly improved his own, and, advancing from good to
better, would have reached the highest rank. It may, at least, be
held for certain that no one ever handled colours better than he,
and that no craftsman ever painted with greater delicacy or with
more relief, such was the softness of his flesh-painting, and such
the grace with which he finished his works.
[Illustration: ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO: ANTIOPE
(_Paris: Louvre, 1118. Canvas_)]
In the same place, also, he painted two large pictures executed in
oils, in one of which, among other figures, there may be seen a Dead
Christ, which was highly extolled. And in S. Giovanni, in the same
city, he painted a tribune in fresco, wherein he represented Our
Lady ascending into Heaven amidst a multitude of angels, with other
saints around; as to which, it seems impossible that he should have
been able, I do not say to express it with his hand, but even to
conceive it in his imagination, so beautiful are the curves of the
draperies and the expressions that he gave to those figures. Of
these there are some drawings in our book, done in red chalk by his
hand, with some very beautiful borders of little boys, and other
borders drawn in that work by way of ornament, with various fanciful
scenes of sacrifices in the ancient manner. And in truth, if Antonio
had not brought his works to that perfection which is seen in them,
his drawings (although they show excellence of manner, and the charm
and practised touch of a master) would not have gained for him among
craftsmen the name that he has won with his wonderful paintings.
This art is so difficult, and has so many branches, that very often
a craftsman is not able to practise them all to perfection; for
there have been many who have drawn divinely well, but have shown
some imperfection in colouring, and others have been marvellous in
colouring, but have not drawn half so well. All this depends on
choice, and on the practice bestowed, in youth, in one case on
drawing, in another on colour. But since all is learnt in order to
carry works to the height of perfection, which is to put good
colouring, together with draughtsmanship, into everything that is
executed, for this reason Correggio deserves great praise, having
attained to the height of perfection in the works that he coloured
either in oils or in fresco; as he did in the Church of the Frati
de' Zoccoli di S. Francesco, in the same city, where he painted
an Annunciation in fresco so well, that, when it became necessary to
pull it down in making some changes in that building, those friars
caused the wall round it to be bound with timber strengthened with
iron, and, cutting it away little by little, they saved it; and it
was built by them into a more secure place in the same convent.
He painted, also, over one of the gates of that city, a Madonna who
has the Child in her arms; and it is an astounding thing to see the
lovely colouring of this work in fresco, through which he has won
from passing strangers, who have seen nothing else of his, infinite
praise and honour. For S. Antonio, likewise in that city, he painted
a panel wherein is a Madonna, with S. Mary Magdalene; and near them
is a boy in the guise of a little angel, holding a book in his hand,
who is smiling, with a smile that seems so natural that he moves
whoever beholds him to smile also, nor can any person, be his nature
ever so melancholy, see him without being cheered. There is also a
S. Jerome; and the whole work is coloured in a manner so wonderful
and so astounding, that painters revere it for the marvel of its
colouring, and it is scarcely possible to paint better.
In like manner, he executed square pictures and other paintings for
many lords throughout Lombardy; and, among other works, two pictures
in Mantua for Duke Federigo II, to be sent to the Emperor, a gift
truly worthy of such a Prince. Giulio Romano, seeing these works,
said that he had never seen any colouring that attained to such
perfection. One was a naked Leda, and the other a Venus; both so
soft in colouring, with the shadows of the flesh so well wrought,
that they appeared to be not colours, but flesh. In one there was a
marvellous landscape, nor was there ever a Lombard who painted such
things better than he; and, besides this, hair so lovely in colour,
and executed in detail with such exquisite finish, that it is not
possible to see anything better. There were also certain Loves,
executed with beautiful art, who were making trial of their arrows,
some of gold and some of lead, on a stone; and what lent most grace
to the Venus was a clear and limpid stream, which ran among some
stones and bathed her feet, but scarcely concealed any part of them,
so that the sight of their delicate whiteness was a moving thing
for the eye to behold. For which reason Antonio most certainly
deserved all praise and honour during his lifetime, and the greatest
glory from the lips and pens of men after his death.
In Modena, also, he painted a panel-picture of Our Lady, which is
held in esteem by all painters, as the best picture in that city. In
Bologna, likewise, in the house of the Ercolani, gentlemen of that
city, there is a work by his hand, a Christ appearing to Mary
Magdalene in the Garden, which is very beautiful. In Reggio there
was a rare and most beautiful picture; and not long since, Messer
Luciano Pallavigino, who takes much delight in noble paintings,
passing through the city and seeing it, gave no thought to the cost,
and, as if he had bought a jewel, sent it to his house in Genoa. At
Reggio, likewise, is a panel containing a Nativity of Christ,
wherein the splendour radiating from Him throws its light on the
shepherds and all around on the figures that are contemplating Him;
and among the many conceptions shown in that subject, there is a
woman who, wishing to gaze intently at Christ, and not being able
with her mortal sight to bear the light of His Divinity, which seems
to be beating upon her with its rays, places a hand before her eyes;
which is expressed so well that it is a marvel. Over the hut is a
choir of angels singing, who are so well executed, that they appear
rather to have rained down from Heaven than to have been made by the
hand of a painter. And in the same city there is a little picture, a
foot square, the rarest and most beautiful work that is to be seen
by his hand, of Christ in the Garden, representing an effect of
night, and painted with little figures; wherein the Angel, appearing
to Christ, illumines Him with the splendour of his light, with such
truth to nature, that nothing better can be imagined or expressed.
Below, on a plain at the foot of the mountain, are seen the three
Apostles sleeping, over whom the mountain on which Christ is praying
casts a shadow, giving those figures a force which one is not able
to describe. Far in the background, over a distant landscape, there
is shown the appearing of the dawn; and on one side are seen coming
some soldiers, with Judas. And although it is so small, this scene
is so well conceived, that there is no work of the same kind to
equal it either in patience or in study.
[Illustration: S. THOMAS AND S. JAMES THE LESS
(_Detail, after the fresco by =Antonio da Correggio=. Parma: S.
Giovanni Evangelista_)
_Anderson_]
Many things might be said of the works of this master; but since,
among the eminent men of our art, everything that is to be seen by
his hand is admired as something divine, I will say no more. I have
used all possible diligence in order to obtain his portrait, but,
since he himself did not make it, and he was never portrayed by
others, for he always lived in retirement, I have not been able to
find one. He was, in truth, a person who had no opinion of himself,
nor did he believe himself to be an able master of his art,
contrasting his deficiencies with that perfection which he would
have liked to achieve. He was contented with little, and he lived
like an excellent Christian.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH S. JEROME
(_After the painting by =Antonio da Correggio=. Parma: Gallery,
351_)
_Anderson_]
Antonio, like a man who was weighed down by his family, was anxious
to be always saving, and he had thereby become as miserly as he
could well be. Wherefore it is related that, having received at
Parma a payment of sixty crowns in copper coins, and wishing to take
them to Correggio to meet some demand, he placed the money on his
back and set out to walk on foot; but, being smitten by the heat of
the sun, which was very great, and drinking water to refresh
himself, he was seized by pleurisy, and had to take to his bed in a
raging fever, nor did he ever raise his head from it, but finished
the course of his life at the age of forty, or thereabout.
His pictures date about 1512; and he bestowed a very great gift on
painting by his handling of colours, which was that of a true
master; and it was by means of him that men's eyes were opened in
Lombardy, where so many beautiful intellects have been seen in
painting, following him in making works worthy of praise and memory.
Thus, by showing them his treatment of hair, executed with such
facility, for all the difficulty of painting it, he taught them how
it should be painted; for which all painters owe him an everlasting
debt. At their instance the following epigram was written to him by
Messer Fabio Segni, a gentleman of Florence:
Hujus cum regeret mortales spiritus artus
Pictoris, Charites supplicuere Jovi.
Non alia pingi dextra, Pater alme, rogamus;
Hunc præter, nulli pingere nos liceat.
Annuit his votis summi regnator Olympi,
Et juvenem subito sidera ad alta tulit,
Ut posset melius Charitum simulacra referre
Præsens, et nudas cerneret inde Deas.
At this same time lived Andrea del Gobbo of Milan, a very pleasing
painter and colourist, many of whose works are scattered about in
the houses of his native city of Milan. There is a large
panel-picture of the Assumption of Our Lady, by his hand, in the
Certosa of Pavia, but it was left unfinished, on account of death
overtaking him; which panel shows how excellent he was, and how
great a lover of the labours of art.
[Illustration: ANTONIO DA CORREGGIO: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
(_Milan: Brera, 427. Canvas_)]
PIERO DI COSIMO
LIFE OF PIERO DI COSIMO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
While Giorgione and Correggio, to their own great credit and glory,
were honouring the regions of Lombardy, Tuscany, on her part, was
not wanting in men of beautiful intellect; among whom, not one of
the least was Piero, the son of one Lorenzo, a goldsmith, and a
pupil of Cosimo Rosselli, after whom he was always called Piero di
Cosimo, and known by no other name. And in truth, when a man teaches
us excellence and gives us the secret of living rightly, he deserves
no less gratitude from us, and should be held no less as a true
father, than he who begets us and gives us life and nothing more.
Piero was entrusted by his father, who saw in his son a lively
intelligence and an inclination to the art of design, to the care of
Cosimo, who took him with no ordinary willingness; and seeing him
grow no less in ability than in years, among the many disciples that
he had, he bore him love as to a son, and always held him as such.
This young man had by nature a most lofty spirit, and he was very
strange, and different in fancy from the other youths who were
working with Cosimo in order to learn the same art. He was at times
so intent on what he was doing, that when some subject was being
discussed, as often happens, at the end of the discussion it was
necessary to go back to the beginning and tell him the whole, so far
had his brain wandered after some other fancy of his own. And he was
likewise so great a lover of solitude, that he knew no pleasure save
that of going off by himself with his thoughts, letting his fancy
roam and building his castles in the air. Right good reason had
Cosimo, his master, for wishing him well, seeing that he made so
much use of him in his works, that very often he caused him to
execute things of great importance, knowing that Piero had a more
beautiful manner, as well as better judgment, than himself. For this
reason he took Piero with him to Rome, when he was summoned thither
by Pope Sixtus in order to paint the scenes in his chapel; in one of
which Piero executed a very beautiful landscape, as was related in
the Life of Cosimo.
And since Piero drew most excellently from the life, he made in Rome
many portraits of distinguished persons; in particular, those of
Virginio Orsino and Ruberto Sanseverino, which he placed in the
aforesaid scenes. Afterwards, also, he made a portrait of Duke
Valentino, the son of Pope Alexander VI; which painting, to my
knowledge, is not now to be found; but the cartoon by his hand still
exists, being in the possession of the reverend and cultured M.
Cosimo Bartoli, Provost of S. Giovanni. In Florence, he painted many
pictures for a number of citizens, which are dispersed among their
various houses, and of such I have seen some that are very good; and
so, also, various things for many other persons. In the Noviciate of
S. Marco is a picture by his hand of Our Lady, standing, with the
Child in her arms, coloured in oils. And for the Chapel of Gino
Capponi, in the Church of S. Spirito at Florence, he painted a panel
wherein is the Visitation of Our Lady, with S. Nicholas, and a S.
Anthony who is reading with a pair of spectacles on his nose, a very
spirited figure. Here he counterfeited a book bound in parchment,
somewhat old, which seems to be real, and also some balls that he
gave to the S. Nicholas, shining and casting gleams of light and
reflections from one to another; from which even by that time men
could perceive the strangeness of his brain, and his constant
seeking after difficulties.
[Illustration: PIERO DI COSIMO: THE DEATH OF PROCRIS
(_London: National Gallery, 698. Panel_)]
Even better did he show this after the death of Cosimo, when he kept
himself constantly shut up, and would not let himself be seen at
work, leading the life of a man who was less man than beast. He
would never have his rooms swept, he would only eat when hunger came
to him, and he would not let his garden be worked or his fruit-trees
pruned; nay, he allowed his vines to grow, and the shoots to trail
over the ground, nor were his fig-trees ever trimmed, or any other
trees, for it pleased him to see everything wild, like his own
nature; and he declared that Nature's own things should be left to
her to look after, without lifting a hand to them. He set himself
often to observe such animals, plants, or other things as Nature at
times creates out of caprice, or by chance; in which he found a
pleasure and satisfaction that drove him quite out of his mind with
delight; and he spoke of them so often in his discourse, that at
times, although he found pleasure in them, it became wearisome to
others. He would sometimes stop to gaze at a wall against which sick
people had been for a long time discharging their spittle, and from
this he would picture to himself battles of horsemen, and the most
fantastic cities and widest landscapes that were ever seen; and he
did the same with the clouds in the sky.