more in Rome by executing certain works; and this he spent with the
greatest economy, since he wished to be able to live independently,
and at the same time, without having to work, to be free to take
measurements, at his ease, of all the ancient buildings in Rome. And
having put his hand to this, he set out, alone with his thoughts;
and within no great space of time he had measured all the buildings
in that city and in the Campagna without; and he went as far as
Naples, and wherever he knew that there were antiquities. He
measured all that was at Tivoli and in the Villa of Hadrian, and, as
will be related afterwards in the proper place, made great use of
it. The mind of Bramante becoming known in this way, the Cardinal of
Naples, having noticed him, began to favour him. Whereupon, while
Bramante was continuing his studies, the desire came to the said
Cardinal to have the cloister of the Frati della Pace rebuilt in
travertine, and he gave the charge of this cloister to Bramante, and
he, desiring to earn money and to gain the good will of that
Cardinal, set himself to work with all possible industry and
diligence, and brought it quickly to perfect completion. And
although it was not a work of perfect beauty, it gave him a very
great name, since there were not many in Rome who followed the
profession of architecture with such zeal, study, and resolution as
Bramante.
At the beginning he served as under-architect to Pope Alexander VI
for the fountain of Trastevere, and likewise for that which was made
on the Piazza di S. Pietro. He also took part, together with other
excellent architects, when his reputation had increased, in the
planning of a great part of the Palace of S. Giorgio, and of the
Church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, at the commission of Raffaello
Riario, Cardinal of S. Giorgio, near the Campo di Fiore; which
palace, whatever better work may have been executed afterwards,
nevertheless was and still is held, on account of its greatness, to
be a commodious and magnificent habitation; and the building of this
edifice was carried out by one Antonio Montecavallo. Bramante was
consulted with regard to the enlargement of S. Jacopo degli
Spagnuoli, on the Piazza Navona, and likewise in the deliberations
for the building of S. Maria de Anima, which was afterwards carried
out by a German architect. From his design, also, was the Palace of
Cardinal Adriano da Corneto in the Borgo Nuovo, which was built
slowly, and then finally remained unfinished by reason of the flight
of that Cardinal; and in like manner, the enlargement of the
principal chapel of S. Maria del Popolo was executed from his
design.
These works brought him so much credit in Rome, that he was
considered the best architect, in that he was resolute, prompt, and
most fertile in invention; and he was continually employed by all
the great persons in that city for their most important
undertakings. Wherefore, after Julius II had been elected Pope, in
the year 1503, he entered into his service. The fancy had taken that
Pontiff to so transform the space that lay between the Belvedere and
the Papal Palace, as to give it the aspect of a square theatre,
embracing a little valley that ran between the old Papal Palace and
the new buildings that Innocent VIII had erected as a habitation for
the Popes; and he intended, by means of two corridors, one on either
side of this little valley, to make it possible to go from the
Belvedere to the Palace under loggie, and also to go from the Palace
to the Belvedere in the same way, and likewise, by means of various
flights of steps, to ascend to the level of the Belvedere. Whereupon
Bramante, who had very good judgment and an inventive genius in such
matters, distributed two ranges of columns along the lowest part;
first, a very beautiful Doric loggia, similar to the Colosseum of
the Savelli (although, in place of half-columns, he used pilasters),
and all built of travertine; and over this a second range of the
Ionic Order, full of windows, of such a height as to come to the
level of the first-floor rooms of the Papal Palace, and to the
level of those of the Belvedere; intending to make, afterwards, a
loggia more than four hundred paces long on the side towards Rome,
and likewise another on the side towards the wood, with which, one
on either hand, he proposed to enclose the valley; into which, after
it had been levelled, was to be brought all the water from the
Belvedere; and for this a very beautiful fountain was to be made. Of
this design, Bramante finished the first corridor, which issues from
the Palace and leads to the Belvedere on the side towards Rome,
except the upper loggia, which was to go above it. As for the
opposite part, on the side towards the wood, the foundations,
indeed, were laid, but it could not be finished, being interrupted
by the death of Julius, and then by that of Bramante. His design was
held to be so beautiful in invention, that it was believed that from
the time of the ancients until that day, Rome had seen nothing
better. But of the other corridor, as has been said, he left only
the foundations, and the labour of finishing it has dragged on down
to our own day, when Pius IV has brought it almost to completion.
Bramante also erected the head-wall of the Museum of ancient statues
in the Belvedere, together with the range of niches; wherein were
placed, in his lifetime, the Laocoon, one of the rarest of ancient
statues, the Apollo, and the Venus; and the rest of the statues were
set up there afterwards by Leo X, such as the Tiber, the Nile, and
the Cleopatra, with some others added by Clement VII; and in the
time of Paul III and Julius III many important improvements were
made, at great expense.
But to return to Bramante; he was very resolute, although he was
hindered by the avarice of those who supplied him with the means to
work, and he had a marvellous knowledge of the craft of building.
This construction at the Belvedere was executed by him with
extraordinary speed, and such was his eagerness as he worked, and
that of the Pope, who would have liked to see the edifice spring up
from the ground, without needing to be built, that the builders of
the foundations brought the sand and the solid foundation-clay by
night and let[14] it down by day in the presence of Bramante, who
caused the foundations to be made without seeing anything more of
the work. This inadvertence was the reason that all his buildings
have cracked, and are in danger of falling down, as did this same
corridor, of which a piece eighty braccia in length fell to the
ground in the time of Clement VII, and was afterwards rebuilt by
Pope Paul III, who also had the foundations restored and the whole
strengthened.
From his design, also, are many flights of steps in the Belvedere,
varied according to their situations, whether high or low, in the
Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Orders--a very beautiful work, executed
with extraordinary grace. And he had made a model for the whole,
which is said to have been a marvellous thing, as may still be
imagined from the beginning of the work, unfinished as it is.
Moreover, he made a spiral staircase upon mounting columns, in such
a way that one can ascend it on horseback; wherein the Doric passes
into the Ionic, and the Ionic into the Corinthian, rising from one
into the other; a work executed with supreme grace, and with truly
excellent art, which does him no less honour than any other thing by
his hand that is therein. This invention was copied by Bramante from
S. Niccolò at Pisa, as was said in the Lives of Giovanni and Niccola
of Pisa.
The fancy took Bramante to make, in a frieze on the outer façade of
the Belvedere, some letters after the manner of ancient
hieroglyphics, representing the name of the Pope and his own, in
order to show his ingenuity: and he had begun thus, "Julio II, Pont.
Massimo," having caused a head in profile of Julius Cæsar to be
made, and a bridge, with two arches, which signified, "Julio II,
Pont.," and an obelisk from the Circus Maximus, to represent "Max."
At which the Pope laughed, and caused him to make the letters in the
ancient manner, one braccio in height, which are there at the
present day; saying that he had copied this folly from a door at
Viterbo, over which one Maestro Francesco, an architect, had placed
his name, carved in the architrave, and represented by a S. Francis
(S. Francesco), an arch (arco), a roof (tetto), and a tower (torre),
which, interpreted in his own way, denoted, "Maestro Francesco
Architettore." The Pope, on account of his ability in architecture,
was very well disposed towards him.
[Illustration: TEMPIETTO
(_After_ Bramante da Urbino. _Rome: S. Pietro in Montorio_)
_Anderson_]
For these reasons he was rightly held worthy by the aforesaid Pope,
who loved him very dearly for his great gifts, to be appointed to
the Office of the Piombo, for which he made a machine for printing
Bulls, with a very beautiful screw. In the service of that Pontiff
Bramante went to Bologna, in the year 1504, when that city returned
to the Church; and he occupied himself, throughout the whole war
against Mirandola, on many ingenious things of the greatest
importance. He made many designs for ground-plans and complete
buildings, which he drew very well; and of such there are some to be
seen in our book, accurately drawn and executed with very great art.
He taught many of the rules of architecture to Raffaello da Urbino;
designing for him, for example, the buildings that Raffaello
afterwards drew in perspective in that apartment of the Pope wherein
there is Mount Parnassus; in which apartment he made a portrait of
Bramante taking measurements with a pair of compasses.
The Pope resolved, having had the Strada Julia straightened out by
Bramante, to place in it all the public offices and tribunals of
Rome, on account of the convenience which this would bring to the
merchants in their business, which up to that time had always been
much hindered. Wherefore Bramante made a beginning with the palace
that is to be seen by S. Biagio sul Tevere, wherein there is still
an unfinished Corinthian temple, a thing of rare excellence. The
rest of this beginning is in rustic work, and most beautiful; and it
is a great pity that a work so honourable, useful, and magnificent,
which is held by the masters of the profession to be the most
beautiful example of design in that kind that has ever been seen,
should not have been finished. He made, also, in the first cloister
of S. Pietro a Montorio, a round temple of travertine, than which
nothing more shapely or better conceived, whether in proportion,
design, variety, or grace, could be imagined; and even more
beautiful would it have been, if the whole extent of the cloister,
which is not finished, had been brought to the form that is to be
seen in a drawing by his hand. He directed the building, in the
Borgo, of the palace which afterwards belonged to Raffaello da
Urbino, executed with bricks and mould-castings, the columns and
bosses being of the Doric Order and of rustic work--a very
beautiful work--with a new invention in the making of these
castings. He also made the design and preparations for the
decoration of S. Maria at Loreto, which was afterwards continued by
Andrea Sansovino; and an endless number of models for palaces and
temples, which are in Rome and throughout the States of the Church.
So sublime was the intellect of this marvellous craftsman, that he
made a vast design for restoring and rearranging the Papal Palace.
And so greatly had his courage grown, on seeing the powers and
desires of the Pope rise to the level of his own wishes and genius,
that, hearing that he was minded to throw the Church of S. Pietro to
the ground, in order to build it anew, he made him an endless number
of designs. And among those that he made was one that was very
wonderful, wherein he showed the greatest possible judgment, with
two bell-towers, one on either side of the façade, as we see it in
the coins afterwards struck for Julius II and Leo X by Caradosso, a
most excellent goldsmith, who had no peer in making dies, as may
still be seen from the medal of Bramante, executed by him, which is
very beautiful. And so, the Pope having resolved to make a beginning
with the vast and sublime structure of S. Pietro, Bramante caused
half of the old church to be pulled down, and put his hand to the
work, with the intention that it should surpass, in beauty, art,
invention, and design, as well as in grandeur, richness, and
adornment, all the buildings that had been erected in that city by
the power of the Commonwealth, and by the art and intellect of so
many able masters; and with his usual promptness he laid the
foundations, and carried the greater part of the building, before
the death of the Pope and his own, to the height of the cornice,
where are the arches to all the four piers; and these he turned with
supreme expedition and art. He also executed the vaulting of the
principal chapel, where the recess is, giving his attention at the
same time to pressing on the building of the chapel that is called
the Chapel of the King of France.
For this work he invented the method of casting vaults in wooden
moulds, in such a manner that patterns of friezes and foliage, like
carvings, come out in the plaster; and in the arches of this edifice
he showed how they could be turned with flying scaffoldings, a
method that we have since seen followed by Antonio da San Gallo. In
the part that was finished by him, the cornice that runs right round
the interior is seen to be so graceful, that no other man's hand
could take away or alter anything from its design without spoiling
it. It is evident from his capitals, which are of olive leaves
within, and from all the Doric work on the outer side, which is
extraordinarily beautiful, how sublime was the courage of Bramante,
whereby, in truth, if he had possessed physical powers equal to the
intellect that adorned his spirit, he would most certainly have
achieved even more unexampled things than he did. This work, as will
be related in the proper places, since his death and down to the
present day, has been much mutilated by other architects, insomuch
that it may be said that with the exception of four arches which
support the tribune, nothing of his has remained there. For
Raffaello da Urbino and Giuliano da San Gallo, who carried on the
work after the death of Julius II, together with Fra Giocondo of
Verona, thought fit to begin to alter it; and after the death of
those masters, Baldassarre Peruzzi, in building the Chapel of the
King of France, in the transept on the side towards the Campo Santo,
changed Bramante's design; and under Paul III Antonio da San Gallo
changed it again entirely. Finally, Michelagnolo Buonarroti,
sweeping away the countless opinions and superfluous expenses, has
brought it to such beauty and perfection as not one of those others
ever thought of, which all comes from his judgment and power of
design; although he said to me several times that he was only the
executor of the design and arrangements of Bramante, seeing that he
who originally lays the foundations of a great edifice is its true
creator. Vast, indeed, seemed the conception of Bramante in this
work, and he gave it a very great beginning, which, even if he had
begun on a smaller scale, neither San Gallo nor the others, nor even
Buonarroti, would have had enough power of design to increase,
although they were able to diminish it; so immense, stupendous, and
magnificent was this edifice, and yet Bramante had conceived
something even greater.
It is said that he was so eager to see this structure making
progress, that he pulled down many beautiful things in S. Pietro,
such as tombs of Popes, paintings, and mosaics, and that for this
reason we have lost all trace of many portraits of distinguished
persons, which were scattered throughout that church, which was the
principal church of all Christendom. He preserved only the altar of
S. Pietro, and the old tribune, round which he made a most beautiful
ornament of the Doric Order, all of peperino-stone, to the end that
when the Pope came to S. Pietro to say Mass, he might be able to
stand within it with all his Court and with the Ambassadors of the
Christian Princes; but death prevented him from finishing it
entirely, and the Sienese Baldassarre afterwards brought it to
completion.
Bramante was a very merry and pleasant person, ever delighting to
help his neighbour. He was very much the friend of men of ability,
and favoured them in whatever way he could; as may be seen from his
kindness to the gracious Raffaello da Urbino, most celebrated of
painters, whom he brought to Rome. He always lived in the greatest
splendour, doing honour to himself; and in the rank to which his
merits had raised him, what he possessed was nothing to what he
would have been able to spend. He delighted in poetry, and loved to
improvise upon the lyre, or to hear others doing this: and he
composed some sonnets, if not as polished as we now demand them, at
least weighty and without faults. He was much esteemed by the
prelates, and was received by an endless number of noblemen who made
his acquaintance. In his lifetime he had very great renown, and even
greater after his death, because of which the building of S. Pietro
was interrupted for many years. He lived to the age of seventy, and
he was borne to his tomb in Rome, with most honourable obsequies, by
the Court of the Pope and by all the sculptors, architects, and
painters. He was buried in S. Pietro, in the year 1514.
[Illustration: PALAZZO GIRAUD
(_After_ Bramante da Urbino. _Rome_)
_Anderson_]
Very great was the loss that architecture suffered in the death of
Bramante, who was the discoverer of many good methods wherewith he
enriched that art, such as the invention of casting vaults, and the
secret of stucco; both of which were known to the ancients, but had
been lost until his time through the ruin of their buildings. And
those who occupy themselves with measuring ancient works of
architecture, find in the works of Bramante no less science and
design than in any of the former; wherefore, among those who are
versed in the profession, he can be accounted one of the rarest
intellects that have adorned our age. He left behind him an intimate
friend, Giuliano Leno, who had much to do with the buildings of his
time, but was employed rather to make preparations and to carry out
the wishes of whoever designed them, than to work on his own
account, although he had judgment and great experience.
During his lifetime, Bramante employed in his works one Ventura, a
carpenter of Pistoia, who was a man of very good ability, and drew
passing well. This Ventura, while in Rome, delighted much in taking
measurements of antiquities; and afterwards, wishing to live once
more in his native place, he returned to Pistoia. Now it happened in
that city, in the year 1509, that a Madonna, which is now called the
Madonna della Umiltà, worked miracles; and since many offerings were
brought to her, the Signoria that was then governing the city
determined to build a temple in her honour. Whereupon Ventura,
confronted with this opportunity, made with his own hand a model of
an octagonal temple ...[15] braccia in breadth and ... braccia in
height, with a vestibule or closed portico in front, very ornate
within and truly beautiful. This having given satisfaction to the
Signoria and to the chief men of the city, the building was begun
according to the plans of Ventura, who, having laid the foundations
of the vestibule and the temple, completely finished the vestibule,
which he made very rich in pilasters and cornices of the Corinthian
Order, with other carved stonework; while all the vaults in that
work were made in like manner, with squares surrounded by mouldings,
also in stone, and filled with rosettes. Afterwards, the octagonal
temple was also carried to the height of the last cornice, from
which the vaulting of the tribune was to rise, during the lifetime
of Ventura; and since he was not very experienced in works of that
size, he did not consider how the weight of the tribune might be
safely laid on the building, but made within the thickness of the
wall, at the first range of windows, and at the second, where the
others are, a passage that runs right round, whereby he contrived to
weaken the walls so much, that, the edifice being without buttresses
at the base, it was dangerous to raise a vault over it, and
particularly on the angles at the corners, upon which all the weight
of the vault of that tribune must rest. Wherefore, after the death
of Ventura, there was no architect with courage enough to raise that
vault: nay, they had caused long and stout beams of timber to be
brought to the place, in order to make a tent-shaped roof; but this
did not please the citizens, and they would not have it put into
execution. And so the building remained for many years without a
roof, until, in the year 1561, the Wardens of Works besought Duke
Cosimo that his Excellency should so favour them as to cause that
tribune to be vaulted. Whereupon, in order to meet their wishes, the
Duke ordered Giorgio Vasari to go there and see whether he could
find some method of vaulting it; and he, having done this, made a
model raising the building to the height of eight braccia above the
cornice that Ventura had left, in order to make buttresses for it;
and he decreased the breadth of the passage that runs right round
between the walls, and reinforced the building with buttresses,
besides binding the corners and the parts below the passages that
Ventura had made, between the windows, with stout keys of iron,
double at the angles; which secured the whole in such a manner that
the vault could be raised with safety. Whereupon his Excellency was
pleased to visit the place, and, being satisfied with everything,
gave orders for the work to be executed; and so all the buttresses
have been built, and a beginning has already been made with the
raising of the cupola. Thus, then, the work of Ventura will become
richer, greater in size and adornment, and better in proportions;
but he truly deserves to have record made of him, since that
building is the most noteworthy modern work in the city of Pistoia.
FOOTNOTE:
[14] The word "calavano" has been substituted here for the
"cavavano" of the text, which gives no sense.
[15] These numbers are missing from the text.
FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO
LIFE OF FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO
[_BACCIO DELLA PORTA_]
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Near the territory of Prato, which is ten miles distant from
Florence, in a village called Savignano, was born Bartolommeo,
known, according to the Tuscan custom, by the name of Baccio. He,
having shown in his childhood not merely inclination, but also
aptitude, for drawing, was placed, through the good services of
Benedetto da Maiano, with Cosimo Rosselli, and lodged in the house
of some relatives of his own, who lived at the Porta a S. Piero
Gattolini; where he stayed for many years, so that he was never
called or known by any other name than that of Baccio della Porta.
After taking his leave of Cosimo Rosselli, he began to study with
great devotion the works of Leonardo da Vinci; and in a short time
he made such proficience and such progress in colouring, that he
acquired the name and reputation of being one of the best young men
of his art, both in colouring and in drawing. He had a companion in
Mariotto Albertinelli, who in a short time acquired his manner
passing well; and together with him he executed many pictures of Our
Lady, which are scattered throughout Florence. To speak of all these
would take too long, and I will mention only some excellently
painted by Baccio. There is one, containing a Madonna, in the house
of Filippo di Averardo Salviati, which is most beautiful, and which
he holds very dear and in great price. Another was bought not long
since, at a sale of old furniture, by Pier Maria delle Pozze, a
person greatly devoted to pictures, who, having recognized its
beauty, will not let it go for any sum of money; in which work is a
Madonna executed with extraordinary diligence. Piero del Pugliese
had a little Madonna of marble, in very low relief, a very rare work
by the hand of Donatello, for which, in order to do it honour, he
caused a wooden tabernacle to be made, with two little doors to
enclose it. This he gave to Baccio della Porta, who painted, on the
inner side of the doors, two little scenes, of which one was the
Nativity of Christ, and the other His Circumcision; which Baccio
executed with little figures after the manner of miniatures, in such
a way that it would not be possible to do better work in oils; and
then he painted Our Lady receiving the Annunciation from the Angel,
in chiaroscuro, and likewise in oils, on the outer side of the same
little doors, so as to be seen when they are closed. This work is
now in the study of Duke Cosimo, wherein he keeps all his little
antique figures of bronze, medals, and other rare pictures in
miniature; and it is treasured by his most illustrious Excellency as
a rare thing, as indeed it is.
[Illustration: FRA BARTOLOMMEO DI SAN MARCO: THE DEPOSITION FROM THE
CROSS
(_Florence: Pitti, 64. Panel_)]