painted a large scene coloured in fresco, in which he depicted the
miracle wrought by Jesus Christ with the five loaves and two fishes,
with which he satisfied five thousand people. For the Abbot de'
Panichi he executed the panel-picture of the high-altar in the
Church of S. Salvi, without the Porta alla Croce, painting therein
Our Lady, S. Giovanni Gualberto, S. Salvi, S. Bernardo, a Cardinal
of the Uberti family, and S. Benedetto the Abbot, and, at the sides,
S. Batista and S. Fedele in armour, in two niches on either hand of
the picture, which had a rich frame; and in the predella are several
scenes, with little figures, from the Life of S. Giovanni Gualberto.
In all this he acquitted himself very well, because he was assisted
in his wretchedness by that Abbot, who took pity on him for the sake
of his talents; and in the predella of the panel Raffaellino made a
portrait of him from life, together with one of the General who was
then ruling his Order. In S. Piero Maggiore, on the right as one
enters the church, there is a panel by his hand, and in the Murate
there is a picture of S. Sigismund, the King. For Girolamo
Federighi, in that part of S. Pancrazio where he was afterwards
buried, he painted a Trinity in fresco, with portraits of him and of
his wife on their knees; and here he began to decline into pettiness
of manner. He also made two figures in distemper for the Monks of
Cestello, a S. Rocco and a S. Ignazio, which are in the Chapel of S.
Sebastiano. And in a little chapel on the abutment of the Ponte
Rubaconte, on the side towards the Mills, he painted a Madonna, a S.
Laurence, and another saint.
In the end he was reduced to undertaking any work, however mean; and
he was employed by certain nuns and other persons, who were
embroidering a quantity of church vestments and hangings at that
time, to make designs in chiaroscuro and ornamental borders
containing saints and stories, for ridiculous prices. For although
he had deteriorated, there sometimes issued from his hand most
beautiful designs and fancies, as is proved by many drawings that
were sold and dispersed after the death of those who used them for
embroidery; of which there are many in the book of the illustrious
hospital-director,[19] that show how able he was in draughtsmanship.
This was the reason that many vestments, hangings, and ornaments,
which are held to be very beautiful, were made for the churches of
Florence and throughout the Florentine territory, and also for
Cardinals and Bishops in Rome. At the present day this method of
embroidery, which was used by Paolo da Verona, the Florentine
Galieno, and others like them, is almost lost, and another method,
with wide stitches, has been introduced, which has neither the same
beauty nor the same careful workmanship, and is much less durable
than the other. Wherefore, in return for this benefit, although
poverty caused him misery and hardship during his lifetime, he
deserves to have honour and glory for his talents after his death.
And in truth Raffaellino was unfortunate in his connections, for he
always mixed with poor and humble people, like a man who had sunk
and become ashamed of himself, seeing that in his youth he had given
such great promise, and now knew how distant he was from the
extraordinary excellence of the works that he had made at that time.
And thus, growing old, he fell away so much from his early standard,
that his works no longer appeared to be by his hand; and forgetting
his art more and more every day, he was reduced to painting, in
addition to his usual panels and pictures, the meanest kinds of
works. And he sank so low that everything was a torment to him, but
above all his burdensome family of children, which turned all his
ability in art into mere clumsiness. Wherefore, being overtaken by
infirmities and impoverished, he finished his life in misery at the
age of fifty-eight, and was buried in S. Simone, at Florence, by the
Company of the Misericordia, in the year 1524.
He left behind him many pupils who became able masters. One, who
went in his boyhood to learn the rudiments of art from Raffaellino,
was the Florentine painter Bronzino, who afterwards acquitted
himself so well under the wing of Jacopo da Pontormo, another
painter of Florence, that he has made as much proficience in the art
as his master Jacopo. The portrait of Raffaellino was copied from a
drawing that belonged to Bastiano da Monte Carlo, who was also his
disciple, and who, for a man with no draughtsmanship, became a
passing good master.
FOOTNOTE:
[19] Don Vincenzio Borghini.
TORRIGIANO
LIFE OF TORRIGIANO
SCULPTOR OF FLORENCE
Great is the power of anger in the soul of one who is seeking, with
arrogance and pride, to gain a reputation for excellence in some
profession, when he sees rising in the same art, at a time when he
does not expect it, some unknown man of beautiful genius, who not
only equals him, but in time surpasses him by a great measure. Of
such persons, in truth, it may be said that there is no iron that
they would not gnaw in their rage, nor any evil which they would not
do if they were able, for it seems to them too grievous an affront
in the eyes of the world, that children whom they saw born should
have reached maturity almost in one bound from their cradles. They
do not reflect that every day one may see the will of young men,
spurred on by zeal in their tender years, and exercised by them in
continual studies, rise to infinite heights; while the old, led by
fear, pride, and ambition, lose the cunning of their hands, so that
the better they think to work, the worse they do it, and where they
believe that they are advancing, they are going backwards.
Wherefore, out of envy, they never give credit to the young for the
perfection of their works, however clearly they may see it, on
account of the obstinacy that possesses them. And it is known from
experience that when, in order to show what they can do, they exert
themselves to the utmost of their power, they often produce works
that are ridiculous and a mere laughing-stock. In truth, when
craftsmen have reached the age when the eye is no longer steady and
the hand trembles, their place, if they have saved the wherewithal
to live, is to give advice to men who can work, for the reason that
the arts of painting and sculpture call for a mind in every way
vigorous and awake (as it is at the age when the blood is boiling),
full of burning desire, and a capital enemy of the pleasures of the
world. And whoever is not temperate with regard to the delights of
the world should shun the studies of any art or science whatsoever,
seeing that such pleasures and study can never agree well together.
Since, therefore, these arts involve so many burdens, few, indeed,
are they who attain to the highest rank; and those who start with
eagerness from the post are greater in number than those who run
well in the race and win the prize.
Now there was more pride than art, although he was very able, to be
seen in Torrigiano, a sculptor of Florence, who in his youth was
maintained by the elder Lorenzo de' Medici in the garden which that
magnificent citizen possessed on the Piazza di S. Marco in Florence.
This garden was in such wise filled with the best ancient statuary,
that the loggia, the walks, and all the apartments were adorned with
noble ancient figures of marble, pictures, and other suchlike
things, made by the hands of the best masters who ever lived in
Italy or elsewhere. And all these works, in addition to the
magnificence and adornment that they conferred on that garden, were
as a school or academy for the young painters and sculptors, as well
as for all others who were studying the arts of design, and
particularly for the young nobles; since the Magnificent Lorenzo had
a strong conviction that those who are born of noble blood can
attain to perfection in all things more readily and more speedily
than is possible, for the most part, for men of humble birth, in
whom there are rarely seen those conceptions and that marvellous
genius which are perceived in men of illustrious stock. Moreover,
the less highly born, having generally to defend themselves from
hardship and poverty, and being forced in consequence to undertake
any sort of work, however mean, are not able to exercise their
intellect, or to attain to the highest degree of excellence.
Wherefore it was well said by the learned Alciato--when speaking of
men of beautiful genius, born in poverty, who are not able to raise
themselves, because, in proportion as they are impelled upwards by
the wings of their genius, so are they held down by their poverty--
Ut me pluma levat, sic grave mergit onus.
Lorenzo the Magnificent, then, always favoured men of genius, and
particularly such of the nobles as showed an inclination for these
our arts; wherefore it is no marvel that from that school there
should have issued some who have amazed the world. And what is more,
he not only gave the means to buy food and clothing to those who,
being poor, would otherwise not have been able to pursue the studies
of design, but also bestowed extraordinary gifts on any one among
them who had acquitted himself in some work better than the others;
so that the young students of our arts, competing thus with each
other, thereby became very excellent, as I will relate.
The guardian and master of these young men, at that time, was the
Florentine sculptor Bertoldo, an old and practised craftsman, who
had once been a disciple of Donato. He taught them, and likewise had
charge of the works in the garden, and of many drawings, cartoons,
and models by the hand of Donato, Pippo,[20] Masaccio, Paolo
Uccello, Fra Giovanni, Fra Filippo, and other masters, both native
and foreign. It is a sure fact that these arts can only be acquired
by a long course of study in drawing and diligently imitating works
of excellence; and whoever has not such facilities, however much he
may be assisted by nature, can never arrive at perfection, save late
in life.
But to return to the antiquities of the garden; they were in great
part dispersed in the year 1494, when Piero, the son of the
aforesaid Lorenzo, was banished from Florence, all being sold by
auction. The greater part of them, however, were restored to the
Magnificent Giuliano in the year 1512, at the time when he and the
other members of the House of Medici returned to their country; and
at the present day they are for the most part preserved in the
guardaroba of Duke Cosimo. Truly magnificent was the example thus
given by Lorenzo, and whenever Princes and other persons of high
degree choose to imitate it, they will always gain everlasting
honour and glory thereby; since he who assists and favours, in their
noble undertakings, men of rare and beautiful genius, from whom the
world receives such beauty, honour, convenience and benefit,
deserves to live for ever in the minds and memories of mankind.
Among those who studied the arts of design in that garden, the
following all became very excellent masters; Michelagnolo, the son
of Lodovico Buonarroti; Giovan Francesco Rustici; Torrigiano
Torrigiani; Francesco Granacci; Niccolò, the son of Jacopo[21]
Soggi; Lorenzo di Credi, and Giuliano Bugiardini; and, among the
foreigners, Baccio da Montelupo, Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino,
and others, of whom mention will be made in the proper places.
Torrigiano, then, whose Life we are now about to write, was a
student in the garden with those named above; and he was not only
powerful in person, and proud and fearless in spirit, but also by
nature so overbearing and choleric, that he was for ever tyrannizing
over all the others both with words and deeds. His chief profession
was sculpture, yet he worked with great delicacy in terra-cotta, in
a very good and beautiful manner. But not being able to endure that
any one should surpass him, he would set himself to spoil with his
hands such of the works of others as showed an excellence that he
could not achieve with his brain; and if these others resented this,
he often had recourse to something stronger than words. He had a
particular hatred for Michelagnolo, for no other reason than that he
saw him attending zealously to the study of art, and knew that he
used to draw in secret at his own house by night and on feast-days,
so that he came to succeed better in the garden than all the others,
and was therefore much favoured by Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Wherefore, moved by bitter envy, Torrigiano was always seeking to
affront him, both in word and deed; and one day, having come to
blows, Torrigiano struck Michelagnolo so hard on the nose with his
fist, that he broke it, insomuch that Michelagnolo had his nose
flattened for the rest of his life. This matter becoming known to
Lorenzo, he was so enraged that Torrigiano, if he had not fled from
Florence, would have suffered some heavy punishment.
[Illustration: TOMB OF HENRY VII
(_After_ Torrigiano. _London: Westminster Abbey_)
_Mansell_]
Having therefore made his way to Rome, where Alexander VI was then
pressing on the work of the Borgia Tower, Torrigiano executed in it
a great quantity of stucco-work, in company with other masters.
Afterwards, money being offered in the service of Duke Valentino,
who was making war against the people of Romagna, Torrigiano was
led away by certain young Florentines; and, having changed himself
in a moment from a sculptor to a soldier, he bore himself valiantly
in those campaigns of Romagna. He did the same under Paolo Vitelli
in the war with Pisa; and he was with Piero de' Medici at the action
on the Garigliano, where he won the right to arms, and the name of a
valiant standard-bearer.
But in the end, recognizing that he was never likely to reach the
rank of captain that he desired, although he deserved it, and that
he had saved nothing in the wars, and had, on the contrary, wasted
his time, he returned to sculpture. For certain Florentine
merchants, then, he made small works in marble and bronze, little
figures, which are scattered throughout the houses of citizens in
Florence, and he executed many drawings in a bold and excellent
manner, as may be seen from some by his hand that are in our book,
together with others which he made in competition with Michelagnolo.
And having been brought by those merchants to England, he executed
there, in the service of the King, an endless number of works in
marble, bronze, and wood, competing with some masters of that
country, to all of whom he proved superior. For this he was so well
and so richly rewarded, that, if he had not been as reckless and
unbridled as he was proud, he might have lived a life of ease and
ended his days in comfort; but what happened to him was the very
opposite.
After this, having been summoned from England into Spain, he made
many works there, which are scattered about in various places, and
are held in great estimation; and, among others, he made a Crucifix
of terra-cotta, which is the most marvellous thing that there is in
all Spain. For a monastery of Friars of S. Jerome, without the city
of Seville, he made another Crucifix; a S. Jerome in Penitence, with
his lion, the figure of that Saint being a portrait of an old
house-steward of the Botti family, Florentine merchants settled in
Spain; and a Madonna with the Child. This last figure was so
beautiful that it led to his making another like it for the Duke of
Arcus, who, in order to obtain it, made such promises to Torrigiano,
that he believed that it would make him rich for the rest of his
life. The work being finished, the Duke gave him so many of those
coins that are called "maravedis," which are worth little or
nothing, that Torrigiano, to whose house there came two persons
laden with them, became even more confirmed in his belief that he
was to be a very rich man. But afterwards, having shown this money
to a Florentine friend of his, and having asked him to count it and
reckon its value in Italian coin, he saw that all that vast sum did
not amount to thirty ducats; at which, holding himself to have been
fooled, he went in a violent rage to where the figure was that he
had made for the Duke, and wholly destroyed it. Whereupon that
Spaniard, considering himself affronted, denounced Torrigiano as a
heretic; on which account he was thrown into prison, and after being
examined every day, and sent from one inquisitor to the other, he
was finally judged to deserve the severest penalty. But this was
never put into execution, because Torrigiano himself was plunged
thereby into such melancholy, that, remaining many days without
eating, and thus becoming very weak, little by little he put an end
to his own life; and in this way, by denying himself his food, he
avoided the shame into which he would perchance have fallen, for it
was believed that he had been condemned to death.
The works of this master date about the year of our salvation, 1515,
and he died in the year 1522.
FOOTNOTE:
[20] Filippo Brunelleschi.
[21] The name given in the text is Domenico.
GIULIANO AND ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO
LIVES OF GIULIANO AND ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO
ARCHITECTS OF FLORENCE
Francesco di Paolo Giamberti, who was a passing good architect in
the time of Cosimo de' Medici, and was much employed by him, had two
sons, Giuliano and Antonio, whom he apprenticed to the art of
wood-carving. One of these two sons, Giuliano, he placed with
Francione, a joiner, an ingenious person, who gave attention at the
same time to wood-carving and to perspective, and with whom
Francesco was very intimate, since they had executed many works in
company, both in carving and in architecture, for Lorenzo de'
Medici. This Giuliano learnt so well all that Francione taught him,
that the carvings and beautiful perspectives that he afterwards
executed by himself in the choir of the Duomo of Pisa are still
regarded not without marvel at the present day, even among the many
new perspectives.
While Giuliano was studying design, and his young blood ran hot in
his veins, the army of the Duke of Calabria, by reason of the hatred
which that lord bore to Lorenzo de' Medici, encamped before
Castellina, in order to occupy the dominions of the Signoria of
Florence, and also, if this should be successful, in order to
accomplish some greater design. Wherefore Lorenzo the Magnificent
was forced to send an engineer to Castellina, who might make mills
and bastions, and should have the charge of handling the artillery,
which few men at that time were able to do; and he sent thither
Giuliano, considering him to have a mind more able, more ready, and
more resolute than any other man, and knowing him already as the son
of Francesco, who had been a devoted servant of the House of Medici.
Arriving at Castellina, therefore, Giuliano fortified that place
with good walls and mills, both within and without, and furnished
it with everything else necessary for the defence. Then, observing
that the artillery-men stood at a great distance from their pieces,
handling, loading, and discharging them with much timidity, he gave
his attention to this, and so contrived that from that time onwards
the artillery did harm to no one, whereas it had previously killed
many of them, since they had not had judgment and knowledge enough
to avoid suffering injury from the recoil. Having therefore taken
charge of the artillery, Giuliano showed great skill in discharging
it to the best possible advantage; and the Duke's forces so lost
heart by reason of this and other adverse circumstances, that they
were glad to make terms and depart from the town. In consequence of
this Giuliano won no little praise from Lorenzo in Florence, and was
looked upon with favour and affection ever afterwards.
Having meanwhile given his attention to architecture, he began the
first cloister of the Monastery of Cestello, and executed that part
of it that is seen to be of the Ionic Order; placing capitals on the
columns with volutes curving downwards to the collarino, where the
shaft of the column ends, and making, below the ovoli and the
fusarole, a frieze, one-third in height of the diameter of the
column. This capital was copied from a very ancient one of marble,
found at Fiesole by Messer Leonardo Salutati, Bishop of that place,
who kept it for some time, together with other antiquities, in a
house and garden that he occupied in the Via di S. Gallo, opposite
to S. Agata; and it is now in the possession of Messer Giovan
Battista da Ricasoli, Bishop of Pistoia, and is prized for its beauty
and variety, since among the ancient capitals there has not been
seen another like it. But that cloister remained unfinished, because
those monks were not then able to bear such an expense.
Meanwhile Giuliano had come into even greater credit with Lorenzo;
and the latter, who was intending to build a palace at Poggio a
Cajano, a place between Florence and Pistoia, and had caused several
models to be made for it by Francione and by others, commissioned
Giuliano, also, to make one of the sort of building that he proposed
to erect. And Giuliano made it so completely different in form from
the others, and so much to Lorenzo's fancy, that he began
straightway to have it carried into execution, as the best of all
the models; on which account he took Giuliano even more into his
favour, and ever afterwards gave him an allowance.
After this, Giuliano wishing to make a vaulted ceiling for the great
hall of that palace in the manner that we call barrel-shaped,
Lorenzo could not believe, on account of the great space, that it
could be raised. Whereupon Giuliano, who was building a house for
himself in Florence, made a ceiling for his hall according to the
design of the other, in order to convince the mind of that
Magnificent Prince; and Lorenzo therefore gave orders for the
ceiling at the Poggio to be carried out, which was successfully
done.
By that time the fame of Giuliano had so increased, that, at the
entreaty of the Duke of Calabria, he was commissioned by Lorenzo the
Magnificent to make the model for a palace that was to be built at
Naples; and he spent a long time over executing it. Now while he was
working at this, the Castellan of Ostia, then Bishop della Rovere,
who after a time became Pope Julius II, wishing to restore that
stronghold and to put it into good order, and having heard the fame
of Giuliano, sent to Florence for him; and, having supplied him with
a good provision, he kept him employed for two years in making
therein all the useful improvements that he was able to execute by
means of his art. And to the end that the model for the Duke of
Calabria might not be neglected, but might be brought to conclusion,
he left it to his brother Antonio, who finished it according to his
directions, which, in executing it and carrying it to completion, he
followed with great diligence, for he was no less competent in that
art than Giuliano himself. Now Giuliano was advised by the elder
Lorenzo to present it in person, to the end that he might show from
the model itself the difficulties that he had triumphed over in
making it. Whereupon he departed for Naples, and, having presented
the work, was received with honour; for men were as much impressed
by the gracious manner in which the Magnificent Lorenzo had sent
him, as they were struck with marvel at the masterly work in the
model, which gave such satisfaction that the building was
straightway begun near the Castel Nuovo.
After Giuliano had been some time in Naples, he sought leave from
the Duke to return to Florence; whereupon he was presented by the
King with horses and garments, and, among other things, with a
silver cup containing some hundreds of ducats. These things Giuliano
would not accept, saying that he served a patron who had no need of
silver or gold, but that if he did indeed wish to give him some
present or some token of approbation, to show that he had been in
that city, he might bestow upon him some of his antiquities, which
he would choose himself. These the King granted to him most
liberally, both for love of the Magnificent Lorenzo and on account
of Giuliano's own worth; and they were a head of the Emperor
Hadrian, which is now above the door of the garden at the house of
the Medici, a nude woman, more than life-size, and a Cupid sleeping,
all in marble and in the round. Giuliano sent them as presents to
the Magnificent Lorenzo, who expressed vast delight at the gift, and
never tired of praising the action of this most liberal of
craftsmen, who had refused gold and silver for the sake of art, a
thing which few would have done. That Cupid is now in the guardaroba
of Duke Cosimo.
[Illustration: FAÇADE OF S. MARIA DELLE CARCERI
(_After_ Giuliano da San Gallo. _Prato_)
_Alinari_]
Having then returned to Florence, Giuliano was received most
graciously by the Magnificent Lorenzo. Now the fancy had taken that
Prince to build a convent capable of holding a hundred friars,
without the Porta S. Gallo, in order to give satisfaction to Fra
Mariano da Ghinazzano, a most learned member of the Order of Eremite
Friars of S. Augustine. For this convent models were made by many
architects, and in the end that of Giuliano was put into execution,
which was the reason that Lorenzo, from this work, gave him the name
of Giuliano da San Gallo. Wherefore Giuliano, who heard himself
called by everyone "da San Gallo," said one day in jest to the
Magnificent Lorenzo, "By giving me this new name of 'da San Gallo,'
you are making me lose the ancient name of my house, so that, in
place of going forward in the matter of lineage, as I thought to do,
I am going backward." Whereupon Lorenzo answered that he would
rather have him become the founder of a new house through his own
worth, than depend on others; at which Giuliano was well content.