for Papa.
[25] This seems to be an error for Bartolommeo.
[26] Villa Madama.
[27] The use of this word, though perhaps too modern, seems
to the translator to be the only way to preserve the play of words
in the text.
GUGLIELMO DA MARCILLA
LIFE OF GUGLIELMO DA MARCILLA
[_GUILLAUME DE MARCILLAC, OR THE FRENCH PRIOR_]
FRENCH PAINTER AND MASTER OF GLASS WINDOWS
At this same time, wherein our arts were endowed by God with the
greatest felicity that they could possibly enjoy, there flourished
one Guglielmo da Marcilla, a Frenchman, who, from his constant
residence in Arezzo, and from the affection that he bore to that
city, may be said to have chosen it for his country, insomuch that
all men considered and called him an Aretine. And, in truth, among
the benefits that are derived from ability, one is that from
whatever strange and distant region and from however barbarous and
unknown a race a man may come, be he who he may, if only he has a
mind adorned with ability and practises some ingenious craft with
his hands, no sooner does he make his first appearance in each city
to which he turns his steps, demonstrating his worth, than the skill
of his hand works so powerfully, that his name, passing from lip to
lip, in a short time waxes great, and his qualities become very
highly prized and honoured. And it happens often to a great number
of men, who have left their country far behind them, that they
chance upon nations that are lovers of ability and of foreigners,
where, by reason of their upright walk of life, they find themselves
recognized and cherished in such a manner, that they forget the
country of their birth and choose a new one for their last
resting-place.
Even so was Arezzo chosen as a final home by Guglielmo, who, as a
youth in France, applied himself to the art of design, and together
with that gave attention to glass windows, in which he made figures
no less harmonious in colouring than if they had been painted with
the greatest beauty and harmony in oils. While in his own country,
persuaded by the entreaties of certain of his friends, he was
present at the slaying of one who was their enemy: on which account
he was forced to assume the habit of a monk in the Order of S.
Dominic in France, in order to escape the courts and the hand of
justice. But although he remained in that Order, yet he never
abandoned the study of art; nay, continuing it, he arrived at the
highest perfection.
Now, by order of Pope Julius II, a commission was given to Bramante
da Urbino to have a number of glass windows made for the Palace;
whereupon he, making inquiries about the most excellent craftsmen,
received information of many who were working at that craft, and
among them of some who were executing marvellous works in France;
and of these he saw a specimen through the French Ambassador who was
then at the Court of his Holiness, and who had in the frame of a
window in his study a figure executed on a piece of white glass with
a vast number of colours, fixed on the glass by the action of fire.
Wherefore, by order of Bramante, a letter was written to France,
inviting them to come to Rome, and offering them good payments.
Thereupon Maestro Claudio, a Frenchman, the head of that art, having
received the intelligence, and knowing the excellence of Guglielmo,
so went to work with money and fair promises, that it was no
difficult matter to draw him out of the convent, particularly
because Guglielmo, on account of the discourtesy shown to him and
the jealousies that there always are among monks, was even more
eager to leave it than was Maestro Claudio to get him out. They
went, therefore, to Rome, where the habit of S. Dominic was changed
for that of S. Peter.
Bramante at that time had caused two windows of travertine to be made in
the Palace of the Pope, which were in the hall in front of the chapel,
now embellished by a vaulted ceiling by Antonio da San Gallo, and by
marvellous stucco-work from the hand of Perino del Vaga of Florence.
These windows were executed by Maestro Claudio and Guglielmo, although
afterwards, during the sack of Rome, they were broken to pieces, in
order to extract the lead to make harquebus-balls; and they were truly
marvellous. In addition to these, they made an endless number of them
for the apartments of the Pope, which met with the same fate as the
other two. And even now there is one to be seen in the room containing
Raffaello's Burning of the Borgo, in the Borgia Tower; in which are
angels who are holding the escutcheon of Leo X. They also made two
windows for the chapel behind the Madonna in S. Maria del Popolo, with
the stories of her life, which were highly praiseworthy examples of that
craft.
These works brought them no less fame and renown than comfort in
life. But Maestro Claudio, being very intemperate in eating and
drinking, according to the custom of his race, which is a deadly
thing in the air of Rome, fell sick of so violent a fever, that in
six days he passed to the other life. Whereupon Guglielmo, left
alone, and almost like one lost without his companion, painted by
himself a window, likewise of glass, in S. Maria de Anima, the
church of the Germans in Rome; which was the reason that Cardinal
Silvio of Cortona made him an offer, and made a contract with him
that he should execute some windows and other works in his native
city of Cortona. Wherefore the Cardinal took him in his company to
take up his abode in Cortona; and the first work that he executed
was the façade of the Cardinal's house on the side towards the
Piazza, which he painted in chiaroscuro, depicting therein Croton
and the other original founders of that city. Thereupon the
Cardinal, who saw that Guglielmo was no less upright as a man than
excellent as a master of that art, caused him to execute, for the
Pieve of Cortona, the window of the principal chapel, in which he
made the Nativity of Christ and the Magi adoring Him.
Guglielmo was a man of fine spirit and intelligence, and of very
great mastery in handling glass, and particularly in so distributing
the colours that the brightest should come in the foremost figures,
those in the other figures being darker in proportion as they
receded; in which point he was a rare and truly excellent master.
Moreover, he showed very good judgment in the painting of his
figures; whereby he executed them with such unity, that they fell
back into the distance little by little, in such a way that they did
not cling either to the buildings or to the landscapes, and had the
appearance of being painted on panel, or rather in relief. He showed
invention and variety in the composition of scenes, making them
rich and well grouped; and he rendered easy the process of making
such pictures as are put together out of pieces of glass, which was
held to be very difficult, as indeed it is for one who has not his
skill and dexterity. He designed the pictures for his windows with
such good method and order, that the mountings of lead and iron,
which cross them in certain places, were so well fitted into the
joinings of the figures and the folds of the draperies, that they
cannot be seen--nay, they gave the whole such grace, that the brush
could not have done more--and thus he was able to make a virtue of
necessity.
Guglielmo used only two kinds of colour for the shading of such
glass as he proposed to subject to the action of fire; one was scale
of iron, and the other scale of copper. That of iron, which is dark,
served to shade draperies, hair, and buildings; and the other, that
of copper, which produces a tawny tint, served for flesh colours. He
also made much use of a hard stone that comes from Flanders and
France, called at the present day hematite, which is red in colour
and is much employed for burnishing gold. This, having first been
pounded in a bronze mortar, and then ground with an iron brazing
instrument on a plate of copper or yellow brass, and tempered with
gum, works divinely well on glass.
When Guglielmo first arrived in Rome, he was no great draughtsman,
although he was well practised in every other respect. But having
recognized the need of this, he applied himself to the study of
drawing, in spite of his being well advanced in years; and thus
little by little he achieved the improvement that is evident in the
windows that he afterwards made for the Palace of the said Cardinal
at Cortona, and for the other without the city, in a round window
that is in the aforesaid Pieve, over the façade, on the right hand
as one enters the church, wherein are the arms of Pope Leo X, and
likewise in two little windows that are in the Company of Gesù, in
one of which is a Christ, and in the other a S. Onofrio. These are
no little different from his early works, and much better.
Now while Guglielmo, as has been related, was living in Cortona,
there died at Arezzo one Fabiano di Stagio Sassoli, an Aretine, who
had been a very good master of the making of large windows.
Thereupon the Wardens of Works for the Vescovado gave the commission
for three windows in the principal chapel, each twenty braccia in
height, to Stagio, the son of the said Fabiano, and to the painter
Domenico Pecori; but when these were finished and fixed in their
places, they gave no great satisfaction to the Aretines, although
they were passing good and rather worthy of praise than otherwise.
It happened at this time that Messer Lodovico Belichini, an
excellent physician, and one of the first men in the government of
the city of Arezzo, went to Cortona to cure the mother of the
aforesaid Cardinal; and there he became well acquainted with our
Guglielmo, with whom, when he had time, he was very willing to
converse. And Guglielmo, who was then called the Prior, from his
having received about that time the benefice of a priory, likewise
conceived an affection for that physician, who asked him one day
whether, with the good will of the Cardinal, he would go to Arezzo
to execute some windows; at which Guglielmo promised that he would,
and with the permission and good will of the Cardinal he made his
way to that city. Now Stagio, of whom we have spoken above, having
parted from the company of Domenico, received Guglielmo into his
house; and the latter, for his first work, executed for a window of
the Chapel of S. Lucia, belonging to the Albergotti, in the
Vescovado of Arezzo, that Saint and a S. Sylvester, in so good a
manner that the work may truly be said to be made with living
figures, and not of coloured and transparent glass, or at least to
be a picture worthy of praise and marvellous. For besides the
mastery shown in the flesh-colours, the glasses are flashed; that
is, in some places the first skin has been removed, and the glass
then coloured with another tint; by which is meant, for example, the
placing of yellow over red flashed glass, or the application of
white and green over blue; which is a difficult and even miraculous
thing in this craft. The first or true colour, then, such as red,
blue, or green, covers the whole of one side; and the other part,
which is as thick as the blade of a knife, or a little more, is
white. Many, being afraid that they might break the glasses, on
account of their lack of skill in handling them, do not employ a
pointed iron for removing that layer, but in place of this, for
greater safety, set about grinding the glasses with a copper wheel
fixed on the end of an iron instrument; and thus, little by little,
by the use of emery, they contrive to leave only a layer of white
glass, which turns out very clear. Then, if a yellow colour has to
be applied to the piece of glass thus left white, at the moment when
it is to be placed into the furnace for firing, it is painted by
means of a brush with calcined silver, which is a colour similar to
bole, but somewhat thick; and in the fire this melts over the glass,
fuses, and takes a firm hold, penetrating into the glass and making
a very beautiful yellow. These methods of working no one used
better, or with more ingenuity and art, than Prior Guglielmo; and it
is in these things that the difficulty consists, for painting the
glass with oil-colours or in any other manner is little or nothing,
and that it should be diaphanous or transparent is not a matter of
much importance, whereas firing it in the furnace and making it such
that it will withstand the action of water and remain fresh for
ever, is a difficult work and well worthy of praise. Wherefore this
excellent master deserves the highest praise, since there is not a
man of his profession who has done as much, whether in design, or
invention, or colouring, or general excellence.
He then made the great round-window of the same church, containing
the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and likewise the Baptism of Christ
by S. John, wherein he represented Christ in the Jordan, awaiting S.
John, who has taken a cup of water in order to baptize Him, while a
nude old man is taking off his shoes, and some angels are preparing
Christ's raiment, and on high is the Father, sending down the Holy
Spirit upon His Son. This window is over the baptismal font of that
Duomo, for which he also executed the window containing the
Resurrection of Lazarus on the fourth day after death; wherein it
seems impossible that he could have included in so small a space
such a number of figures, in which may be recognized the terror and
amazement of the people, with the stench from the body of Lazarus,
whose resurrection causes his two sisters to rejoice amid their
tears. In this work are innumerable colours, flashed one over the
other in the glass, and every least thing truly appears most natural
in its own kind.
And whoever wishes to learn how much the hand of the Prior was able
to effect in this art, should study the window of S. Matthew over
the Chapel of that Apostle, and observe the marvellous invention of
that scene, wherein he can see a living figure of Christ calling
Matthew from his tables, while Matthew, following Him and stretching
out his arms to receive Him, abandons the riches and treasures that
he has acquired. And at the same time an Apostle may be seen in a
very spirited attitude, awaking another who has fallen asleep on
some steps; and in like manner there may also be perceived a S.
Peter speaking with S. John, both being so beautiful that they seem
truly divine. In this same window are temples in perspective,
staircases, and figures so well grouped, and landscapes so natural,
that one would never think it was glass, but rather a thing rained
down from Heaven for the consolation of mankind. In the same place
he made the window of S. Anthony and that of S. Nicholas, both most
beautiful, with two others, one containing the scene of Christ
driving the traders from the Temple, and the other that of the woman
taken in adultery; all these works being held to be truly excellent
and marvellous.
So fully were the labours and abilities of the Prior recognized by
the Aretines, what with praises, favours, and rewards, and so
satisfied and contented was he by this result, that he resolved to
adopt that city as his home, and to change himself from a Frenchman
into an Aretine. Afterwards, reflecting in his own mind that the art
of glass-painting, on account of the destruction that takes place
every moment in such works, was no lasting one, there came to him a
desire to devote himself to painting, and he therefore undertook to
execute for the Wardens of Works of the Vescovado in that city three
very large vaults in fresco, thinking thus to leave a memorial of
himself behind him. The Aretines, in return for this, presented to
him a farm that belonged to the Confraternity of S. Maria della
Misericordia, near their city, with some excellent houses, for his
enjoyment during his lifetime. And they ordained that when the work
was finished, its value should be estimated by some distinguished
craftsman, and that the Wardens should make this good to him in
full. Whereupon he made up his mind to show his worth in this
undertaking, and he made his figures very large on account of the
height, after the manner of the works in Michelagnolo's chapel. And
so mightily did his wish to become excellent in such an art avail in
him, that although he was fifty years of age, he improved little by
little in such a manner, that he showed that his knowledge and
comprehension of the beautiful were not less than his delight in
imitating the good in the execution of his work. He went on to
represent the earlier events of the New Testament, even as in the
three large works he had depicted the beginning of the Old. For this
reason, therefore, I am inclined to believe that any man of genius
who has the desire to attain to perfection, is able, if he will but
take the pains, to make naught of the limits of any science. At the
beginning of those works, indeed, he was alarmed by their size, and
because he had never executed any before; which was the reason that
he sent to Rome for Maestro Giovanni, a French miniaturist, who,
coming to Arezzo, painted over S. Antonio an arch with a Christ in
fresco, and for that Company the banner that is carried in
processions, which he executed with great diligence, having received
the commission for them from the Prior.
At the same time Guglielmo made the round window for the façade of
the Church of S. Francesco, a great work, in which he represented
the Pope in Consistory, with the Conclave of Cardinals, and S.
Francis going to Rome for the confirmation of his Rule and bearing
the roses of January. In this work he proved what a master of
composition he was, so that it may be said with truth that he was
born for that profession; nor may any craftsman ever think to equal
him in beauty, in abundance of figures, or in grace. There are
innumerable windows executed by him throughout that city, all most
beautiful, such as the great round window in the Madonna delle
Lacrime, containing the Assumption of Our Lady and the Apostles, and
a very beautiful window with an Annunciation; a round window with
the Marriage of the Virgin, and another containing a S. Jerome
executed for the Spadari, and likewise three other windows below, in
various parts of the church; with a most beautiful round window with
the Nativity of Christ in the Church of S. Girolamo, and another in
S. Rocco. He sent some, also, to various places, such as Castiglione
del Lago, and one to Florence for Lodovico Capponi, to be set up in
S. Felicita, where there is the panel by Jacopo da Pontormo, a most
excellent painter, and the chapel adorned by him with mural
paintings in oils and in fresco and with panel-pictures; which
window came into the hands of the Frati Ingesuati in Florence, who
worked at that craft, and they took it all to pieces in order to
learn how it was made, removing many pieces as specimens and
replacing them with new ones, so that in the end they made quite a
different window.
He also conceived the wish to paint in oils, and for the Chapel of
the Conception in S. Francesco at Arezzo he executed a panel-picture
wherein are some vestments very well painted, and many heads most
lifelike, and so beautiful that he was honoured thereby ever
afterwards, seeing that this was the first work that he had ever
done in oils.
The Prior was a very honourable person, and delighted in agriculture
and in making alterations in buildings; wherefore, having bought a
most beautiful house, he made in it a vast number of improvements.
As a man of religion, he was always most upright in his ways; and
the remorse of conscience, on account of his departure from his
convent, kept him sorely afflicted. For which reason he made a very
beautiful window for the Chapel of the High-altar in S. Domenico, a
convent of his Order at Arezzo; wherein he depicted a vine that
issues from the body of S. Dominic and embraces a great number of
sanctified friars, who constitute the tree of the Order; and at the
highest point is Our Lady, with Christ, who is marrying S. Catherine
of Siena--a work much extolled and of great mastery, for which he
would accept no payment, believing himself to be much indebted to
that Order. He sent a very beautiful window to S. Lorenzo in
Perugia, and an endless number of others to many places round
Arezzo.
And because he took much pleasure in matters of architecture, he
made for the citizens of that country a number of designs of
buildings and adornments for their city, such as the two doors of S.
Rocco in stone, and the ornament of grey-stone that was added to the
panel-picture of Maestro Luca in S. Girolamo; and he designed an
ornament in the Abbey of Cipriano d' Anghiari, and another for the
Company of the Trinità in the Chapel of the Crocifisso, and a very
rich lavatory for the sacristy; which were all executed with great
perfection by the stone-cutter Santi.
Finally, ever delighting in labour, and continually working both
winter and summer at his mural painting, which breaks down the
healthiest of men, he became so afflicted by the damp and so
swollen with dropsy, that his physicians had to tap him, and in a
few days he rendered up his soul to Him who had given it. First,
like a good Christian, he partook of the Sacraments of the Church,
and made his will. Then, having a particular devotion for the
Hermits of Camaldoli, who have their seat on the summit of the
Apennines, twenty miles distant from Arezzo, he bequeathed to them
his property and his body, and to Pastorino da Siena, his assistant,
who had been with him many years, he left his glasses, his
working-instruments, and his designs, of which there is one in our
book, a scene of the Submersion of Pharaoh in the Red Sea.
This Pastorino afterwards applied himself to many other fields of
art, and also to glass windows, although the works that he produced
in that craft were but few. Guglielmo was much imitated, also, by
one Maso Porro of Cortona, who was more able in firing and putting
together the glass than in painting it. One of the pupils of
Guglielmo was Battista Borro of Arezzo, who continues to imitate him
greatly in the making of windows; and he also taught the first
rudiments to Benedetto Spadari and to Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo.
The Prior lived sixty-two years, and died in the year 1537. He
deserves infinite praise, in that by him there was brought into
Tuscany the art of working in glass with the greatest mastery and
delicacy that could be desired. Wherefore, since he conferred such
great benefits upon us, we also will pay him honour, exalting him
continually with loving and unceasing praise both for his life and
for his works.
SIMONE
LIFE OF SIMONE, CALLED IL CRONACA
[_SIMONE DEL POLLAIUOLO_]
ARCHITECT OF FLORENCE
Many intellects are lost that would make rare and worthy works, if,
on coming into the world, they were to hit upon persons able and
willing to set them to work on those labours for which they are
fitted. But it often happens that he who has the means is neither
capable nor willing; and if, indeed, there chances to be one willing
to erect some worthy building, he often takes no manner of care to
seek out an architect of real merit or of any loftiness of spirit.
Nay, he puts his honour and glory into the keeping of certain
thievish creatures, who generally disgrace the name and fame of such
memorials; and in order to thrust forward into greatness those who
depend entirely upon him (so great is the power of ambition), he
often rejects the good designs that are offered to him, and puts
into execution the very worst; wherefore his own fame is left
besmirched by the clumsiness of the work, since it is considered by
all men of judgment that the craftsman and the patron who employs
him, in that they are conjoined in their works, are of one and the
same mind. And on the other hand, how many Princes of little
understanding have there been, who, through having chanced upon
persons of excellence and judgment, have obtained after death no
less fame from the memory of their buildings than they enjoyed when
alive from their sovereignty over their people.