Produced by Mark C. Orton and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO
VASARI:
VOLUME III. FILARETE AND SIMONE TO MANTEGNA 1912
NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES
[Illustration: 1511-1574]
PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LIMITED 7 GRAFTON
ST. LONDON, W. 1912-14
CONTENTS OF VOLUME III
PAGE
ANTONIO FILARETE AND SIMONE 1
GIULIANO DA MAIANO 9
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA [PIERO BORGHESE] 15
FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE [FRA ANGELICO] 25
LEON BATISTA ALBERTI 41
LAZZARO VASARI 49
ANTONELLO DA MESSINA 57
ALESSO BALDOVINETTI 65
VELLANO DA PADOVA 71
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI 77
PAOLO ROMANO, MAESTRO MINO [MINO DEL REGNO _OR_ MINO DEL
REAME], AND CHIMENTI CAMICIA 89
ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO OF MUGELLO [ANDREA DEGL' IMPICCATI]
AND DOMENICO VINIZIANO [DOMENICO DA VENEZIA] 95
GENTILE DA FABRIANO AND VITTORE PISANELLO OF VERONA 107
PESELLO AND FRANCESCO PESELLI [PESELLINO _OR_ FRANCESCO DI
PESELLO] 115
BENOZZO GOZZOLI 119
FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO AND LORENZO VECCHIETTO 127
GALASSO FERRARESE [GALASSO GALASSI] 133
ANTONIO ROSSELLINO [ROSSELLINO DAL PROCONSOLO] AND
BERNARDO HIS BROTHER 137
DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO 145
MINO DA FIESOLE [MINO DI GIOVANNI] 151
LORENZO COSTA 159
ERCOLE FERRARESE [ERCOLE DA FERRARA] 165
JACOPO, GIOVANNI, AND GENTILE BELLINI 171
COSIMO ROSSELLI 185
CECCA 191
DON BARTOLOMMEO DELLA GATTA, ABBOT OF S. CLEMENTE 201
GHERARDO 211
DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO 217
ANTONIO AND PIERO POLLAIUOLO 235
SANDRO BOTTICELLI [ALESSANDRO FILIPEPI _OR_ SANDRO DI
BOTTICELLO] 245
BENEDETTO DA MAIANO 255
ANDREA VERROCCHIO 265
ANDREA MANTEGNA 277
INDEX OF NAMES 287
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME III
PLATES IN COLOUR
FACING PAGE
VINCENZIO DI ZOPPA (FOPPA)
Madonna and Child
Settignano: Berenson Collection 6
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and Battista Sforza,
his Wife
Florence: Uffizi, 1300 18
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
The Baptism in Jordan
London: N. G., 665 22
FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE (FRA ANGELICO)
The Annunciation
Cortona: Gesu Gallery 34
ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
Portrait of a Young Man
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 18 62
ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
The Crucifixion
London: N. G., 1166 64
ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
Madonna and Child in a Landscape
Paris: Louvre, 1300B 68
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
The Annunciation
London: N. G., 666 80
ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO
Dante
Florence: S. Apollonia 102
GENTILE DA FABRIANO
Detail from The Adoration of the Magi: Madonna and Child,
with Three Kings
Florence: Accademia, 165 110
VITTORE PISANELLO
The Vision of S. Eustace
London: N. G., 1436 112
FRANCESCO PESELLI (PESELLINO)
Madonna Enthroned, with Saints and Angels
Empoli: Gallery 118
BENOZZO GOZZOLI
Madonna and Child
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 60B 122
FRANCESCO DI GIORGIO
S. Dorothy
London: N. G., 1682 128
JACOPO BELLINI
Madonna and Child
Florence: Uffizi, 1562 174
GIOVANNI BELLINI
The Doge Leonardo Loredano
London: N. G., 189 174
GIOVANNI BELLINI
Fortuna
Venice: Accademia, 595 178
GIOVANNI BELLINI
The Dead Christ
Milan: Poldi Pezzoli, 624 178
GENTILE BELLINI
S. Dominic
London: N. G., 1440 182
DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO
The Vision of S. Fina
San Gimignano 224
ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO
David Victor
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 73A 240
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
Pallas and the Centaur
Florence: Pitti Palace 248
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
Giovanna Tornabuoni and the Graces
Paris: Louvre, 1297 248
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
Madonna of the Pomegranate
Florence: Uffizi, 1289 252
ANDREA MANTEGNA
Madonna of the Rocks
Florence: Uffizi, 1025 280
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
FACING PAGE
ANTONIO FILARETE
Bronze Doors
Rome: S. Peter's 4
SIMONE
Tomb of Pope Martin V
Rome: S. Giovanni in Laterano 8
BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
S. Sebastian
Florence: Oratorio della Misericordia 14
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
The Resurrection
Borgo S. Sepolcro 20
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
The Vision of Constantine
Arezzo: S. Francesco 24
FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE (FRA ANGELICO)
The Transfiguration
Florence: S. Marco 30
FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE (FRA ANGELICO)
S. Stephen Preaching
Rome: The Vatican, Chapel of Nicholas V 32
LEON BATISTA ALBERTI
Facade of S. Andrea
Mantua 46
ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
The Annunciation
Florence: Uffizi, 56 66
GRAFFIONE
The Trinity
Florence: S. Spirito 70
VELLANO DA PADOVA
Jonah Cast into the Sea
Padua: S. Antonio 74
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
The Virgin Adoring
Florence: Accademia, 79 82
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
Madonna and Child
Florence: Pitti, 343 86
ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO
The Last Supper
Florence: S. Apollonia 98
DOMENICO VINIZIANO
Madonna and Child
London: N. G., 1215 104
VITTORE PISANELLO
Medals: N. Piccinino and Sigismondo Malatesta
London: British Museum 114
BENOZZO GOZZOLI
Detail: Procession of the Magi
Florence: Palazzo Riccardi 120
BENOZZO GOZZOLI
The Death of S. Augustine
San Gimignano: S. Agostino 124
LORENZO VECCHIETTO
The Risen Christ
Siena: S. Maria della Scala 130
COSME (COSIMO TURA)
The Madonna Enthroned
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 86 136
ANTONIO ROSSELLINO
Tomb of Cardinal Jacopo of Portugal
Florence: S. Miniato 142
BERNARDO ROSSELLINO
Tomb of Leonardo Bruni
Florence: S. Croce 144
DESIDERIO DA SETTIGNANO
Tomb of Carlo Marsuppini
Florence: S. Croce 148
MINO DA FIESOLE
Tomb of Margrave Hugo
Florence: La Badia 154
LORENZO COSTA
The Coronation of the Virgin
Bologna: S. Giovanni in Monte 162
ERCOLE FERRARESE
The Israelites Gathering Manna
London: N. G., 1217 168
GENTILE BELLINI
The Miracle of the True Cross
Venice: Accademia, 568 176
GIOVANNI BELLINI
Madonna and Saints
Venice: S. Francesco della Vigna 180
COSIMO ROSSELLI
Detail: Christ Healing the Leper
Rome: Sistine Chapel 190
DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO
The Death of S. Francis
Florence: S. Trinita 222
DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO
The Birth of S. John the Baptist
Florence: S. Maria Novella 226
BASTIANO MAINARDI
The Madonna giving the Girdle to S. Thomas
Florence: S. Croce 232
PIERO POLLAIUOLO
SS. Eustace, James, and Vincent
Florence: Uffizi, 1301 238
ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO
The Martyrdom of S. Sebastian
London: N. G., 292 242
ANTONIO POLLAIUOLO
Tomb of Pope Sixtus IV
Rome: S. Peter's 242
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
The Adoration of the Magi
Florence: Uffizi, 1286 250
SANDRO BOTTICELLI
The Calumny of Apelles
Florence: Uffizi, 1182 254
BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
Pulpit
Florence: S. Croce 258
ANDREA VERROCCHIO
David
Florence: Bargello 266
ANDREA VERROCCHIO
Detail: Corner and Foot of the Medici Sarcophagus
Florence: S. Lorenzo 270
ANDREA VERROCCHIO
Statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni
Venice: Campo SS. Giovanni e Paolo 272
ANDREA MANTEGNA
The Martyrdom of S. James
Padua: Eremitani 278
ANDREA MANTEGNA
Madonna and Angels
Milan: Brera, 198 282
ANDREA MANTEGNA
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Dublin: N. G. 286
ANTONIO FILARETE AND SIMONE
LIVES OF ANTONIO FILARETE AND SIMONE
SCULPTORS OF FLORENCE
If Pope Eugenius IV, when he resolved to make the bronze door for S.
Pietro in Rome, had used diligence in seeking for men of excellence to
execute that work (and he would easily have been able to find them at
that time, when Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, Donatello, and other rare
craftsmen were alive), it would not have been carried out in the
deplorable manner which it reveals to us in our own day. But perchance
the same thing happened to him that is very often wont to happen to the
greater number of Princes, who either have no understanding of such
works or take very little delight in them. Now, if they were to consider
how important it is to show preference to men of excellence in public
works, by reason of the fame that comes from these, it is certain that
neither they nor their ministers would be so negligent; for the reason
that he who encumbers himself with poor and inept craftsmen ensures but
a short life to his works or his fame, not to mention that injury is
done to the public interest and to the age in which he was born, for it
is firmly believed by all who come after, that, if there had been better
masters to be found in that age, the Prince would have availed himself
rather of them than of the inept and vulgar.
Now, after being created Pontiff in the year 1431, Pope Eugenius IV,
hearing that the Florentines were having the doors of S. Giovanni made
by Lorenzo Ghiberti, conceived a wish to try to make one of the doors of
S. Pietro in like manner in bronze. But since he had no knowledge of
such works, he entrusted the matter to his ministers, with whom Antonio
Filarete, then a youth, and Simone, the brother of Donatello, both
sculptors of Florence, had so much interest, that the work was allotted
to them. Putting their hands to this, therefore, they toiled for twelve
years to complete it; and although Pope Eugenius fled from Rome and was
much harassed by reason of the Councils, yet those who had charge of S.
Pietro contrived to prevent that work from being abandoned. Filarete,
then, wrought that door in low-relief, making a simple division, with
two upright figures in each part--namely, the Saviour and the Madonna
above, and S. Peter and S. Paul below; and at the foot of S. Peter is
that Pope on his knees, portrayed from life. Beneath each figure,
likewise, there is a little scene from the life of the Saint that is
above; below S. Peter, his crucifixion, and below S. Paul, his
beheading; and beneath the Saviour and the Madonna, also, some events
from their lives. At the foot of the inner side of the said door, to
amuse himself, Antonio made a little scene in bronze, wherein he
portrayed himself and Simone and their disciples going with an ass laden
with good cheer to take their pleasure in a vineyard. But since they
were not always at work on the said door during the whole of those
twelve years, they also made in S. Pietro some marble tombs for Popes
and Cardinals, which were thrown to the ground in the building of the
new church.
[Illustration: BRONZE DOORS
(_After =Antonio Filarete=. Rome: S. Peter's_)
_Alinari_]
After these works, Antonio was summoned to Milan by Duke Francesco
Sforza, then Gonfalonier of Holy Church (who had seen his works in
Rome), to the end that there might be made with his design, as it
afterwards was, the Albergo de' poveri di Dio,[1] which is a hospital
that serves for sick men and women, and for the innocent children born
out of wedlock. The division for the men in this place is in the form of
a cross, and extends 160 braccia in all directions; and that of the
women is the same. The width is 16 braccia, and within the four square
sides that enclose the crosses of each of these two divisions there are
four courtyards surrounded by porticoes, loggie, and rooms for the use
of the director, the officials, the servants, and the nurses of the
hospital, all very commodious and useful. On one side there is a channel
with water continually running for the service of the hospital and for
grinding corn, with no small benefit and convenience for that place, as
all may imagine. Between the two divisions of the hospital there is a
cloister, 80 braccia in extent in one direction and 160 in the other,
in the middle of which is the church, so contrived as to serve for both
divisions. In a word, this place is so well built and designed, that I
do not believe that there is its like in Europe. According to the
account of Filarete himself, the first stone of this building was laid
with a solemn procession of the whole of the clergy of Milan, in the
presence of Duke Francesco Sforza, the Lady Bianca Maria, and all their
children, with the Marquis of Mantua, the Ambassador of King Alfonso of
Arragon, and many other lords. On the first stone which was laid in the
foundations, as well as on the medals, were these words:
FRANCISCUS SFORTIA DUX IV, QUI AMISSUM PER PRAECESSORUM OBITUM
URBIS IMPERIUM RECUPERAVIT, HOC MUNUS CHRISTI PAUPERIBUS DEDIT
FUNDAVITQUE MCCCCLVII, DIE XII APRIL.
These scenes were afterwards depicted on the portico by Maestro
Vincenzio di Zoppa, a Lombard, since no better master could be found in
those parts.
A work by the same Antonio, likewise, was the principal church of
Bergamo, which he built with no less diligence and judgment than he had
shown in the above-named hospital. And because he also took delight in
writing, the while that these works of his were in progress he wrote a
book divided into three parts. In the first he treats of the
measurements of all edifices, and of all that is necessary for the
purpose of building. In the second he speaks of the methods of building,
and of the manner wherein a most beautiful and most convenient city
might be laid out. In the third he invents new forms of buildings,
mingling the ancient with the modern. The whole work is divided into
twenty-four books, illustrated throughout by drawings from his own hand;
but, although there is something of the good to be found in it, it is
nevertheless mostly ridiculous, and perhaps the most stupid book that
was ever written. It was dedicated by him in the year 1464 to the
Magnificent Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, and it is now in the collection
of the most Illustrious Lord Duke Cosimo. And in truth, since he put
himself to so great pains, the book might be commended in some sort, if
he had at least made some records of the masters of his day and of
their works; but as there are few to be found therein, and those few are
scattered throughout the book without method and in the least suitable
places, he has toiled only to beggar himself, as the saying goes, and to
be thought a man of little judgment for meddling with something that he
did not understand.
But I have said quite enough about Filarete, and it is now time to turn
to Simone, the brother of Donato. This man, after the work of the door,
made the bronze tomb of Pope Martin. He likewise made some castings that
were sent to France, of many of which the fate is not known. For the
Church of the Ermini, in the Canto alla Macine in Florence, he wrought a
life-size Crucifix for carrying in processions, and to render it the
lighter he made it of cork. In S. Felicita he made a terra-cotta figure
of S. Mary Magdalene in Penitence, three braccia and a half in height
and beautifully proportioned, and revealing the muscles in such a manner
as to show that he had a very good knowledge of anatomy. He also wrought
a marble tombstone for the Company of the Nunziata in the Church of the
Servi, inlaying it with a figure in grey and white marble in the manner
of a painting (which was much extolled), like the work already mentioned
as having been done by the Sienese Duccio in the Duomo of Siena. At
Prato he made the bronze grille for the Chapel of the Girdle. At Forli,
over the door of the Canon's house, he wrought a Madonna with two angels
in low-relief; and he adorned the Chapel of the Trinita in S. Francesco
with work in half-relief for Messer Giovanni da Riolo. In the Church of
S. Francesco at Rimini, for Sigismondo Malatesti, he built the Chapel of
S. Sigismondo, wherein there are many elephants, the device of that
lord, carved in marble. To Messer Bartolommeo Scamisci, Canon of the
Pieve of Arezzo, he sent a Madonna with the Child in her arms, made of
terra-cotta, with certain angels in half-relief, very well executed;
which Madonna is now in the said Pieve, set up against a column. For the
baptismal font of the Vescovado of Arezzo, likewise, he wrought, in some
scenes in low-relief, a Christ being baptized by S. John. In the Church
of the Nunziata in Florence he made a marble tomb for Messer Orlando de'
Medici. Finally, at the age of fifty-five, he rendered up his spirit
to God who had given it to him. Nor was it long before Filarete, having
returned to Rome, died at the age of sixty-nine, and was buried in the
Minerva, where he had caused Giovanni Foccora, a painter of no small
repute, to make a portrait of Pope Eugenius, while he was staying in
Rome in the service of that Pontiff. The portrait of Antonio, by his own
hand, is at the beginning of his book, where he gives instructions for
building. His disciples were Varrone and Niccolo, both Florentines, who
made the marble statue for Pope Pius II near Pontemolle, at the time
when he brought the head of S. Andrew to Rome. By order of the same Pope
they restored Tigoli almost from the foundations; and in S. Pietro they
made the ornament of marble that is above the columns of the chapel
wherein the said head of S. Andrew is preserved. Near that chapel is the
tomb of the said Pope Pius, made by Pasquino da Montepulciano, a
disciple of Filarete, and Bernardo Ciuffagni. This Bernardo wrought a
tomb of marble for Gismondo Malatesti in S. Francesco at Rimini, making
his portrait there from nature; and he also executed some works, so it
is said, in Lucca and in Mantua.
[Illustration: VINCENZIO DI ZOPPA (FOPPA): MADONNA AND CHILD
(_Settignano: Berenson Collection. Panel_)]
[Illustration: TOMB OF POPE MARTIN V
(_After the bronze relief by =Simone=. Rome: S. Giovanni in Laterano_)
_Anderson_]
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Literally, Hospice for God's poor.
GIULIANO DA MAIANO
LIFE OF GIULIANO DA MAIANO
SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT
No small error do those fathers of families make who do not allow the
minds of their children to run the natural course in their childhood,
and do not suffer them to follow the calling that is most in accordance
with their taste; for to try to turn them to something for which they
have no inclination is manifestly to prevent them from ever being
excellent in anything, because we almost always find that those who
labour at something that they do not like make little progress in any
occupation whatsoever. On the other hand, those who follow the instinct
of nature generally become excellent and famous in the arts that they
pursue; as was seen clearly in Giuliano da Maiano. The father of this
man, after living a long time on the hill of Fiesole, in the part called
Maiano, working at the trade of stone-cutter, finally betook himself to
Florence, where he opened a shop for the sale of dressed stone, keeping
it furnished with the sort of work that is apt very often to be called
for without warning by those who are erecting some building. Living in
Florence, then, there was born to him a son, Giuliano, whom his father,
growing convinced in the course of time that he had a good intelligence,
proposed to make into a notary, for it appeared to him that his own
occupation of stone-cutting was too laborious and too unprofitable an
exercise. But this did not come to pass, because, although Giuliano went
to a grammar-school for a little, his thoughts were never there, and in
consequence he made no progress; nay, he played truant very often, and
showed that he had his mind wholly set on sculpture, although at first
he applied himself to the calling of joiner and also gave attention to
drawing.
It is said that in company with Giusto and Minore, masters of
tarsia,[2] he wrought the seats of the Sacristy of the Nunziata, and
likewise those of the choir that is beside the chapel, and many things
in the Badia of Florence and in S. Marco; and that, having acquired a
name through these works, he was summoned to Pisa, in the Duomo of which
he wrought the seat that is beside the high-altar, in which the priest,
the deacon, and the sub-deacon sit when Mass is being sung; making in
tarsia on the back of this seat, with tinted and shaded woods, the three
prophets that are seen therein. In this work he availed himself of Guido
del Servellino and Maestro Domenico di Mariotto, joiners of Pisa, to
whom he taught the art so well that they afterwards wrought the greater
part of that choir both with carvings and with tarsia-work; which choir
has been finished in our own day, with a manner no little better, by
Batista del Cervelliera of Pisa, a man truly ingenious and fanciful.
But to return to Giuliano; he made the presses of the Sacristy of S.
Maria del Fiore, which were held at that time to be admirable examples
of tarsia and inlaid-work. Now, while Giuliano thus continued to devote
himself to tarsia, to sculpture, and to architecture, Filippo di Ser
Brunellesco died; whereupon, being chosen by the Wardens of Works to
succeed him, he made the borders, incrusted with black and white marble,
which are round the circular windows below the vault of the cupola; and
at the corners he placed the marble pilasters on which Baccio d'Agnolo
afterwards laid the architrave, frieze, and cornice, as will be told
below. It is true that, as it appears from some designs by his hand that
are in our book, he wished to make another arrangement of frieze,
cornice, and gallery, with pediments on each of the eight sides of the
cupola; but he had not time to put this into execution, for, being
carried away by an excess of work from one day to another, he died.
Before this happened, however, he went to Naples and designed the
architecture of the magnificent Palace at Poggio Reale for King Alfonso,
with the beautiful fountains and conduits that are in the courtyard. In
the city, likewise, he made designs for many fountains, some for the
houses of noblemen and some for public squares, with beautiful and
fanciful inventions; and he had the said Palace of Poggio Reale all
wrought with paintings by Piero del Donzello and his brother Polito.
Working in sculpture, likewise, for the said King Alfonso, then Duke of
Calabria, he wrought scenes in low-relief over a door (both within and
without) in the great hall of the Castle of Naples; and he made a marble
gate for the castle after the Corinthian Order, with an infinite number
of figures, giving to that work the form of a triumphal arch, on which
stories from the life of that King and some of his victories are carved
in marble. Giuliano also wrought the decorations of the Porta Capovana,
making therein many varied and beautiful trophies; wherefore he well
deserved that great love should be felt for him by that King, who,
rewarding him liberally for his labours, enriched his descendants.
Giuliano had taught to his nephew Benedetto the arts of tarsia and
architecture, and something about working in marble; and Benedetto was
living in Florence, devoting himself to working at tarsia, because this
brought him greater gains than the other arts did. Now Giuliano was
summoned to Rome by Messer Antonio Rosello of Arezzo, Secretary to Pope
Paul II, to enter the service of that Pontiff. Having gone thither, he
designed the loggie of travertine in the first court of the Palace of S.
Pietro, with three ranges of columns, of which the first is on the
lowest floor, where there are now the Signet Office and other offices;
the second is above this, where the Datary and other prelates live; and
the third and last is where those rooms are that look out on the court
of S. Pietro, which he adorned with gilded ceilings and other ornaments.
From his design, likewise, were made the marble loggie from which the
Pope gives his benediction--a very great work, as may still be seen
to-day. But the most stupendous and marvellous work that he made was the
palace that he built for that Pope, together with the Church of S. Marco
in Rome, for which there was used an infinite quantity of travertine
blocks, said to have been excavated from certain vineyards near the Arch
of Constantine, where they served as buttresses for the foundations of
that part of the Colosseum which is now in ruins, perchance because of
the weakening of that edifice.
Giuliano was sent by the same Pontiff to the Madonna of Loreto, where
he rebuilt the foundations and greatly enlarged the body of the church,
which had formerly been small and built over piers in rustic-work. He
did not go higher than the string-course that was there already; but he
summoned his nephew Benedetto to that place, and he, as will be told,
afterwards raised the cupola. Being then forced to return to Naples in
order to finish the works that he had begun, Giuliano received a
commission from King Alfonso for a gate near the castle, which was to
include more than eighty figures, which Benedetto had to execute in
Florence; but the whole remained unfinished by reason of the death of
that King. There are still some relics of these figures in the
Misericordia in Florence, and there were others in our own day in the
Canto alla Macine; but I do not know where these are now to be found.
Before the death of the King, however, Giuliano died in Naples at the
age of seventy, and was greatly honoured with rich obsequies; for the
King had fifty men clothed in mourning, who accompanied Giuliano to the
grave, and then he gave orders that a marble tomb should be made for
him.
The continuation of his work was left to Polito, who completed the
conduits for the waters of Poggio Reale. Benedetto, devoting himself
afterwards to sculpture, surpassed his uncle Giuliano in excellence, as
will be told; and in his youth he was the rival of a sculptor named
Modanino da Modena, who worked in terra-cotta, and who wrought for the
said Alfonso a Pieta with an infinite number of figures in the round,
made of terra-cotta and coloured, which were executed with very great
vivacity, and were placed by the King in the Church of Monte Oliveto, a
very highly honoured monastery in the city of Naples. In this work the
said King is portrayed on his knees, and he appears truly more than
alive; wherefore Modanino was remunerated by him with very great
rewards. But when the King died, as it has been said, Polito and
Benedetto returned to Florence; where, no long time after, Polito
followed Giuliano into eternity. The sculptures and pictures of these
men date about the year of our salvation 1447.
[Illustration: S. SEBASTIAN
(_After the marble by =Benedetto da Maiano=. Florence: Oratorio della
Misericordia_)
_Alinari_]
FOOTNOTE:
[2] Inlaying with various kinds of coloured wood.
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
LIFE OF PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA
[_PIERO BORGHESE_]
PAINTER OF BORGO A SAN SEPOLCRO
Truly unhappy are those who, labouring at their studies in order to
benefit others and to make their own name famous, are hindered by
infirmity and sometimes by death from carrying to perfection the works
that they have begun. And it happens very often that, leaving them all
but finished or in a fair way to completion, they are falsely claimed by
the presumption of those who seek to conceal their asses' skin under the
honourable spoils of the lion. And although time, who is called the
father of truth, sooner or later makes manifest the real state of
things, it is none the less true that for a certain space of time the
true craftsman is robbed of the honour that is due to his labours; as
happened to Piero della Francesca of Borgo a San Sepolcro. He, having
been held a rare master of the difficulties of drawing regular bodies,
as well as of arithmetic and geometry, was yet not able--being overtaken
in his old age by the infirmity of blindness, and finally by the close
of his life--to bring to light his noble labours and the many books
written by him, which are still preserved in the Borgo, his native
place. The very man who should have striven with all his might to
increase the glory and fame of Piero, from whom he had learnt all that
he knew, was impious and malignant enough to seek to blot out the name
of his teacher, and to usurp for himself the honour that was due to the
other, publishing under his own name, Fra Luca dal Borgo, all the
labours of that good old man, who, besides the sciences named above, was
excellent in painting.
Piero was born in Borgo a San Sepolcro, which is now a city, although it
was not one then; and he was called Della Francesca after the name of
his mother, because she had been left pregnant with him at the death of
her husband, his father, and because it was she who had brought him up
and assisted him to attain to the rank that his good-fortune held out to
him. Piero applied himself in his youth to mathematics, and although it
was settled when he was fifteen years of age that he was to be a
painter, he never abandoned this study; nay, he made marvellous progress
therein, as well as in painting. He was employed by Guidobaldo Feltro
the elder, Duke of Urbino, for whom he made many very beautiful pictures
with little figures, which have been for the most part ruined on the
many occasions when that state has been harassed by wars. Nevertheless,
there were preserved there some of his writings on geometry and
perspective, in which sciences he was not inferior to any man of his own
time, or perchance even to any man of any other time; as is demonstrated
by all his works, which are full of perspectives, and particularly by a
vase drawn in squares and sides, in such a manner that the base and the
mouth can be seen from the front, from behind, and from the sides; which
is certainly a marvellous thing, for he drew the smallest details
therein with great subtlety, and foreshortened the curves of all the
circles with much grace. Having thus acquired credit and fame at that
Court, he resolved to make himself known in other places; wherefore he
went to Pesaro and Ancona, whence, in the very thick of his work, he was
summoned by Duke Borso to Ferrara, where he painted many apartments in
his palace, which were afterwards destroyed by Duke Ercole the elder in
the renovation of the palace, insomuch that there is nothing by the hand
of Piero left in that city, save a chapel wrought in fresco in S.
Agostino; and even that has been injured by damp. Afterwards, being
summoned to Rome, he painted two scenes for Pope Nicholas V in the upper
rooms of his palace, in competition with Bramante da Milano; but these
also were thrown to the ground by Pope Julius II--to the end that
Raffaello da Urbino might paint there the Imprisonment of S. Peter and
the Miracle of the Corporale of Bolsena--together with certain others
that had been painted by Bramantino, an excellent painter in his day.
[Illustration: PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA: BATTISTA SFORZA, WIFE OF FEDERIGO
DA MONTEFELTRO
(_Florence: Uffizi, 1300. Panel_)]
Now, seeing that I cannot write the life of this man, nor particularize
his works, because they have been ruined, I will not grudge the
labour of making some record of him, for it seems an apt occasion. In
the said works that were thrown to the ground, so I have heard tell, he
had made some heads from nature, so beautiful and so well executed that
speech alone was wanting to give them life. Of these heads not a few
have come to light, because Raffaello da Urbino had them copied in order
that he might have the likenesses of the subjects, who were all people
of importance; for among them were Niccolo Fortebraccio, Charles VII,
King of France, Antonio Colonna, Prince of Salerno, Francesco
Carmignuola, Giovanni Vitellesco, Cardinal Bessarione, Francesco
Spinola, and Battista da Canneto. All these portraits were given to
Giovio by Giulio Romano, disciple and heir of Raffaello da Urbino, and
they were placed by Giovio in his museum at Como. Over the door of S.
Sepolcro in Milan I have seen a Dead Christ wrought in foreshortening by
the hand of the same man, in which, although the whole picture is not
more than one braccio in height, there is an effect of infinite length,
executed with facility and with judgment. By his hand, also, are some
apartments and loggie in the house of the Marchesino Ostanesia in the
same city, wherein there are many pictures wrought by him that show
mastery and very great power in the foreshortening of the figures. And
without the Porta Vercellina, near the Castle, in certain stables now
ruined and destroyed, he painted some grooms currying horses, among
which there was one so lifelike and so well wrought, that another horse,
thinking it a real one, lashed out at it repeatedly with its hooves.
[Illustration: PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA: FEDERIGO DA MONTEFELTRO, DUKE OF
URBINO
(_Florence: Uffizi, 1300. Panel_)]
But to return to Piero della Francesca; his work in Rome finished, he
returned to the Borgo, where his mother had just died; and on the inner
side of the central door of the Pieve he painted two saints in fresco,
which are held to be very beautiful. In the Convent of the Friars of S.
Augustine he painted the panel of the high-altar, which was a thing much
extolled; and he wrought in fresco a Madonna della Misericordia for a
company, or rather, as they call it, a confraternity; with a
Resurrection of Christ in the Palazzo de' Conservadori, which is held
the best of all the works that are in the said city, and the best that
he ever made. In company with Domenico da Vinezia, he painted the
beginning of a work on the vaulting of the Sacristy of S. Maria at
Loreto; but they left it unfinished from fear of plague, and it was
afterwards completed by Luca da Cortona,[3] a disciple of Piero, as will
be told in the proper place.
Going from Loreto to Arezzo, Piero painted for Luigi Bacci, a citizen of
Arezzo, the Chapel of the High-altar of S. Francesco, belonging to that
family, the vaulting of which had been already begun by Lorenzo di
Bicci. In this work there are Stories of the Cross, from that wherein
the sons of Adam are burying him and placing under his tongue the seed
of the tree from which there came the wood for the said Cross, down to
the Exaltation of the Cross itself performed by the Emperor Heraclius,
who, walking barefoot and carrying it on his shoulder, is entering with
it into Jerusalem. Here there are many beautiful conceptions and
attitudes worthy to be extolled; such as, for example, the garments of
the women of the Queen of Sheba, executed in a sweet and novel manner;
many most lifelike portraits from nature of ancient persons; a row of
Corinthian columns, divinely well proportioned; and a peasant who,
leaning with his hands on his spade, stands listening to the words of S.
Helena--while the three Crosses are being disinterred--with so great
attention, that it would not be possible to improve it. Very well
wrought, also, is the dead body that is restored to life at the touch of
the Cross, together with the joy of S. Helena and the marvelling of the
bystanders, who are kneeling in adoration. But above every other
consideration, whether of imagination or of art, is his painting of
Night, with an angel in foreshortening who is flying with his head
downwards, bringing the sign of victory to Constantine, who is sleeping
in a pavilion, guarded by a chamberlain and some men-at-arms who are
seen dimly through the darkness of the night; and with his own light the
angel illuminates the pavilion, the men-at-arms, and all the
surroundings. This is done with very great thought, for Piero gives us
to know in this darkness how important it is to copy things as they are
and to ever take them from the true model; which he did so well that he
enabled the moderns to attain, by following him, to that supreme
perfection wherein art is seen in our own time. In this same story he
represented most successfully in a battle fear, animosity, dexterity,
vehemence, and all the other emotions that can be imagined in men who
are fighting, and likewise all the incidents of battle, together with an
almost incredible carnage, what with the wounded, the fallen, and the
dead. In these Piero counterfeited in fresco the glittering of their
arms, for which he deserves no less praise than he does for the flight
and submersion of Maxentius painted on the other wall, wherein he made a
group of horses in foreshortening, so marvellously executed that they
can be truly called too beautiful and too excellent for those times. In
the same story he made a man, half nude and half clothed in the dress of
a Saracen, riding a lean horse, which reveals a very great mastery of
anatomy, a science little known in his age. For this work, therefore, he
well deserved to be richly rewarded by Luigi Bacci, whom he portrayed
there in the scene of the beheading of a King, together with Carlo and
others of his brothers and many Aretines who were then distinguished in
letters; and to be loved and revered ever afterwards, as he was, in that
city, which he had made so illustrious with his works.
[Illustration: THE RESURRECTION
(_After the fresco by =Piero della Francesca=. Borgo San Sepolchro_)
_Alinari_]
In the Vescovado of the same city, also, he made a S. Mary Magdalene in
fresco beside the door of the sacristy; and for the Company of the
Nunziata he painted the banner that is carried in processions. At the
head of a cloister at S. Maria delle Grazie, without that district, he
painted S. Donatus in his robes, seated in a chair drawn in perspective,
together with certain boys; and in a niche high up on a wall of S.
Bernardo, for the Monks of Monte Oliveto, he made a S. Vincent, which is
much esteemed by craftsmen. In a chapel at Sargiano, a seat of the Frati
Zoccolanti di S. Francesco, without Arezzo, he painted a very beautiful
Christ praying by night in the Garden.
In Perugia, also, he wrought many works that are still to be seen in
that city; as, for example, a panel in distemper in the Church of the
Nuns of S. Anthony of Padua, containing a Madonna with the Child in her
lap, S. Francis, S. Elizabeth, S. John the Baptist, and S. Anthony of
Padua. Above these is a most beautiful Annunciation, with an Angel that
seems truly to have come out of Heaven; and, what is more, a row of
columns diminishing in perspective, which is indeed beautiful. In the
predella there are scenes with little figures, representing S. Anthony
restoring a boy to life; S. Elizabeth saving a child that has fallen
into a well; and S. Francis receiving the Stigmata. In S. Ciriaco at
Ancona, on the altar of S. Giuseppe, he painted a most beautiful scene
of the Marriage of Our Lady.
Piero, as it has been said, was a very zealous student of art, and gave
no little attention to perspective; and he had a very good knowledge of
Euclid, insomuch that he understood all the best curves drawn in regular
bodies better than any other geometrician, and the clearest elucidations
of these matters that we have are from his hand. Now Maestro Luca dal
Borgo, a friar of S. Francis, who wrote about the regular geometrical
bodies, was his pupil; and when Piero, after having written many books,
grew old and finally died, the said Maestro Luca, claiming the
authorship of these books, had them printed as his own, for they had
fallen into his hands after the death of Piero.
Piero was much given to making models in clay, on which he spread wet
draperies with an infinity of folds, in order to make use of them for
drawing.
A disciple of Piero was Lorentino d'Angelo of Arezzo, who made many
pictures in Arezzo, imitating his manner, and completed those that
Piero, overtaken by death, left unfinished. Near the S. Donatus that
Piero wrought in the Madonna delle Grazie, Lorentino painted in fresco
some stories of S. Donatus, with very many works in many other places
both in that city and in the district, partly because he would never
stay idle, and partly to assist his family, which was then very poor. In
the said Church of the Grazie the same man painted a scene wherein Pope
Sixtus IV, between the Cardinal of Mantua and Cardinal Piccolomini (who
was afterwards Pope Pius III), is granting an indulgence to that place;
in which scene Lorentino portrayed from the life, on their knees,
Tommaso Marzi, Piero Traditi, Donato Rosselli, and Giuliano Nardi, all
citizens of Arezzo and Wardens of Works for that building. In the hall
of the Palazzo de' Priori, moreover, he portrayed from the life Cardinal
Galeotto da Pietramala, Bishop Guglielmino degli Ubertini, and Messer
Angelo Albergotti, Doctor of Laws; and he made many other works, which
are scattered throughout that city.
[Illustration: PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA: THE BAPTISM IN JORDAN
(_London: National Gallery, 665. Panel_)]
It is said that once, when the Carnival was close at hand, the children
of Lorentino kept beseeching him to kill a pig, as it is the custom to
do in that district; and that, since he had not the means to buy one,
they would say, "What will you do about buying a pig, father, if you
have no money?" To which Lorentino would answer, "Some Saint will help
us." But when he had said this many times and the season was passing by
without any pig appearing, they had lost hope, when at length there
arrived a peasant from the Pieve a Quarto, who wished to have a S.
Martin painted in fulfilment of a vow, but had no means of paying for
the picture save a pig, which was worth five lire. This man, coming to
Lorentino, told him that he wished to have the S. Martin painted, but
that he had no means of payment save the pig. Whereupon they came to an
agreement, and Lorentino painted him the Saint, while the peasant
brought him the pig; and so the Saint provided the pig for the poor
children of this painter.
Another disciple of Piero was Pietro da Castel della Pieve,[4] who
painted an arch above S. Agostino, and a S. Urban for the Nuns of S.
Caterina in Arezzo, which has been thrown to the ground in rebuilding
the church. His pupil, likewise, was Luca Signorelli of Cortona, who did
him more honour than all the others.
Piero Borghese, whose pictures date about the year 1458, became blind
through an attack of catarrh at the age of sixty, and lived thus up to
the eighty-sixth year of his life. He left very great possessions in the
Borgo, with some houses that he had built himself, which were burnt and
destroyed in the strife of factions in the year 1536. He was honourably
buried by his fellow-citizens in the principal church, which formerly
belonged to the Order of Camaldoli, and is now the Vescovado. Piero's
books are for the most part in the library of Frederick II, Duke of
Urbino, and they are such that they have deservedly acquired for him the
name of the best geometrician of his time.
[Illustration: THE VISION OF CONSTANTINE
(_After the fresco by =Piero della Francesca=. Arezzo: S. Francesco_)
_Alinari_]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Luca Signorelli.
[4] Pietro Perugino.
FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE
FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE
[_FRA ANGELICO_]
PAINTER OF THE ORDER OF PREACHING FRIARS
Fra Giovanni Angelico da Fiesole, who was known in the world as Guido,
was no less excellent as painter and illuminator than he was upright as
churchman, and for both one and the other of these reasons he deserves
that most honourable record should be made of him. This man, although he
could have lived in the world with the greatest comfort, and could have
gained whatever he wished, besides what he possessed, by means of those
arts, of which he had a very good knowledge even in his youth, yet
resolved, for his own peace and satisfaction, being by nature serious
and upright, and above all in order to save his soul, to take the vows
of the Order of Preaching Friars; for the reason that, although it is
possible to serve God in all walks of life, nevertheless it appears to
some men that they can gain salvation in monasteries better than in the
world. Now in proportion as this plan succeeds happily for good men, so,
on the contrary, it has a truly miserable and unhappy issue for a man
who takes the vows with some other end in view.
There are some choral books illuminated by the hand of Fra Giovanni in
his Convent of S. Marco in Florence, so beautiful that words are not
able to describe them; and similar to these are some others that he left
in S. Domenico da Fiesole, wrought with incredible diligence. It is
true, indeed, that in making these he was assisted by an elder brother,
who was likewise an illuminator and well practised in painting.
One of the first works in painting wrought by this good father was a
panel in the Certosa of Florence, which was placed in the principal
chapel (belonging to Cardinal Acciaiuoli); in which panel is a Madonna
with the Child in her arms, and with certain very beautiful angels at
her feet, sounding instruments and singing; at the sides are S.
Laurence, S. Mary Magdalene, S. Zanobi, and S. Benedict; and in the
predella are little stories of these Saints, wrought in little figures
with infinite diligence. In the cross of the said chapel are two other
panels by the hand of the same man; one containing the Coronation of Our
Lady, and the other a Madonna with two saints, wrought with most
beautiful ultramarine blues. Afterwards, in the tramezzo[5] of S. Maria
Novella, beside the door opposite to the choir, he painted in fresco S.
Dominic, S. Catherine of Siena, and S. Peter Martyr; and some little
scenes in the Chapel of the Coronation of Our Lady in the said tramezzo.
On canvas, fixed to the doors that closed the old organ, he painted an
Annunciation, which is now in the convent, opposite to the door of the
lower dormitory, between one cloister and the other.
This father was so greatly beloved for his merits by Cosimo de' Medici,
that, after completing the construction of the Church and Convent of S.
Marco, he caused him to paint the whole Passion of Jesus Christ on a
wall in the chapter-house; and on one side all the Saints who have been
heads and founders of religious bodies, mourning and weeping at the foot
of the Cross, and on the other side S. Mark the Evangelist beside the
Mother of the Son of God, who has swooned at the sight of the Saviour of
the world Crucified, while round her are the Maries, all grieving and
supporting her, with S. Cosimo and S. Damiano. It is said that in the
figure of S. Cosimo Fra Giovanni portrayed from the life Nanni d'
Antonio di Banco, a sculptor and his friend. Below this work, in a
frieze above the panelling, he made a tree with S. Dominic at the foot
of it, and, in certain medallions encircled by the branches, all the
Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Saints, and Masters of Theology whom his
Order of Preaching Friars had produced up to that time. In this work he
made many portraits from nature, being assisted by the friars, who sent
for them to various places; and they were the following: S. Dominic in
the middle, grasping the branches of the tree; Pope Innocent V, a
Frenchman; the Blessed Ugone, first Cardinal of that Order; the Blessed
Paolo, Florentine and Patriarch; S. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence;
the Blessed Giordano, a German, and the second General of that Order;
the Blessed Niccolo; the Blessed Remigio, a Florentine; and the martyr
Boninsegno, a Florentine; all these are on the right hand. On the left
are Benedict II[6] of Treviso; Giandomenico, a Florentine Cardinal;
Pietro da Palude, Patriarch of Jerusalem; Alberto Magno, a German; the
Blessed Raimondo di Catalonia, third General of the Order; the Blessed
Chiaro, a Florentine, and Provincial of Rome; S. Vincenzio di Valenza;
and the Blessed Bernardo, a Florentine. All these heads are truly
gracious and very beautiful. Then, over certain lunettes in the first
cloister, he made many very beautiful figures in fresco, and a Crucifix
with S. Dominic at the foot, which is much extolled; and in the
dormitory, besides many other things throughout the cells and on the
surface of the walls, he painted a story from the New Testament, of a
beauty beyond the power of words to describe. Particularly beautiful and
marvellous is the panel of the high-altar of that church; for, besides
the fact that the Madonna rouses all who see her to devotion by her
simplicity, and that the Saints that surround her are like her in this,
the predella, in which there are stories of the martyrdom of S. Cosimo,
S. Damiano, and others, is so well painted, that one cannot imagine it
possible ever to see a work executed with greater diligence, or little
figures more delicate or better conceived than these are.
In S. Domenico da Fiesole, likewise, he painted the panel of the
high-altar, which has been retouched by other masters and injured,
perchance because it appeared to be spoiling. But the predella and the
Ciborium of the Sacrament have remained in better preservation; and the
innumerable little figures that are to be seen there, in a Celestial
Glory, are so beautiful, that they appear truly to belong to Paradise,
nor can any man who approaches them ever have his fill of gazing on
them. In a chapel of the same church is a panel by his hand, containing
the Annunciation of Our Lady by the Angel Gabriel, with features in
profile, so devout, so delicate, and so well executed, that they appear
truly to have been made rather in Paradise than by the hand of man; and
in the landscape at the back are Adam and Eve, because of whom the
Redeemer was born from the Virgin. In the predella, also, there are some
very beautiful little scenes.