which we have spoken in another place, devoted himself not only to
studying geography and the proportions of antiquities, but also to
writing, to which he was much inclined, much more than to working. He
was excellent in arithmetic and geometry, and he wrote ten books on
architecture in the Latin tongue, which were published by him in 1481,
and may now be read in a translation in the Florentine tongue made by
the Reverend Maestro Cosimo Bartoli, Provost of S. Giovanni in Florence.
He wrote three books on painting, now translated into the Tuscan tongue
by Messer Lodovico Domenichi; he composed a treatise on traction and on
the rules for measuring heights, as well as the books on the "Vita
Civile," and some erotic works in prose and verse; and he was the first
who tried to reduce Italian verse to the measure of the Latin, as is
seen in the following epistle by his pen:
Questa per estrema miserabile pistola mando
A te, che spregi miseramente noi.
Arriving at Rome in the time of Nicholas V, who had turned the whole of
Rome upside down with his manner of building, Leon Batista, through the
agency of Biondo da Forli, who was much his friend, became intimate with
that Pope, who had previously carried out all his building after the
advice of Bernardo Rossellino, a sculptor and architect of Florence, as
will be told in the Life of his brother Antonio. This man, having put
his hand to restoring the Pope's Palace and to certain works in S. Maria
Maggiore, thenceforward, according to the will of the Pope, ever sought
the advice of Leon Batista. Wherefore, using one of them as adviser and
the other as executor, the Pope carried out many useful and
praiseworthy works, such as the restoring of the conduit of the Acqua
Vergine, which was in ruins; and there was made the fountain on the
Piazza de' Trevi, with those marble ornaments that are seen there, on
which are the arms of that Pontiff and of the Roman people.
Afterwards, having gone to Signor Sigismondo Malatesti of Rimini, he
made for him the model of the Church of S. Francesco, and in particular
that of the facade, which was made of marble; and likewise the side
facing towards the south, which was built with very great arches and
with tombs for the illustrious men of that city. In short, he brought
that building to such a form that in point of solidity it is one of the
most famous temples in Italy. Within it are six most beautiful chapels,
one of which, dedicated to S. Jerome, is very ornate; and in it are
preserved many relics brought from Jerusalem. In the same chapel are the
tombs of the said Signor Sigismondo and of his wife, constructed very
richly of marble in the year 1450; on one there is the portrait of
Sigismondo himself, and in another part of the work there is that of
Leon Batista.
After this, in the year 1457, when the very useful method of printing
books was discovered by Johann Gutenberg the German, Leon Batista,
working on similar lines, discovered a way of tracing natural
perspectives and of effecting the diminution of figures by means of an
instrument, and likewise the method of enlarging small things and
reproducing them on a greater scale; all ingenious inventions, useful to
art and very beautiful.
In Leon Batista's time Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai wished to build the
principal facade of S. Maria Novella entirely of marble at his own
expense, and he spoke of this to Leon Batista, who was very much his
friend; and having received from him not only counsel, but the actual
model, Giovanni resolved to have the work executed at all costs, in
order to leave it behind him as a memorial of himself. A beginning
having been made, therefore, it was finished in the year 1477, to the
great satisfaction of all the city, which was pleased with the whole
work, but particularly with the door, from which it is seen that Leon
Batista took more than ordinary pains. For Cosimo Rucellai, likewise, he
made the design for the palace which that man built in the street which
is called La Vigna, and that for the loggia which is opposite to it. In
the latter, having turned his arches over columns close together, both
in the front and at the ends, since he wished to adhere to this plan and
not to make one single arch, he had a certain space left over on each
side; wherefore he was forced to make certain projections at the inner
corners. And then, when he wished to turn the arch of the inner
vaulting, having seen that he could not give it the shape of a
half-circle, which would have been flat and awkward, he resolved to turn
certain small arches at the corners from one projection to another; and
this lack of judgment in design gives us to know clearly that practice
is necessary as well as science, for the judgment can never become
perfect unless science attains to experience by actual work.
It is said that the same man made the design for the house and garden of
these Rucellai in the Via della Scala. This house is built with much
judgment and very commodious, for, besides many other conveniences, it
has two loggie, one facing south and the other west, both very
beautiful, and made without arches on the columns, which is the true and
proper method that the ancients used, for the reason that the
architraves which are placed on the capitals of the columns lie level,
whereas a four-sided thing like a curving arch cannot rest on a round
column without the corners jutting out over space. The good method,
therefore, demands that architraves should rest on columns, and that,
when arches are to be turned, pilasters and not columns should be made.
For the same Rucellai Leon Batista made a chapel in the same manner in
S. Pancrazio, which rests on great architraves placed on two columns and
two pilasters, piercing the wall of the church below; which is a
difficult thing, but safe; wherefore this work is one of the best that
this architect ever made. In the middle of this chapel is a tomb of
marble, wrought very well in the form of a rather long oval, and
similar, as may be read on it, to the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ in
Jerusalem.
[Illustration: FACADE OF S. ANDREA
(_After =Leon Batista Alberti=. Mantua_)
_Alinari_]
About the same time Lodovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, wished to build
the tribune and the principal chapel in the Nunziata, the Church of the
Servi in Florence, after the design and model of Leon Batista; and
pulling down a square chapel, old, not very large, and painted in the
ancient manner, which stood at the head of the church, he built the
said tribune in the bizarre and difficult form of a round temple
surrounded by nine chapels, all curving in a round arch, and each within
in the shape of a niche. Now, since the arches of the said chapels rest
on the pilasters in front, the result is that the stone dressings of the
arches, inclining towards the wall, tend to draw ever backwards in order
to meet the said wall, which turns in the opposite direction according
to the shape of the tribune; wherefore, when the said arches of the
chapels are looked at from the side, it appears that they are falling
backwards, and that they are clumsy, as indeed they are, although the
proportions are correct, and the difficulties of the method must be
remembered. Truly it would have been better if Leon Batista had avoided
this method, for, although there is some credit for the difficulty of
its execution, it is clumsy both in great things and in small, and it
cannot have a good result. And that this is true of great things is
proved by the great arch in front, which forms the entrance to the said
tribune; for, although it is very beautiful on the outer side, on the
inner side, where it has to follow the curve of the chapel, which is
round, it appears to be falling backwards and to be extremely clumsy.
This Leon Batista would perhaps not have done, if, in addition to
science and theory, he had possessed practical experience in working;
for another man would have avoided this difficulty, and would have
rather aimed at grace and greater beauty for the edifice. The whole work
is otherwise in itself very beautiful, bizarre, and difficult; and
nothing save great courage could have enabled Leon Batista to vault that
tribune in those times in the manner that he did. Being then summoned by
the same Marquis Lodovico to Mantua, Leon Batista made for him the
models of the Church of S. Andrea and of some other works; and on the
road leading from Mantua to Padua there may be seen certain temples
built after his manner. Many of the designs and models of Leon Batista
were carried into execution by Salvestro Fancelli, a passing good
architect and sculptor of Florence, who, according to the desire of the
said Leon Batista, executed with judgment and extraordinary diligence
all the works that he undertook in Florence. For those in Mantua he
employed one Luca, a Florentine, who, living ever afterwards in that
city and dying there, left his name--so Filarete tells us--to the
family of the Luchi, which is still there to-day. It was no small
good-fortune for him to have friends who understood him and were able
and willing to serve him, because architects cannot be always standing
over their work, and it is of the greatest use to them to have a
faithful and loving assistant; and if any man ever knew it, I know it
very well by long experience.
In painting Leon Batista did not do great or very beautiful works, for
the few by his hand that are to be seen do not show much perfection; nor
is this to be wondered at, seeing that he devoted himself more to his
studies than to draughtsmanship. Yet he could express his conceptions
well enough in drawing, as may be seen from some sketches by his hand
that are in our book, in which there are drawn the Bridge of S. Angelo
and the covering that was made for it with his design in the form of a
loggia, for protection from the sun in summer and from the rain and wind
in winter. This work he was commissioned to execute by Pope Nicholas V,
who had intended to carry out many similar works throughout the whole of
Rome; but death intervened to hinder him. There is a work of Leon
Batista's in a little Chapel of Our Lady on the abutment of the Ponte
alla Carraja in Florence--namely, an altar-predella, containing three
little scenes with some perspectives, which he was much more able to
describe with the pen than to paint with the brush. In the house of the
Palla Rucellai family, also in Florence, there is a portrait of himself
made with a mirror; and a panel with rather large figures in
chiaroscuro. He also made a picture of Venice in perspective, with S.
Marco, but the figures therein were executed by other masters; and this
is one of the best examples of his painting that there are to be seen.
Leon Batista was a person of most honest and laudable ways, the friend
of men of talent, and very open and courteous to all; and he lived
honourably and like a gentleman--which he was--through the whole course
of his life. Finally, having reached a mature enough age, he passed
content and tranquil to a better life, leaving a most honourable name
behind him.
LAZZARO VASARI
LIFE OF LAZZARO VASARI
PAINTER OF AREZZO
Truly great is the pleasure of those who find one of their ancestors and
of their own family to have been distinguished and famous in some
profession, whether that of arms, or of letters, or of painting, or any
other noble calling whatsoever; and those men who find some honourable
mention of one of their forefathers in history, if they gain nothing
else thereby, have an incitement to virtue and a bridle to restrain them
from doing anything unworthy of a family which has produced illustrious
and very famous men. How great is this pleasure, as I said at the
beginning, I have experienced for myself in finding that one among my
ancestors, Lazzaro Vasari, was famous as a painter in his day not only
in his native place, but throughout all Tuscany; and that certainly not
without reason, as I could clearly prove, if it were permissible for me
to speak as freely of him as I have spoken of others. But, since I was
born of his blood, it might be readily believed that I had exceeded all
due bounds in praising him; wherefore, leaving on one side the merits of
the man himself and of the family, I will simply tell what I cannot and
should not under any circumstances withhold, if I would not fall short
of the truth, on which all history hangs.
Lazzaro Vasari, then, a painter of Arezzo, was very much the friend of
Piero della Francesca of Borgo a San Sepolcro, and ever held intercourse
with him while Piero was working, as it has been said, in Arezzo. And,
as it often comes to pass, this friendship brought him nothing but
advantage, for the reason that, whereas Lazzaro had formerly devoted
himself only to making little figures for certain works according to the
custom of those times, he was persuaded by Piero della Francesca to set
himself to do bigger things. His first work in fresco was a S. Vincent
in S. Domenico at Arezzo, in the second chapel on the left as one enters
the church; and at his feet he painted himself and his young son Giorgio
kneeling, clothed in honourable costumes of those times, and
recommending themselves to the Saint, because the boy had inadvertently
cut his face with a knife. Although there is no inscription on this
work, yet certain memories of old men belonging to our house and the
fact that it contains the Vasari arms, enable us to attribute it to him
without a doubt. Of this there must certainly have been some record in
that convent, but their papers and everything else have been destroyed
many times by soldiers, and I do not marvel at the lack of records. The
manner of Lazzaro was so similar to that of Piero Borghese, that very
little difference could be seen between one and the other. Now it was
very much the custom at that time to paint various things, such as the
quarterings of arms, on the caparisons of horses, according to the rank
of those who bore them; and in this work Lazzaro was an excellent
master, and the rather as it was his province to make very graceful
little figures, which were very well suited to such caparisons. Lazzaro
wrought for Niccolo Piccino and for his soldiers and captains many
things full of stories and arms, which were held in great price, with so
much profit for himself, that the gains that he drew from this work
enabled him to recall to Arezzo many of his brothers, who were living at
Cortona and working at the manufacture of earthenware vases. He also
brought into his house his nephew, Luca Signorelli of Cortona, his
sister's son, whom he placed, by reason of his good intelligence, with
Piero Borghese, to the end that he might learn the art of painting;
which he contrived to do very well, as will be told in the proper place.
Lazzaro, then, devoting himself continually to the study of art, became
every day more excellent, as is shown by some very good drawings by his
hand that are in our book. And because he took much pleasure in
depicting certain natural effects full of emotions, in which he
expressed very well weeping, laughing, crying, fear, trembling, and the
like, his pictures are mostly full of such inventions; as may be seen
in a little chapel painted in fresco by his hand in S. Gimignano at
Arezzo, wherein there is a Crucifix, with the Madonna, S. John, and the
Magdalene at the foot of the Cross, in various attitudes, and weeping so
naturally, that they acquired credit and fame for him among his
fellow-citizens. For the Company of S. Antonio, in the same city, he
painted a cloth banner that is borne in processions, on which he wrought
Jesus Christ at the Column, naked and bound and so lifelike, that He
appears to be trembling, and, with His shoulders all drawn together, to
be enduring with incredible humility and patience the blows that two
Jews are giving Him. One of these, firmly planted on his feet, is plying
his scourge with both his hands, turning his back towards Christ in an
attitude full of cruelty. The other is seen in profile, raising himself
on tip-toe; and grasping the scourge with his hands, and gnashing his
teeth, he is wielding it with so great rage that words are powerless to
express it. Both these men Lazzaro painted with their garments torn, the
better to reveal the nude, contenting himself with covering after a
fashion their private and less honourable parts. This work painted on
cloth has lasted all these years--which truly makes me marvel--right up
to our own day; and by reason of its beauty and excellence the men of
that Company caused a copy to be made of it by the French Prior,[9] as
we will relate in the proper place. At Perugia, also, Lazzaro wrought
some stories of the Madonna, with a Crucifix, in a chapel beside the
Sacristy of the Church of the Servi. In the Pieve of Montepulciano he
executed a predella with little figures, and at Castiglione Aretino he
painted a panel in distemper in S. Francesco; together with many other
works, which, for the sake of brevity, I refrain from describing, more
particularly many chests that are in the houses of citizens, which he
painted with little figures. In the Palace of the Guelphs in Florence,
among the ancient arms, there may be seen some caparisons wrought very
well by him. He also painted a banner for the Company of S. Sebastiano,
containing the said Saint at the column, with certain angels crowning
him; but it is now spoilt and all eaten away by time.
In Lazzaro's time there was one who made glass windows in Arezzo,
Fabiano Sassoli, a young Aretine of great excellence in that profession,
as is proved by those of his works that are in the Vescovado, the Abbey,
the Pieve, and other places in that city; but he knew little of design,
and he was very far from reaching the excellence of those that Parri
Spinelli made. Wherefore he determined that, even as he knew well how to
fire, to put together, and to mount the glass, so he would make some
work that should also be passing good with regard to the painting; and
he caused Lazzaro to execute for him two cartoons of his own invention,
in order to make two windows for the Madonna delle Grazie. Having
obtained these from Lazzaro, who was his friend and a courteous
craftsman, he made the said windows, which turned out so beautiful and
so well wrought that there are not many to which they have to give
precedence. In one there is a very beautiful Madonna; and in the other,
which is by far the better of the two, there is the Resurrection of
Christ, with an armed man in foreshortening in front of the Sepulchre;
and it is a marvel, considering the small size of the window and
consequently of the picture, how those figures can appear so large in so
small a space. Many other things could I tell of Lazzaro, who was a very
good draughtsman, as may be seen from certain drawings in our book; but
I think it best for me to pass them by.
Lazzaro was a pleasant person and very witty in his speech; and although
he was much given to pleasure, nevertheless he never strayed from the
path of right living. His life lasted seventy-two years, and he left a
son called Giorgio, who occupied himself continually with the ancient
Aretine vases of terra-cotta; and at the time when Messer Gentile of
Urbino, Bishop of Arezzo, was dwelling in that city, Giorgio
rediscovered the method of giving red and black colours to terra-cotta
vases, such as those that the ancient Aretines made up to the time of
King Porsena. Being a most industrious person, he made large vases with
the potter's wheel, one braccio and a half in height, which are still to
be seen in his house. Men say that while searching for vases in a place
where he thought that the ancients had worked, he found three arches of
their ancient furnaces three braccia below the surface in a field of
clay near the bridge at Calciarella, a place called by that name; and
round these he found some of the mixture for making the vases, and many
broken ones, with four that were whole. These last were given by
Giorgio, through the mediation of the Bishop, to the Magnificent Lorenzo
de' Medici on his visiting Arezzo; wherefore they were the source and
origin of his entering into the service of that most exalted family, in
which he remained ever afterwards. Giorgio worked very well in relief,
as may be seen from some heads by his hand that are in his house. He had
five sons, who all followed the same calling; two of them, Lazzaro and
Bernardo, were good craftsmen, of whom the latter died very young in
Rome; and in truth, by reason of his intelligence, which is known to
have been dexterous and ready, if death had not snatched him so
prematurely from his house, he would have brought honour to his native
place.
The elder Lazzaro died in 1452, and his son, Giorgio, died in 1484 at
the age of sixty-eight; and both were buried in the Pieve of Arezzo at
the foot of their own Chapel of S. Giorgio, where the following verses
were set up after a time in praise of Lazzaro:
ARETII EXULTET TELLUS CLARISSIMA; NAMQUE EST
REBUS IN ANGUSTIS, IN TENUIQUE LABOR.
VIX OPERUM ISTIUS PARTES COGNOSCERE POSSIS:
MYRMECIDES TACEAT; CALLICRATES SILEAT.
Finally, the last Giorgio Vasari, writer of this history, in gratitude
for the benefits for which he has to thank in great measure the
excellence of his ancestors, having received the principal chapel of the
said Pieve as a gift from his fellow-citizens and from the Wardens of
Works and Canons, as was told in the Life of Pietro Laurati, and having
brought it to the condition that has been described, has made a new tomb
in the middle of the choir, which is behind the altar; and in this he
has laid the bones of the said Lazzaro the elder and Giorgio the elder,
having removed them from their former resting-place, and likewise those
of all the other members of the said family, both male and female; and
thus he has made a new burial-place for all the descendants of the house
of Vasari. In like manner, the body of his mother (who died in Florence
in the year 1557), after having remained for some years in S. Croce,
has been deposited by him in the said tomb, according to her own
desire, together with Antonio, her husband and his father, who died of
plague at the end of the year 1527. In the predella that is below the
panel of the said altar there are portraits from nature, made by the
said Giorgio, of Lazzaro, of the elder Giorgio, his grandfather, of his
father Antonio, and of his mother Monna Maddalena de' Tacci. And let
this be the end of the Life of Lazzaro Vasari, painter of Arezzo.
FOOTNOTE:
[9] Guglielmo da Marcilla.
ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
LIFE OF ANTONELLO DA MESSINA
PAINTER
When I consider within my own mind the various qualities of the benefits
and advantages that have been conferred on the art of painting by many
masters who have followed the second manner, I cannot do otherwise than
call them, by reason of their efforts, truly industrious and excellent,
because they sought above all to bring painting to a better condition,
without thinking of discomfort, expense, or any particular interest of
their own. They continued, then, to employ no other method of colouring
save that of distemper for panels and for canvases, which method had
been introduced by Cimabue in the year 1250, when he was working with
those Greeks, and had been afterwards followed by Giotto and by the
others of whom we have spoken up to the present; and they were still
adhering to the same manner of working, although the craftsmen
recognized clearly that pictures in distemper were wanting in a certain
softness and liveliness, which, if they could be obtained, would be
likely to give more grace to their designs, loveliness to their
colouring, and greater facility in blending the colours together; for
they had ever been wont to hatch their works merely with the point of
the brush. But although many had made investigations and sought for
something of the sort, yet no one had found any good method, either by
the use of liquid varnish or by the mixture of other kinds of colours
with the distemper. Among many who made trial of these and other similar
expedients, but all in vain, were Alesso Baldovinetti, Pesello, and many
others, not one of whom succeeded in giving to his works the beauty and
excellence that he had imagined. And even if they had found what they
were seeking, they still lacked the method of making their figures on
panel adhere as well as those painted on walls, and also that of making
them so that they could be washed without destroying the colours, and
would endure any shock in handling. These matters a great number of
craftsmen had discussed many times in common, but without result.