painting beyond the bounds of Italy--namely, by all the painters of
France, Spain, Germany, and other countries. Now, while matters stood
thus, it came to pass that, while working in Flanders, Johann[10] of
Bruges, a painter much esteemed in those parts by reason of the great
mastery that he had acquired in his profession, set himself to make
trial of various sorts of colours, and, as one who took delight in
alchemy, to prepare many kinds of oil for making varnishes and other
things dear to men of inventive brain, such as he was. Now, on one
occasion, having taken very great pains with the painting of a panel,
and having brought it to completion with much diligence, he gave it the
varnish and put it to dry in the sun, as is the custom. But, either
because the heat was too violent, or perchance because the wood was
badly joined together or not seasoned well enough, the said panel opened
out at the joinings in a ruinous fashion. Whereupon Johann, seeing the
harm that the heat of the sun had done to it, determined to bring it
about that the sun should never again do such great damage to his works.
And so, being disgusted no less with his varnish than with working in
distemper, he began to look for a method of making a varnish that should
dry in the shade, without putting his pictures in the sun. Wherefore,
after he had made many experiments with substances both pure and mixed
together, he found at length that linseed oil and oil of nuts dried more
readily than all the others that he had tried. These, then, boiled
together with other mixtures of his, gave him the varnish that he--nay,
all the painters in the world--had long desired. Afterwards, having made
experiments with many other substances, he saw that mixing the colours
with those oils gave them a very solid consistency, not only securing
the work, when dried, from all danger from water, but also making the
colour so brilliant as to give it lustre by itself without varnish; and
what appeared most marvellous to him was this, that it could be blended
infinitely better than distemper. Rejoicing greatly over such a
discovery, as was only reasonable, Johann made a beginning with many
works and filled all those parts with them, with incredible pleasure for
others and very great profit for himself; and, assisted by experience
from day to day, he kept on ever making greater and better works.
No long time passed before the fame of his invention, spreading not only
throughout Flanders but through Italy and many other parts of the world,
awakened in all craftsmen a very great desire to know by what method he
gave so great a perfection to his works. These craftsmen, seeing his
works and not knowing what means he employed, were forced to extol him
and to give him immortal praise, and at the same time to envy him with a
blameless envy, the rather as he refused for some time to allow himself
to be seen at work by anyone, or to reveal his secret to any man. At
length, however, having grown old, he imparted it to Roger of Bruges,
his pupil, who passed it on to his disciple Ausse[11] and to the others
whom we have mentioned in speaking of colouring in oil with regard to
painting. But with all this, although merchants did a great business in
his pictures and sent them all over the world to Princes and other great
persons, to their own great profit, yet the knowledge did not spread
beyond Flanders; and although these pictures had a very pungent odour,
given to them by the mixture of colours and oils, particularly when they
were new, so that it seemed possible for the secret to be found out, yet
for many years it was not discovered. But certain Florentines, who
traded between Flanders and Naples, sent to King Alfonso I of Naples a
panel with many figures painted in oil by Johann, which became very dear
to that King both for the beauty of the figures and for the novel
invention shown in the colouring; and all the painters in that kingdom
flocked together to see it, and it was consummately extolled by all.
Now there was one Antonello da Messina, a person of good and lively
intelligence, of great sagacity, and skilled in his profession, who,
having studied design for many years in Rome, had first retired to
Palermo, where he had worked for many years, and finally to his native
place, Messina, where he had confirmed by his works the good opinion
that his countrymen had of his excellent ability in painting. This man,
then, going once on some business of his own from Sicily to Naples,
heard that the said King Alfonso had received from Flanders the
aforesaid panel by the hand of Johann of Bruges, painted in oil in such
a manner that it could be washed, would endure any shock, and was in
every way perfect. Thereupon, having contrived to obtain a view of it,
he was so strongly impressed by the liveliness of the colours and by the
beauty and harmony of that painting, that he put on one side all other
business and every thought and went off to Flanders. Having arrived in
Bruges, he became very intimate with the said Johann, making him
presents of many drawings in the Italian manner and other things,
insomuch that the latter, moved by this and by the respect shown by
Antonello, and being now old, was content that he should see his method
of colouring in oil; wherefore Antonello did not depart from that place
until he had gained a thorough knowledge of that way of colouring, which
he desired so greatly to know. And no long time after, Johann having
died, Antonello returned from Flanders in order to revisit his native
country and to communicate to all Italy a secret so useful, beautiful,
and advantageous. Then, having stayed a few months in Messina, he went
to Venice, where, being a man much given to pleasure and very
licentious, he resolved to take up his abode and finish his life, having
found there a mode of living exactly suited to his taste. And so,
putting himself to work, he made there many pictures in oil according to
the rules that he had learned in Flanders; these are scattered
throughout the houses of noblemen in that city, where they were held in
great esteem by reason of the novelty of the work. He made many others,
also, which were sent to various places. Finally, having acquired fame
and great repute there, he was commissioned to paint a panel that was
destined for S. Cassiano, a parish church in that city. This panel was
wrought by Antonio with all his knowledge and with no sparing of time;
and when finished, by reason of the novelty of the colouring and the
beauty of the figures, which he had made with good design, it was much
commended and held in very great price. And afterwards, when men
heard of the new secret that he had brought from Flanders to that city,
he was ever loved and cherished by the magnificent noblemen of Venice
throughout the whole course of his life.
[Illustration: ANTONELLO DA MESSINA: PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN
(_Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 18. Panel_)]
Among the painters who were then in repute in Venice, a certain Maestro
Domenico was held very excellent. This man, on the arrival of Antonello
in Venice, received him with such great lovingness and courtesy, that he
could not have shown more to a very dear and cherished friend. For this
reason Antonello, who would not be beaten in courtesy by Maestro
Domenico, after a few months taught him the secret and method of
colouring in oil. Nothing could have been dearer to Domenico than this
extraordinary courtesy and friendliness; and well might he hold it dear,
since it caused him, as he had foreseen, to be greatly honoured ever
afterwards in his native city. Grossly deceived, in truth, are those who
think that, while they grudge to others even those things that cost them
nothing, they should be served by all for the sake of their sweet smile,
as the saying goes. The courtesies of Maestro Domenico Viniziano wrested
from the hands of Antonello that which he had won for himself with so
much fatigue and labour, and which he would probably have refused to
hand over to any other even for a large sum of money. But since, with
regard to Maestro Domenico, we will mention in due time all that he
wrought in Florence, and who were the men with whom he generously shared
the secret that he had received as a courteous gift from another, let us
pass to Antonello.
After the panel for S. Cassiano, he made many pictures and portraits for
various Venetian noblemen. Messer Bernardo Vecchietti, the Florentine,
has a painting by his hand of S. Francis and S. Dominic, both in the one
picture, and very beautiful. Then, after receiving a commission from the
Signoria to paint certain scenes in their Palace (which they had refused
to give to Francesco di Monsignore of Verona, although he had been
greatly favoured by the Duke of Mantua), he fell sick of a pleurisy and
died at the age of forty-nine, without having set a hand to the work. He
was greatly honoured in his obsequies by the craftsmen, by reason of the
gift bestowed by him on art in the form of the new manner of colouring,
as the following epitaph testifies:
D. O. M.
ANTONIUS PICTOR, PRAECIPUUM MESSANAE SUAE ET SICILIAE TOTIUS
ORNAMENTUM, HAC HUMO CONTEGITUR. NON SOLUM SUIS PICTURIS, IN
QUIBUS SINGULARE ARTIFICIUM ET VENUSTAS FUIT, SED ET QUOD
COLORIBUS OLEO MISCENDIS SPLENDOREM ET PERPETUITATEM
PRIMUS ITALICAE PICTURAE CONTULIT, SUMMO SEMPER ARTIFICIUM
STUDIO CELEBRATUS.
The death of Antonello was a great grief to his many friends, and
particularly to the sculptor Andrea Riccio, who wrought the nude marble
statues of Adam and Eve, held to be very beautiful, which are seen in
the courtyard of the Palace of the Signoria in Venice. Such was the end
of Antonello, to whom our craftsmen should certainly feel no less
indebted for having brought the method of colouring in oil into Italy
than they should to Johann of Bruges for having discovered it in
Flanders. Both of them benefited and enriched the art; for it is by
means of this invention that craftsmen have since become so excellent,
that they have been able to make their figures all but alive. Their
services should be all the more valued, inasmuch as there is no writer
to be found who attributes this manner of colouring to the ancients; and
if it could be known for certain that it did not exist among them, this
age would surpass all the excellence of the ancients by virtue of this
perfection. Since, however, even as nothing is said that has not been
said before, so perchance nothing is done that has not been done before,
I will let this pass without saying more; and praising consummately
those who, in addition to draughtsmanship, are ever adding something to
art, I will proceed to write of others.
[Illustration: ANTONELLO DA MESSINA: THE CRUCIFIXION
(_London: National Gallery, 1166. Panel_)]
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Jan van Eyck.
[11] It is reasonable to suppose that this stands for Hans (Memling).
ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION
(_After the panel by =Alesso Baldovinetti=. Florence: Uffizi, 56_)
_Anderson_]
LIFE OF ALESSO BALDOVINETTI
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
So great an attraction has the noble art of painting, that many eminent
men have deserted the callings in which they might have become very
rich, and, drawn by their inclination against the wishes of their
parents, have followed the promptings of their nature and devoted
themselves to painting, to sculpture, or to some similar pursuit. And,
to tell the truth, if a man estimates riches at their true worth and no
higher, and regards excellence as the end of all his actions, he
acquires treasures very different from silver and gold; not to mention
that he is never afraid of those things that rob us in a moment of those
earthly riches, which are foolishly esteemed by men at more than their
true value. Recognizing this, Alesso Baldovinetti, drawn by a natural
inclination, abandoned commerce--in which his relatives had ever
occupied themselves, insomuch that by practising it honourably they had
acquired riches and lived like noble citizens--and devoted himself to
painting, in which he showed a peculiar ability to counterfeit very well
the objects of nature, as may be seen in the pictures by his hand.
This man, while still very young, and almost against the wish of his
father, who would have liked him to give his attention to commerce,
devoted himself to drawing; and in a short time he made so much progress
therein, that his father was content to allow him to follow the
inclination of his nature. The first work that Alesso executed in fresco
was in S. Maria Nuova, on the front wall of the Chapel of S. Gilio,
which was much extolled at that time, because, among other things, it
contained a S. Egidio that was held to be a very beautiful figure. In
like manner, he painted in S. Trinita the chapel in fresco and the chief
panel in distemper, for Messer Gherardo and Messer Bongianni
Gianfigliazzi, most honourable and wealthy gentlemen of Florence. In
this chapel Alesso painted some scenes from the Old Testament, which he
first sketched in fresco and then finished on the dry, tempering his
colours with yolk of egg mingled with a liquid varnish prepared over a
fire. This vehicle, he thought, would preserve the paintings from damp;
but it was so strong that where it was laid on too thickly the work has
peeled off in many places; and thus, whereas he thought he had found a
rare and very beautiful secret, he was deceived in his hopes.
He drew many portraits from nature, and in the scene of the Queen of
Sheba going to hear the wisdom of Solomon, which he painted in the
aforesaid chapel, he portrayed the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici,
father of Pope Leo X, and Lorenzo della Volpaia, a most excellent maker
of clocks and a very fine astrologer, who was the man who made for the
said Lorenzo de' Medici the very beautiful clock that the Lord Duke
Cosimo now has in his Palace; in which clock all the wheels of the
planets are perpetually moving, which is a rare thing, and the first
that was ever made in this manner. In the scene opposite to that one
Alesso portrayed Luigi Guicciardini the elder, Luca Pitti, Diotisalvi
Neroni, and Giuliano de' Medici, father of Pope Clement VII; and beside
the stone pilaster he painted Gherardo Gianfigliazzi the elder, the
Chevalier Messer Bongianni, who is wearing a blue robe, with a chain
round his neck, and Jacopo and Giovanni, both of the same family. Near
these are Filippo Strozzi the elder and the astrologer Messer Paolo dal
Pozzo Toscanelli. On the vaulting are four patriarchs, and on the panel
is the Trinity, with S. Giovanni Gualberto kneeling, and another Saint.
All these portraits are very easily recognized from their similarity to
those that are seen in other works, particularly in the houses of their
descendants, whether in gesso or in painting. Alesso gave much time to
this work, because he was very patient and liked to execute his works at
his ease and convenience.
[Illustration: ALESSO BALDOVINETTI: MADONNA AND CHILD IN A LANDSCAPE
(_Paris: Louvre, 1300B. Panel_)]
He drew very well, as may be seen from a mule drawn from nature in our
book, wherein the curves of the hair over the whole body are done with
much patience and with beautiful grace. Alesso was very diligent in
his works, and he strove to be an imitator of all the minute details
that Mother Nature creates. He had a manner somewhat dry and harsh,
particularly in draperies. He took much delight in making landscapes,
copying them from the life of nature exactly as they are; wherefore
there are seen in his pictures streams, bridges, rocks, herbs, fruits,
roads, fields, cities, castles, sand, and an infinity of other things of
the kind. In the Nunziata at Florence, in the court, exactly behind the
wall where the Annunciation itself is painted, he painted a scene in
fresco, retouched on the dry, in which there is a Nativity of Christ,
wrought with so great labour and diligence that one could count the
stalks and knots of the straw in a hut that is there; and he also
counterfeited there the ruin of a house with the stones mouldering, all
eaten away and consumed by rain and frost, and a thick ivy root that
covers a part of the wall, wherein it is to be observed that with great
patience he made the outer side of the leaves of one shade of green, and
the under side of another, as Nature does, neither more nor less; and,
in addition to the shepherds, he made a serpent, or rather, a
grass-snake, crawling up a wall, which is most life-like.
It is said that Alesso took great pains to discover the true method of
making mosaic, but that he never succeeded in anything that he wanted to
do, until at length he came across a German who was going to Rome to
obtain some indulgences. This man he took into his house, and he gained
from him a complete knowledge of the method and the rules for executing
mosaic, insomuch that afterwards, having set himself boldly to work, he
made some angels holding the head of Christ over the bronze doors of S.
Giovanni, in the arches on the inner side. His good method of working
becoming known by reason of this work, he was commissioned by the
Consuls of the Guild of Merchants to clean and renovate all the vaulting
of that church, which had been wrought, as has been said, by Andrea
Tafi; for it had been spoilt in many places, and was in need of being
renewed and restored. This he did with love and diligence, availing
himself for that purpose of a wooden staging made for him by Cecca, who
was the best architect of that age. Alesso taught the craft of mosaic to
Domenico Ghirlandajo, who portrayed him afterwards near himself in the
Chapel of the Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella, in the scene where Joachim
is driven from the Temple, in the form of a clean-shaven old man with a
red cap on his head.
Alesso lived eighty years, and when he began to draw near to old age, as
one who wished to be able to attend with a quiet mind to the studies of
his profession, he retired into the Hospital of S. Paolo, as many men
are wont to do. And perhaps to the end that he might be received more
willingly and better treated (or it may have been by chance), he had a
great chest carried into his rooms in the said hospital, giving out that
it contained a good sum of money. Wherefore the Director and the other
officials of the hospital, believing this to be true, and knowing that
he had bequeathed to the hospital all that might be found after his
death, showed him all the attention in the world. But on the death of
Alesso, there was nothing found in it save drawings, portraits on paper,
and a little book that explained the preparation of the stones and
stucco for mosaic and the method of using them. Nor was it any marvel,
so men said, that no money was found there, because he was so
open-handed that he had nothing that did not belong as much to his
friends as to himself.
A disciple of Alesso was the Florentine Graffione, who wrought in
fresco, over the door of the Innocenti, that figure of God the Father
and those angels that are still there. It is said that the Magnificent
Lorenzo de' Medici, conversing one day with Graffione, who was an
original, said to him, "I wish to have all the ribs of the inner cupola
adorned with mosaic and stucco-work;" and that Graffione replied, "You
have not the masters." To which Lorenzo answered, "We have enough money
to make some." Graffione instantly retorted, "Ah, Lorenzo, 'tis not the
money that makes the masters, but the masters that make the money." This
man was a bizarre and fantastic person. In his house he would never eat
off any table-cloth save his own cartoons, and he slept in no other bed
than a chest filled with straw, without sheets.
But to return to Alesso; he took leave of his art and of his life in
1448, and he was honourably buried by his relatives and
fellow-citizens.
[Illustration: THE TRINITY
(_After the panel by =Graffione=. Florence: S. Spirito_)
_Alinari_]
VELLANO DA PADOVA
LIFE OF VELLANO DA PADOVA
SCULPTOR
So great is the effect of counterfeiting anything with love and
diligence, that very often, when the manner of any master of these our
arts has been well imitated by those who take delight in his works, the
imitation resembles the thing imitated so closely, that no difference is
discerned save by those who have a sharpness of eye beyond the ordinary;
and it rarely comes to pass that a loving disciple fails to learn, at
least in great measure, the manner of his master.
Vellano da Padova strove with so great diligence to counterfeit the
manner and the method of Donato in sculpture, particularly in bronze,
that in his native city of Padua he was left the heir to the excellence
of the Florentine Donatello; and to this witness is borne by his works
in the Santo, which nearly every man that has not a complete knowledge
of the matter attributes to Donato, so that every day many are deceived,
if they are not informed of the truth. This man, then, fired by the
great praise that he heard given to Donato, the sculptor of Florence,
who was then working in Padua, and by a desire for those profits that
come into the hands of good craftsmen through the excellence of their
works, placed himself under Donato in order to learn sculpture, and
devoted himself to it in such a manner, that, with the aid of so great a
master, he finally achieved his purpose; wherefore, before Donatello had
finished his works and departed from Padua, Vellano had made such great
progress in the art that great expectations were already entertained
about him, and he inspired such confidence in his master as to induce
him (and that rightly) to leave to his pupil all the equipment, designs,
and models for the scenes in bronze that were to be made round the choir
of the Santo in that city. This was the reason why, when Donato
departed, as has been said, the commission for the whole of that work
was publicly given to Vellano in his native city, to his very great
honour. Whereupon he made all the scenes in bronze that are on the outer
side of the choir of the Santo, wherein, among others, there is the
scene of Samson embracing the column and destroying the temple of the
Philistines, in which one sees the fragments of the ruined building duly
falling, and the death of so many people, not to mention a great
diversity of attitudes among them as they die, some through the ruins,
and some through fear; and all this Vellano represented marvellously. In
the same place are certain works in wax and the models for these scenes,
and likewise some bronze candelabra wrought by the same man with much
judgment and invention. From what we see, this craftsman appears to have
had a very great desire to attain to the standard of Donatello; but he
did not succeed, for he aimed too high in a most difficult art.
Vellano also took delight in architecture, and was more than passing
good in that profession; wherefore, having gone to Rome in the year
1464, at the time of Pope Paul the Venetian, for which Pontiff Giuliano
da Maiano was architect in the building of the Vatican, he too was
employed in many things; and by his hand, among other works that he
made, are the arms of that Pontiff which are seen there with his name
beside them. He also wrought many of the ornaments of the Palace of S.
Marco for the same Pope, whose head, by the hand of Vellano, is at the
top of the staircase. For that building the same man designed a
stupendous courtyard, with a commodious and elegant flight of steps, but
the death of the Pontiff intervened to hinder the completion of the
whole. The while that he stayed in Rome, Vellano made many small things
in marble and in bronze for the said Pope and for others, but I have not
been able to find them. In Perugia the same master made a bronze statue
larger than life, in which he portrayed the said Pope from nature,
seated in his pontifical robes; and at the foot of this he placed his
name and the year when it was made. This figure is in a niche of several
kinds of stone, wrought with much diligence, without the door of S.
Lorenzo, which is the Duomo of that city. The same man made many medals,
some of which are still to be seen, particularly that of the
aforesaid Pope, and those of Antonio Rosello of Arezzo and Batista
Platina, both Secretaries to that Pontiff.
[Illustration: JONAH CAST INTO THE SEA
(_After the bronze relief by =Vellano da Padova=. Padua: S. Antonio_)
_Anderson_]