Vellano was held in esteem not only in his native city, but in all
Lombardy and in the March of Treviso, both because up to that time there
had been no craftsmen of excellence in those parts, and because he had
very great skill in the founding of metals. Afterwards, when Vellano was
already old, the Signoria of Venice determined to have an equestrian
statue of Bartolommeo da Bergamo made in bronze; and they allotted the
horse to Andrea del Verrocchio of Florence, and the figure to Vellano.
On hearing this, Andrea, who thought that the whole work should fall to
him, knowing himself to be, as indeed he was, a better master than
Vellano, flew into such a rage that he broke up and destroyed the whole
model of the horse that he had already finished, and went off to
Florence. But after a time, being recalled by the Signoria, who gave him
the whole work to do, he returned once more to finish it; at which
Vellano felt so much displeasure that he departed from Venice, without
saying a word or expressing his resentment in any manner, and returned
to Padua, where he afterwards lived in honour for the rest of his life,
contenting himself with the works that he had made and with being loved
and honoured, as he ever was, in his native place. He died at the age of
ninety-two, and was buried in the Santo with that distinction which his
excellence, having honoured both himself and his country, had deserved.
His portrait was sent to me from Padua by certain friends of mine, who
had it, so they told me, from the very learned and very reverend
Cardinal Bembo, whose love of our arts was no less remarkable than his
supremacy over all other men of our age in all the rarest qualities and
gifts both of mind and body.
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
LIFE OF FRA FILIPPO LIPPI
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Fra Filippo di Tommaso Lippi, a Carmelite, was born in Florence in a
street called Ardiglione, below the Canto alla Cuculia and behind the
Convent of the Carmelites. By the death of his father Tommaso he was
left a poor little orphan at the age of two, with no one to take care of
him, for his mother had also died not long after giving him birth. He
was left, therefore, in the charge of one Mona Lapaccia, his aunt,
sister of his father, who brought him up with very great inconvenience
to herself; and when he was eight years of age and she could no longer
support him, she made him a friar in the aforesaid Convent of the
Carmine. Living there, in proportion as he showed himself dexterous and
ingenious in the use of his hands, so was he dull and incapable of
making any progress in the learning of letters, so that he would never
apply his intelligence to them or regard them as anything save his
enemies. This boy, who was called by his secular name of Filippo, was
kept with others in the noviciate under the discipline of the
schoolmaster, in order to see what he could do; but in place of studying
he would never do anything save deface his own books and those of the
others with caricatures. Whereupon the Prior resolved to give him every
opportunity and convenience for learning to paint. There was then in the
Carmine a chapel that had been newly painted by Masaccio, which, being
very beautiful, pleased Fra Filippo so greatly that he would haunt it
every day for his recreation; and continually practising there in
company with many young men, who were ever drawing in it, he surpassed
the others by a great measure in dexterity and knowledge, insomuch that
it was held certain that in time he would do something marvellous. Nay,
not merely in his maturity, but even in his early childhood, he
executed so many works worthy of praise that it was a miracle. It was no
long time before he wrought in terra-verde in the cloister, close to the
Consecration painted by Masaccio, a Pope confirming the Rule of the
Carmelites; and he painted pictures in fresco on various walls in many
parts of the church, particularly a S. John the Baptist with some scenes
from his life. And thus, making progress every day, he had learnt the
manner of Masaccio very well, so that he made his works so similar to
those of the other that many said that the spirit of Masaccio had
entered into the body of Fra Filippo. On a pilaster in the church, close
to the organ, he made a figure of S. Marziale which brought him infinite
fame, for it could bear comparison with the works that Masaccio had
painted. Wherefore, hearing himself so greatly praised by the voices of
all, at the age of seventeen he boldly threw off his monastic habit.
Now, chancing to be in the March of Ancona, he was disporting himself
one day with some of his friends in a little boat on the sea, when they
were all captured together by the Moorish galleys that were scouring
those parts, and taken to Barbary, where each of them was put in chains
and held as a slave; and thus he remained in great misery for eighteen
months. But one day, seeing that he was thrown much into contact with
his master, there came to him the opportunity and the whim to make a
portrait of him; whereupon, taking a piece of dead coal from the fire,
with this he portrayed him at full length on a white wall in his Moorish
costume. When this was reported by the other slaves to the master (for
it appeared a miracle to them all, since drawing and painting were not
known in these parts), it brought about his liberation from the chains
in which he had been held for so long. Truly glorious was it for this
art to have caused one to whom the power of condemnation and punishment
was granted by law, to do the very opposite--nay, in place of inflicting
pains and death, to consent to show friendliness and grant liberty!
After having wrought some works in colour for his master, he was brought
safely to Naples, where he painted for King Alfonso, then Duke of
Calabria, a panel in distemper for the Chapel of the Castle, where the
guard-room now is.
[Illustration: FRA FILIPPO LIPPI: THE ANNUNCIATION
(_London: National Gallery, 666. Panel_)]
After this there came upon him a desire to return to Florence, where he
remained for some months. There he wrought a very beautiful panel for
the high-altar of the Nuns of S. Ambrogio, which made him very dear to
Cosimo de' Medici, who became very much his friend for this reason. He
also painted a panel for the Chapter-house of S. Croce, and another that
was placed in the chapel of the house of the Medici, on which he painted
the Nativity of Christ. For the wife of the said Cosimo, likewise, he
painted a panel with the same Nativity of Christ and with S. John the
Baptist, which was to be placed in the Hermitage of Camaldoli, in one of
the hermits' cells, dedicated to S. John the Baptist, which she had
caused to be built in proof of her devotion. And he painted some little
scenes that were sent by Cosimo as a gift to Pope Eugenius IV, the
Venetian; wherefore Fra Filippo acquired great favour with that Pope by
reason of this work.
It is said that he was so amorous, that, if he saw any women who pleased
him, and if they were to be won, he would give all his possessions to
win them; and if he could in no way do this, he would paint their
portraits and cool the flame of his love by reasoning with himself. So
much a slave was he to this appetite, that when he was in this humour he
gave little or no attention to the works that he had undertaken;
wherefore on one occasion Cosimo de' Medici, having commissioned him to
paint a picture, shut him up in his own house, in order that he might
not go out and waste his time; but after staying there for two whole
days, being driven forth by his amorous--nay, beastly--passion, one
night he cut some ropes out of his bed-sheets with a pair of scissors
and let himself down from a window, and then abandoned himself for many
days to his pleasures. Thereupon, since he could not be found, Cosimo
sent out to look for him, and finally brought him back to his labour;
and thenceforward Cosimo gave him liberty to go out when he pleased,
repenting greatly that he had previously shut him up, when he thought of
his madness and of the danger that he might run. For this reason he
strove to keep a hold on him for the future by kindnesses; and so he was
served by Filippo with greater readiness, and was wont to say that the
virtues of rare minds were celestial beings, and not slavish hacks.
For the Church of S. Maria Primerana, on the Piazza of Fiesole, he
painted a panel containing the Annunciation of Our Lady by the Angel,
which shows very great diligence, and there is such beauty in the figure
of the Angel that it appears truly a celestial thing. For the Nuns of
the Murate he painted two panels: one, containing an Annunciation, is
placed on the high-altar; and the other is on an altar in the same
church, and contains stories of S. Benedict and S. Bernard. In the
Palace of the Signoria he painted an Annunciation on a panel, which is
over a door; and over another door in the said Palace he also painted a
S. Bernard. For the Sacristy of S. Spirito in Florence he executed a
panel with the Madonna surrounded by angels, and with saints on either
side--a rare work, which has ever been held in the greatest veneration
by the masters of these our arts. In the Chapel of the Wardens of Works
in S. Lorenzo he wrought a panel with another Annunciation; with one for
the Della Stufa Chapel, which he did not finish. For a chapel in S.
Apostolo, in the same city, he painted a panel with some figures round a
Madonna. In Arezzo, by order of Messer Carlo Marsuppini, he painted the
panel of the Chapel of S. Bernardo for the Monks of Monte Oliveto,
depicting therein the Coronation of Our Lady, surrounded by many saints;
which picture has remained so fresh, that it appears to have been made
by the hand of Fra Filippo at the present day. It was then that he was
told by the aforesaid Messer Carlo to give attention to the painting of
the hands, seeing that his works were much criticized in this respect;
wherefore from that day onwards, in painting hands, Fra Filippo covered
the greater part of them with draperies or with some other contrivance,
in order to avoid the aforesaid criticism. In this work he portrayed the
said Messer Carlo from the life.
[Illustration: THE VIRGIN ADORING
(_After the panel by =Fra Filippo Lippi=. Florence: Accademia, 79_)
_Anderson_]
For the Nuns of Annalena in Florence he painted a Manger on a panel; and
some of his pictures are still to be seen in Padua. He sent two little
scenes with small figures, painted by his hand, to Cardinal Barbo in
Rome; these were very excellently wrought, and executed with great
diligence. Truly marvellous was the grace with which he painted, and
very perfect the harmony that he gave to his works, for which he has
been ever esteemed by craftsmen and honoured by our modern masters
with consummate praise; nay, so long as the voracity of time allows his
many excellent labours to live, he will be held in veneration by every
age. In Prato, near Florence, where he had some relatives, he stayed for
many months, executing many works throughout that whole district in
company with Fra Diamante, a friar of the Carmine, who had been his
comrade in the noviciate. After this, having been commissioned by the
Nuns of S. Margherita to paint the panel of their high-altar, he was
working at this when there came before his eyes a daughter of Francesco
Buti, a citizen of Florence, who was living there as a ward or as a
novice. Having set eyes on Lucrezia (for this was the name of the girl),
who was very beautiful and graceful, Fra Filippo contrived to persuade
the nuns to allow him to make a portrait of her for a figure of Our Lady
in the work that he was doing for them. With this opportunity he became
even more enamoured of her, and then wrought upon her so mightily, what
with one thing and another, that he stole her away from the nuns and
took her off on the very day when she was going to see the Girdle of Our
Lady, an honoured relic of that township, being exposed to view.
Whereupon the nuns were greatly disgraced by such an event, and her
father, Francesco, who never smiled again, made every effort to recover
her; but she, either through fear or for some other reason, refused to
come back--nay, she insisted on staying with Filippo, to whom she bore a
male child, who was also called Filippo, and who became, like his
father, a very excellent and famous painter.
In S. Domenico, in the aforesaid Prato, there are two of his panels; and
in the tramezzo[12] of the Church of S. Francesco there is a Madonna, in
the removing of which from the place where it was at first, it was cut
out from the wall on which it was painted, in order not to spoil it, and
bound round with wood, and then transported to that wall of the church
where it is still to be seen to-day. In a courtyard of the Ceppo of
Francesco di Marco, over a well, there is a little panel by the hand of
the same man, containing the portrait of the said Francesco di Marco,
the creator and founder of that holy place. In the Pieve of the said
township, on a little panel over the side-door as one ascends the steps,
he painted the Death of S. Bernard, by the touch of whose bier many
cripples are being restored to health. In this picture are friars
bewailing the death of their master, and it is a marvellous thing to see
the beautiful expression of the sadness of lamentation in the heads,
counterfeited with great art and resemblance to nature. Here there are
draperies in the form of friars' gowns with most beautiful folds, which
deserve infinite praise for their good design, colouring, and
composition; not to mention the grace and proportion that are seen in
the said work, which was executed with the greatest delicacy by the hand
of Fra Filippo. The Wardens of Works for the said Pieve, in order to
have some memorial of him, commissioned him to paint the Chapel of the
High-Altar in that place; and he gave great proof of his worth in that
work, which, besides its general excellence and masterliness, contains
most admirable draperies and heads. He made the figures therein larger
than life, thus introducing to our modern craftsmen the method of giving
grandeur to the manner of our own day. There are certain figures with
garments little used in those times, whereby he began to incite the
minds of men to depart from that simplicity which should be called
rather old-fashioned than ancient. In the same work are the stories of
S. Stephen (the titular Saint of the said Pieve), distributed over the
wall on the right hand--namely, the Disputation, the Stoning, and the
Death of that Protomartyr, in whose face, as he disputes with the Jews,
Filippo depicted so much zeal and so much fervour, that it is a
difficult thing to imagine it, and much more to express it; and in the
faces and the various attitudes of the Jews he revealed their hatred,
disdain, and anger at seeing themselves overcome by him. Even more
clearly did he make manifest the brutality and rage of those who are
slaying him with stones, which they have grasped, some large, some
small, with a horrible gnashing of teeth, and with gestures wholly cruel
and enraged. None the less, amid so terrible an onslaught, S. Stephen,
raising his countenance with great calmness to Heaven, is seen making
supplication to the Eternal Father with the warmest love and fervour for
the very men who are slaying him. All these conceptions are truly very
beautiful, and serve to show to others how great is the value of
invention and of knowing how to express emotions in pictures; and this
he remembered so well, that in those who are burying S. Stephen he made
gestures so dolorous, and some faces so afflicted and broken with
weeping, that it is scarcely possible to look at them without being
moved. On the other side he painted the Birth of S. John the Baptist,
the Preaching, the Baptism, the Feast of Herod, and the Beheading of the
Saint. Here, in his countenance as he is preaching, there is seen the
Divine Spirit; with various emotions in the multitude that is listening,
joy and sorrow both in the women and in the men, who are all hanging
intently on the teaching of S. John. In the Baptism are seen beauty and
goodness; and, in the Feast of Herod, the majesty of the banquet, the
dexterity of Herodias, the astonishment of the company, and their
immeasurable grief when the severed head is presented in the charger.
Round the banqueting-table are seen innumerable figures with very
beautiful attitudes, and with good execution both in the draperies and
in the expressions of the faces. Among these, with a mirror, he
portrayed himself dressed in the black habit of a prelate; and he made a
portrait of his disciple Fra Diamante among those who are bewailing S.
Stephen. This work is in truth the most excellent of all his paintings,
both for the reasons mentioned above, and because he made the figures
somewhat larger than life, which encouraged those who came after him to
give grandeur to their manner. So greatly was he esteemed for his
excellent gifts, that many circumstances in his life that were worthy of
blame were passed over in consideration of the eminence of his great
talents. In this work he portrayed Messer Carlo, the natural son of
Cosimo de' Medici, who was then Provost of that church, which received
great benefactions from him and from his house.
In the year 1463, when he had finished this work, he painted a panel in
distemper, containing a very beautiful Annunciation, for the Church of
S. Jacopo in Pistoia, by order of Messer Jacopo Bellucci, of whom he
made therein a most vivid portrait from the life. In the house of
Pulidoro Bracciolini there is a picture by his hand of the Birth of Our
Lady; and in the Hall of the Tribunal of Eight in Florence he painted in
distemper a Madonna with the Child in her arms, on a lunette. In the
house of Lodovico Capponi there is another picture with a very
beautiful Madonna; and in the hands of Bernardo Vecchietti, a gentleman
of Florence and a man of a culture and excellence beyond my power of
expression, there is a little picture by the hand of the same man,
containing a very beautiful S. Augustine engaged in his studies. Even
better is a S. Jerome in Penitence, of the same size, in the guardaroba
of Duke Cosimo; for if Fra Filippo was a rare master in all his
pictures, he surpassed himself in the small ones, to which he gave such
grace and beauty that nothing could be better, as may be seen in the
predelle of all the panels that he painted. In short, he was such that
none surpassed him in his own times, and few in our own; and
Michelagnolo has not only always extolled him, but has imitated him in
many things.
For the Church of S. Domenico Vecchio in Perugia, also, he painted a
panel that was afterwards placed on the high-altar, containing a
Madonna, S. Peter, S. Paul, S. Louis, and S. Anthony the Abbot. Messer
Alessandro degli Alessandri, a Chevalier of that day and a friend of
Filippo, caused him to paint a panel for the church of his villa at
Vincigliata on the hill of Fiesole, containing a S. Laurence and other
Saints, among whom he portrayed Alessandro and two sons of his.
Fra Filippo was much the friend of gay spirits, and he ever lived a
joyous life. He taught the art of painting to Fra Diamante, who executed
many pictures in the Carmine at Prato; and he did himself great credit
by the close imitation of his master's manner, for he attained to the
greatest perfection. Sandro Botticelli, Pesello, and Jacopo del Sellaio
of Florence worked with Fra Filippo in their youth (the last-named
painted two panels in S. Friano, and one wrought in distemper in the
Carmine), with a great number of other masters, to whom he ever taught
the art with great friendliness. He lived honourably by his labours,
spending extraordinary sums on the pleasures of love, in which he
continued to take delight right up to the end of his life. He was
requested by the Commune of Spoleto, through the mediation of Cosimo de'
Medici, to paint the chapel in their principal church (dedicated to Our
Lady), which he brought very nearly to completion, working in company
with Fra Diamante, when death intervened to prevent him from
finishing it. Some say, indeed, that in consequence of his great
inclination for his blissful amours some relations of the lady that he
loved had him poisoned.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_After the panel (tondo) by =Fra Filippo Lippi=. Florence: Pitti, 343_)
_Anderson_]
Fra Filippo finished the course of his life in 1438, at the age of
fifty-seven, and left a will entrusting to Fra Diamante his son Filippo,
a little boy of ten years of age, who learnt the art of painting from
his guardian. Fra Diamante returned with him to Florence, carrying away
three hundred ducats, which remained to be received from the Commune of
Spoleto for the work done; with these he bought some property for
himself, giving but a little share to the boy. Filippo was placed with
Sandro Botticelli, who was then held a very good master; and the old man
was buried in a tomb of red and white marble, which the people of
Spoleto caused to be erected in the church that he had been painting.
His death grieved many friends, particularly Cosimo de' Medici, as well
as Pope Eugenius, who offered in his life-time to give him a
dispensation, so that he might make Lucrezia, the daughter of Francesco
Buti, his legitimate wife; but this he refused to do, wishing to have
complete liberty for himself and his appetites.
While Sixtus IV was alive, Lorenzo de' Medici became ambassador to the
Florentines, and made the journey to Spoleto, in order to demand from
that community the body of Fra Filippo, to the end that it might be laid
in S. Maria del Fiore in Florence; but their answer to him was that they
were lacking in ornaments, and above all in distinguished men, for which
reason they demanded Filippo from him as a favour in order to honour
themselves, adding that since there was a vast number of famous men in
Florence, nay, almost a superfluity, he should consent to do without
this one; and more than this he could not obtain. It is true, indeed,
that afterwards, having determined to do honour to him in the best way
that he could, he sent his son Filippino to Rome to paint a chapel for
the Cardinal of Naples; and Filippino, passing through Spoleto, caused a
tomb of marble to be erected for him at the commission of Lorenzo,
beneath the organ and over the sacristy, on which he spent one hundred
ducats of gold, which were paid by Nofri Tornabuoni, master of the bank
of the Medici; and Lorenzo also caused Messer Angelo Poliziano to write
the following epigram, which is carved on the said tomb in antique
lettering:
CONDITUS HIC EGO SUM PICTURAE FAMA PHILIPPUS;
NULLI IGNOTA MEAE EST GRATIA MIRA MANUS.
ARTIFICES POTUI DIGITIS ANIMARE COLORES,
SPERATAQUE ANIMOS FALLERE VOCE DIU.
IPSA MEIS STUPUIT NATURA EXPRESSA FIGURIS,
MEQUE SUIS FASSA EST ARTIBUS ESSE PAREM.
MARMOREO TUMULO MEDICES LAURENTIUS HIC ME
CONDIDIT; ANTE HUMILI PULVERE TECTUS ERAM.
Fra Filippo was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in our book of
drawings by the most famous painters, particularly in some wherein the
panel of S. Spirito is drawn, with others showing the chapel in Prato.
FOOTNOTES:
[12] See note on p. 57, Vol. I.
PAOLO ROMANO, MAESTRO MINO, AND CHIMENTI CAMICIA
LIVES OF PAOLO ROMANO AND MAESTRO MINO, SCULPTORS
[_MINO DEL REGNO, OR MINO DEL REAME_]
AND CHIMENTI CAMICIA, ARCHITECT
We have now to speak of Paolo Romano and Mino del Regno, who were
contemporaries and of the same profession, but very different in
character and in knowledge of art, for Paolo was modest and quite able,
and Mino much less able, but so presumptuous and arrogant, that he was
not only overbearing in his actions, but also with his speech exalted
his own works beyond all due measure. When Pope Pius II gave a
commission for a figure to the Roman sculptor Paolo, Mino tormented and
persecuted him out of envy so greatly, that Paolo, who was a good and
most modest man, was forced to show resentment. Whereupon Mino, falling
into a rage with Paolo, offered to bet a thousand ducats that he would
make a figure better than Paolo's; and this he said with the greatest
presumption and effrontery, knowing the nature of Paolo, who disliked
any annoyance, and believing that he would not accept such a challenge.
But Paolo accepted the invitation, and Mino, half repentant, bet a
hundred ducats merely to save his honour The figures finished, the
victory was given to Paolo as a rare and excellent master, which he was;
and Mino was scorned as the sort of craftsman whose words were worth
more than his works.