will be written below, and Lodovico Malino, likewise of Ferrara, by whom
there are many works in his native city and in other places; but the
best that he made was a panel which is in the Church of S. Francesco in
Bologna, in a chapel near the principal door, representing Jesus Christ
at the age of twelve disputing with the Doctors in the Temple. The elder
Dosso of Ferrara, of whose works mention will be made in the proper
place, also learnt his first principles from Costa. And this is as much
as I have been able to gather about the life and works of Lorenzo Costa
of Ferrara.
ERCOLE FERRARESE
LIFE OF ERCOLE FERRARESE
[_ERCOLE DA FERRARA_]
PAINTER
Although, long before Lorenzo Costa died, his disciple Ercole Ferrarese
was in very good repute and was invited to work in many places, he would
never abandon his master (a thing which is rarely wont to happen), and
was content to work with him for meagre gains and praise, rather than
labour by himself for greater profit and credit. For this gratitude, in
view of its rarity among the men of to-day, all the more praise is due
to Ercole, who, knowing himself to be indebted to Lorenzo, put aside all
thought of his own interest in favour of his master's wishes, and was
like a brother or a son to him up to the end of his life.
Ercole, then, who was a better draughtsman than Costa, painted, below
the panel executed by Lorenzo in the Chapel of S. Vincenzio in S.
Petronio, certain scenes in distemper with little figures, so well and
with so beautiful and good a manner, that it is scarcely possible to see
anything better, or to imagine the labour and diligence that Ercole put
into the work: and thus the predella is a much better painting than the
panel. Both were wrought at one and the same time during the life of
Costa. After his master's death, Ercole was employed by Domenico
Garganelli to finish that chapel in S. Petronio which Lorenzo, as has
been said above, had begun, completing only a small part. Ercole, to
whom the said Domenico was giving four ducats a month for this, with his
own expenses and those of a boy, and all the colours that were to be
used for the painting, set himself to work and finished the whole in
such a manner, that he surpassed his master by a long way both in
drawing and colouring as well as in invention. In the first part, or
rather, wall, is the Crucifixion of Christ, wrought with much judgment:
for besides the Christ, who is seen there already dead, he represented
very well the tumult of the Jews who have come to see the Messiah on the
Cross, among whom there is a marvellous variety of heads, whereby it is
seen that Ercole sought with very great pains to make them so different
one from another that they should not resemble each other in any
respect. There are also some figures bursting into tears of sorrow,
which demonstrate clearly enough how much he sought to imitate reality.
There is the swooning of the Madonna, which is most moving; but much
more so are the Maries, who are facing her, for they are seen full of
compassion and with an aspect so heavy with sorrow, that it is almost
impossible to imagine it, at seeing that which mankind holds most dear
dead before their eyes, and themselves in danger of losing the second.
Among other notable things in this work is Longinus on horseback, riding
a lean beast, which is foreshortened and in very strong relief; and in
him we see the impiety that made him pierce the side of Christ, and the
penitence and conversion that followed from his enlightenment. He gave
strange attitudes, likewise, to the figures of certain soldiers who are
playing for the raiment of Christ, with bizarre expressions of
countenance and fanciful garments. Well wrought, too, with beautiful
invention, are the Thieves on the Cross. And since Ercole took much
delight in making foreshortenings, which, if well conceived, are very
beautiful, he made in that work a soldier on a horse, which, rearing its
fore-legs on high, stands out in such a manner that it appears to be in
relief; and as the wind is bending a banner that the soldier holds in
his hand, he is making a most beautiful effort to hold it up. He also
made a S. John, flying away wrapped in a sheet. In like manner, the
soldiers that are in this work are very well wrought, with more natural
and appropriate movements than had been seen in any other figures up to
that time; and all these attitudes and gestures, which could scarcely be
better done, show that Ercole had a very great intelligence and took
great pains with his art.
On the wall opposite to this one the same man painted the Passing of Our
Lady, who is surrounded by the Apostles in very beautiful attitudes,
among whom are six figures portrayed so well from life, that those
who knew them declare that these are most vivid likenesses. In the
same work he also made his own portrait, and that of Domenico
Garganelli, the owner of the chapel, who, when it was finished, moved by
the love that he bore to Ercole and by the praises that he heard given
to the work, bestowed upon him a thousand lire in Bolognese currency. It
is said that Ercole spent twelve years in labouring at this work; seven
in executing it in fresco, and five in retouching it on the dry. It is
true, indeed, that during this time he painted some other works; and in
particular, so far as is known, the predella of the high-altar of S.
Giovanni in Monte, in which he wrought three scenes of the Passion of
Christ.
[Illustration: THE ISRAELITES GATHERING MANNA
(_After the panel by =Ercole Ferrarese=. London: National Gallery,
1217_)
_Mansell_]
Ercole was eccentric in character, particularly in his custom of
refusing to let any man, whether painter or not, see him at work;
wherefore he was greatly hated in Bologna by the painters of that city,
who have ever borne an envious hatred to the strangers who have been
summoned to work there; nay, they sometimes show the same among
themselves out of rivalry with each other, although this may be said to
be the particular vice of the professors of these our arts in every
place. Certain Bolognese painters, then, having come to an agreement one
day with a carpenter, shut themselves up by his help in the church,
close to the chapel where Ercole was working; and when night came,
breaking into it by force, they did not content themselves with seeing
the work, which should have sufficed them, but carried off all his
cartoons, sketches, and designs, and every other thing of value that was
there. At this Ercole fell into such disdain that when the work was
finished he departed from Bologna, without stopping another day there,
taking with him Duca Tagliapietra, a sculptor of much renown, who carved
the very beautiful foliage in marble which is in the parapet in front of
the chapel wherein Ercole painted the said work, and who afterwards made
all the stone windows of the Ducal Palace at Ferrara, which are most
beautiful. Ercole, therefore, weary at length of living away from home,
remained ever after in company with this man in Ferrara, and made many
works in that city.
Ercole had an extraordinary love of wine, and his frequent drunkenness
did much to shorten his life, which he had enjoyed without any accident
up to the age of forty, when he was smitten one day by apoplexy, which
made an end of him in a short time.
He left a pupil, the painter Guido Bolognese, who, in 1491, as may be
seen from the place where he put his name, under the portico of S.
Pietro at Bologna, painted a Crucifixion in fresco, with the Maries, the
Thieves, horses, and other passing good figures. And desiring very
greatly to become esteemed in that city, as his master had been, he
studied so zealously and subjected himself to so many hardships that he
died at the age of thirty-five. If Guido had set himself to learn his
art in his childhood, and not, as he did, at the age of eighteen, he
would not only have equalled his master without difficulty, but would
even have surpassed him by a great measure. In our book there are
drawings by the hands of Ercole and Guido, very well wrought, and
executed with grace and in a good manner.
JACOPO, GIOVANNI, AND GENTILE BELLINI
LIVES OF JACOPO, GIOVANNI, AND GENTILE BELLINI
PAINTERS OF VENICE
Enterprises that are founded on excellence, although their beginnings
often appear humble and mean, keep climbing higher step by step, nor do
they ever halt or take rest until they have reached the supreme heights
of glory: as could be clearly seen from the poor and humble beginning of
the house of the Bellini, and from the rank to which it afterwards rose
by means of painting.
Jacopo Bellini, a painter of Venice, having been a disciple of Gentile
da Fabriano, worked in competition with that Domenico who taught the
method of colouring in oil to Andrea dal Castagno; but, although he
laboured greatly to become excellent in that art, he did not acquire
fame therein until after the departure of Domenico from Venice. Then,
finding himself in that city without any competitor to equal him, he
kept growing in credit and fame, and became so excellent that he was the
greatest and most renowned man in his profession. And to the end that
the name which he had acquired in painting might not only be maintained
in his house and for his descendants, but might grow greater, there were
born to him two sons of good and beautiful intelligence, strongly
inclined to the art: one was Giovanni, and the other Gentile, to whom he
gave that name in tender memory of Gentile da Fabriano, who had been his
master and like a loving father to him. Now, when the said two sons had
grown to a certain age, Jacopo himself with all diligence taught them
the rudiments of drawing; but no long time passed before both one and
the other surpassed his father by a great measure, whereat he rejoiced
greatly, ever encouraging them and showing them that he desired them to
do as the Tuscans did, who gloried among themselves in making efforts
to outstrip each other, according as one after another took up the art:
even so should Giovanni vanquish himself, and Gentile should vanquish
them both, and so on in succession.
The first works that brought fame to Jacopo were the portraits of
Giorgio Cornaro and of Caterina, Queen of Cyprus; a panel which he sent
to Verona, containing the Passion of Christ, with many figures, among
which he portrayed himself from the life; and a picture of the Story of
the Cross, which is said to be in the Scuola of S. Giovanni Evangelista.
All these works and many others were painted by Jacopo with the aid of
his sons; and the last-named picture was painted on canvas, as it has
been almost always the custom to do in that city, where they rarely
paint, as is done elsewhere, on panels of the wood of that tree that is
called by many oppio[18] and by some gattice.[19] This wood, which grows
mostly beside rivers or other waters, is very soft, and admirable for
painting on, for it holds very firmly when joined together with
carpenters' glue. But in Venice they make no panels, and, if they do
make a few, they use no other wood than that of the fir, of which that
city has a great abundance by reason of the River Adige, which brings a
very great quantity of it from Germany, not to mention that no small
amount comes from Sclavonia. It is much the custom in Venice, then, to
paint on canvas, either because it does not split and does not grow
worm-eaten, or because it enables pictures to be made of any size that
is desired, or because, as was said elsewhere, they can be sent easily
and conveniently wherever they are wanted, with very little expense and
labour. Be the reason what it may, Jacopo and Gentile, as was said
above, made their first works on canvas.
[Illustration: JACOPO BELLINI: THE MADONNA AND CHILD
(_Florence: Uffizi, 1562. Panel_)]
To the last-named Story of the Cross Gentile afterwards added by himself
seven other pictures, or rather, eight, in which he painted the miracle
of the Cross of Christ, which the said Scuola preserves as a relic;
which miracle was as follows. The said Cross was thrown, I know not by
what chance, from the Ponte della Paglia into the Canal, and, by reason
of the reverence that many bore to the piece of the Cross of Christ that
it contained, they threw themselves into the water to recover it; but it
was the will of God that no one should be worthy to succeed in grasping
it save the Prior of that Scuola. Gentile, therefore, representing
this story, drew in perspective, along the Grand Canal, many houses, the
Ponte della Paglia, the Piazza di S. Marco, and a long procession of men
and women walking behind the clergy; also many who have leapt into the
water, others in the act of leaping, many half immersed, and others in
other very beautiful actions and attitudes; and finally he painted the
said Prior recovering the Cross. Truly great were the labour and
diligence of Gentile in this work, considering the infinite number of
people, the many portraits from life, the diminution of the figures in
the distance, and particularly the portraits of almost all the men who
then belonged to that Scuola, or rather, Confraternity. Last comes the
picture of the replacing of the said Cross, wrought with many beautiful
conceptions. All these scenes, painted on the aforesaid canvases,
acquired a very great name for Gentile.
[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI: THE DOGE LEONARDO LOREDANO
(_London: National Gallery, 189. Panel_)]
Afterwards, Jacopo withdrew to work entirely by himself, as did his two
sons, each of them devoting himself to his own studies in the art. Of
Jacopo I will make no further mention, seeing that his works were
nothing out of the ordinary in comparison with those of his sons, and
because he died not long after his sons withdrew themselves from him;
and I judge it much better to speak at some length only of Giovanni and
Gentile. I will not, indeed, forbear to say that although these brothers
retired to live each by himself, nevertheless they had so much respect
for each other, and both had such reverence for their father, that each,
extolling the other, ever held himself inferior in merit; and thus they
sought modestly to surpass one another no less in goodness and courtesy
than in the excellence of their art.
The first works of Giovanni were some portraits from the life, which
gave much satisfaction, and particularly that of Doge Loredano--although
some say that this was a portrait of Giovanni Mozzenigo, brother of that
Piero who was Doge many years before Loredano. Giovanni then painted a
panel for the altar of S. Caterina da Siena in the Church of S.
Giovanni, in which picture--a rather large one--he painted Our Lady
seated, with the Child in her arms, and S. Dominic, S. Jerome, S.
Catherine, S. Ursula, and two other Virgins; and at the feet of the
Madonna he made three boys standing, who are singing from a book--a very
beautiful group. Above this he made the inner part of a vault in a
building, which is very beautiful. This work was one of the best that
had been made in Venice up to that time. For the altar of S. Giobbe in
the Church of that Saint, the same man painted a panel with good design
and most beautiful colouring, in the middle of which he made the Madonna
with the Child in her arms, seated on a throne slightly raised from the
ground, with nude figures of S. Job and S. Sebastian, beside whom are S.
Dominic, S. Francis, S. John, and S. Augustine; and below are three
boys, sounding instruments with much grace. This picture was not only
praised then, when it was seen as new, but it has likewise been extolled
ever afterwards as a very beautiful work.
Certain noblemen, moved by the great praises won by these works, began
to suggest that it would be a fine thing, in view of the presence of
such rare masters, to have the Hall of the Great Council adorned with
stories, in which there should be depicted the glories and the
magnificence of their marvellous city--her great deeds, her exploits in
war, her enterprises, and other things of that kind, worthy to be
perpetuated by painting in the memory of those who should come after--to
the end that there might be added, to the profit and pleasure drawn from
the reading of history, entertainment both for the eye and for the
intellect, from seeing the images of so many illustrious lords wrought
by the most skilful hands, and the glorious works of so many noblemen
right worthy of eternal memory and fame. And so Giovanni and Gentile,
who kept on making progress from day to day, received the commission for
this work by order of those who governed the city, who commanded them to
make a beginning as soon as possible. But it must be remarked that
Antonio Viniziano had made a beginning long before with the painting of
the same Hall, as was said in his Life, and had already finished a large
scene, when he was forced by the envy of certain malignant spirits to
depart and to leave that most honourable enterprise without carrying it
on further.
[Illustration: THE MIRACLE OF THE TRUE CROSS
(_After the panel by =Gentile Bellini=. Venice: Accademia, 568_)
_Anderson_]
Now Gentile, either because he had more experience and greater skill in
painting on canvas than in fresco, or for some other reason, whatever it
may have been, contrived without difficulty to obtain leave to
execute that work not in fresco but on canvas. And thus, setting to
work, in the first scene he made the Pope presenting a wax candle to the
Doge, that he might bear it in the solemn processions which were to take
place; in which picture Gentile painted the whole exterior of S. Marco,
and made the said Pope standing in his pontifical robes, with many
prelates behind him, and the Doge likewise standing, accompanied by many
Senators. In another part he represented the Emperor Barbarossa; first,
when he is receiving the Venetian envoys in friendly fashion, and then,
when he is preparing for war, in great disdain; in which scene are very
beautiful perspectives, with innumerable portraits from the life,
executed with very good grace and amid a vast number of figures. In the
following scene he painted the Pope exhorting the Doge and the Signori
of Venice to equip thirty galleys at their common expense, to go out to
battle against Frederick Barbarossa. This Pope is seated in his rochet
on the pontifical chair, with the Doge beside him and many Senators at
his feet. In this part, also, Gentile painted the Piazza and the facade
of S. Marco, and the sea, but in another manner, with so great a
multitude of men that it is truly a marvel. Then in another part the
same Pope, standing in his pontifical robes, is giving his benediction
to the Doge, who appears to be setting out for the fray, armed, and with
many soldiers at his back; behind the Doge are seen innumerable noblemen
in a long procession, and in the same part are the Palace and S. Marco,
drawn in perspective. This is one of the best works that there are to be
seen by the hand of Gentile, although there appears to be more invention
in that other which represents a naval battle, because it contains an
infinite number of galleys fighting together and an incredible multitude
of men, and because, in short, he showed clearly therein that he had no
less knowledge of naval warfare than of his own art of painting. And
indeed, all that Gentile executed in this work--the crowd of galleys
engaged in battle; the soldiers fighting; the boats duly diminishing in
perspective; the finely ordered combat; the soldiers furiously striving,
defending, and striking; the wounded dying in various manners; the
cleaving of the water by the galleys; the confusion of the waves; and
all the kinds of naval armament--all this vast diversity of subjects,
I say, cannot but serve to prove the great spirit, art, invention, and
judgment of Gentile, each detail being most excellently wrought in
itself, as well as the composition of the whole. In another scene he
made the Doge returning with the victory so much desired, and the Pope
receiving him with open arms, and giving him a ring of gold wherewith to
espouse the sea, as his successors have done and still do every year, as
a sign of the true and perpetual dominion that they deservedly hold over
it. In this part there is Otto, son of Frederick Barbarossa, portrayed
from the life, and kneeling before the Pope; and as behind the Doge
there are many armed soldiers, so behind the Pope there are many
Cardinals and noblemen. In this scene only the poops of the galleys
appear; and on the Admiral's galley is seated a Victory painted to look
like gold, with a crown on her head and a sceptre in her hand.
The scenes that were to occupy the other parts of the Hall were
entrusted to Giovanni, the brother of Gentile; but since the order of
the stories that he painted there is connected with those executed in
great part, but not finished, by Vivarino, it is necessary to say
something of the latter. That part of the Hall which was not done by
Gentile was given partly to Giovanni and partly to the said Vivarino, to
the end that rivalry might induce each man to do his best. Vivarino,
then, putting his hand to the part that belonged to him, painted, beside
the last scene of Gentile, the aforesaid Otto offering to the Pope and
to the Venetians to go to conclude peace between them and his father
Frederick; and, having obtained this, he is dismissed on oath and goes
his way. In this first part, besides other things, which are all worthy
of consideration, Vivarino painted an open temple in beautiful
perspective, with steps and many figures. Before the Pope, who is seated
and surrounded by many Senators, is the said Otto on his knees, binding
himself by an oath. Beside this scene, he painted the arrival of Otto
before his father, who is receiving him gladly; with buildings wrought
most beautifully in perspective, Barbarossa on his throne, and his son
kneeling and taking his hand, accompanied by many Venetian noblemen, who
are portrayed from the life so finely that it is clear that he imitated
nature very well. Poor Vivarino would have completed the remainder
of his part with great honour to himself, but, having died, as it
pleased God, from exhaustion and through being of a weakly habit of
body, he carried it no further--nay, even what he had done was not
wholly finished, and it was necessary for Giovanni Bellini to retouch it
in certain places.
[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI: LA FORTUNA
(_Venice: Accademia, 595. Panel_)]
[Illustration: GIOVANNI BELLINI: THE DEAD CHRIST
(_Milan: Poldi Pezzoli, 624. Panel_)]
Meanwhile, Giovanni had also made a beginning with four scenes, which
follow in due order those mentioned above. In the first he painted the
said Pope in S. Marco--which church he portrayed exactly as it
stood--presenting his foot to Frederick Barbarossa to kiss; but this
first picture of Giovanni's, whatever may have been the reason, was
rendered much more lifelike and incomparably better by the most
excellent Tiziano. However, continuing his scenes, Giovanni made in the
next the Pope saying Mass in S. Marco, and afterwards, between the said
Emperor and the Doge, granting plenary and perpetual indulgence to all
who should visit the said Church of S. Marco at certain times,
particularly at that of the Ascension of Our Lord. There he depicted the
interior of that church, with the said Pope in his pontifical robes at
the head of the steps that issue from the choir, surrounded by many
Cardinals and noblemen--a vast group, which makes this a crowded, rich,
and beautiful scene. In the one below this the Pope is seen in his
rochet, presenting a canopy to the Doge, after having given another to
the Emperor and keeping two for himself. In the last that Giovanni
painted are seen Pope Alexander, the Emperor, and the Doge arriving in
Rome, without the gates of which the Pope is presented by the clergy and
by the people of Rome with eight standards of various colours and eight
silver trumpets, which he gives to the Doge, that he and his successors
may have them for insignia. Here Giovanni painted Rome in somewhat
distant perspective, a great number of horses, and an infinity of
foot-soldiers, with many banners and other signs of rejoicing on the
Castle of S. Angelo. And since these works of Giovanni, which are truly
very beautiful, gave infinite satisfaction, arrangements were just being
made to give him the commission to paint all the rest of that Hall,
when, being now old, he died.