of heresy before his vicar, and the friend, on appearing, asked who
the accuser was and what the accusation; and having been told that it
was Sandro, who had charged him with holding the opinion of the
Epicureans, and believing that the soul dies with the body, he insisted
on being confronted with the accuser before the judge. Sandro therefore
appeared, and the other said: "It is true that I hold this opinion with
regard to this man's soul, for he is an animal. Nay, does it not seem to
you that he is the heretic, since without a scrap of learning, and
scarcely knowing how to read, he plays the commentator to Dante and
takes his name in vain?"
It is also said that he had a surpassing love for all whom he saw to be
zealous students of art; and that he earned much, but wasted everything
through negligence and lack of management. Finally, having grown old and
useless, and being forced to walk with crutches, without which he could
not stand upright, he died, infirm and decrepit, at the age of
seventy-eight, and was buried in Ognissanti at Florence in the year
1515.
In the guardaroba of the Lord Duke Cosimo there are two very beautiful
heads of women in profile by his hand, one of which is said to be the
mistress of Giuliano de' Medici, brother of Lorenzo, and the other
Madonna Lucrezia de' Tornabuoni, wife of the said Lorenzo. In the same
place, likewise by the hand of Sandro, is a Bacchus who is raising a
cask with both his hands, and putting it to his mouth--a very graceful
figure. And in the Duomo of Pisa he began an Assumption, with a choir of
angels, in the Chapel of the Impagliata; but afterwards, being
displeased with it, he left it unfinished. In S. Francesco at
Montevarchi he painted the panel of the high-altar; and in the Pieve of
Empoli, on the same side as the S. Sebastian of Rossellino, he made two
angels. He was among the first to discover the method of decorating
standards and other sorts of hangings with the so-called inlaid work, to
the end that the colours might not fade and might show the tint of the
cloth on either side. By his hand, and made thus, is the baldacchino of
Orsanmichele, covered with beautiful and varied figures of Our Lady;
which proves how much better such a method preserves the cloth than does
the use of mordants, which eat it away and make its life but short,
although, being less costly, mordants are now used more than anything
else.
Sandro's drawings were extraordinarily good, and so many, that for some
time after his death all the craftsmen strove to obtain some of them;
and we have some in our book, made with great mastery and judgment. His
scenes abounded with figures, as may be seen from the embroidered border
of the Cross that the Friars of S. Maria Novella carry in processions,
all made from his design. Great was the praise, then, that Sandro
deserved for all the pictures that he chose to make with diligence and
love, as he did the aforesaid panel of the Magi in S. Maria Novella,
which is marvellous. Very beautiful, too, is a little round picture by
his hand that is seen in the apartment of the Prior of the Angeli in
Florence, in which the figures are small but very graceful and wrought
with beautiful consideration. Of the same size as the aforesaid panel of
the Magi, and by the same man's hand, is a picture in the possession of
Messer Fabio Segni, a gentlemen of Florence, in which there is painted
the Calumny of Apelles, as beautiful as any picture could be. Under this
panel, which Sandro himself presented to Antonio Segni, who was much his
friend, there may now be read the following verses, written by the said
Messer Fabio:
INDICIO QUEMQUAM NE FALSO LAEDERE TENTENT
TERRARUM REGES, PARVA TABELLA MONET.
HUIC SIMILEM AEGYPTI REGI DONAVIT APELLES;
REX FUIT ET DIGNUS MUNERE, MUNUS EO.
[Illustration: THE CALUMNY OF APELLES
(_After the panel by =Sandro Botticelli=. Florence: Uffizi, 1182_)
_M. S._]
FOOTNOTES:
[26] See note on p. 57, Vol. 1.
[27] Mourner, or Weeper.
BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
LIFE OF BENEDETTO DA MAIANO
SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT
Benedetto da Maiano, a sculptor of Florence, who was in his earliest
years a wood-carver, was held the most able master of all who were then
handling the tools of that profession; and he was particularly excellent
as a craftsman in that form of work which, as has been said elsewhere,
was introduced at the time of Filippo Brunelleschi and Paolo
Uccello--namely, the inlaying of pieces of wood tinted with various
colours, in order to make views in perspective, foliage, and many other
diverse things of fancy. In this craft, then, Benedetto da Maiano was in
his youth the best master that there was to be found, as is clearly
demonstrated by many works of his that are to be seen in various parts
of Florence, particularly by all the presses in the Sacristy of S. Maria
del Fiore, the greater part of which he finished after the death of his
uncle Giuliano; these are full of figures executed in inlaid work,
foliage, and other devices, all wrought with great expense and
craftsmanship. Having gained a very great name through the novelty of
this art, he made many works, which were sent to diverse places and to
various Princes; and among others King Alfonso of Naples had the
furniture for a study, made under the direction of Giuliano, uncle of
Benedetto, who was serving that King as architect. Benedetto himself
went to join him there; but, being displeased with the position, he
returned to Florence, where, no long time after, he made for Matthias
Corvinus, King of Hungary, who had many Florentines in his Court and
took delight in all rare works, a pair of coffers inlaid in wood with
difficult and most beautiful craftsmanship. He then determined, being
invited with great favour by that King, to consent to go thither at all
costs; and so, having packed up his coffers and embarked with them on
board ship, he set off for Hungary. There, after doing obeisance to that
King, by whom he was received most graciously, he sent for the said
coffers and had them unpacked in the presence of the monarch, who was
very eager to see them; whereupon he saw that the damp from the water
and the exhalations from the sea had so softened the glue, that, on the
opening of the waxed cloths, almost all the pieces which had been
attached to the coffers fell to the ground. Whether Benedetto,
therefore, in the presence of so many nobles, stood in dumb amazement,
everyone may judge for himself. However, putting the work together as
well as he was able, he contrived to leave the King well enough
satisfied; but in spite of this he took an aversion to that craft and
could no longer endure it, through the shame that it had brought upon
him.
And so, casting off all timidity, he devoted himself to sculpture, in
which art he had already worked at Loreto while living with his uncle
Giuliano, making a lavatory with certain angels of marble for the
sacristy. Labouring at this art, before he left Hungary he gave that
King to know that if he had been put to shame at the beginning, the
fault had lain with that craft, which was a mean one, and not with his
intellect, which was rare and exalted. Having therefore made in those
parts certain works both in clay and in marble, which gave great
pleasure to that King, he returned to Florence; and he had no sooner
arrived there than he was commissioned by the Signori to make the marble
ornament for the door of their Audience Chamber. For this he made some
boys supporting with their arms certain festoons, all very beautiful;
but the most beautiful part of the work was the figure in the middle,
two braccia in height, of a young S. John, which is held to be a thing
of rare excellence. And to the end that the whole work might be by his
own hand, he made by himself the wood-work that closes the said door,
and executed a figure with inlaid woods on either part of it, that is,
Dante on one and Petrarca on the other; which two figures are enough to
show to any man who may have seen no other work of that kind by the hand
of Benedetto, how rare and excellent a master he was of that craft. This
Audience Chamber has been painted in our own day by Francesco Salviati
at the command of the Lord Duke Cosimo, as will be told in the proper
place.
[Illustration: PULPIT IN S. CROCE, FLORENCE
(_After =Benedetto da Maiano=. Florence_)
_Alinari_]
In S. Maria Novella at Florence, where Filippino painted the chapel,
Benedetto afterwards made a tomb of black marble, with a Madonna and
certain angels in a medallion, with much diligence, for the elder
Filippo Strozzi, whose portrait, which he made there in marble, is now
in the Strozzi Palace. The same Benedetto was commissioned by the elder
Lorenzo de' Medici to make in S. Maria del Fiore a portrait of the
Florentine painter Giotto, which he placed over the epitaph, of which
enough has been said above in the Life of Giotto himself. This piece of
marble sculpture is held to be passing good. Having afterwards gone to
Naples by reason of the death of his uncle Giuliano, whose heir he was,
Benedetto, besides certain works that he executed for that King, made a
marble panel for the Count of Terranuova in the Monastery of the Monks
of Monte Oliveto, containing an Annunciation with certain saints, and
surrounded by very beautiful boys, who are supporting some festoons; and
in the predella of the said work he made many low-reliefs in a good
manner. In Faenza he made a very beautiful tomb of marble for the body
of S. Savino, and on this he wrought six scenes in low-relief from the
life of that Saint, with much invention and design both in the buildings
and in the figures; insomuch that both from this work and from others by
his hand he was recognized as a man excellent in sculpture. Wherefore,
before he left Romagna, he was commissioned to make a portrait of
Galeotto Malatesta. He also made one, I know not whether before this or
after, of Henry VII, King of England, after a drawing on paper that he
had received from some Florentine merchants. The studies for these two
portraits, together with many other things, were found in his house
after his death.
Having finally returned to Florence, he made in S. Croce, for Pietro
Mellini, a citizen of Florence and a very rich merchant at that time,
the marble pulpit that is seen there, which is held to be a very rare
thing and more beautiful than any other that has ever been executed in
that manner, since the marble figures that are to be seen therein, in
the stories of S. Francis, are wrought with so great excellence and
diligence that nothing more could be looked for in marble. For with
great art Benedetto carved there trees, rocks, houses, views in
perspective, and certain things in marvellously bold relief; not to
mention a projection on the ground below the said pulpit, which serves
as a tombstone, wrought with so much design that it is not possible to
praise it enough. It is said that in making this work he had some
difficulty with the Wardens of Works of S. Croce, because, while he
wished to erect the said pulpit against a column that sustains some of
the arches which support the roof, and to perforate that column in order
to accommodate the steps and the entrance to the pulpit, they would not
consent, fearing lest it might be so weakened by the hollow required for
the steps as to collapse under the weight above, with great damage to a
part of that church. But Mellini having guaranteed that the work would
be finished without any injury to the church, they finally consented.
Having, therefore, bound the outer side of the column with bands of
bronze (the part, namely, from the pulpit downwards, which is covered
with hard stone), Benedetto made within it the steps for ascending to
the pulpit, and in proportion as he hollowed it out within, so did he
strengthen the outer side with the said hard stone, in the manner that
is still to be seen. And he brought this work to perfection to the
amazement of all who see it, showing in each part and in the whole
together the utmost excellence that could be desired in such a work.
Many declare that the elder Filippo Strozzi, when intending to build his
palace, sought the advice of Benedetto, who made him a model, according
to which it was begun, although it was afterwards carried on and
finished by Cronaca on the death of Benedetto. The latter, having
acquired enough to live upon, would do no more works in marble after
those described above, save that he finished in S. Trinita the S. Mary
Magdalene begun by Desiderio da Settignano, and made the Crucifix that
is over the altar of S. Maria del Fiore, with certain others like it.
As for architecture, although he put his hand to but few works, yet in
these he showed no less judgment than in sculpture; particularly in
three ceilings which were made at very great expense, under his guidance
and direction, in the Palace of the Signoria at Florence. The first of
these was the ceiling of the hall that is now called the Sala de'
Dugento, over which it was proposed to make, not a similar hall, but two
apartments, that is, a hall and an audience chamber, so that it was
necessary to make a wall, and no light one either, containing a marble
door of reasonable thickness; wherefore, for the execution of such a
work, there was need of intelligence and judgment no less than those
possessed by Benedetto.
Benedetto, then, in order not to diminish the said hall and yet divide
the space above into two, went to work in the following manner. On a
beam one braccio in thickness, and as long as the whole breadth of the
hall, he laid another consisting of two pieces, in such a manner that it
projected with its thickness to the height of two-thirds of a braccio.
At the ends, these two beams, bound and secured together very firmly,
gave a height of two braccia at the edge of the wall on each side; and
the said two ends were grooved with a claw-shaped cut, in such a way
that there could be laid upon them an arch of half a braccio in
thickness, made of two layers of bricks, with its flanks resting on the
principal walls. These two beams, then, were dove-tailed together with
tenon and mortise, and so firmly bound and united with good bands of
iron, that out of two there was made one single beam. Besides this,
having made the said arch, and wishing that these timbers of the ceiling
should have nothing more to sustain than the wall under the arch, and
that the arch itself should sustain the rest, he also attached to this
arch two great supports of iron, which, being firmly bolted to the said
beams below, upheld and still uphold them; while, even if they were not
to suffice by themselves, the arch would be able--by means of the said
supports which encircle the beams, one on one side of the marble door
and one on the other--to support a weight much greater than that of the
partition wall, which is made of bricks and half a braccio in thickness.
What is more, he had the bricks in the said wall laid on edge and in the
manner of an arch, so that the pressure came against the solid part, at
the corners, and the whole was thus more stable. In this manner, by
means of the good judgment of Benedetto, the said Sala de' Dugento
remained as large as before, and over the same space, with a partition
wall between, were made the hall that is called the Sala dell'
Orivolo[28] and the Audience Chamber wherein is the Triumph of Camillus,
painted by the hand of Salviati. The soffit of this ceiling was richly
wrought and carved by Marco del Tasso and his brothers, Domenico and
Giuliano, who likewise executed that of the Sala dell' Orivolo and that
of the Audience Chamber. And since the said marble door had been made
double by Benedetto, on the arch of the inner door--we have already
spoken of the outer one--he wrought a seated figure of Justice in
marble, with the globe of the world in one hand and a sword in the
other; and round the arch run the following words:
DILIGITE JUSTITIAM QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.
The whole of this work was executed with marvellous diligence and art.
For the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie, which is a little distance
without the city of Arezzo, the same man made a portico with a flight of
steps in front of the door. In making the portico he placed the arches
on the columns, and right round alongside the roof he made an
architrave, frieze, and great cornice; and in the latter, by way of
drip, he placed a garland of rosettes carved in grey-stone, which jut
out to the extent of one braccio and a third, insomuch that between the
projection of the front of the cyma above to the dentils and ovoli below
the drip there is a space of two braccia and a half, which, with the
half braccio added by the tiles, makes a projecting roof all round of
three braccia in width, beautiful, rich, useful, and ingenious. In this
work there is a contrivance worthy to be well considered by craftsmen,
for, wishing to give this roof all that projection without modillions or
corbels to support it, he made the slabs, on which the rosettes are
carved, so large that only the half of their length projected, and the
other half was built into the solid wall; wherefore, being thus
counterpoised, they were able to support the rest and all that was laid
upon them, as they have done up to the present day, without any danger
to that building. And since he did not wish this roof to appear to be
made, as it was, of pieces, he surrounded it all, piece by piece, with a
moulding made of sections well dove-tailed and let into one another,
which served as a ground to the garland of rosettes; and this united the
whole work together in such a manner that all who see it judge it to be
of one piece. In the same place he had a flat ceiling made of gilded
rosettes, which is much extolled.
Now Benedetto had bought a farm without Prato, on the road from the
Porta Fiorentina in the direction of Florence, and no more than half a
mile from that place. On the main road, beside the gate, he built a most
beautiful little chapel, with a niche wherein he placed a Madonna with
the Child in her arms, so well wrought in terra-cotta, that even as it
is, with no other colour, it is as beautiful as if it were of marble. So
are two angels that are above by way of ornament, each with a
candelabrum in his hand. On the predella of the altar there is a Pieta
with Our Lady and S. John, made of marble and very beautiful. At his
death he left in his house many things begun both in clay and in marble.
Benedetto was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in certain
drawings in our book. Finally he died in 1498, at the age of fifty-four,
and was honourably buried in S. Lorenzo; and he left directions that all
his property, after the death of certain of his relatives, should go to
the Company of the Bigallo.
While Benedetto in his youth was working as a joiner and at the inlaying
of wood, he had among his rivals Baccio Cellini, piper to the Signoria
of Florence, who made many very beautiful inlaid works in ivory, and
among others an octagon of figures in ivory, outlined in black and
marvellously beautiful, which is in the guardaroba of the Duke. In like
manner, Girolamo della Cecca, a pupil of Baccio and likewise piper to
the Signoria, also executed many inlaid works at that same time. A
contemporary of these was David Pistoiese, who made a S. John the
Evangelist of inlaid work at the entrance to the choir of S. Giovanni
Evangelista in Pistoia--a work more notable for great diligence in
execution than for any great design. There was also Geri Aretino, who
wrought the choir and the pulpit of S. Agostino at Arezzo with figures
and views in perspective, likewise of inlaid wood. This Geri was a very
fanciful man, and he made with wooden pipes an organ most perfect in
sweetness and softness, which is still at the present day over the door
of the Sacristy of the Vescovado at Arezzo, with its original goodness
as sound as ever--a work worthy of marvel, and first put into execution
by him. But not one of these men, nor any other, was as excellent by a
great measure as was Benedetto; wherefore he deserves to be ever
numbered with praise among the best craftsmen of his professions.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] _I.e._, clock.
ANDREA VERROCCHIO
[Illustration: DAVID
(_After the bronze by =Andrea Verrocchio=. Florence: Bargello_)
_Anderson_]
LIFE OF ANDREA VERROCCHIO
PAINTER, SCULPTOR, AND ARCHITECT OF FLORENCE
Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine, was in his day a goldsmith, a
master of perspective, a sculptor, a wood-carver, a painter, and a
musician; but in the arts of sculpture and painting, to tell the truth,
he had a manner somewhat hard and crude, as one who acquired it rather
by infinite study than by the facility of a natural gift. Even if he had
been as poor in this facility as he was rich in the study and diligence
that exalted him, he would have been most excellent in those arts,
which, for their highest perfection, require a union of study and
natural power. If either of these is wanting, a man rarely attains to
the first rank; but study will do a great deal, and thus Andrea, who had
it in greater abundance than any other craftsman whatsoever, is counted
among the rare and excellent masters of our arts.
In his youth he applied himself to the sciences, particularly to
geometry. Among many other things that he made while working at the
goldsmith's art were certain buttons for copes, which are in S. Maria
del Fiore at Florence; and he also made larger works, particularly a
cup, full of animals, foliage, and other bizarre fancies, which is known
to all goldsmiths, and casts are taken of it; and likewise another, on
which there is a very beautiful dance of little children. Having given a
proof of his powers in these two works, he was commissioned by the Guild
of Merchants to make two scenes in silver for the ends of the altar of
S. Giovanni, from which, when put into execution, he acquired very great
praise and fame.
There were wanting at this time in Rome some of those large figures of
the Apostles which generally stood on the altar of the Chapel of the
Pope, as well as certain other works in silver that had been destroyed;
wherefore Pope Sixtus sent for Andrea and with great favour commissioned
him to do all that was necessary in this matter, and he brought the
whole to perfection with much diligence and judgment. Meanwhile,
perceiving that the many antique statues and other things that were
being found in Rome were held in very great esteem, insomuch that the
famous bronze horse was set up by the Pope at S. Giovanni Laterano, and
that even the fragments--not to speak of complete works--which were
being discovered every day, were prized, Andrea determined to devote
himself to sculpture. And so, completely abandoning the goldsmith's art,
he set himself to cast some little figures in bronze, which were greatly
extolled. Thereupon, growing in courage, he began to work in marble. Now
in those days the wife of Francesco Tornabuoni had died in childbirth,
and her husband, who had loved her much, and wished to honour her in
death to the utmost of his power, entrusted the making of a tomb for her
to Andrea, who carved on a slab over a sarcophagus of marble the lady
herself, her delivery, and her passing to the other life; and beside
this he made three figures of Virtues, which were held very beautiful,
for the first work that he had executed in marble; and this tomb was set
up in the Minerva.
Having then returned to Florence with money, fame, and honour, he was
commissioned to make a David of bronze, two braccia and a half in
height, which, when finished, was placed in the Palace, with great
credit to himself, at the head of the staircase, where the Catena was.
The while that he was executing the said statue, he also made that
Madonna of marble which is over the tomb of Messer Lionardo Bruni of
Arezzo in S. Croce; this he wrought, when still quite young, for
Bernardo Rossellino, architect and sculptor, who executed the whole of
that work in marble, as has been said. The same Andrea made a
half-length Madonna in half-relief, with the Child in her arms, in a
marble panel, which was formerly in the house of the Medici, and is now
placed, as a very beautiful thing, over a door in the apartment of the
Duchess of Florence. He also made two heads of metal, likewise in
half-relief; one of Alexander the Great, in profile, and the other a
fanciful portrait of Darius; each being a separate work by itself, with
variety in the crests, armour, and everything else. Both these heads
were sent to Hungary by the elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent,
to King Matthias Corvinus, together with many other things, as will be
told in the proper place.