above all through many works in metal, in which he took much delight, he
made a tomb of bronze in S. Lorenzo, wholly in the round, for Giovanni
and Pietro di Cosimo de' Medici, with a sarcophagus of porphyry
supported by four corner-pieces of bronze, with twisted foliage very
well wrought and finished with the greatest diligence. This tomb stands
between the Chapel of the Sacrament and the Sacristy, and no work could
be better done, whether wrought in bronze or cast; above all since at
the same time he showed therein his talent in architecture, for he
placed the said tomb within the embrasure of a window which is about
five braccia in breadth and ten in height, and set it on a base that
divides the said Chapel of the Sacrament from the old Sacristy. And over
the sarcophagus, to fill up the embrasure right up to the vaulting, he
made a grating of bronze ropes in a pattern of mandorle, most natural,
and adorned in certain places with festoons and other beautiful things
of fancy, all remarkable and executed with much mastery, judgment, and
invention.
Now Donatello had made for the Tribunal of Six of the Mercanzia that
marble shrine which is now opposite to S. Michael, in the Oratory of
Orsanmichele, and for this there was to have been made a S. Thomas in
bronze, feeling for the wound in the side of Christ; but at that time
nothing more was done, for some of the men who had the charge of this
wished to have it made by Donatello, and others favoured Lorenzo
Ghiberti. Matters stood thus as long as Donatello and Ghiberti were
alive; but finally the said two statues were entrusted to Andrea, who,
having made the models and moulds, cast them; and they came out so
solid, complete, and well made, that it was a most beautiful casting.
Thereupon, setting himself to polish and finish them, he brought them
to that perfection which is seen at the present day, which could not be
greater than it is, for in S. Thomas we see incredulity and a too great
anxiety to assure himself of the truth, and at the same time the love
that makes him lay his hand in a most beautiful manner on the side of
Christ; and in Christ Himself, who is raising one arm and opening His
raiment with a most spontaneous gesture, and dispelling the doubts of
His incredulous disciple, there are all the grace and divinity, so to
speak, that art can give to any figure. Andrea clothed both these
figures in most beautiful and well-arranged draperies, which give us to
know that he understood that art no less than did Donato, Lorenzo, and
the others who had lived before him; wherefore this work well deserved
to be set up in a shrine made by Donatello, and to be ever afterwards
held in the greatest price and esteem.
Now the fame of Andrea could not go further or grow greater in that
profession, and he, as a man who was not content with being excellent in
one thing only, but desired to become the same in others as well by
means of study, turned his mind to painting, and so made the cartoons
for a battle of nude figures, very well drawn with the pen, to be
afterwards painted in colours on a wall. He also made the cartoons for
some historical pictures, and afterwards began to put them into
execution in colours; but for some reason, whatever it may have been,
they remained unfinished. There are some drawings by his hand in our
book, made with much patience and very great judgment, among which are
certain heads of women, beautiful in expression and in the adornment of
the hair, which Leonardo da Vinci was ever imitating for their beauty.
In our book, also, are two horses with the due measures and protractors
for reproducing them on a larger scale from a smaller, so that there may
be no errors in their proportions; and there is in my possession a
horse's head of terra-cotta in relief, copied from the antique, which is
a rare work. The Very Reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini has some of his
drawings in his book, of which we have spoken above; among others, a
design for a tomb made by him in Venice for a Doge, a scene of the
Adoration of Christ by the Magi, and the head of a woman painted on
paper with the utmost delicacy. He also made for Lorenzo de' Medici,
for the fountain of his Villa at Careggi, a boy of bronze squeezing a
fish, which the Lord Duke Cosimo has caused to be placed, as may be seen
at the present day, on the fountain that is in the courtyard of his
Palace; which boy is truly marvellous.
[Illustration: CORNER AND FOOT OF THE MEDICI SARCOPHAGUS
(_Detail, after =Andrea Verrocchio=. Florence: S. Lorenzo_)
_Alinari_]
Afterwards, the building of the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore having been
finished, it was resolved, after much discussion, that there should be
made the copper ball which, according to the instructions left by
Filippo Brunelleschi, was to be placed on the summit of that edifice.
Whereupon the task was given to Andrea, who made the ball four braccia
high, and, placing it on a knob, secured it in such a manner that
afterwards the cross could be safely erected upon it; and the whole
work, when finished, was put into position with very great rejoicing and
delight among the people. Truly great were the ingenuity and diligence
that had to be used in making it, to the end that it might be possible,
as it is, to enter it from below, and also in securing it with good
fastenings, lest the winds might do it damage.
Andrea was never at rest, but was ever labouring at some work either in
painting or in sculpture; and sometimes he would change from one to
another, in order to avoid growing weary of working always at the same
thing, as many do. Wherefore, although he did not put the aforesaid
cartoons into execution, yet he did paint certain pictures; among
others, a panel for the Nuns of S. Domenico in Florence, wherein it
appeared to him that he had acquitted himself very well; whence, no long
time after, he painted another in S. Salvi for the Monks of Vallombrosa,
containing the Baptism of Christ by S. John. In this work he was
assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, his disciple, then quite young, who
painted therein an angel with his own hand, which was much better than
the other parts of the work; and for that reason Andrea resolved never
again to touch a brush, since Leonardo, young as he was, had acquitted
himself in that art much better than he had done.
Now Cosimo de' Medici, having received many antiquities from Rome, had
caused to be set up within the door of his garden, or rather, courtyard,
which opens on the Via de' Ginori, a very beautiful Marsyas of white
marble, bound to a tree-trunk and ready to be flayed; and his grandson
Lorenzo, into whose hands there had come the torso and head of another
Marsyas, made of red stone, very ancient, and much more beautiful than
the first, wished to set it beside the other, but could not, because it
was so imperfect. Thereupon he gave it to Andrea to be restored and
completed, and he made the legs, thighs, and arms that were lacking in
this figure out of pieces of red marble, so well that Lorenzo was highly
satisfied and had it placed opposite to the other, on the other side of
the door. This ancient torso, made to represent a flayed Marsyas, was
wrought with such care and judgment that certain delicate white veins,
which were in the red stone, were carved by the craftsman exactly in the
right places, so as to appear to be little nerves, such as are seen in
real bodies when they have been flayed; which must have given to that
work, when it had its original finish, a most life-like appearance.
The Venetians, meanwhile, wishing to honour the great valour of
Bartolommeo da Bergamo, thanks to whom they had gained many victories,
in order to encourage others, and having heard the fame of Andrea,
summoned him to Venice, where he was commissioned to make an equestrian
statue of that captain in bronze, to be placed on the Piazza di SS.
Giovanni e Polo. Andrea, then, having made the model of the horse, had
already begun to get it ready for casting in bronze, when, thanks to the
favour of certain gentlemen, it was determined that Vellano da Padova
should make the figure and Andrea the horse. Having heard this, Andrea
broke the legs and head of his model and returned in great disdain to
Florence, without saying a word. The Signoria, receiving news of this,
gave him to understand that he should never be bold enough to return to
Venice, for they would cut his head off; to which he wrote in answer
that he would take good care not to, because, once they had cut a man's
head off, it was not in their power to put it on again, and certainly
not one like his own, whereas he could have replaced the head that he
had knocked off his horse with one even more beautiful. After this
answer, which did not displease those Signori, his payment was doubled
and he was persuaded to return to Venice, where he restored his first
model and cast it in bronze; but even then he did not finish it
entirely, for he caught a chill by overheating himself during the
casting, and died in that city within a few days; leaving unfinished
not only that work (although there was only a little polishing to be
done), which was set up in the place for which it was destined, but also
another which he was making in Pistoia, that is, the tomb of Cardinal
Forteguerra, with the three Theological Virtues, and a God the Father
above; which work was afterwards finished by Lorenzetto, a sculptor of
Florence.
[Illustration: STATUE OF BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI
(_After the bronze by =Andrea Verrocchio=. Venice: Campo SS. Giovanni e
Paolo_)
_Anderson_]
Andrea was fifty-six years of age when he died. His death caused
infinite grief to his friends and to his disciples, who were not few;
above all to the sculptor Nanni Grosso, a most eccentric person both in
his art and in his life. This man, it is said, would not have worked
outside his shop, particularly for monks or friars, if he had not had
free access to the door of the vault, or rather, wine-cellar, so that he
might go and drink whenever he pleased, without having to ask leave. It
is also told of him that once, having returned from S. Maria Nuova
completely cured of some sickness, I know not what, he was visited by
his friends, who asked him how it went with him. "Ill," he answered.
"But thou art cured," they replied. "That is why it goes ill with me,"
said he, "for I would dearly love a little fever, so that I might lie
there in the hospital, well attended and at my ease." As he lay dying,
again in the hospital, there was placed before him a wooden Crucifix,
very rude and clumsily wrought; whereupon he prayed them to take it out
of his sight and to bring him one by the hand of Donato, declaring that
if they did not take it away he would die in misery, so greatly did he
detest badly wrought works in his own art.
Disciples of the same Andrea were Pietro Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci,
of whom we will speak in the proper place, and Francesco di Simone of
Florence, who made a tomb of marble in the Church of S. Domenico in
Bologna, with many little figures, which appear from the manner to be by
the hand of Andrea, for Messer Alessandro Tartaglia, a doctor of Imola,
and another in S. Pancrazio at Florence, facing the sacristy and one of
the chapels of the church, for the Chevalier Messer Pietro Minerbetti.
Another pupil of Andrea was Agnolo di Polo, who worked with great
mastery in clay, filling the city with works by his hand; and if he had
deigned to apply himself properly to his art, he would have made very
beautiful things. But the one whom he loved more than all the others was
Lorenzo di Credi, who brought his remains from Venice and laid them in
the Church of S. Ambrogio, in the tomb of Ser Michele di Cione, on the
stone of which there are carved the following words:
SER MICHAELIS DE CIONIS, ET SUORUM.
And beside them:
HIC OSSA JACENT ANDREAE VERROCHII, QUI OBIIT
VENETIIS, MCCCCLXXXVIII.
Andrea took much delight in casting in a kind of plaster which would set
hard--that is, the kind that is made of a soft stone which is quarried
in the districts of Volterra and of Siena and in many other parts of
Italy. This stone, when burnt in the fire, and then pounded and mixed
with tepid water, becomes so soft that men can make whatever they please
with it; but afterwards it solidifies and becomes so hard, that it can
be used for moulds for casting whole figures. Andrea, then, was wont to
cast in moulds of this material such natural objects as hands, feet,
knees, legs, arms, and torsi, in order to have them before him and
imitate them with greater convenience. Afterwards, in his time, men
began to cast the heads of those who died--a cheap method; wherefore
there are seen in every house in Florence, over the chimney-pieces,
doors, windows, and cornices, infinite numbers of such portraits, so
well made and so natural that they appear alive. And from that time up
to the present the said custom has been continued, and it still
continues, with great convenience to ourselves, for it has given us
portraits of many who have been included in the stories in the Palace of
Duke Cosimo. And for this we should certainly acknowledge a very great
obligation to the talent of Andrea, who was one of the first to begin to
bring the custom into use.
From this men came to make more perfect images, not only in Florence,
but in all the places in which there is devoutness, and to which people
flock to offer votive images, or, as they are called, "miracoli," in
return for some favour received. For whereas they were previously made
small and of silver, or only in the form of little panels, or rather of
wax, and very clumsy, in the time of Andrea they began to be made in a
much better manner, since Andrea, having a very strait friendship with
Orsino, a Florentine worker in wax, who had no little judgment in that
art, began to show him how he could become excellent therein. Now the
due occasion arrived in the form of the death of Giuliano de' Medici and
the danger incurred by his brother Lorenzo, who was wounded in S. Maria
del Fiore, when it was ordained by the friends and relatives of Lorenzo
that images of him should be set up in many places, to render thanks to
God for his deliverance. Wherefore Orsino, among others that he made,
executed three life-size figures of wax with the aid and direction of
Andrea, making the skeleton within of wood, after the method described
elsewhere, interwoven with split reeds, which were then covered with
waxed cloths folded and arranged so beautifully that nothing better or
more true to nature could be seen. Then he made the heads, hands, and
feet with wax of greater thickness, but hollow within, portrayed from
life, and painted in oils with all the ornaments of hair and everything
else that was necessary, so lifelike and so well wrought that they
seemed no mere images of wax, but actual living men, as may be seen in
each of the said three, one of which is in the Church of the Nuns of
Chiarito in the Via di S. Gallo, opposite to the Crucifix that works
miracles. This figure is clothed exactly as Lorenzo was, when, with his
wounded throat bandaged, he showed himself at the window of his house
before the eyes of the people, who had flocked thither to see whether he
were alive, as they hoped, or to avenge him if he were dead. The second
figure of the same man is in the lucco, the gown peculiar to the
citizens of Florence; and it stands in the Servite Church of the
Nunziata, over the lesser door, which is beside the counter where
candles are sold. The third was sent to S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi,
and set up before the Madonna of that place, where the same Lorenzo de'
Medici, as has been already related, caused the road to be paved with
bricks all the way from S. Maria to that gate of Assisi which leads to
S. Francesco, besides restoring the fountains that his grandfather
Cosimo had caused to be made in that place. But to return to the images
of wax: all those in the said Servite Church are by the hand of Orsino,
which have a large O in the base as a mark, with an R within it and a
cross above; and they are all so beautiful that there are few since his
day who have equalled him. This art, although it has remained alive up
to our own time, is nevertheless rather on the decline than otherwise,
either because men's devoutness has diminished, or for some other
reason, whatever it may be.
And to return to Verrocchio; besides the aforesaid works, he made
Crucifixes of wood, with certain things of clay, in which he was
excellent, as may be seen from the models for the scenes that he
executed for the altar of S. Giovanni, from certain very beautiful boys,
and from a head of S. Jerome, which is held to be marvellous. By the
hand of the same man is the boy on the clock of the Mercato Nuovo, who
has his arms working free, in such a manner that he can raise them to
strike the hours with a hammer that he holds in his hands; which was
held in those times to be something very beautiful and fanciful. And let
this be the end of the Life of that most excellent sculptor, Andrea
Verrocchio.
There lived in the time of Andrea one Benedetto Buglioni, who received
the secret of glazed terra-cotta work from a woman related to the house
of Andrea della Robbia; wherefore he made many works in that manner both
in Florence and abroad, particularly a Christ rising from the dead, with
certain angels, which, for a work in glazed terra-cotta, is beautiful
enough, in the Church of the Servi, near the Chapel of S. Barbara. He
made a Dead Christ in a chapel in S. Pancrazio, and the lunette that is
seen over the principal door of the Church of S. Pietro Maggiore. From
Benedetto the secret descended to Santi Buglioni, the only man who now
knows how to work at this sort of sculpture.
ANDREA MANTEGNA
[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF S. JAMES
(_After the fresco by =Andrea Mantegna=. Padua: Eremitani_)
_Anderson_]
LIFE OF ANDREA MANTEGNA
PAINTER OF MANTUA
How great is the effect of reward on talent is known to him who labours
valiantly and receives a certain measure of recompense, for he feels
neither discomfort, nor hardship, nor fatigue, when he expects honour
and reward for them; nay, what is more, they render his talent every day
more renowned and illustrious. It is true, indeed, that there is not
always found one to recognize, esteem, and remunerate it as that of
Andrea Mantegna was recognized. This man was born from very humble stock
in the district of Mantua; and, although as a boy he was occupied in
grazing herds, he was so greatly exalted by destiny and by his merit
that he attained to the honourable rank of Chevalier, as will be told in
the proper place. When almost full grown he was taken to the city, where
he applied himself to painting under Jacopo Squarcione, a painter of
Padua, who--as it is written in a Latin letter from Messer Girolamo
Campagnola to Messer Leonico Timeo, a Greek philosopher, wherein he
gives him information about certain old painters who served the family
of Carrara, Lords of Padua--took him into his house, and a little time
afterwards, having recognized the beauty of his intelligence, adopted
him as his son. Now this Squarcione knew that he himself was not the
most able painter in the world; wherefore, to the end that Andrea might
learn more than he himself knew, he made him practise much on casts
taken from ancient statues and on pictures painted upon canvas which he
caused to be brought from diverse places, particularly from Tuscany and
from Rome. By these and other methods, therefore, Andrea learnt not a
little in his youth; and the competition of Marco Zoppo of Bologna,
Darlo da Treviso, and Niccolo Pizzolo of Padua, disciples of his master
and adoptive father, was of no small assistance to him, and a stimulus
to his studies.
Now after Andrea, who was then no more than seventeen years of age, had
painted the panel of the high-altar of S. Sofia in Padua, which appears
wrought by a mature and well-practised master, and not by a youth,
Squarcione was commissioned to paint the Chapel of S. Cristofano, which
is in the Church of the Eremite Friars of S. Agostino in Padua; and he
gave the work to the said Niccolo Pizzolo and to Andrea. Niccolo made
therein a God the Father seated in Majesty between the Doctors of the
Church, and these paintings were afterwards held to be in no way
inferior to those that Andrea executed there. And in truth, if Niccolo,
whose works were few, but all good, had taken as much delight in
painting as he did in arms, he would have become excellent, and might
perchance have lived much longer than he did; for he was ever under arms
and had many enemies, and one day, when returning from work, he was
attacked and slain by treachery. Niccolo left no other works that I know
of, save another God the Father in the Chapel of Urbano Perfetto.[29]
[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA: THE MADONNA OF THE ROCKS
(_Florence: Uffizi, 1025. Panel_)]