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LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT
PAINTERS SCULPTORS AND
ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO VASARI
VOLUME II. BERNA TO MICHELOZZO
MICHELOZZI 1912
LIVES OF THE MOST
EMINENT PAINTERS
SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS
BY GIORGIO VASARI:
NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON
Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES
[Illustration: 1511-1574]
PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER
TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LIMITED
7 GRAFTON ST. LONDON, W. 1912-14
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
PAGE
BERNA 1
DUCCIO 7
ANTONIO VINIZIANO 13
JACOPO DI CASENTINO 21
SPINELLO ARETINO 27
GHERARDO STARNINA 41
LIPPO 47
DON LORENZO MONACO 53
TADDEO BARTOLI 59
LORENZO DI BICCI 65
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND PART 75
JACOPO DELLA QUERCIA [JACOPO DELLA FONTE] 89
NICCOLO ARETINO [NICCOLO D'AREZZO _OR_ NICCOLO DI PIERO LAMBERTI] 99
DELLO 105
NANNI D'ANTONIO DI BANCO 111
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA 117
PAOLO UCCELLO 129
LORENZO GHIBERTI [LORENZO DI CIONE GHIBERTI _OR_ LORENZO
DI BARTOLUCCIO GHIBERTI] 141
MASOLINO DA PANICALE 163
PARRI SPINELLI 169
MASACCIO 181
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI [FILIPPO DI SER BRUNELLESCO] 193
DONATO [DONATELLO] 237
MICHELOZZO MICHELOZZI 257
INDEX OF NAMES 273
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME II
PLATES IN COLOUR
FACING PAGE
BERNA The Agony in the Garden San Gimignano 4
DUCCIO Central Panel: The Majestas Siena: Opera del Duomo 10
DUCCIO The Three Maries at the Siena: Opera del Duomo 10
Tomb
BERNARDO DADDI Altar-piece: Madonna and Florence: Accademia, 127 26
Child Enthroned
SPINELLO ARETINO The Death of the Virgin Siena: Pinacoteca, 125 34
DON LORENZO
MONACO The Annunciation Florence: Accademia, 143 58
TADDEO BARTOLI Central Panel of Altar- Perugia: Pinacoteca 60
piece: Madonna, Child,
and Angels
DOMENICO BARTOLI Madonna Orans Siena: Chapel of the
Refugio 64
LORENZO DI BICCI Madonna and Child, with Empoli: Gallery 70
a Donor
PAOLO UCCELLO The Battle of San Egidio London: N. G., 583 134
MASOLINO DA
PANICALE Madonna and Child Empoli: S. Stefano 166
MASACCIO The Adoration of the Magi Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich
Museum, 58A 184
MASACCIO Madonna Enthroned, with Brant Broughton: Rev. A.
Angel Musicians F. Sutton's Collection 190
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
BERNA Madonna and Child Asciano: S. Francesco 2
LUCA DI TOME The Assumption of the Newhaven, U.S.A.: Jarvis
Virgin Collection 6
DUCCIO The Madonna Enthroned Siena: Opera del Duomo 8
DUCCIO Triptych London: N. G., 566 12
ANTONIO VINIZIANO The Return of S.
Ranieri Pisa: Campo Santo 16
JACOPO DI
CASENTINO Tabernacle Florence: Arte della 24
Lana
SPINELLO ARETINO The Annunciation Arezzo: SS. Annunziata 32
DON LORENZO
MONACO The Coronation of the
Virgin Florence: Uffizi, 1309 56
TADDEO BARTOLI Polyptych Perugia: Gallery, 9 62
DONATO (DONATELLO) David Florence: Bargello 86
JACOPO DELLA Detail from the Tomb: Lucca: S. Martino 90
QUERCIA Head of Ilaria del
Carretto
JACOPO DELLA
QUERCIA Madonna and Child Bologna: S. Petronio 94
MATTEO CIVITALI Tomb of S. Romano Lucca: S. Romano 96
MATTEO CIVITALI Madonna and Child Lucca: Museo 98
NICCOLO ARETINO S. Mark Florence: Duomo 102
NANNI D'ANTONIO
DI BANCO Madonna Della Cintola Florence: Duomo 114
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA Cantoria Florence: Opera del 118
Duomo
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA Tomb of Bishop
Federighi Florence: S. Trinita 120
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA The Madonna of
the Roses Florence: Bargello 122
ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA Altar-piece Arezzo: S. Maria in
Grado 126
ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA The Annunciation La Verna 126
GIOVANNI DELLA The Visitation Pistoia: S. Giovanni
ROBBIA Fuorcivitas 128
PAOLO UCCELLO The Deluge Florence: S. Maria 136
Novella
PAOLO UCCELLO Portraits Paris: Louvre, 1272 138
LORENZO GHIBERTI S. John before Herod Siena: Baptistery 150
LORENZO GHIBERTI Detail: The Fall of
Jericho Florence: Paradise Gate,
the Baptistery 156
LORENZO GHIBERTI Detail: The Creation Florence: Paradise Gate,
_See also at p. 200 of Eve the Baptistery 156
below_
MASOLINO DA
PANICALE S. John the Baptist Castiglione d'Olona:
Baptistery 164
MASOLINO DA
PANICALE Madonna and Child Bremen: Kunsthalle 168
MASACCIO The Trinity Florence: S. Maria 186
Novella
MASACCIO The Tribute Money Florence: S. Maria 192
del Carmine
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI The Crucifixion Florence: S. Maria 198
Novella
LORENZO GHIBERTI The Sacrifice of Florence: Bargello 200
Isaac
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI The Sacrifice of Florence: Bargello 200
Isaac
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI The Dome of the Florence 216
Cathedral
FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI The Old Sacristy of Florence 226
S. Lorenzo
DONATO (DONATELLO) Poggio Bracciolini Florence: Duomo 240
DONATO (DONATELLO) Judith Florence: Loggia 242
dei Lanzi
DONATO (DONATELLO) General Gattamelata Padua: Piazza di 246
S. Antonio
DONATO (DONATELLO) Madonna and Child Padua: S. Antonio 248
DONATO (DONATELLO) Altar Relief: The Padua: S. Antonio 250
Entombment
_See also at p. 86 above_
MICHELOZZO MICHELOZZI Palazzo Riccardi Florence 264
BERNA
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_After the painting by_ Berna Sanese [da Siena]. _Asciano: Church of S.
Francesco_)
_Burton_]
LIFE OF BERNA
PAINTER OF SIENA
If those who labour to become excellent in some art did not very often
have the thread of life cut by death in their best years, I have no
doubt that many intellects would arrive at that rank which is most
desired both by them and by the world. But the short life of men and the
bitterness of various accidents, which threaten them from all sides,
snatch them from us sometimes prematurely, as could be seen in poor
young Berna of Siena, who, although he died young, nevertheless left so
many works that he appears to have lived very long; and those that he
left were made in such a way, that it may well be believed from this
showing that he would have become excellent and rare if he had not died
so soon. In two chapels of S. Agostino in Siena there are seen some
little pictures with figures in fresco, by his hand; and in the church,
on a wall now pulled down in order to make chapels there, was a scene of
a youth led to execution, as well made as it could possibly be imagined,
there being seen expressed in it the pallor and fear of death, in so
lifelike a manner that he deserved therefore the highest praise. Beside
the said youth was a friar painted in a very fine attitude, and, in
short, everything in that work is so vividly wrought that it appears,
indeed, that in this work Berna imagined this event as most horrible, as
it must be, and full of most bitter and cruel terror, seeing that he
portrayed it so well with the brush that the same scene appearing in
reality would not stir greater emotion.
In the city of Cortona, also, besides many other works scattered in many
places in that city, he painted the greater part of the vaulting and of
the walls of the Church of S. Margherita, where to-day is the seat of
the Frati Zoccolanti. From Cortona he went to Arezzo in the year 1369,
exactly when the Tarlati, formerly Lords of Pietramala, had caused
Moccio, a sculptor and architect of Siena, to finish the Convent and the
body of the Church of S. Agostino in that city, in the lesser aisles of
which many citizens had caused chapels and tombs to be made for their
families; and there, in the Chapel of S. Jacopo, Berna painted in fresco
some little scenes of the life of that Saint, and especially vivid is
the story of Marino the swindler, who, having by reason of greed of gold
given his soul to the Devil and made thereunto a written contract in his
own hand, is making supplication to the Saint to free him from this
promise, while a Devil, showing him the contract, is pressing him with
the greatest insistence in the world. In all these figures Berna
expressed the emotions of the mind with much vivacity, and particularly
in the face of Marino, which shows on one side fear, and on the other
the faith and trust that make him hope for his liberation from S. James,
although opposite there is seen the Devil, hideous to a marvel, who is
warmly speaking and declaring his rights to the Saint, who, after having
instilled into Marino extreme penitence for his sin and for the promise
made, is liberating him and leading him back to God. This same story,
says Lorenzo Ghiberti, by the hand of the same man, was in a chapel of
the Capponi, dedicated to S. Nicholas, in S. Spirito at Florence, before
that church was burnt down. After this work, then, Berna painted a great
Crucifix in a chapel of the Vescovado of Arezzo for Messer Guccio di
Vanni Tarlati da Pietramala, and at the foot of the Cross a Madonna, S.
John the Evangelist, and S. Francis, in most sorrowful attitudes,
together with a S. Michelagnolo, with so much diligence that it merits
no small praise, and above all by reason of having been so well
preserved that it appears made only yesterday. Below, moreover, is the
portrait of the said Guccio, kneeling in armour at the foot of the
Cross. In the Pieve of the same city, in the Chapel of the Paganelli, he
painted many stories of Our Lady, and portrayed there after the life the
Blessed Rinieri, a holy man and prophet of that house, who is giving
alms to many beggars who are round him. In S. Bartolommeo, also, he
painted some stories of the Old Testament and the story of the Magi; and
in the Church of Spirito Santo he painted some stories of S. John the
Evangelist, and in certain figures the portrait of himself and of many
of his friends, nobles of that city.
[Illustration: BARNA: THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN
(_San Gimignano. Fresco_)]
Returning after these works to his own country, he made on wood many
pictures both small and great; but he made no long stay there, because,
being summoned to Florence, he painted in S. Spirito the Chapel of S.
Niccolo, which we have mentioned above, and which was much extolled, and
other works that were consumed in the miserable burning of that church.
In the Pieve of San Gimignano in Valdelsa he wrought in fresco some
stories of the New Testament, which he had already very nearly brought
to completion, when, falling by a strange accident from his scaffolding
to the ground, he bruised himself internally in such a manner, and
injured himself so grievously, that in the space of two days, with
greater loss to art than to himself, who went to a better place, he
passed from this life. And the people of San Gimignano, honouring him
much in the way of obsequies, gave to his body honourable burial in the
aforesaid Pieve, holding him after death in the same repute wherein they
had held him in life, and not ceasing for many months to attach round
his tomb epitaphs both Latin and Italian, by reason of the men of that
country being naturally given to fine letters. So, then, they conferred
a suitable reward on the honest labours of Berna, celebrating with their
pens him who had honoured them with his pictures.
Giovanni da Asciano, who was a pupil of Berna, brought to completion the
remainder of that work; and he painted some pictures in the Hospital of
the Scala at Siena, and also some others in the old houses of the Medici
at Florence, which gave him considerable fame. The works of Berna of
Siena date about 1381. And because, besides what has been said, Berna
was passing dexterous in draughtsmanship and was the first who began to
portray animals well, as bears witness a drawing by his hand that is in
our book, all full of wild beasts of diverse sorts, he deserves to be
consummately praised and to have his name held in honour by craftsmen.
His disciple, too, was Luca di Tome of Siena, who painted many works in
Siena and throughout all Tuscany, and in particular the panel and the
chapel that are in S. Domenico at Arezzo, belonging to the family of the
Dragomanni; which chapel, German in architecture, was very well adorned,
by means of the said panel and of the work that is therein in fresco, by
the hand and by the judgment and genius of Luca of Siena.
[Illustration: THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
(_After the painting by_ Luca di Tome. _Newhaven, U.S.A.: Jarvis
Collection_)]
DUCCIO
[Illustration: THE MADONNA ENTHRONED
(_After the panel by Duccio. Siena: Opera del Duomo_)
_Alinari_]
LIFE OF DUCCIO
PAINTER OF SIENA
Without doubt those who are inventors of anything notable receive the
greatest attention from the pens of the writers of history, and this
comes to pass because the first inventions are more observed and held in
greater marvel, by reason of the delight that the novelty of the thing
brings with it, than all the improvements made afterwards by any man
whatsoever when works are brought to the height of perfection, for the
reason that if a beginning were never given to anything, there would be
no advance and improvement in the middle stages, and the end would not
become excellent and of a marvellous beauty. Duccio, then, painter of
Siena and much esteemed, deserved to carry off the palm from those who
came many years after him, since in the pavement of the Duomo of Siena
he made a beginning in marble for the inlaid work of the figures in
chiaroscuro, wherein to-day modern craftsmen have made the marvels that
are seen in them. He applied himself to the imitation of the old manner,
and with very sane judgment gave dignified forms to his figures, which
he fashioned very excellently in spite of the difficulties of such an
art. With his own hand, imitating the pictures in chiaroscuro, he
arranged and designed the beginnings of the said pavement, and he made
in the Duomo a panel that was then placed on the high-altar, and
afterwards removed thence in order to place there the Tabernacle of the
Body of Christ, which is seen there at the present day. In this panel,
according to the description of Lorenzo di Bartolo Ghiberti, there was a
Coronation of Our Lady, wrought, as it were, in the Greek manner, but
blended considerably with the modern. And as it was painted both on the
back part and on the front, the said high-altar being isolated right
round, on the said back part there had been made by Duccio with much
diligence all the principal stories of the New Testament, with very
beautiful little figures. I have sought to learn where this panel is to
be found to-day, but, for all the diligence that I have thereunto used,
I have never been able to discover it, or to learn what Francesco di
Giorgio, the sculptor, did with it when he remade the said tabernacle in
bronze, as well as the marble ornaments that are therein.
He made, likewise, many panels on grounds of gold throughout Siena, and
one in Florence, in S. Trinita, wherein there is an Annunciation. He
painted, next, very many works for diverse churches in Pisa, in Lucca,
and in Pistoia, which were all consummately praised and acquired for him
very great fame and profit. Finally, it is not known where this Duccio
died, nor what relatives, disciples, or wealth he left; it is enough
that, for having left art the heir to his invention of making pictures
of marble in chiaroscuro, he deserves infinite commendation and praise
for such a benefit to art, and that he can be assuredly numbered among
the benefactors who confer advancement and adornment on our profession,
considering that those who go on investigating the difficulties of rare
inventions leave their memory behind them, besides all their marvellous
works.
[Illustration: DUCCIO: THE MAJESTAS (DETAIL)
(_Siena: Opera del Duomo. Panel_)]
They say in Siena that Duccio, in the year 1348, gave the design for the
chapel that is in the square, against the wall of the Palazzo
Principale; and it is read that there lived in his times a sculptor and
architect of passing good talent from the same country, named Moccio,
who made many works throughout all Tuscany, and particularly one in the
Church of S. Domenico in Arezzo, namely, a tomb of marble for one of the
Cerchi, which tomb acts as support and ornament for the organ of the
said church; and although it may appear to some that it is not a very
excellent work, yet, if it is considered that he made it while still a
youth, in the year 1356, it cannot but seem passing good. This man
served in the building of S. Maria del Fiore as under-architect and as
sculptor, making certain works in marble for that fabric; and in Arezzo
he rebuilt the Church of S. Agostino, which was small, in the manner
that it is to-day, and the expense was borne by the heirs of Piero
Saccone de' Tarlati, according as he had ordained before he died in
Bibbiena, a place in the Casentino; and because Moccio erected this
church without any vaulting, and laid the weight of the roof on the
arches of the columns, he exposed himself to a great peril and was truly
too bold. The same man made the Church and Convent of S. Antonio, which,
before the siege of Florence, was at the Porta a Faenza, and to-day is
wholly ruined; and he wrought in sculpture the door of S. Agostino in
Ancona, with many figures and ornaments similar to those which are on
the door of S. Francesco in the same city. In this Church of S. Agostino
he also made the tomb of Fra Zenone Vigilanti, Bishop, and General of
the Order of the said S. Augustine; and finally, he built the Loggia de'
Mercatanti of that city, which has since received, now for one reason
and now for another, many improvements in the modern manner, with
ornaments of various sorts. All these works, although they are in these
days much less than passable, were then much extolled, according to the
standard of knowledge of these men. But returning to our Duccio, his
works date about the year of our salvation 1350.
[Illustration: DUCCIO: THE THREE MARIES AT THE TOMB
(_Siena: Duomo. Panel_)]
[Illustration: TRIPTYCH
(_After the panel by Duccio. London: N.G. 566_)
_Mansell._]
ANTONIO VINIZIANO
LIFE OF ANTONIO VINIZIANO
PAINTER
Many who would fain stay in the country where they are born, being torn
by the tooth of envy and oppressed by the tyranny of their
fellow-citizens, take themselves off, and choosing for country those
places where they find that their talent is recognized and rewarded,
they make their works therein; and striving to become very excellent in
order to put to shame, in some sort, those by whom they have been
outraged, they become very often great men, whereas, by staying quietly
in their country, they would peradventure have had little more than a
mediocre success in their arts. Antonio Viniziano, who betook himself to
Florence in the wake of Agnolo Gaddi in order to learn painting, grasped
the good method of working so well that he was not only esteemed and
loved by the Florentines, but also greatly cherished by reason of this
talent and of his other good qualities. Whereupon, being seized by a
wish to show himself in his own city in order to enjoy some fruit of the
fatigues endured by him, he returned to Venice, where, having made
himself known by many works wrought in fresco and in distemper, he was
commissioned by the Signoria to paint one of the walls of the Council
Chamber. This he executed so excellently and with so great majesty that,
according to his merit, he would have obtained an honourable reward; but
the emulation, or rather, the envy of the craftsmen, and the favour that
some gentlemen showed to other painters from abroad, caused the affair
to fall out otherwise. Wherefore the poor Antonio, finding himself thus
crushed and overborne, took the wiser part and returned to Florence,
with the intention never again to consent to return to Venice, and
determined once and for all that his country should be Florence.
Establishing himself, then, in that city, he painted in the cloister of
S. Spirito, in a little arch, a Christ who is calling Peter and Andrew
from their nets, and Zebedee and his sons; and below the three little
arches of Stefano he painted the story of the miracle of Christ with the
loaves and fishes, wherein he showed infinite diligence and lovingness,
as it is clearly seen in the figure of Christ Himself, who, in the air
of His countenance and in His aspect, is showing the compassion that He
has for the multitude, and the ardour of the love wherewith He is
causing the bread to be dispensed. Great affection, likewise, is seen in
the very beautiful action of an Apostle, who is exerting himself greatly
in dispensing the bread from a basket. From this work all who belong to
art learn ever to paint their figures in a manner that they may appear
to be speaking, for otherwise they are not prized. Antonio demonstrated
the same thing on the outer frontal in a little scene of the Manna,
wrought with so great diligence, and finished with so fine grace, that
it can be truly called excellent. Afterwards, in S. Stefano al Ponte
Vecchio, on the predella of the high-altar, he made some stories of S.
Stephen, with so great lovingness that it is not possible to see either
more gracious or more beautiful figures, even if they were done in
miniature. In S. Antonio al Ponte alla Carraja, moreover, he painted the
arch over the door, which, with the whole church, was thrown to the
ground in our own day by Monsignor Ricasoli, Bishop of Pistoia, because
it took away the view from his houses; although, even if he had not done
this, we should to-day, in any case, be deprived of that work, the late
flood of 1557, as it has been said before, having carried away on that
side two arches and the abutment of the bridge on which was built the
said little Church of S. Antonio.
[Illustration: THE RETURN OF S. RANIERI
(_After the fresco by_ Antonio Viniziano. _Pisa: Campo Santo_)
_Alinari_]
Antonio, being summoned after these works to Pisa by the Warden of Works
of the Campo Santo, continued therein the painting of the stories of the
Blessed Ranieri, a holy man of that city, formerly begun by Simone
Sanese, following his arrangement. In the first part of the work painted
by Antonio there is seen, in company with the said Ranieri when he is
embarking in order to return to Pisa, a good number of figures wrought
with diligence, among which is the portrait of Count Gaddo, who died ten
years before, and that of Neri, his uncle, once Lord of Pisa. Among the
said figures, also, that of a maniac is very notable, for, with the
features of madness, with the person writhing in distorted gestures, the
eyes blazing, and the mouth gnashing and showing the teeth, it resembles
a real maniac so greatly that it is not possible to imagine either a
more lifelike picture or one more true to nature. In the next part,
which is beside that named above, three figures (who are marvelling to
see the Blessed Ranieri showing the Devil, in the form of a cat on a
barrel, to a fat host, who has the air of a gay companion, and who, all
fearful, is commending himself to the Saint) can be said to be truly
very beautiful, being very well executed in the attitudes, the manner of
the draperies, the variety of the heads, and all the other parts. Not
far away are the host's womenfolk, and they, too, could not be wrought
with more grace, Antonio having made them with certain tucked-up
garments and with certain ways so peculiar to women who serve in
hostelries, that nothing better can be imagined. Nor could that scene
likewise be more pleasing than it is, wherein the Canons of the Duomo of
Pisa, in very beautiful vestments of those times, no little different
from those that are used to-day and very graceful, are receiving S.
Ranieri at table, all the figures being made with much consideration.
Next, in the painting of the death of the said Saint, he expressed very
well not only the effect of weeping, but also the movement of certain
angels who are bearing his soul to Heaven, surrounded by a light most
resplendent and made with beautiful invention. And truly one cannot but
marvel as one sees, in the bearing of the body of that Saint by the
clergy to the Duomo, certain priests who are singing, for in their
gestures, in the actions of their persons, and in all their movements,
as they chant diverse parts, they bear a marvellous resemblance to a
choir of singers; and in that scene, so it is said, is the portrait of
the Bavarian.[1] In like manner, the miracles that Ranieri wrought as
he was borne to his tomb, and those that he wrought in another place
when already laid to rest therein in the Duomo, were painted with very
great diligence by Antonio, who made there blind men receiving their
sight, paralytics regaining the use of their members, men possessed by
the Devil being delivered, and other miracles, all represented very
vividly. But among all the other figures, that of a dropsical man
deserves to be considered with marvel, for the reason that, with the
face withered, with the lips shrivelled, and with the body swollen, he
is such that a living man could not show more than does this picture the
very great thirst of the dropsical and the other effects of that malady.
A wonderful thing, too, in those times, was a ship that he made in this
work, which, being in travail in a tempest, was saved by that Saint; for
he made therein with great vivacity all the actions of the mariners, and
everything which is wont to befall in such accidents and travailings.
Some are casting into the insatiable sea, without a thought, the
precious merchandize won by so much sweat and labour, others are running
to see to their vessel, which is breaking up, and others, finally, to
other mariners' duties, whereof it would take too long to relate the
whole; it is enough to say that all are made with so great vividness and
beautiful method that it is a marvel. In the same place, below the lives
of the Holy Fathers painted by Pietro Laurati of Siena, Antonio made the
body of the Blessed Oliverio (together with the Abbot Panuzio, and many
events of their lives), in a sarcophagus painted to look like marble;
which figure is very well painted. In short, all these works that
Antonio made in the Campo Santo are such that they have been universally
held, and with great reason, the best of all those that have been
wrought by many excellent masters at various times in that place, for
the reason that, besides the particulars mentioned, the fact that he
painted everything in fresco, never retouching any part on the dry,
brought it about that up to our day they have remained so vivid in the
colouring that they can teach the followers of that art and make them
understand how greatly the retouching of works in fresco with other
colours, after they are dry, causes injury to their pictures and
labours, as it has been said in the treatise on Theory; for it is a
very certain fact that they are aged, and not allowed to be purified by
time, by being covered with colours that have a different body, being
tempered with gums, with tragacanths, with eggs, with size, or some
other similar substance, which tarnishes what is below, and does not
allow the course of time and the air to purify that which has been truly
wrought in fresco on the soft plaster, as they would have done if other
colours had not been superimposed on the dry.
[Footnote 1: _I.e._, Emperor.]
Having finished this work, which, being truly worthy of all praise,
brought him honourable payment from the Pisans, who loved him greatly
ever afterwards, Antonio returned to Florence, where, at Nuovoli without
the Porta a Prato, he painted in a shrine, for Giovanni degli Agli, a
Dead Christ, the story of the Magi with many figures, and a very
beautiful Day of Judgment. Summoned, next, to the Certosa, he painted
for the Acciaiuoli, who built that place, the panel of the high-altar,
which was consumed by fire in our day by reason of the inadvertence of a
sacristan of that monastery, who left the thurible full of fire hanging
from the altar, wherefore the panel was burnt, and afterwards the altar
was made by those monks, as it stands to-day, entirely of marble. In
that same place, also, the same master made in fresco, over a wardrobe
that is in the said chapel, a Transfiguration of Christ which is very
beautiful. And because he studied the science of herbs in Dioscorides,
being much inclined thereunto by nature, and delighting to understand
the property and virtue of each one of them, at last he abandoned
painting and gave himself to the distilling of simples and to seeking
them out with all diligence. Changing thus from painter to physician,
for a long time he followed this art. Finally, falling sick from disease
of the stomach, or, as others say, from plague caught while acting as
physician, he finished the course of his life at the age of
seventy-four, in the year 1384, when there was a very great plague in
Florence, having been no less expert as physician than he was diligent
as painter; wherefore, having made infinite experiments in medicine by
means of those who had availed themselves of him in their necessities,
he left to the world a very good name for himself in both one and the
other of these arts. Antonio drew very graciously with the pen, and so
well in chiaroscuro, that some drawings by him which are in our book,
wherein he made the little arch of S. Spirito, are the best of those
times. A disciple of Antonio was Gherardo Starnina, the Florentine, who
imitated him greatly; and Paolo Uccello, who was likewise his disciple,
did him no small honour.
The portrait of Antonio Viniziano, by his own hand, is in the Campo
Santo in Pisa.
JACOPO DI CASENTINO
LIFE OF JACOPO DI CASENTINO
PAINTER
Now that the fame and the renown of the pictures of Giotto and his
disciples had been heard for many years, many, desirous of acquiring
fame and riches by means of the art of painting, and animated by zealous
aspirations and by the inclination of nature, began to advance towards
the improvement of the art, with a firm belief that, exercising
themselves therein, they would surpass in excellence both Giotto and
Taddeo and the other painters. Among these was one Jacopo di Casentino,
who, being born, as it is read, of the family of Messer Cristoforo
Landino of Pratovecchio, was apprenticed by a friar of the Casentino,
then Prior at the Sasso della Vernia, to Taddeo Gaddi, while Taddeo was
working in that convent, to the end that he might learn drawing and
colouring in the art, wherein in a few years he succeeded so well that,
betaking himself to Florence and executing many works in company with
Giovanni da Milano in the service of Taddeo their master, he was made to
paint the shrine of the Madonna of the Mercato Vecchio, with the panel
in distemper, and likewise the one at the corner of the Piazza di S.
Niccolo and the Via del Cocomero, which were restored a few years ago,
both one and the other, by a worse master than was Jacopo; and for the
Dyers he painted that which is in S. Nofri, at the corner of the wall of
their garden, opposite to S. Giuseppe. In the meanwhile, the vaults of
Orsanmichele over the twelve piers having been brought to a finish, a
low rustic roof was placed upon them, in order to pursue as soon as
might be possible the building of that palace, which was to be the
granary of the Commune; and it was given to Jacopo di Casentino, as a
person then much practised, to paint these vaults, with instructions
that he should make there, as he did, together with the patriarchs, some
prophets and the chiefs of the tribes, which were in all sixteen figures
on a ground of ultramarine, to-day half spoilt, not to mention the other
ornaments. Next, on the walls below and on the piers, he made many
miracles of the Madonna, and other works that are recognized by the
manner.
This work finished, Jacopo returned to the Casentino, and after he had
made many works in Pratovecchio, in Poppi, and other places in that
valley, he betook himself to Arezzo, which then governed itself with the
counsel of sixty of its richest and most honoured citizens, to whose
care was committed the whole administration. There, in the principal
chapel of the Vescovado, he painted a story of S. Martin, and in the
Duomo Vecchio, now in ruins, a number of pictures, among which was the
portrait of Pope Innocent VI, in the principal chapel. Next, in the
Church of S. Bartolommeo, for the Chapter of the Canons of the Pieve, he
painted the wall where the high-altar is, and the Chapel of S. Maria
della Neve; and in the old Company of S. Giovanni de' Peducci he made
many stories of that Saint, which to-day are covered with whitewash. In
the Church of S. Domenico, likewise, he painted the Chapel of S.
Cristofano, portraying there from nature the Blessed Masuolo, who is
liberating from prison a merchant of the Fei family, who caused that
chapel to be built; which Blessed Masuolo, as prophet, predicted many
misadventures to the Aretines in his lifetime. In the Church of S.
Agostino, in the chapel and on the altar of the Nardi, he painted in
fresco some stories of S. Laurence, with marvellous manner and
execution.
[Illustration: TABERNACLE
(_After_ Jacopo di Casentino. _Florence: Arte della Lana_)
_Brogi_]
And because he exercised himself also in the things of architecture, by
order of the sixty aforesaid citizens he reconducted under the walls of
Arezzo the water that comes from the foot of the hill of Pori, three
hundred braccia distant from the city. This water, in the time of the
Romans, had been brought first to the theatre, whereof the remains are
still there, and from that theatre, which was on the hill where to-day
there is the fortress, to the amphitheatre of the same city, on the
plain; but these edifices and conduits were wholly ruined and spoilt by
the Goths. Jacopo, then, as it has been said, having brought this
water below the walls, made the fountain which was then called the Fonte
Guizianelli, and which is now named, by the corruption of the word, the
Fonte Viniziana; this work endured from that time, which was the year
1354, up to the year 1527, and no more, for the reason that the plague
of that year, the war that came afterwards, the fact that many
intercepted the water at their own convenience for the use of their
gardens, and still more the fact that Jacopo did not sink it, brought it
about that to-day it is not, as it should be, standing.
The while that the aqueduct was going on being built, Jacopo, not
leaving aside his painting, wrought many scenes from the acts of Bishop
Guido and Piero Sacconi in the palace that was in the old citadel, now
in ruins; for these men, both in peace and in war, had done great and
honourable deeds for that city. In the Pieve, likewise, below the organ,
he wrought the story of S. Matthew and many other works. And so, making
works with his own hand throughout the whole city, he showed to Spinello
Aretino the principles of that art which was taught to him by Agnolo,
and which Spinello taught afterwards to Bernardo Daddi, who, working in
his own city, honoured it with many beautiful works of painting, which,
together with his other most noble qualities, brought it about that he
was much honoured by his fellow-citizens, who employed him much in
magistracies and in other public affairs. The paintings of Bernardo were
many and in much esteem, and above all the Chapel of S. Lorenzo and of
S. Stefano, belonging to the Pulci and Berardi, in S. Croce, and many
other paintings in diverse places in the said church. Finally, having
made some pictures over the gates of the city of Florence on the inner
side, he died, laden with years, and was given honourable burial in S.
Felicita, in the year 1380.
But returning to Jacopo; besides what has been told, in his time, in the
year 1350, there was founded the Company and Confraternity of Painters;
for the masters who were then living, both those of the old Greek manner
and those of the new manner of Cimabue, being a great number, and
reflecting that the arts of design had had their new birth in
Tuscany--nay rather, in Florence itself--created the said Company under
the name and protection of S. Luke the Evangelist, both in order to
render praise and thanks to God in its oratory, and also to come
together sometimes and to give succour, in spiritual matters as well as
in temporal, to anyone who on occasion might have need of it; which
custom is also in use among many Guilds in Florence, but was much more
so in ancient times. Their first oratory was the principal chapel of the
Hospital of S. Maria Nuova, which was conceded to them by the family of
the Portinari. And those who were the first governors of the said
Company, with the title of captains, were six, besides two counsellors
and two treasurers, as it may be seen in the old book of the said
Company, begun at that time, whereof the first chapter begins thus:
"These articles and ordinances were drawn up and made by good and
discreet men of the Guild of Painters in Florence, and at the time of
Lapo Gucci, painter; Vanni Cinuzzi, painter; Corsino Buonaiuti, painter;
Pasquino Cenni, painter; Segna d'Antignano, painter. The counsellors
were Bernardo Daddi and Jacopo di Casentino, painters; and the
treasurers, Consiglio Gherardi and Domenico Pucci, painters."
The said Company being created in this way, at the request of the
captains and of the others Jacopo di Casentino painted the panel of
their chapel, making therein a S. Luke who is portraying Our Lady in a
picture, and on one side of the predella the men of the Company, and on
the other all the women, kneeling. From this beginning, sometimes
assembling and sometimes not, this Company has continued up to its
arrival at the condition wherein it stands to-day, as it is narrated in
its new articles, approved by the most Illustrious Lord Duke Cosimo,
most benign protector of these arts of design.
Finally, being heavy with years and much fatigued, Jacopo returned to
the Casentino, and died in Pratovecchio at the age of eighty, and was
buried by his relatives and friends in S. Agnolo, the Abbey of the Order
of Camaldoli, without Pratovecchio. His portrait, by the hand of
Spinello, was in the Duomo Vecchio, in a story of the Magi; and of the
manner of his drawing there is an example in our book.
[Illustration: BERNARDO DADDI: THE MADONNA AND CHILD ENTHRONED
(_Florence: Accademia, 127. Panel_)]
SPINELLO ARETINO
LIFE OF SPINELLO ARETINO
PAINTER
Luca Spinelli having gone to dwell in Arezzo on one of the several
occasions when the Ghibellines were driven out of Florence, there was
born to him in that city a son, to whom he gave the name of Spinello, so
much inclined by nature to be a painter, that almost without a master,
while still a boy, he knew what many exercised under the discipline of
the best masters do not know; and what is more, having had friendship
with Jacopo di Casentino while he worked in Arezzo, and having learnt
something from him, before he was twenty years of age he was by a long
way a much better master, young as he was, than was Jacopo himself,
already an old painter. Spinello, then, began to be reputed a good
painter, and Messer Dardano Acciaiuoli, having caused the Church of S.
Niccolo to be built near the Sala del Papa, behind S. Maria Novella, in
the Via della Scala, and having given burial therein to one his brother,
a Bishop, caused him to paint the whole of that church in fresco with
stories of S. Nicholas, Bishop of Bari; and he delivered it completely
finished in the year 1334, having been at work on it two years without
ceasing. In this work Spinello acquitted himself so well, both in the
colouring and in the design, that up to our own day the colours had
remained very well preserved and the excellence of the figures was
clearly visible, when, a few years since, they were in great part spoilt
by a fire that burst out unexpectedly in that church, which had been
unwisely filled with straw by some foolish men who made use of it as a
barn or storehouse for straw. Attracted by the fame of this work, Messer
Barone Capelli, citizen of Florence, caused Spinello to paint in fresco,
in the principal chapel of S. Maria Maggiore, many stories of the
Madonna and some of S. Anthony the Abbot, and near these the
consecration of that very ancient church, consecrated by Pope Paschal,
second of that name; and all this Spinello wrought so well that it
appears made all in one day, and not in many months, as it was. Beside
the said Pope is the portrait of Messer Barone himself from the life, in
the dress of those times, made very well and with very good judgment.
This chapel finished, Spinello painted in fresco, in the Church of the
Carmine, the Chapel of S. James and S. John, the Apostles, wherein,
among other things, there is wrought with much diligence the scene when
the wife of Zebedee, mother of James, is demanding of Jesus Christ that
He should cause one of her sons to sit on the right hand of the Father
in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the other on the left; and a little beyond
are seen Zebedee, James, and John abandoning their nets and following
Christ, with liveliness and admirable manner. In another chapel of the
same church, which is beside the principal chapel, Spinello made, also
in fresco, some stories of the Madonna, and the Apostles appearing to
her miraculously before her death, and likewise the moment when she dies
and is then borne to Heaven by the Angels. And because the scene was
large and the diminutive chapel, which was not longer than ten braccia
and not higher than five, would not contain the whole, and above all the
Assumption of Our Lady herself, Spinello, with beautiful judgment,
caused it to curve round within the length of the picture, on to a part
where Christ and the Angels are receiving her. In a chapel in S. Trinita
he made in fresco a very beautiful Annunciation; and in the Church of S.
Apostolo, on the panel of the high-altar, he made in distemper the Holy
Spirit being sent down on the Apostles in tongues of fire. In S. Lucia
de' Bardi, likewise, he painted a little panel, and another in S. Croce,
larger, for the Chapel of S. Giovanni Battista, which was painted by
Giotto.
After these works, being recalled to Arezzo by the sixty citizens who
governed that place, by reason of the great name that he had acquired
while working in Florence, he was made by the Commune to paint the story
of the Magi in the Church of the Duomo Vecchio, without the city, and,
in the Chapel of S. Gismondo, a S. Donatus who is slaying a serpent
with his benediction. In like manner, he made diverse figures on many
pilasters in that Duomo, and, on a wall, the Magdalene anointing the
feet of Christ in the house of Simon; with other pictures, whereof there
is no need to make mention, since that church, which was full of tombs,
of bones of saints, and of other memorable things, is to-day wholly
ruined. I will say, indeed, to the end that there may at least remain
this memory of it, that it was erected by the Aretines more than
thirteen hundred years since, at the time when first they came into the
faith of Jesus Christ, converted by S. Donatus, who was afterwards
Bishop of that city; and that it was dedicated to his name, and richly
adorned, both within and without, with very ancient spoils. The
ground-plan of this edifice, whereof we have discoursed at length in
another place, was divided without into sixteen sides, and within into
eight, and all were full of the spoils of those temples which before had
been dedicated to the idols; and it was, in short, as beautiful as a
temple thus made and very ancient can be, when it was destroyed.
After the many pictures made in the Duomo, Spinello painted in S.
Francesco, in the Chapel of the Marsuppini, Pope Honorius confirming and
approving the Order of that Saint, and made there from nature the
portrait of Innocent IV, from whatsoever source he had it. He painted
also in the same church, in the Chapel of S. Michelagnolo, many stories
of him, in the place where the bells are rung; and a little below, in
the Chapel of Messer Giuliano Baccio, an Annunciation, with other
figures, which are much praised; all which works made in this church
were wrought in fresco, with very resolute handling, from 1334 up to
1338. Next, in the Pieve of the same city, he painted the Chapel of S.
Pietro e S. Paolo, and below it, that of S. Michelagnolo; and, for the
Confraternity of S. Maria della Misericordia, he painted in fresco, on
the same side of the church, the Chapel of S. Jacopo e S. Filippo; and
over the principal door of the Confraternity, which opens on to the
square--namely, on the arch--he painted a Pieta, with a S. John, at the
request of the Rectors of that Confraternity, which had its origin in
the following way. A certain number of good and honourable citizens had
begun to go about collecting alms for the poor who were ashamed to beg,
and to succour them in all their needs: and in the year of the plague of
1348, by reason of the great name acquired by these good men for the
Confraternity in assisting the poor and the sick, in burying the dead,
and in doing other similar works of charity, so many were the legacies,
the donations, and the inheritances that were left to it, that it
inherited the third of the riches of Arezzo; and the same came to pass
in the year 1383, when there was likewise a great plague. Spinello,
then, belonging to this Company, it was often his turn to visit the
sick, to bury the dead, and to do other similar pious exercises, such as
the best citizens of that city have ever done and still do to-day; and
in order to make some memorial of this in his pictures, he painted for
that Company, on the facade of the Church of S. Laurentino e S.
Pergentino, a Madonna who, having her mantle open in front, has under it
the people of Arezzo, among whom are portrayed from life many of the
chief men of the Confraternity, with their wallets on their shoulders
and with wooden hammers in their hands, like to those that they use for
knocking at the doors when they go seeking alms. In like manner, for the
Company of the Annunciation he painted the great shrine that is without
the church, and part of a portico that is opposite to it, and the panel
of that Company, wherein there is likewise an Annunciation in distemper.
A work of Spinello's, likewise, is the panel which is now in the Church
of the Nuns of S. Giusto, wherein a little Christ, who is in the arms of
His mother, is marrying S. Catherine, together with six little scenes,
with small figures, of her acts; and it is much praised.
[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION
(_After the fresco by_ Spinello Aretino. _Arezzo: SS. Annunziata_)
_Alinari_]
Being next summoned to the famous Abbey of Camaldoli in the Casentino,
in the year 1361, he made for the hermits of that place the panel of the
high-altar, which was removed in the year 1539, when, that church having
been just rebuilt completely anew, Giorgio Vasari made a new panel, and
painted in fresco the whole of the principal chapel of that abbey, and
the tramezzo[2] of the church, also in fresco, and two other panels.
Summoned thence to Florence by Don Jacopo d'Arezzo, Abbot of S. Miniato
sul Monte, of the Order of Monte Oliveto, Spinello painted on the
vaulting and on the four walls of the sacristy of that monastery,
besides the panel in distemper for the altar, many scenes in fresco of
the life of S. Benedict, with great mastery and with much vivacity of
colouring, learnt by him by means of long practice and of labouring
continually with zeal and diligence, even as in truth all must do who
wish to acquire any art perfectly.
[Footnote 2: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]