made Governor of the Monastery of S. Bernardo, of the same Order, in his
own country, precisely when the building was almost wholly finished on
the site conceded by the Aretines to those monks, just where there was
the Colosseum; and he caused Spinello to paint in fresco two chapels
that are beside the principal chapel, and two others that are one on
either side of the door that leads into the choir, in the tramezzo[3] of
the church. In one of these, which is beside the principal chapel, is an
Annunciation in fresco, made with very great diligence, and on a wall
beside it is the Madonna ascending the steps of the Temple, accompanied
by Joachim and Anna. In the other chapel is a Christ Crucified, with the
Madonna and S. John, who are bewailing Him, and a S. Bernard kneeling,
who is adoring Him. He made, also, on that inner wall of the church
where there is the altar of Our Lady, the Virgin herself with her Son in
her arms, which was held a very beautiful figure; together with many
others that he made for that church, over the choir of which he painted
Our Lady, S. Mary Magdalene, and S. Bernard, very vividly. In the Pieve
of Arezzo, likewise, in the Chapel of S. Bartolommeo, he made many
scenes of the life of that Saint; and opposite to it, in the other
aisle, in the Chapel of S. Matteo (which is below the organ, and was
painted by Jacopo di Casentino, his master), he made in certain
medallions on the vaulting--besides many stories of that Saint, which
are passing good--the four Evangelists in a bizarre manner, seeing that,
making the busts and members human, he gave to S. John the head of an
eagle, to Mark the head of a lion, to Luke that of an ox, and to Matthew
alone the face of a man, or rather, of an angel.
[Footnote 3: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]
Without Arezzo, also, in the Church of S. Stefano, erected by the
Aretines on many columns of granite and of marble in order to honour
and to preserve the memory of many martyrs who were put to death by
Julian the Apostate on that spot, he painted many figures and scenes,
with infinite diligence, and with such a manner of colouring that they
had remained very fresh up to our own day, when, not many years since,
they were ruined. But what was marvellous in that place, besides the
stories of S. Stephen made with figures larger than life, was to see
Joseph, in a story of the Magi, beside himself with joy at the coming of
those Kings, on whom he was gazing with most beautiful manner, while
they were opening their vessels full of treasures and were offering them
to him. A Madonna in that same church, who is handing a rose to the
Infant Christ, was and still is held in so great veneration among the
Aretines, as being a very beautiful and devout figure, that without
regard for any difficulty or expense, when the Church of S. Stefano was
thrown to the ground, they cut the wall away round her, and, binding it
together ingeniously, they bore her into the city and placed her in a
little church, in order to honour her, as they do, with the same
devotion that they showed to her before. Nor should this appear anything
wonderful, because, it having been something peculiar and natural to
Spinello to give to his figures a certain simple grace, which has much
of the modest and the saintly, it appears that the figures that he made
of saints, and above all of the Virgin, breathe out a certain quality of
the saintly and the divine, which moves men to hold them in supreme
reverence; as it may be seen, apart from the said figure, in the Madonna
that is on the Canto degli Albergotti, and in that which is on an outer
wall of the Pieve in the Seteria, and in one of the same sort, likewise,
that is on the Canto del Canale.
[Illustration: SPINELLO ARETINO: THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN
(_Siena: Pinacoteca, 125. Panel_)]
By the hand of Spinello, also, on a wall of the Hospital of Spirito
Santo, is a scene of the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit, which is
very beautiful; and so, too, are the two scenes below, wherein S. Cosimo
and S. Damiano are cutting off a sound leg from a dead Moor, in order to
attach it to a sick man, from whom they had cut off one that was
mortified; and likewise the very beautiful "Noli me tangere," which is
between those two works. In the Company of the Puraccioli, on the Piazza
di S. Agostino, in a chapel, he made an Annunciation very well
coloured, and in the cloister of that convent he wrought in fresco a
Madonna, a S. James, and a S. Anthony; and he portrayed there a soldier
in armour on his knees, with these words: HOC OPUS FECIT FIERI CLEMENS
PUCCI DE MONTE CATINO, CUJUS CORPUS JACET HIC, ETC. ANNO DOMINI 1367,
DIE 15 MENSIS MAII. Likewise, with regard to the chapel that is in that
church, with paintings of S. Anthony and other Saints, it is known by
the manner that they are by the hand of Spinello, who, shortly
afterwards, working in the Hospital of S. Marco (which is to-day the
Monastery of the Nuns of S. Croce, by reason of their monastery, which
was without the city, having been thrown to the ground), painted a whole
portico with many figures, and portrayed there Pope Gregory IX from
nature, to represent S. Gregory the Pope, who is standing beside a
Misericordia.
The Chapel of S. Jacopo e S. Filippo, which is in S. Domenico in the
same city, just as one enters the church, was wrought in fresco by
Spinello with beautiful and resolute handling, as was also the
half-length of S. Anthony painted on the facade of his church, so
beautiful that he appears alive, in the midst of four scenes of his
life; which same scenes, with many more also of the life of S. Anthony,
likewise by the hand of Spinello, are in the Church of S. Giustino, in
the Chapel of S. Antonio. In the Church of S. Lorenzo, on one side, he
made some stories of the Madonna, and without the church he painted her
seated, showing great grace in this work in fresco. In a little hospital
opposite to the Nunnery of S. Spirito, near the gate that leads to Rome,
he painted a portico entirely by his own hand, showing, in a Christ
lying dead in the lap of the Maries, so great genius and judgment in
painting, that he is recognized to have proved himself the peer of
Giotto in design, and to have surpassed him by a long way in colouring.
In the same place, also, he represented Christ seated, with a
theological significance very ingeniously contrived, having placed the
Trinity within a sun in such wise that from each of the three figures
there are seen issuing the same rays and the same splendour. But to this
work, to the great loss, truly, of the lovers of this art, there has
befallen the same thing as to many others, for it was thrown to the
ground in fortifying the city. Without the Church of the Company of the
Trinita there is seen a shrine wrought very well in fresco by Spinello,
containing the Trinity, S. Peter, and S. Cosimo and S. Damiano clothed
in such garments as physicians used to wear in those times.
The while that these works were in progress, Don Jacopo d'Arezzo was
made General of the Congregation of Monte Oliveto, nineteen years after
he had caused many works to be wrought in Florence and in Arezzo, as it
has been said above, by our Spinello; and living, according to the
custom of these dignitaries, at Monte Oliveto Maggiore di Chiusuri in
the district of Siena, as the most honoured seat of that Order, he
conceived a desire to have a very beautiful panel made in that place.
Sending therefore for Spinello, by whom he had found himself very well
served at another time, he caused him to paint in distemper the panel of
the principal chapel, wherein Spinello made an infinite number of
figures both great and small on a ground of gold, with much judgment;
and an ornament being made for it afterwards, carved in half-relief, by
Simone Cini, the Florentine, he made for it in certain parts, with gesso
mixed with size and rather thick, or truly gelatinous, another ornament
which turned out very beautiful, and which was afterwards all overlaid
with gold by Gabriello Saracini, who wrote at the foot of the said panel
these three names:
SIMONE CINI, THE FLORENTINE, MADE THE CARVING; GABRIELLO SARACINI
OVERLAID IT WITH GOLD; AND SPINELLO DI LUCA OF AREZZO PAINTED IT
IN THE YEAR 1385.
This work finished, Spinello returned to Arezzo, having received from
that General and from the other monks, besides payment, many kindnesses;
but making no long stay there, because Arezzo was harassed by the Guelph
and Ghibelline parties, and was sacked in those days, he betook himself
with his family and his son Parri, who was studying painting, to
Florence, where he had friends and relatives enough. There, without the
Porta a S. Piero Gattolini, on the Strada Romana, where one turns to go
to Pazzolatico, he painted an Annunciation, as it were to pass the time,
in a shrine that to-day is half-ruined, and other pictures in another
shrine near the hostelry of Galluzzo.
He was then summoned to Pisa in order to finish, below the stories of S.
Ranieri in the Campo Santo, certain stories that were lacking in a space
that had remained not painted; and in order to connect them together
with those that had been made by Giotto, Simone Sanese, and Antonio
Viniziano, he made in that place, in fresco, six stories of S. Petito
and S. Epiro. In the first is S. Epiro, as a youth, being presented by
his mother to the Emperor Diocletian, and being made General of the
armies that were to march against the Christians; and also Christ
appearing to him as he is riding, showing him a white Cross and
commanding the Saint not to persecute Him. In another story there is
seen the Angel of the Lord giving to that Saint, who is riding, the
banner of the Faith with the white Cross on a field of red, which has
been ever since the ensign of the Pisans, by reason of S. Epiro having
prayed to God that He should give him a standard to bear against His
enemies. Beside this story there is seen another, wherein, a fierce
battle being contested between the Saint and the pagans, many angels in
armour are combating to the end that he may be victorious. Here Spinello
wrought many things worthy of consideration for those times, when the
art had as yet neither strength nor any good method of expressing
vividly with colour the conceptions of the mind; and such, among the
many other things that are there, were two soldiers, who, having gripped
each other by the beard with one hand, are seeking with their naked
swords, which they have in the other hand, to rob each other of life,
showing in their faces and in all the movements of their members the
desire that each has to come out victorious, and how fearless and fiery
of soul they are, and how courageous beyond all belief. And so, too,
among those who are combating on horseback, that knight is very well
painted who is pinning to the ground with his lance the head of his
enemy, whom he has hurled backwards from his horse, all dismayed.
Another story shows the same Saint when he is presented to the Emperor
Diocletian, who examines him with regard to the Faith, and afterwards
causes him to be put to the torture, and to be placed in a furnace,
wherein he remains unscathed, while the ministers of torture, who are
showing great readiness there on every side, are burnt in his stead. And
in short, all the other actions of that Saint are there, up to his
beheading, after which his soul is borne to Heaven; and, for the last,
we see the bones and relics of S. Petito being borne from Alexandria to
Pisa. This whole work, both in colouring and in invention, is the most
beautiful, the most finished, and the best executed that Spinello made,
a circumstance which can be recognized from this, that it is so well
preserved as to make everyone who sees it to-day marvel at its
freshness.
Having finished this work in the Campo Santo, he painted many stories of
S. Bartholomew, S. Andrew, S. James, and S. John, the Apostles, in a
chapel in S. Francesco, which is the second from the principal chapel,
and perchance he would have remained longer at work in Pisa, since in
that city his works were known and rewarded; but seeing the city all in
confusion and uproar by reason of Messer Pietro Gambacorti having been
slain by the Lanfranchi, citizens of Pisa, he returned once again with
all his family, being now old, to Florence, where, in the one year and
no more that he stayed there, he made many stories of the lives and
deaths of S. Philip and S. James in the Chapel of the Macchiavelli in S.
Croce, dedicated to those Saints; and as for the panel for the said
chapel, being desirous to return to Arezzo, his native city, or, to
speak more exactly, held by him as his native city, he wrought it in
Arezzo, and from there sent it finished in the year 1400.
Having returned there, then, at the age of seventy-seven or more, he was
received lovingly by his relatives and friends, and was ever afterward
cherished and honoured up to the end of his life, which was at the age
of ninety-two. And although he was very old when he returned to Arezzo,
and, having ample means, could have done without working, yet, as one
who was ever used to working, he knew not how to take repose, and
undertook to make for the Company of S. Agnolo in that city certain
stories of S. Michael, which he sketched in red on the intonaco of the
wall, in that rough fashion wherein the old craftsmen used generally to
do it; and in one corner, for a pattern, he wrought and coloured
completely a single story, which gave satisfaction enough. Then, having
agreed on the price with those who had charge thereof, he finished the
whole wall of the high-altar, wherein he represented Lucifer fixing his
seat in the North; and he made there the Fall of the Angels, who are
being transformed into devils and raining down to earth; while in the
air is seen a S. Michael, who is doing combat with the ancient serpent
of seven heads and ten horns; and below, in the centre, there is a
Lucifer, already transformed into a most hideous beast. And Spinello
took so much pleasure in making him horrible and deformed, that it is
said (so great, sometimes, is the power of imagination) that the said
figure painted by him appeared to him in a dream, asking Spinello where
he had seen him so hideous, and why he had offered him such an affront
with his brushes; and that he, awaking from his sleep, being unable to
cry out by reason of his fear, shook with a mighty trembling, insomuch
that his wife, awaking, came to his rescue. But he was none the less
thereby in peril--his heart being much strained--of dying on the spot by
reason of such an accident; and although he lived a little afterwards,
he was half mad, with staring eyes, and he slipped into the grave,
leaving great sorrow to his friends, and to the world two sons, of whom
one was Forzore, the goldsmith, who worked admirably at Florence in
niello, and the other was Parri, who, imitating his father, laboured
continually at painting, and surpassed him by a long way in design. This
sinister misfortune, for all that Spinello was old, was a great grief to
the Aretines, who were robbed of the so great talent and excellence that
were his. He died at the age of ninety-two, and was given burial at
Arezzo in S. Agostino, where there is still seen to-day a tombstone with
a coat of arms made according to his fancy, containing a hedgehog.
Spinello knew much better how to draw than how to execute a painting, as
it may be seen in our book of the drawings of diverse ancient painters,
in two Evangelists in chiaroscuro and a S. Louis, drawn by his hand and
very beautiful. And the portrait of the same man, which is seen above,
was copied by me from one that was in the Duomo Vecchio before it was
pulled down. His pictures date from 1380 up to 1400.
GHERARDO STARNINA
LIFE OF GHERARDO STARNINA
PAINTER
Verily he who journeys far from his own country, dwelling in those of
other men, gains very often a disposition and character of a fine
temper, for, in seeing abroad diverse honourable customs, even though he
might be perverse in nature, he learns to be tractable, amiable, and
patient, with much greater ease than he would have done by remaining in
his own country. And in truth, he who desires to refine men in the life
of the world need seek no other fire and no better touchstone than this,
seeing that those who are rough by nature are made gentle, and the
gentle become more gracious. Gherardo di Jacopo Starnina, painter of
Florence, being nobler in blood than in nature, and very harsh and rough
in his manners, brought more harm thereby on himself than on his
friends; and more harm still would this have brought on him if he had
not dwelt a long time in Spain, where he learnt gentleness and courtesy,
seeing that in those parts he became in such wise contrary to that first
nature of his, that on his returning to Florence an infinite number of
those who bore him deadly hatred before his departure, received him on
his return with very great lovingness, and ever after loved him very
straitly, so thoroughly had he become gentle and courteous.
Gherardo was born in Florence in the year 1354, and growing up, as one
who had an intellect inclined by nature to design, he was placed with
Antonio Viniziano in order to learn to draw and to paint; and having in
the course of many years not only learnt drawing and the practice of
colouring, but also given proof of himself in certain works wrought with
beautiful manner, he took his leave of Antonio, and beginning to work
by himself he made in S. Croce, in the Chapel of the Castellani (which
was given him to paint by Michele di Vanni, an honoured citizen of that
family), many stories in fresco of S. Anthony the Abbot, and also some
of S. Nicholas the Bishop, with so great diligence and with so beautiful
a manner that they caused him to become known to certain Spaniards, who
were then staying in Florence on some business of their own, as an
excellent painter, and what is more, caused them to take him into Spain
to their King, who saw him and received him very willingly, and above
all because there was then a dearth of good painters in that land. Nor
was it a great labour to persuade him to leave his country, for the
reason that, having had rough words with certain people in Florence
after the affair of the Ciompi and after Michele di Lando had been made
Gonfalonier, he was rather in peril of his life than otherwise. Going,
then, to Spain, and executing many works for that King, he became, by
reason of the great rewards that he gained for his labours, as rich and
highly honoured as any man of his own rank; wherefore, being desirous to
make himself seen and known by his friends and relatives in that better
state, he returned to his country, and was there much cherished and
received lovingly by all the citizens.
Nor was it long before he was commissioned to paint the Chapel of S.
Girolamo in the Carmine, where, making many stories of that Saint, he
painted, in the story of Paola and Eustachio and Jerome, certain
costumes that the Spaniards wore at that time, with very characteristic
invention, and with an abundance of manners and conceptions in the
attitudes of the figures. Among other things, painting a scene of S.
Jerome learning his first letters, he made a master who has caused a boy
to climb on the back of another and is beating him with his rod, in a
manner that the poor lad, kicking out with his legs by reason of the
great pain, appears to be howling and trying to bite the ear of the one
who is holding him; and all this Gherardo expressed gracefully and very
charmingly, as one who was going on investigating on every side the
things of nature. Likewise, in the scene where S. Jerome, at the point
of death, is making his testament, he counterfeited some friars with
beautiful and very ready manner; for while some are writing and others
earnestly listening and gazing on him, they are all hanging with great
affection on the words of their master.
This work having acquired for Starnina rank and fame among the
craftsmen, and his ways of life, with the sweetness of his manners,
bringing him very great reputation, the name of Gherardo was famous
throughout all Tuscany--nay, throughout all Italy--when, being called to
Pisa in order to paint in that city the Chapter-house of S. Niccola, he
sent thither in his stead Antonio Vite of Pistoia, in order not to leave
Florence. This Antonio, having learnt the manner of Starnina under his
teaching, wrought in that chapter-house the Passion of Jesus Christ, and
delivered it finished in that fashion wherein it is seen to-day, in the
year 1403, to the great satisfaction of the Pisans. Starnina having then
finished, as it has been said, the Chapel of the Pugliesi, and the
Florentines being greatly pleased with the stories of S. Jerome that he
made there, by reason of his having represented vividly many expressions
and attitudes that had never been depicted up to that time by the
painters who had lived before him, the Commune of Florence--in the year
when Gabriel Maria, Lord of Pisa, sold that city to the Florentines at
the price of 200,000 crowns, after Giovanni Gambacorti had sustained a
siege of thirteen months, and had at last agreed to the sale--caused him
to paint in memory of this, on the facade of the Palace of the Guelph
party, a picture of S. Dionysius the Bishop, with two angels, and below
him the city of Pisa, portrayed from nature; in which work he used so
great diligence in everything, and particularly in colouring it in
fresco, that in spite of the air, the rains, and its being turned to the
north, it has always remained and still remains at the present day a
picture worthy of much praise, by reason of its having been preserved as
fresh and beautiful as though it had only just been painted. Gherardo,
then, having come by reason of this and of his other works into very
great repute and fame, both in his own country and abroad, envious
death, ever the enemy of noble actions, cut short in the finest period
of his labour the infinite expectation of much greater works, for which
the world was looking from him; for at the age of forty-nine he came
unexpectedly to his end, and was buried with most honourable obsequies
in the Church of S. Jacopo Sopra Arno.
Disciples of Gherardo were Masolino da Panicale, who was first an
excellent goldsmith and afterwards a painter, and certain others, of
whom, seeing that they were not very able men, there is no need to
speak. The portrait of Gherardo is in the aforesaid story of S. Jerome,
in one of the figures that are round that Saint when he is dying, in
profile, with a cap wound round the head and wearing a buckled mantle.
In our book are certain drawings by Gherardo, made with the pen on
parchment, which are not otherwise than passing good.
LIPPO
LIFE OF LIPPO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Invention has ever been held, and ever will be, the true mother of
architecture, of painting, and of poetry--nay, of all the finer arts
also, and of all the marvellous works that are made by men, for the
reason that it pleases the craftsmen much, and displays their fantasies
and the caprices of fanciful brains that seek out variety in all things;
and these discoveries ever exalt with marvellous praise all those who,
employing themselves in honourable ways, give a form marvellous in
beauty, under the covering and shadow of a veil, to the works that they
make, now praising others dexterously, and now blaming them without
being openly understood. Lippo, then, a painter of Florence, who was as
rare and as varied in invention as he was truly unfortunate in his works
and in his life--for it lasted but a little time--was born in Florence,
about the year of our salvation 1354; and although he applied himself to
the art of painting very late, when already grown up, nevertheless, he
was so well assisted by nature, which inclined him to this, and by his
intelligence, which was very beautiful, that soon he produced therein
marvellous fruits. Wherefore, beginning his labours in Florence, he made
in S. Benedetto (a very large and beautiful monastery of the Order of
Camaldoli, without the Porta a Pinti, and now in ruins) many figures
that were held very beautiful, and in particular a chapel painted
entirely with his own hand, which showed how soon diligent study can
produce great works in one who labours honourably through desire of
glory.
Being summoned from Florence to Arezzo, he made in fresco, for the
Chapel of the Magi in the Church of S. Antonio, a large scene wherein
the Magi are adoring Christ; and in the Vescovado he painted the Chapel
of S. Jacopo e S. Cristofano for the family of the Ubertini. All these
works were very beautiful, Lippo showing invention in the composition of
the scenes and in the colouring, and above all because he was the first
who began to sport, so to speak, with the figures, and to awaken the
minds of those who came after him; a thing which had not even been
suggested, much less put into use, before his time.