little octagonal temple of marble--in the Church of S. Martino in his
own city, in the year 1444, for Domenico Galigano of Lucca--wherein
there is the image of the Holy Cross, a piece of sculpture miraculously
wrought, so it is said, by Nicodemus, one of the seventy-two disciples
of the Saviour; which temple is truly nothing if not very beautiful and
well-proportioned. The same man carved in marble a figure of S.
Sebastian wholly in the round, three braccia high, and very beautiful by
reason of its having been made with good design and in a beautiful
attitude and wrought with a high finish. By his hand, also, is a panel
wherein there are three very beautiful figures in three niches, in the
church where the body of S. Regulus is said to be; and likewise the
panel that is in S. Michele, wherein are three figures in marble; and in
like manner the statue that is on the corner of the said church, on the
outer side--namely, a Madonna, which shows that Matteo was ever striving
to equal his master Jacopo.
Niccolo Bolognese was also a disciple of Jacopo, and he, among other
works, brought to completion divinely well--having found it
unfinished--the marble sarcophagus full of scenes and figures wherein
lies the body of S. Dominic, a work made long ago by Niccola Pisano in
Bologna; and he gained thereby, besides profit, that name of honour,
Maestro Niccolo dell'Arca, which he bore ever after. He finished this
work in the year 1460, and afterwards, for the facade of the palace
where the Legate of Bologna now lives, he made a Madonna in bronze, four
braccia high, and placed it in position in the year 1478. In a word, he
was an able master and a worthy disciple of Jacopo della Quercia of
Siena.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_After_ Matteo Civitali. _Lucca: Museo_)
_Brogi_]
NICCOLO ARETINO
LIFE OF NICCOLO ARETINO
[_NICCOLO D'AREZZO OR NICCOLO DI PIERO LAMBERTI_]
SCULPTOR
About the same time, engaged in the same pursuit of sculpture, and
almost of the same excellence in the art, lived Niccolo di Piero, a
citizen of Arezzo, to whom Nature was as liberal with her gifts of
intellect and vivacity of mind as Fortune was niggardly with her
benefits. He, then, being a needy fellow, and having received some
affront from his nearest of kin in his own country, departed, in order
to come to Florence, from Arezzo, where--under the discipline of Maestro
Moccio, sculptor of Siena, who, as it has been said in another place,
wrought some works in Arezzo--he had applied himself to sculpture with
no little fruit, although the said Maestro Moccio was not very
excellent. And so, having arrived in Florence, Niccolo at first for many
months wrought whatsoever work came to his hand, both because poverty
and want were pressing him hard, and also out of rivalry with certain
young men, who, competing together honourably with much study and
labour, were occupying themselves with sculpture. Finally, after many
labours, Niccolo became a creditable sculptor, and was commissioned by
the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore to make two statues for the
Campanile; these statues, having been placed therein on the side facing
the Canon's house, stand one on either side of those that Donato
afterwards made; and since nothing better in full-relief had been seen,
they were held passing good.
Next, departing from Florence by reason of the plague of 1383, he went
to his own country. There he found that by reason of the said plague the
men of the Confraternity of S. Maria della Misericordia, whereof we have
spoken above, had acquired great wealth by means of bequests made by
diverse persons in the city through the devotion that they felt for
that holy place and for its brethren, who attend to the sick and bury
the dead in every pestilence, without fear of any peril; and that
therefore they wished to make a facade for that place, but in
grey-stone, for lack of a supply of marble. This work, which had been
begun before in the German style, he undertook to do; and assisted by
many stonecutters from Settignano, he brought it to perfect completion,
making with his own hand, in the lunette of the facade, a Madonna with
the Child in her arms, and certain angels who are holding open her
mantle, under which the people of that city appear to be taking shelter,
while S. Laurentino and S. Pergentino, kneeling below, are interceding
for them. Next, in two niches at the sides, he made two statues, each
three braccia high--namely, one of S. Gregory the Pope, and one of S.
Donatus the Bishop, Protector of that city, with good grace and passing
good manner. It appears that in his youth, before making these works, he
had formerly made three large figures of terra-cotta which were placed
over the door of the Vescovado, and which are now in great part eaten
away by frost, as is also a S. Luke of grey-stone, made by the same man
while he was a youth and placed in the facade of the said Vescovado. In
the Pieve, likewise, in the Chapel of S. Biagio, he made a very
beautiful figure of the said Saint in terra-cotta; and one of that Saint
in the Church of S. Antonio, also in terra-cotta and in relief; and
another Saint, seated, over the door of the hospital of the said city.
[Illustration: S. MARK
(_After_ Niccolo Aretino. _Florence: Duomo_)
_Brogi_]
While he was making these and some other similar works, the walls of
Borgo a San Sepolcro were ruined by an earthquake, and Niccolo was sent
for to the end that he might make--as he did with good judgment--a
design for a new wall, which turned out much better and stronger than
the first. And so, continuing to work now in Arezzo, and now in the
neighbouring places, Niccolo was living very quietly and at his ease in
his own country, when war, the capital enemy of the arts, compelled him
to leave it, for, after the sons of Piero Saccone had been driven out of
Pietramala and the castle had been destroyed down to its foundations,
the city and the district of Arezzo were all in confusion. Wherefore,
departing from that territory, Niccolo betook himself to Florence,
where he had worked at other times, and for the Wardens of Works of
S. Maria del Fiore he made a statue of marble, four braccia high, which
was afterwards placed on the left hand of the principal door of that
church. In this statue, which is an Evangelist seated, Niccolo showed
that he was truly an able sculptor, and he was therefore much praised,
since up to then there had not been seen, as there was afterwards, any
better work in wholly round relief. Being then summoned to Rome by order
of Pope Boniface IX, as the best of all the architects of his time, he
fortified and gave better form to the Castle of S. Angelo. On returning
to Florence, he made two little figures in marble for the Masters of the
Mint, on that corner of Orsanmichele that faces the Guild of Wool, in
the pilaster, above the niche wherein there is now the S. Matthew, which
was made afterwards; and these figures were so well made and so well
placed on the summit of that shrine that they were then much extolled,
as they have been ever afterwards, and in them Niccolo appears to have
surpassed himself, for he never did anything better. In short, they are
such that they can stand beside any other work of that kind; wherefore
he acquired so great credit that he was thought worthy to be in the
number of those who were under consideration for the making of the
bronze doors of S. Giovanni, although, when the proof was made, he was
left behind, and they were allotted, as it will be said in the proper
place, to another. After these labours Niccolo went to Milan, where he
was made Overseer of the Works of the Duomo in that city; and there he
wrought some things in marble which gave great satisfaction.
Finally, being called back to his own country by the Aretines to the end
that he might make a tabernacle for the Sacrament, while returning he
was forced to stay in Bologna and to make the tomb of Pope Alexander V,
who had finished the course of his years in that city, for the Convent
of the Friars Minor. And although he was very unwilling to accept this
work, he could not, however, but comply with the prayers of Messer
Leonardo Bruni, the Aretine, who had been a highly-favoured Secretary of
that Pontiff. Niccolo, then, made the said tomb and portrayed that Pope
thereon from nature; although it is true that from lack of marble and
other stone the tomb and its ornaments were made of stucco and
brick-work, and likewise the statue of the Pope on the sarcophagus,
which is placed behind the choir of the said church. This work finished,
Niccolo fell grievously sick and died shortly afterwards at the age of
sixty-seven, and was buried in the same church, in the year 1417. His
portrait was made by Galasso of Ferrara, very much his friend, who was
painting at that time in Bologna in competition with Jacopo and Simone,
painters of Bologna, and one Cristofano--I know not whether of Ferrara,
or, as others say, of Modena--who all painted many works in fresco in a
church called the Casa di Mezzo, without the Porta di S. Mammolo.
Cristofano painted scenes on one side, from the Creation of Adam by God
up to the death of Moses, Simone and Jacopo painted thirty scenes, from
the Birth of Christ up to the Last Supper that He held with the
Apostles, and Galasso then painted the Passion, as it is seen from the
name of each man, written below. These pictures were made in the year
1404, and afterwards the rest of the church was painted by other masters
with stories of David, wrought with a high finish. And in truth it is
not without reason that these pictures are held in much esteem by the
Bolognese, both because, for old things, they are passing good, and also
because the work, having been preserved fresh and vivacious, deserves
much praise. Some say that the said Galasso, when very old, painted also
in oil, but neither in Ferrara nor in any other place have I found any
works of his save in fresco. A disciple of Galasso was Cosme, who
painted a chapel in S. Domenico at Ferrara, and the folding doors that
close the organ of the Duomo, and many other works, which are better
than the pictures of Galasso, his master.
Niccolo was a good draughtsman, as it may be seen in our book, wherein
there are an Evangelist and three heads of horses by his hand, very well
drawn.
DELLO
LIFE OF DELLO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Although Dello the Florentine, while he lived, had only the name of
painter, which he has had ever since, he applied himself none the less
also to sculpture--nay, his first works were in sculpture, seeing that,
long before he began to paint, he made in terra-cotta a Coronation of
Our Lady in the arch that is over the door of the Church of S. Maria
Nuova, and, within the church, the twelve Apostles; and, in the Church
of the Servi, a Dead Christ in the lap of the Virgin, with many other
works throughout the whole city. But, being capricious, and also
perceiving that he was gaining little by working in terra-cotta and that
his poverty had need of some greater succour, he resolved, being a good
draughtsman, to give his attention to painting; and in this he succeeded
with ease, for the reason that he soon acquired a good mastery in
colouring, as many pictures demonstrate that he made in his own city,
and above all those with little figures, wherein he showed better grace
than in the large. And this ability served him in good stead, because
the citizens of those times used to have in their apartments great
wooden chests in the form of a sarcophagus, with the covers shaped in
various fashions, and there were none that did not have the said chests
painted; and besides the stories that were wrought on the front and on
the ends, they used to have the arms, or rather, insignia of their
houses painted on the corners, and sometimes elsewhere. And the stories
that were wrought on the front were for the most part fables taken from
Ovid and from other poets, or rather, stories related by the Greek and
Latin historians, and likewise chases, jousts, tales of love, and other
similar subjects, according to each man's particular pleasure. Then the
inside was lined with cloth or with silk, according to the rank and
means of those who had them made, for the better preservation of silk
garments and other precious things. And what is more, it was not only
the chests that were painted in such a manner, but also the couches, the
chair-backs, the mouldings that went right round, and other similar
magnificent ornaments for apartments which were used in those times,
whereof an infinite number may be seen throughout the whole city. And
for many years this fashion was so much in use that even the most
excellent painters exercised themselves in such labours, without being
ashamed, as many would be to-day, to paint and gild such things. And
that this is true has been seen up to our own day from some chests,
chair-backs, and mouldings, besides many other things, in the apartments
of the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici, the Elder, whereon there were
painted--by the hand, not of common painters, but of excellent masters,
and with judgment, invention, and marvellous art--all the jousts,
tournaments, chases, festivals, and other spectacles that took place in
his times. Of such things relics are still seen, not only in the palace
and the old houses of the Medici, but in all the most noble houses in
Florence; and there are men who, out of attachment to these ancient
usages, truly magnificent and most honourable, have not displaced these
things in favour of modern ornaments and usages. Dello, then, being a
very good and practised painter, and above all, as it has been said, in
making little pictures with much grace, applied himself for many years,
to his great profit and honour, to nothing else save adorning and
painting chests, chair-backs, couches, and other ornaments in the manner
described above, insomuch that it can be said to have been his principal
and peculiar profession. But since nothing in this world has permanence
or can endure any long time, however good and praiseworthy it may be, it
was not long before the refinement of men's intellects led them from
that first method of working to the making of richer ornaments and of
carvings in walnut-wood overlaid with gold, which make a very rich
adornment, and to the painting and colouring in oil of very beautiful
stories on similar pieces of household furniture, which have made known,
as they still do, both the magnificence of the citizens who use them and
the excellence of the painters.
But to come to the works of Dello, who was the first who occupied
himself with diligence and good mastery in such labours; for Giovanni
de' Medici, in particular, he painted the whole furniture of an
apartment, which was held something truly rare and very beautiful of its
kind, as some relics demonstrate that are still left. And Donatello,
then quite young, is said to have assisted him, making there by his own
hand, with stucco, gesso, glue, and pounded brick, some stories and
ornaments in low-relief, which, being afterwards overlaid with gold,
made a beautiful accompaniment for the painted stories. Of this work and
many others like it Drea Cennini makes mention in a long discourse in
his work, whereof there has been enough said above; and since it is a
good thing to maintain some memory of these old things, I have had some
of them, by the hand of Dello himself, preserved in the Palace of the
Lord Duke Cosimo, where they are, and they will be ever worthy of being
studied, if only for the various costumes of those times, both of men
and women, that are seen in them. Dello also wrought the story of Isaac
giving his benediction to Esau, in fresco and with terra-verde, in a
corner of the cloister of S. Maria Novella.
A little after this work, being summoned to Spain to enter the service
of the King, he came into so great credit that no craftsman could have
desired much more; and although it is not known precisely what works he
made in those parts, it may be judged, seeing that he returned thence
very rich and highly honoured, that they were numerous and beautiful and
good. After a few years, having been royally rewarded for his labours,
Dello conceived the wish to return to Florence, in order to show his
friends how he had climbed from extreme poverty to great riches.
Wherefore, having gone for permission to that King, not only did he
obtain it readily (although the former would have willingly retained
him, if Dello had been so minded), but he was also made chevalier by
that most liberal King, as a greater sign of gratitude. Whereupon he
returned to Florence in order to obtain the banners and the confirmation
of his privileges, but they were denied him by the agency of Filippo
Spano degli Scolari, who had just come back from his victories over the
Turks as Grand Seneschal of the King of Hungary. But Dello having
written immediately to the King of Spain to complain of this affront,
the King wrote so warmly on his behalf to the Signoria that the due and
desired honour was conceded to him without opposition. It is said that
Dello, while returning to his house on horseback, with his banners,
having been honoured by the Signoria and robed in brocade, was mocked
at, in passing through Vacchereccia, where there were then many
goldsmiths' shops, by certain old friends, who, having known him in
youth, did this either in scorn or in jest; and that he, turning in the
direction whence he had heard the voice, made a gesture of contempt with
both his hands and went on his way without saying a word, so that
scarcely anyone noticed it save those who had derided him. By reason of
this and other signs, which gave him to know that envy was no less
active against him in his own country than malice had been formerly when
he was very poor, he determined to return to Spain; and so, having
written, and having received an answer from the King, he returned to
those parts, where he was welcomed with great favour and ever afterwards
regarded with affection, and there he devoted himself to work, living
like a nobleman, and ever painting from that day onwards in an apron of
brocade. Thus, then, he gave way before envy, and lived in honour at the
Court of that King; and he died at the age of forty-nine, and was given
honourable burial by the same man, with this epitaph:
DELLUS EQUES FLORENTINUS
PICTURAE ARTE PERCELEBRIS
REGISQUE HISPANIARUM LIBERALITATE
ET ORNAMENTIS AMPLISSIMUS.
H. S. E.
S. T. T. L.
Dello was no very good draughtsman, but was well among the first who
began to show judgment in revealing the muscles in nude bodies, as it is
seen from some drawings in our book, made by him in chiaroscuro. He was
portrayed in chiaroscuro by Paolo Uccello in S. Maria Novella, in the
story wherein Noah is made drunk by his son Ham.
NANNI D'ANTONIO DI BANCO
LIFE OF NANNI D'ANTONIO DI BANCO
SCULPTOR OF FLORENCE
Nanni d'Antonio di Banco was not only rich enough by patrimony, but also
by no means humble in origin, yet, delighting in sculpture, he was not
only not ashamed to learn and practise it, but took no small pride
therein, and made so much advance that his fame will ever endure; and it
will be all the more celebrated in proportion as men know that he
applied himself to this noble art not through necessity, but through a
true love of the art itself. This man, who was one of the disciples of
Donato, although I have placed him before his master because he died
long before him, was a somewhat sluggish person, but modest, humble, and
kindly in his dealings. There is by his hand, in Florence, the S. Philip
of marble which is on a pilaster on the outside of the Oratory of
Orsanmichele. This work was at first allotted to Donato by the Guild of
Shoemakers, and then, since they could not agree with him about the
price, it was transferred, as though in despite of Donato, to Nanni, who
promised that he would take whatsoever payment they might give him, and
would ask no other. But the business fell out otherwise, for, when the
statue was finished and set in its place, he asked a much greater price
for his work than Donato had done at the beginning; wherefore the
valuation of it was referred by both parties to Donato, the Consuls of
that Guild believing firmly that he, out of envy at not having made it,
would value it at much less than if it were his own work; but they were
disappointed in their belief, for Donato judged that much more should be
paid to Nanni for his statue than he had demanded. Being in no way
willing to abide by this judgment, the Consuls made an outcry and said
to Donato: "Why dost thou, after undertaking to make this work at a
smaller price, value it higher when made by the hand of another, and
constrain us to give him more for it than he himself demands? For thou
knowest, even as we do also, that from thy hands it would have come out
much better." Donato answered, laughing: "This good man is not my equal
in the art, and endures much more fatigue than I do in working;
wherefore, if you wish to give him satisfaction, like the just men that
I take you for, you are bound to pay him for the time that he has
spent." And thus the award of Donato was carried into effect, both
parties having agreed to abide by it.
This work stands well enough, and has good grace and liveliness in the
head; the draperies are not hard, and are in no wise badly arranged
about the figure. In another niche below this one there are four saints
in marble, which the same Nanni was commissioned to make by the Guild of
Smiths, Carpenters, and Masons; and it is said that, having finished
them all in the round and detached one from another, and having prepared
the niche, it was with great difficulty that he could get even three of
them into it, for he had made some of them in attitudes with the arms
outstretched; and that he besought Donato, in grief and despair, to
consent with his counsel to repair his own misfortune and lack of
foresight. And Donato, laughing over the mischance, answered: "If thou
wilt promise to pay for a supper for me and all my apprentices, I will
undertake to get the saints into the niche without any trouble." This
Nanni promised to do right willingly, and Donato sent him to Prato, to
take certain measurements and to do some other business that would take
him some days. Whereupon, Nanni having departed, Donato, with all his
disciples and apprentices, set to work and cut some of the statues down
in the shoulders and some in the arms, in such wise that he contrived to
group them close together, each making place for the other, while he
made a hand appear over the shoulders of one of them. And thus the
judgment of Donato, having joined them harmoniously together, concealed
the error of Nanni so well that they still show, in that place where
they were fixed, most manifest signs of concord and brotherhood; and
anyone who does not know the circumstance sees nothing of the error.
Nanni, finding on his return that Donato had corrected everything and
put all his disorder to rights, rendered him infinite thanks, and with
great goodwill paid for the supper for him and his pupils. Under the
feet of these four saints, in the ornament of the shrine, there is a
scene in marble and in half-relief, wherein a sculptor is carving a boy
with great animation, and a master is building, with two men assisting
him; and all these little figures are seen to be very well grouped and
intent on what they are doing.
[Illustration: MADONNA DELLA CINTOLA
(_After_ Nanni d'Antonio di Banco. _Florence: Duomo_)
_Brogi_]
In the facade of S. Maria del Fiore, on the left side as one enters the
church by the central door, there is an Evangelist by the hand of the
same man, which is a passing good figure for those times. It is also
reputed that the S. Lo which is without the said Oratory of
Orsanmichele, and which was made for the Guild of Farriers, is by the
hand of the same Nanni, and likewise the marble shrine, in the base of
which, at the foot, there is a scene wherein S. Lo, the Farrier, is
shoeing a frenzied horse, so well made that Nanni deserved much praise
for it; and he would have deserved and obtained much greater praise with
other works, if he had not died, as he did, while still young. None the
less, by reason of these few works Nanni was held a passing good
sculptor; and being a citizen, he obtained many offices in his native
city of Florence, and because he bore himself like a just and reasonable
man both in these and in all his other affairs, he was greatly beloved.
He died of colic in the year 1430, at the age of forty-seven.
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA
[Illustration: CANTORIA
(_After_ Luca della Robbia. _Florence: Opera del Duomo_)
_Anderson_]
LIFE OF LUCA DELLA ROBBIA
SCULPTOR OF FLORENCE