for the Cardinal of Lorraine in a vast palace belonging to him, called
the Grotto, a place so extraordinary in size, that, after the likeness
of similar edifices of the ancients, it might be called the Thermæ,
by reason of the vast number and grandeur of the loggie, staircases,
and apartments, both public and private, that are there; and, to say
nothing of other particulars, most beautiful is a room called the
Pavilion, for it is all adorned with compartments and mouldings of
stucco that are wrought with a view to being seen from below, and
filled with a number of figures foreshortened in the same manner,
which are very beautiful. Beneath this, then, is a large room with
some fountains wrought in stucco, and full of figures in the round and
compartments formed of shells and other products of the sea and
natural objects, which are marvellous things and beautiful beyond
measure; and the vaulting, likewise, is all most excellently wrought
in stucco by the hand of Domenico del Barbiere, a Florentine painter,
who is excellent not only in this kind of relief, but also in design,
so that in some works that he has coloured he has given proofs of the
rarest ability. In the same place, also, many figures of stucco in the
round have been executed by a sculptor likewise of our country, called
Ponzio, who has acquitted himself very well. But, since the works that
have been executed in those places in the service of those lords are
innumerable in their variety, I must touch only on the principal works
of the Abbot, in order to show how rare he is in painting, in design,
and in matters of architecture; although, in truth, it would not
appear to me an excessive labour to enlarge on the particular works,
if I had some true and clear information about them, as I have about
works here. With regard to design, Primaticcio has been and still is
most excellent, as may be seen from a drawing by his hand painted with
the signs of the heavens, which is in our book, sent to me by
Francesco himself; and I, both for love of him and because it is a
thing of absolute perfection, hold it very dear.
King Francis being dead, the Abbot remained in the same place and rank
with King Henry, and served him as long as he lived; and afterwards he
was created by King Francis II Commissary-General over all the
buildings of the whole kingdom, in which office, one of great honour
and much repute, there had previously acted the father of Cardinal
della Bordagiera and Monseigneur de Villeroy. Since the death of
Francis II, he has continued in the same office, serving the present
King, by whose order and that of the Queen-Mother Primaticcio has made
a beginning with the tomb of the above-named King Henry, making in the
centre of a six-sided chapel the sepulchre of the King himself, and at
four sides the sepulchres of his four children; while at one of the
other two sides of the chapel is the altar, and at the other the door.
And since there are going into this work innumerable statues in marble
and bronzes and a number of scenes in low-relief, it will prove worthy
of all these great Kings and of the excellence and genius of so rare a
craftsman as is this Abbot of S. Martin, who in his best years has
been most excellent and versatile in all things that pertain to our
arts, seeing that he has occupied himself in the service of his lords
not only in buildings, paintings, and stucco-work, but also in the
preparations for many festivals and masquerades, with most beautiful
and fantastic inventions.
He has been very liberal and most loving towards his friends and
relatives, and likewise towards the craftsmen who have served him. In
Bologna he has conferred many benefits on his relatives, and has
bought honourable dwellings for them and made them commodious and very
ornate, as is that wherein there now lives M. Antonio Anselmi, who has
for wife one of the nieces of our Abbot Primaticcio, who has also
given in marriage another niece, the sister of the first-named, with
honour and a good dowry. Primaticcio has always lived not like a
painter and craftsman, but like a nobleman, and, as I have said, he
has been very loving towards our craftsmen. When, as has been related,
he sent for Prospero Fontana, he despatched to him a good sum of
money, to the end that he might be able to make his way to France.
This sum, having fallen ill, Prospero was not able to pay back or
return by means of his works and labours; wherefore I, passing in the
year 1563 through Bologna, recommended Prospero to him in this matter,
and such was the courtesy of Primaticcio, that before I departed from
Bologna I saw a writing by the hand of the Abbot in which he made a
free gift to Prospero of all that sum of money which he had in hand
for that purpose. For which reasons the affection that he has won
among craftsmen is such, that they address and honour him as a father.
Now, to say something more of Prospero, I must record that he was
once employed with much credit to himself in Rome, by Pope Julius III,
at his Palace, at the Vigna Giulia, and at the Palace of the Campo
Marzio, which at that time belonged to Signor Balduino Monti, and now
belongs to the Lord Cardinal Ernando de' Medici, the son of Duke
Cosimo. In Bologna the same master has executed many works in oils and
in fresco, and in particular an altar-piece in oils in the Madonna del
Baracane, of a S. Catherine who is disputing with philosophers and
doctors in the presence of the Tyrant, which is held to be a very
beautiful work. And the same Prospero has painted many pictures in
fresco in the principal chapel of the Palace where the Governor lives.
Much the friend of Primaticcio, likewise, is Lorenzo Sabatini, an
excellent painter; and if he had not been burdened with a wife and
many children, the Abbot would have taken him to France, knowing that
he has a very good manner and great mastery in all kinds of work, as
may be seen from many things that he has done in Bologna. And in the
year 1566 Vasari made use of him in the festive preparations that were
carried out in Florence for the above-mentioned nuptials of the Prince
and her serene Highness Queen Joanna of Austria, causing him to
execute, in the vestibule that is between the Sala dei Dugento and the
Great Hall, six figures in fresco that are very beautiful and truly
worthy to be praised. But since this able painter is constantly making
progress, I shall say nothing more about him, save that, attending as
he does to the studies of art, a most honourable result is expected
from him.
Now, in connection with the Abbot and the other Bolognese of whom
mention has been made hitherto, I shall say something of Pellegrino
Bolognese, a painter of the highest promise and most beautiful genius.
This Pellegrino, after having attended in his early years to drawing
the works by Vasari that are in the refectory of S. Michele in Bosco
at Bologna, and those by other painters of good name, went in the year
1547 to Rome, where he occupied himself until the year 1550 in drawing
the most noteworthy works; executing during that time and also
afterwards, in the Castello di S. Angelo, some things in connection
with the works that Perino del Vaga carried out. In the centre of the
vaulting of the Chapel of S. Dionigi, in the Church of S. Luigi de'
Franzesi, he painted a battle-scene in fresco, in which he acquitted
himself in such a manner, that, although Jacopo del Conte, a
Florentine painter, and Girolamo Siciolante of Sermoneta had executed
many works in the same chapel, Pellegrino proved to be in no way
inferior to them; nay, it appears to many that he acquitted himself
better than they did in the boldness, grace, colouring, and design of
those his pictures. By reason of this Monsignor Poggio afterwards
availed himself much of Pellegrino, for he had erected a palace on the
Esquiline Hill, where he had a vineyard, without the Porta del Popolo,
and he desired that Pellegrino should execute some figures for him on
the façade, and then that he should paint the interior of a loggia
that faces towards the Tiber, which he executed with such diligence,
that it is held to be a work of much beauty and grace. In the house of
Francesco Formento, between the Strada del Pellegrino and the Parione,
he painted in a courtyard a façade and two figures besides. By order
of the ministers of Pope Julius III, he executed a large escutcheon,
with two figures, in the Belvedere; and without the Porta del Popolo,
in the Church of S. Andrea, which that Pontiff had caused to be built,
he painted a S. Peter and a S. Andrew, which two figures were much
extolled, and the design of the S. Peter is in our book, together with
other sheets drawn with much diligence by the same hand.
[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS
(_After the painting by =Pellegrino Tibaldi=. Vienna: Prince
Liechtenstein_)
_Hanfstaengl_]
Being then sent to Bologna by Monsignor Poggio, he painted for him in
his palace there many scenes in fresco, among which is one that is
most beautiful, wherein from the many figures, both nude and clothed,
and the lovely composition of the scene, it is evident that he
surpassed himself, insomuch that he has never done any work since
better than this. In S. Jacopo, in the same city, he began to paint a
chapel likewise for Cardinal Poggio, which was afterwards finished by
the above-mentioned Prospero Fontana. Being then taken by the Cardinal
of Augsburg to the Madonna of Loreto, Pellegrino decorated for him a
chapel most beautifully with stucco-work and pictures. On the
vaulting, within a rich pattern of compartments in stucco, are the
Nativity of Christ and His Presentation in the arms of Simeon at the
Temple; and in the centre, in particular, is the Transfiguration of
the Saviour on Mount Tabor, and with Him Moses, Elias, and the
Disciples. In the altar-piece that is above the altar, he painted S.
John the Baptist baptizing Christ; and in this he made a portrait of
the above-named Cardinal, kneeling. On one of the façades at the sides
he painted S. John preaching to the multitude, and on the other the
Beheading of the same Saint. In the forecourt below the church he
painted stories of the Judgment, and some figures in chiaroscuro in
the place where the Theatines now have their Confessional.
Being summoned not long afterwards to Ancona by Giorgio Morato, he
painted for the Church of S. Agostino a large altar-piece in oils of
Christ baptized by S. John, with S. Paul and other Saints on one side,
and in the predella a good number of little figures, which are full of
grace. For the same man he made in the Church of S. Ciriaco sul Monte
a very beautiful ornament in stucco for the altar-piece of the
high-altar, and within it a Christ of five braccia in full-relief,
which was much extolled. In like manner, he has made in the same city
a very large and very beautiful ornament of stucco for the high-altar
of S. Domenico, and he would also have painted the altar-picture, but
he had a difference with the patron of that work, and it was given to
Tiziano Vecelli to execute, as will be related in the proper place.
Finally, having undertaken to decorate in the same city of Ancona the
Loggia de' Mercanti, which faces on one side over the sea-shore and on
the other towards the principal street of the city, Pellegrino has
adorned the vaulting, which is a new structure, with pictures and many
large figures in stucco; in which work since he has exerted all the
effort and study possible to him, it has turned out in truth full of
beauty and grace, for the reason that, besides that all the figures
are beautiful and well executed, there are some most lovely
foreshortenings of nudes, in which it is evident that he has imitated
with much diligence the works of Buonarroti that are in the Chapel in
Rome.
Now, since there are not in those parts any architects or engineers of
account, or any who know more than he does, Pellegrino has taken it
upon himself to give his attention to architecture and to the
fortifying of places in that province; and, as one who has recognized
that painting is more difficult and perhaps less advantageous than
architecture, setting his painting somewhat on one side, he has
executed many works for the fortification of Ancona and for many other
places in the States of the Church, and particularly at Ravenna.
Finally, he has made a beginning with a palace for the Sapienza, at
Pavia, for Cardinal Borromeo. And at the present day, since he has not
wholly abandoned painting, he is executing a scene in fresco, which
will be very beautiful, in the refectory of S. Giorgio at Ferrara, for
the Monks of Monte Oliveto; and of this Pellegrino himself not long
ago showed me the design, which is very fine. But, seeing that he is a
young man of thirty-five, and is constantly making more and more
progress and advancing towards perfection, this much about him must
suffice for the present. In like manner, I shall be brief in speaking
of Orazio Fumaccini,[7] a painter likewise from Bologna, who has
executed in Rome, as has been related, above one of the doors of the
Hall of Kings, a scene that is very fine, and in Bologna many
much-extolled pictures; for he also is young, and he is acquitting
himself in such a manner, that he will not be inferior to his elders,
of whom we have made mention in these our Lives.
[Footnote 7: Sammacchini.]
The men of Romagna, also, spurred by the example of the Bolognese,
their neighbours, have executed many noble works in our arts; for,
besides Jacopone da Faenza, who, as has been related, painted the
tribune of S. Vitale in Ravenna, there have been and still are many
others after him who are excellent. Maestro Luca de' Longhi of
Ravenna, a man of good, quiet, and studious nature, has painted in his
native city of Ravenna and in the surrounding country many very
beautiful panel-pictures in oils and portraits from nature; and of
much charm, among others, are two little altar-pieces that he was
commissioned not long since to paint for the Church of the Monks of
Classi by the Reverend Don Antonio da Pisa, then Abbot of that
Monastery; to say nothing of an infinite number of other works that
this painter has executed. And, to tell the truth, if Maestro Luca had
gone forth from Ravenna, where he has always lived and still lives
with his family, being assiduous and very diligent, and of fine
judgment, he would have become a very rare painter, because he has
executed his works, as he still does, with patience and study; and to
this I can bear witness, who know how much proficience he made during
my sojourn of two months in Ravenna, both practising and discussing
the matters of art; nor must I omit to say that a daughter of his,
still but a little girl, called Barbara, draws very well, and has
begun to do some work in colour with no little grace and excellence of
manner.
A rival of Luca, for a time, was Livio Agresti of Forlì, who, after he
had executed for Abbot de' Grassi in the Church of the Spirito Santo
some scenes in fresco and certain other works, departed from Ravenna
and made his way to Rome. There, attending with much study to design,
he became a well-practised master, as may be seen from some façades
and other works in fresco that he executed at that time; and his first
works, which are in Narni, have in them not a little of the good. In a
chapel of the Church of the Santo Spirito, in Rome, he has painted a
number of figures and scenes in fresco, which are executed with much
industry and study, so that they are rightly extolled by everyone.
That work was the reason, as has been related, that there was allotted
to him one of the smaller scenes that are over the doors in the Hall
of Kings in the Palace of the Vatican, in which he acquitted himself
so well, that it can bear comparison with the others. The same master
has executed for the Cardinal of Augsburg seven pieces with scenes
painted on cloth of silver, which have been held to be very beautiful
in Spain, where they have been sent by that same Cardinal as presents
to King Philip, to be used as hangings in a chamber. Another picture
on cloth of silver he has painted in the same manner, which is now to
be seen in the Church of the Theatines at Forlì. Finally, having
become a good and bold draughtsman, a well-practised colourist,
fertile in the composition of scenes, and universal in his manner, he
has been invited by the above-named Cardinal with a good salary to
Augsburg, where he is constantly executing works worthy of much
praise.
But most rare among the other men of Romagna, in certain respects, is
Marco da Faenza (for only so, and not otherwise, is he called), for
the reason that he has no ordinary mastery in the work of fresco,
being bold, resolute, and of a terrible force, and particularly in the
manner and practice of making grotesques, in which he has no equal at
the present day, nor one who even approaches his perfection. His
works may be found throughout all Rome; and in Florence there is by
his hand the greater part of the ornaments of twenty different rooms
that are in the Ducal Palace, and the friezes of the ceiling in the
Great Hall of that Palace, which was painted by Giorgio Vasari, as
will be fully described in the proper place; not to mention that the
decorations of the principal court of the same Palace, made in a short
time for the coming of Queen Joanna, were executed in great part by
the same man. And this must be enough of Marco, he being still alive
and in the flower of his growth and activity.
In Parma there is at the present day in the service of the Lord Duke
Ottavio Farnese, a painter called Miruolo, a native, I believe, of
Romagna, who, besides some works executed in Rome, has painted many
scenes in fresco in a little palace that the same Lord Duke has caused
to be built in the Castle of Parma. There, also, are some fountains
constructed with fine grace by Giovanni Boscoli, a sculptor of
Montepulciano, who, having worked in stucco for many years under
Vasari in the Palace of the above-named Lord Duke Cosimo of Florence,
has finally entered the service of the above-mentioned Lord Duke of
Parma, with a good salary, and has executed, as he continues
constantly to do, works worthy of his rare and most beautiful genius.
In the same cities and provinces, also, are many other excellent and
noble craftsmen; but, since they are still young, we shall defer to a
more convenient time the making of that honourable mention of them
that their talents and their works may have merited.
And this is the end of the works of Abbot Primaticcio. I will add
that, he having had himself portrayed in a pen-drawing by the
Bolognese painter Bartolommeo Passerotto, who was very much his
friend, that portrait has come into our hands, and we have it in our
book of drawings by the hands of various excellent painters.
TIZIANO DA CADORE
[Illustration: TIZIANO: THE MADONNA OF THE CHERRIES
(_Vienna: Imperial Gallery, 180. Panel_)]
DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS OF TIZIANO DA CADORE
PAINTER
Tiziano was born at Cadore, a little township situated on the Piave and
five miles distant from the pass of the Alps, in the year 1480, from the
family of the Vecelli, one of the most noble in that place. At the age
of ten, having a fine spirit and a lively intelligence, he was sent to
Venice to the house of an uncle, an honoured citizen, who, perceiving
the boy to be much inclined to painting, placed him with Gian Bellini,
an excellent painter very famous at that time, as has been related.
Under his discipline, attending to design, he soon showed that he was
endowed by nature with all the gifts of intellect and judgment that are
necessary for the art of painting; and since at that time Gian Bellini
and the other painters of that country, from not being able to study
ancient works, were much--nay, altogether--given to copying from the
life whatever work they did, and that with a dry, crude, and laboured
manner, Tiziano also for a time learned that method. But having come to
about the year 1507, Giorgione da Castelfranco, not altogether liking
that mode of working, began to give to his pictures more softness and
greater relief, with a beautiful manner; nevertheless he used to set
himself before living and natural objects and counterfeit them as well
as he was able with colours, and paint them broadly with tints crude or
soft according as the life demanded, without doing any drawing, holding
it as certain that to paint with colours only, without the study of
drawing on paper, was the true and best method of working, and the true
design. For he did not perceive that for him who wishes to distribute
his compositions and accommodate his inventions well, it is necessary
that he should first put them down on paper in several different ways,
in order to see how the whole goes together, for the reason that the
idea is not able to see or imagine the inventions perfectly within
herself, if she does not reveal and demonstrate her conception to the
eyes of the body, that these may assist her to form a good judgment.
Besides which, it is necessary to give much study to the nude, if you
wish to comprehend it well, which you will never do, nor is it possible,
without having recourse to paper; and to keep always before you, while
you paint, persons naked or draped, is no small restraint, whereas, when
you have formed your hand by drawing on paper, you then come little by
little with greater ease to carry your conceptions into execution,
designing and painting together. And so, gaining practice in art, you
make both manner and judgment perfect, doing away with the labour and
effort wherewith those pictures were executed of which we have spoken
above, not to mention that by drawing on paper, you come to fill the
mind with beautiful conceptions, and learn to counterfeit all the
objects of nature by memory, without having to keep them always before
you or being obliged to conceal beneath the glamour of colouring the
painful fruits of your ignorance of design, in the manner that was
followed for many years by the Venetian painters, Giorgione, Palma,
Pordenone, and others, who never saw Rome or any other works of absolute
perfection.
[Illustration: ARIOSTO
(_After the painting by =Tiziano=. London: National Gallery, No.
1944_)
_Mansell_]
Tiziano, then, having seen the method and manner of Giorgione,
abandoned the manner of Gian Bellini, although he had been accustomed
to it for a long time, and attached himself to that of Giorgione;
coming in a short time to imitate his works so well, that his pictures
at times were mistaken for works by Giorgione, as will be related
below. Then, having grown in age, practice, and judgment, Tiziano
executed many works in fresco, which cannot be enumerated in order,
being dispersed over various places; let it suffice that they were
such, that the opinion was formed by many experienced judges that he
would become, as he afterwards did, a most excellent painter. At the
time when he first began to follow the manner of Giorgione, not being
more than eighteen years of age, he made the portrait of a gentleman
of the Barberigo family, his friend, which was held to be very
beautiful, the likeness of the flesh-colouring being true and
natural, and all the hairs so well distinguished one from another,
that they might have been counted, as also might have been the
stitches in a doublet of silvered satin that he painted in that work.
In short, it was held to be so well done, and with such diligence,
that if Tiziano had not written his name on a dark ground, it would
have been taken for the work of Giorgione.
Meanwhile Giorgione himself had executed the principal façade of the
Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and by means of Barberigo there were allotted to
Tiziano certain scenes on the same building, above the Merceria. After
which work he painted a large picture with figures of the size of
life, which is now in the hall of M. Andrea Loredano, who dwells near
S. Marcuola. In that picture is painted Our Lady going into Egypt, in
the midst of a great forest and certain landscapes that are very well
done, because Tiziano had given his attention for many months to such
things, and had kept in his house for that purpose some Germans who
were excellent painters of landscapes and verdure. In the wood in that
picture, likewise, he painted many animals, which he portrayed from
the life; and they are truly natural, and almost alive. Next, in the
house of M. Giovanni D'Anna, a Flemish gentleman and merchant, his
gossip, he made his portrait, which has all the appearance of life,
and also an "Ecce Homo" with many figures, which is held by Tiziano
himself and by others to be a very beautiful work. The same master
painted a picture of Our Lady with other figures the size of life, of
men and children, all portrayed from the life and from persons of that
house. Then in the year 1507, while the Emperor Maximilian was making
war on the Venetians, Tiziano, according to his own account, painted
an Angel Raphael with Tobias and a dog in the Church of S. Marziliano,
with a distant landscape, where, in a little wood, S. John the Baptist
is praying on his knees to Heaven, whence comes a radiance that
illumines him; and this work it is thought that he executed before he
made a beginning with the façade of the Fondaco de' Tedeschi.
Concerning which façade, many gentlemen, not knowing that Giorgione
was not working there any more and that Tiziano was doing it, who had
uncovered one part, meeting with Giorgione, congratulated him in
friendly fashion, saying that he was acquitting himself better in the
façade towards the Merceria than he had done in that which is over the
Grand Canal. At which circumstance Giorgione felt such disdain, that
until Tiziano had completely finished the work and it had become well
known that the same had done that part, he would scarcely let himself
be seen; and from that time onward he would never allow Tiziano to
associate with him or be his friend.
[Illustration: BACCHANAL
(_After the painting by =Tiziano=. Madrid: The Prado_)
_Anderson_]