most excellent sculptor and much the friend of study, who with a very
beautiful manner has shown in many works that he has executed, as well
in stucco as in marble, that he has a ready brain and a lovely style,
and that his labours are worthy to be held in estimation. By the hand
of this Alessandro, in Venice, at the principal door of the Library of
S. Marco, are two great women of stone, each ten palms high, which
are full of grace and beauty and worthy to be much extolled. He has
made four figures for the tomb of the Contarini in the Santo of Padua,
two slaves, or rather, captives, with a Fame and a Thetis, all of
stone; and an Angel ten feet high, a very beautiful statue, which has
been placed upon the Campanile of the Duomo in Verona. And to Dalmatia
he sent four Apostles also of stone, each five feet high, for the
Cathedral of Traù. He made, also, some figures in silver for the
Scuola of S. Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, which were all in
full-relief and rich in grace, and a S. Teodoro of two feet in silver,
in the round. For the Chapel of the Grimani, in S. Sebastiano, he
wrought two figures in marble, each three feet high; and then he made
a Pietà, with two figures of stone, held to be good, which are at S.
Salvadore in Venice. He made a Mercury, held to be a good figure, for
the pulpit of the Palazzo di S. Marco, which looks out over the
Piazza; and for S. Francesco della Vigna he made three figures large
as life--S. Anthony, S. Sebastian, and S. Rocco--all of stone and full
of beauty and grace, and well wrought. For the Church of the
Crocicchieri he made in stucco two figures each six feet high, very
beautiful, which are placed on the high-altar; and of the same
material he made, as has been already told, all the ornaments that are
in the vaulting of the new staircase of the Palazzo di S. Marco, with
various patterns of compartments in stucco, where Battista Franco
afterwards painted in the spaces the scenes, figures, and grotesques
that are there. In like manner, Alessandro executed the ornaments of
the staircase of the Library of S. Marco, all works of great mastery;
and a chapel for the Friars Minors, and in the altar-piece of marble,
which is very large and very beautiful, the Assumption of Our Lady in
half-relief, with five great figures at the foot which have in them
something of the grand and are made with a beautiful manner, a lovely
and dignified flow of draperies, and much diligence of execution;
which figures of marble--S. Jerome, S. John the Baptist, S. Peter, S.
Andrew, and S. Leonardo--each six feet high, are the best of all the
works that he has done up to the present. And as a crown to that
chapel, on the frontispiece, are two figures likewise of marble, each
eight feet high and very graceful. The same Vittoria has executed
many portraits in marble and most beautiful heads, which are good
likenesses, such as that of Signor Giovan Battista Feredo, placed in
the Church of S. Stefano, that of Camillo Trevisano, the orator,
placed in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Polo; the most illustrious
Marc'Antonio Grimani, likewise placed in the Church of S. Sebastiano;
and in S. Gimignano, the rector of that church. He has also portrayed
Messer Andrea Loredano. M. Priano da Lagie, and two brothers of the
Pellegrini family--M. Vincenzio and M. Giovan Battista--both orators.
And since Vittoria is young and a willing worker, talented, amiable,
desirous of acquiring name and fame, and, lastly, very gentle, we may
believe that if he lives, we are destined to see most beautiful works
come from him from day to day, worthy of his name of Vittoria, and
that, if his life endures, he is like to be a most excellent sculptor
and to win the palm from all the others of that country.
There is also one Tommaso da Lugano, a sculptor, who likewise has been
many years with Sansovino, and has made with the chisel many figures
in the Library of S. Marco, very beautiful, in company with others.
And then, having left Sansovino, he has made by himself a Madonna with
the Child in her arms, and at her feet a little S. John, which are all
three figures of such beautiful form, attitude, and manner, that they
can stand among all the other beautiful modern statues that are in
Venice; which work is placed in the Church of S. Bastiano. And a
portrait of the Emperor Charles V, which he made from the breast
upwards, of marble, has been held to be a marvellous thing, and was
very dear to his Majesty. And since Tommaso has delighted to work
rather in stucco than in marble or bronze, there are innumerable most
beautiful figures by his hand and works executed by him in that
material in the houses of various gentlemen of Venice. But it must
suffice to have said this much of him.
Of the Lombards, finally, it remains for us to make record of Jacopo
Bresciano, a young man of twenty-four, who has not long parted from
Sansovino. He has given proof at Venice, in the many years that he has
been there, of being talented and likely to prove excellent, as he has
since shown in the works that he has executed in his native Brescia,
and particularly in the Palazzo Pubblico, and if he lives and
studies, there will be seen from his hand, also, things greater and
better, for he has a fine spirit and most beautiful gifts.
Of our Tuscans, one of the disciples of Sansovino has been the
Florentine Bartolommeo Ammanati, of whom record has already been made
in many places in this work. This Bartolommeo, I say, worked under
Sansovino in Venice; and then in Padua for Messer Marco da Mantova, a
most excellent doctor of medicine, in whose house he made an immense
giant from more than one piece of stone for his court, and his tomb,
with many statues. Afterwards, Ammanati having gone to Rome in the
year 1550, there were allotted to him by Giorgio Vasari four statues
of marble, each of four braccia, for the tomb of the old Cardinal di
Monte, which Pope Julius III had allotted to Giorgio himself in the
Church of S. Pietro a Montorio, as will be related; which statues were
held to be very beautiful. Wherefore Vasari, having conceived an
affection for him, made him known to the said Julius III, who, having
ordained what he wanted done, caused him to be set to work; and so
both of them, Vasari and Ammanati, worked together for a time at the
Vigna. But not long afterwards, when Vasari had gone to serve Duke
Cosimo in Florence, the above-named Pope being dead, Ammanati, who
found himself without work and badly recompensed by that Pontiff for
his labours in Rome, wrote to Vasari, praying him that, even as he had
assisted him in Rome, so he should assist him in Florence with the
Duke. Whereupon Vasari, occupying himself with fervour in this matter,
introduced him into the service of the Duke, for whom he has executed
many statues in marble and in bronze that are not yet in position. For
the garden of Castello he has made two figures in bronze larger than
life--namely, a Hercules who is crushing Antæus, from which Antæus, in
place of his spirit, there issues from the mouth water in great
abundance. Finally, Ammanati has executed in marble the colossal
figure of Neptune that is in the Piazza, ten braccia and a half in
height; but since the work of the fountain, in the centre of which the
said Neptune is to stand, is not finished, I shall say nothing more of
it. The same Ammanati, as architect, is giving his attention with much
honour and praise to the fabric of the Pitti, in which work he has a
great opportunity to show the worth and grandeur of his mind, and the
magnificence and great spirit of Duke Cosimo. I could tell many
particulars of this sculptor, but since he is my friend, and another,
so I hear, is writing his history, I shall say no more, in order not
to set my hand to things that may be related by another better than I
perhaps might be able.
It remains for us to make mention, as the last of Sansovino's
disciples, of Danese Cattaneo, the sculptor of Carrara, who was
already with him in Venice when still a little boy. Parting from his
master at the age of nineteen, he made by himself a boy of marble for
S. Marco, and a S. Laurence for the Church of the Friars Minors; for
S. Salvadore another boy in marble, and for SS. Giovanni e Polo the
statue of a nude Bacchus, who is grasping a bunch of grapes from a
vine which twines round a trunk that he has behind his legs, which
statue is now in the house of the Mozzenighi at S. Barnaba. He has
executed many figures for the Library of S. Marco and for the Loggia
of the Campanile, together with others of whom there has been an
account above; and, in addition to those named, the two that have been
mentioned already as being in the apartments of the Council of Ten. He
made portraits in marble of Cardinal Bembo and Contarini, the
Captain-General of the Venetian forces, which are both in S. Antonio
at Padua, with rich and beautiful ornaments about them. And in the
same city of Padua, in S. Giovanni di Verdara, there is by the same
hand the portrait of Messer Girolamo Gigante, a most learned jurist.
And for S. Antonio della Giudecca, in Venice, he has made a very
lifelike portrait of Giustiniano, the Lieutenant of the Grand Master
of Malta, and that of Tiepolo, who was three times General; but these
have not yet been set in their places. But the greatest work and the
most distinguished that Danese has ever executed is a rich chapel of
marble, with large figures, in S. Anastasia at Verona, for Signor
Ercole Fregoso, in memory of Signor Jano, once Lord of Genoa, and then
Captain-General of the Venetians, in whose service he died. This work
is of the Corinthian Order, in the manner of a triumphal arch, and
divided by four great columns, round and fluted, with capitals of
olive-leaves, which rest upon a base of proportionate height, making
the space in the centre as wide again as one of those at the sides;
with an arch between the columns, above which there rest on the
capitals the architrave and cornice, and in the centre, within the
arch, a very beautiful decoration of pilasters, with cornice and
frontispiece, and with a ground formed by a tablet of most beautiful
black basanite, where there is the statue of a nude Christ, larger
than life and in the round, a very good figure; which statue stands in
the act of showing the Wounds, with a piece of drapery bound round the
flanks and reaching between the legs to the ground. Over the angles of
the arch are Signs of His Passion, and between the columns that are on
the right side there stands upon a pedestal a statue in the round
representing Signor Jano Fregoso, fully armed after the antique save
that he shows the arms and legs nude, and he has the left hand upon
the pommel of the sword at his girdle, and with the right hand he
holds the general's baton; having behind him as a pendant, within the
space between the columns, a Minerva in half-relief, who, poised in
the air, holds with one hand a Ducal staff, such as that of the Doges
of Venice, and with the other a banner containing the device of S.
Mark. Between the two other columns, as the other pendant, is Military
Valour in armour, on her head the helmet-crest with the house-leek
upon it, and on her cuirass the device of an ermine that stands upon a
rock surrounded by mire, with letters that run--"Potius mori quam
foedari," and with the device of the Fregosi; and above is a Victory,
with a garland of laurel and a palm in the hands. Above the columns,
architrave, frieze and cornice, is another range of pilasters, upon
the crowns of which stand two figures of marble in the round, and two
trophies likewise in the round and of the same size as the figures. Of
these two statues, one is Fame in the act of taking flight, pointing
with the right hand to Heaven, and with a trumpet that she is
sounding; and this figure has light and most beautiful draperies about
the body, and all the rest nude. The other, representing Eternity, is
clothed in heavier vestments, and stands in majesty, holding in the
left hand a round on which she is gazing, and with the right hand she
grasps a hem of her garment wherein are globes that signify the
various ages, with the celestial sphere encircled by the serpent that
seizes the tail in the mouth. In the central space above the great
cornice, which forms and separates those two other spaces, are three
steps upon which are seated two large nude boys, who hold a great
shield with the helmet above it, containing the devices of the
Fregosi; and below those steps is an epitaph of basanite with large
gilded letters. That whole work is truly worthy to be extolled, for
Danese executed it with great diligence, and gave beautiful proportion
and grace to the composition, and made each figure with great study.
And Danese is not only, as has been described, an excellent sculptor,
but also a good and much extolled poet, as his works clearly
demonstrate, on which account he has always had intercourse and strait
friendship with the greatest men and choicest spirits of our age; and
of this may serve as a proof the work described above, executed by him
with much poetic feeling. By the hand of Danese is the nude statue of
the Sun above the ornament of the well in the courtyard of the Mint,
at Venice; in place of which those Signori desired a Justice, but
Danese considered that in that place the Sun is more appropriate. This
figure has a bar of gold in the left hand, and in the right hand a
sceptre, at the end of which he made an eye, and about the head the
rays of the sun, and above all the globe of the world encircled by the
serpent that holds the tail in the mouth, with some little mounds of
gold about the globe, generated by him. Danese would have liked to
make two other statues, that of the Moon for silver and another for
copper, with that of the Sun for gold; but it was enough for those
Signori that there should be that of gold, as the most perfect of all
the metals. The same Danese has begun another work in memory of Prince
Loredano, Doge of Venice, wherein it is hoped that in invention and
fantasy he is to surpass by a great measure all his other labours;
which work is to be placed in the Church of SS. Giovanni e Polo in
Venice. But, since this master is alive and still constantly at work
for the benefit of the world and of art, I shall say nothing more of
him; nor of other disciples of Sansovino. I will not omit, however, to
speak briefly of some other excellent craftsmen, sculptors and
painters, from that dominion of Venice, taking my opportunity from
those mentioned above, in order to make an end of speaking of them in
this Life of Sansovino.
[Illustration: PALAZZO CHIERICATI
(_After =Andrea Palladio=. Vicenza_)
_Alinari_]
Vicenza, then, has likewise had at various times sculptors, painters,
and architects, of some of whom record was made in the Life of
Vittore Scarpaccia, and particularly of those who flourished in the
time of Mantegna and learned to draw from him; and such were
Bartolommeo Montagna, Francesco Verbo, and Giovanni Speranza, all
painters, by whose hands are many pictures that are dispersed
throughout Vicenza. Now in the same city there are many sculptures by
the hand of one Giovanni, a carver and architect, which are passing
good, although his proper profession has been to carve foliage and
animals, as he still does excellently well, although he is old. In
like manner, Girolamo Pironi of Vicenza has executed praiseworthy
works of sculpture and painting in many places in his city. But among
all the masters of Vicenza he who most deserves to be extolled is the
architect Andrea Palladio, from his being a man of singular judgment
and brain, as many works demonstrate that were executed by him in his
native country and elsewhere, and in particular the Palazzo della
Comunità, a building much renowned, with two porticoes composed in the
Doric Order with very beautiful columns. The same Palladio has erected
a palace, beautiful and grand beyond all belief, with an infinity of
the richest ornaments, for Count Ottavio de' Vieri, and another like
it for Count Giuseppe di Porto, which could not be more beautiful or
magnificent, nor more worthy than it is of no matter how great a
Prince; and another is being built even now for Count Valerio
Chiericati under the direction of the same master, very similar in
majesty and grandeur to the ancient buildings so much extolled. For
the Counts of Valmorana, likewise, he has now carried almost to
completion another most superb palace, which does not yield in any
particular to any of those mentioned above. In the same city, upon the
piazza commonly called the Isola, he has built another very
magnificent fabric for Signor Valerio Chiericati; and at Pugliano, a
place in the Vicentino, a most beautiful house for the Chevalier,
Signor Bonifazio Pugliana. In the same territory of Vicenza, at
Finale, he has erected another fabric for Messer Biagio Saraceni; and
one at Bagnolo for Signor Vittore Pisani, with a large and very rich
court in the Doric Order with most beautiful columns. Near Vicenza, at
the township of Lisiera, he has constructed for Signor Giovan
Francesco Valmorana another very rich edifice, with four towers at
the corners, which make a very fine effect. At Meledo, likewise, for
Count Francesco Trissino and Lodovico his brother, he has begun a
magnificent palace upon a hill of some eminence, with many ranges of
loggie, staircases, and other appurtenances of a villa. At Campiglia,
likewise in the Vicentino, he is making for Signor Mario Ropetta
another similar habitation, with so many conveniences, rich apartments
of rooms, loggie, staircases, and chambers dedicated to various
virtues, that it will be, when once carried to completion, an abode
rather for a King than for a nobleman. At Lunedo he has built another,
in the manner of a villa, for Signor Girolamo de' Godi; and at
Angarano another for Count Jacopo Angarano, which is truly most
beautiful, although it appears a small thing to the great mind of that
lord. At Quinto, also, near Vicenza, he erected not long ago another
palace for Count Marc'Antonio Tiene, which has in it more of the grand
and the magnificent than I could express. In short, Palladio has
constructed so many vast and lovely buildings within and without
Vicenza, that, even if there were no others there, they would suffice
to make a very handsome city with most beautiful surroundings.
In Venice the same Palladio has begun many buildings, but one that is
marvellous and most notable among them all, in imitation of the houses
that the ancients used to build, in the Monastery of the Carità. The
atrium of this is forty feet wide and fifty-four feet long, which are
exactly the diameters of the quadrangle, the wings being one-third and
a half of the length. The columns, which are Corinthian, are three
feet and a half in thickness and thirty-five feet high. From the
atrium one goes into the peristyle, that is, into a clauster (for thus
do the friars call their courts), which on the side towards the atrium
is divided into five parts, and at the flanks into seven, with three
orders of columns one above the other, of which the Doric is at the
foot, and above it the Ionic and the Corinthian. Opposite to the
atrium is the refectory, two squares in length, and as high as the
level of the peristyle, with its officines around it, all most
commodious. The stairs are spiral, in the form of an oval, and they
have neither wall nor column, nor any part in the middle to support
them; they are thirteen feet wide, and the steps by their position
support one another, being fixed in the wall. This edifice is all
built of baked stone, that is, of brick, save the bases of the
columns, the capitals, the imposts of the arches, the stairs, the
surface of the cornices, and the whole of the windows and doors. The
same Palladio has built for the Black Friars of S. Benedict, in their
Monastery of S. Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, a very large and most
beautiful refectory with its vestibule in front, and has begun to
found a new church, with such beautiful ordering, according as the
model shows, that, if it is carried to completion, it will prove a
stupendous and most lovely work. Besides this, he has begun the façade
of the Church of S. Francesco della Vigna, which the very reverend
Grimani, Patriarch of Aquileia, is causing to be made of Istrian
stone, with a most magnificent disregard of expense; the columns are
four palms thick at the foot, forty palms high, and in the Corinthian
Order, and already the whole basement at the foot is built. At
Gambaraie, a place seven miles distant from Venice, on the River
Brenta, the same Palladio has made a very commodious habitation for M.
Niccolò and M. Luigi Foscari, gentlemen of Venice. Another he has
built at Marocco, a place in the Mestrino, for the Chevalier
Mozzenigo; at Piombino one for M. Giorgio Cornaro, one at Montagnana
for the Magnificent M. Francesco Pisani, and another at Cicogna in the
territory of Padua for Count Adovardo da Tiene, a gentleman of
Vicenza. At Udine, in Friuli, he has built one for Signor Floriano
Antimini; at Motto, a township likewise in Friuli, one for the
Magnificent M. Marco Zeno, with a most beautiful court and porticoes
all the way round; and at Fratta, a township in the Polesine, a great
fabric for Signor Francesco Badoaro, with some very beautiful and
fantastic loggie. In like manner, near Asolo, a place in the territory
of Treviso, he has erected a most commodious habitation for the very
reverend S. Daniello Barbaro, Patriarch-Elect of Aquileia, who has
written upon Vitruvius, and for the most illustrious M. Marc'Antonio,
his brother, with such beautiful ordering, that nothing better or
greater can ever be imagined. Among other things, he has made there a
fountain very similar to that which Pope Julius caused to be made at
his Vigna Giulia in Rome; with ornaments of stucco and paintings
everywhere, executed by excellent masters. In Genoa M. Luca
Giustiniano has erected a building with the design of Palladio, which
is held to be very beautiful, as are also all those mentioned above;
but it would have made too long a story to seek to recount the many
particulars of the strange and lovely inventions and fantasies that
are in them. But, since there is soon to come into the light of day a
work of Palladio, in which will be printed two books of ancient
edifices and one book of those that he himself has caused to be built,
I shall say nothing more of him, because this will be enough to make
him known as the excellent architect that he is held to be by all who
see his beautiful works; besides which, being still young and
attending constantly to the studies of his art, every day greater
things may be expected of him. Nor will I omit to say that he has
wedded to such gifts a nature so amiable and gentle, that it renders
him well-beloved with everyone; wherefore he has won the honour of
being accepted into the number of the Academicians of Design in
Florence, together with Danese, Giuseppe Salviati, Tintoretto, and
Battista Farinato of Verona, as will be told in another place,
speaking of the said Academicians.
Bonifazio, a Venetian painter, of whom I have never before received
any information, is also worthy to be numbered in the company of these
many excellent craftsmen, being a well-practised and able colourist.
This master, besides many pictures and portraits that are dispersed
throughout Venice, has executed for the altar of the Relics in the
Church of the Servites, in the same city, an altar-piece wherein is a
Christ with the Apostles about Him, and Philip who appears to be
saying, "Domine, ostende nobis patrem," which is painted with a very
good and beautiful manner. And for the altar of the Madonna in the
Church of the Nuns of the Spirito Santo, he has executed another most
beautiful altar-picture with a vast number of men, women, and children
of every age, who in company with the Virgin are adoring a God the
Father who is in the air with many Angels about Him. Another painter
of passing good name in Venice is Jacopo Fallaro, who has painted on
the doors of the organ in the Church of the Ingesuati the Blessed
Giovanni Colombini receiving his habit in the Consistory from the
Pope, with a good number of Cardinals. Another Jacopo, called
Pisbolica, has executed an altar-piece for S. Maria Maggiore in
Venice, wherein is Christ in the air with many Angels, and below Him
Our Lady with the Apostles. And one Fabrizio Viniziano has painted on
the façade of a chapel in the Church of S. Maria Sebenico the
Consecration of the baptismal font, with many portraits from life
executed with beautiful grace and a good manner.
NOTES.
I., line 1, p. 187.
The family of the Tatti in Florence is recorded in the books of the
Commune from the year 1300, because, having come from Lucca, a very
noble city of Tuscany, it was always abundant in industrious and
honoured men, and they were most highly favoured by the House of
Medici. Of this family was born Jacopo, of whom we are writing in this
place; and he was born from Antonio, a most excellent person, and from
his wife Francesca, in the month of January, 1477. In the first years
of his boyhood he was set, as is usual, to learn his letters; and,
after beginning to show in these vivacity of brain and readiness of
spirit, not long afterwards he applied himself of his own accord to
drawing, giving evidence in a certain sort that nature was inclining
him much more to this kind of work than to letters, for the reason
that he went very unwillingly to school and learned much against his
will the scabrous rudiments of grammar. His mother, whom he resembled
strongly, perceiving this and fostering his genius, gave him
assistance, causing him to be taught design in secret, because she
loved the thought that her son should be a sculptor, perchance in
emulation of the then rising glory of Michelagnolo Buonarroti, who at
that time was still quite young; and also moved by a certain fateful
augury, in that Michelagnolo and this Jacopo had been born in one and
the same street, called Via S. Maria, near the Via Ghibellina. Now the
boy, after some time, was placed to learn the trade of a merchant; in
which delighting even less than in letters, he did and said so much,
that he obtained leave from his father to attend without hindrance to
that towards which he was urged by nature.
There had come to Florence at that time Andrea Contucci of Monte
Sansovino, a township near Arezzo, risen to great fame in our days
from having been the birthplace of Pope Julius III; which Andrea,
having acquired in Italy and in Spain the name of the best sculptor
and architect that there was in art after Buonarroti, was staying in
Florence in order to execute two figures of marble. Etc.
II., line 18, p. 197.
(And he was executing many works of the greatest importance for all
those lords), having been recognized by three Pontiffs, and especially
by Pope Leo, who presented him with a Knighthood of S. Pietro, which
he sold during his illness, doubting lest he might die; (when God,
etc.).
III., line 22, p. 198.