profession, Girolamo Siciolante of Sermoneta, of whom, although
something has been said in the Life of Perino del Vaga, whose disciple
he was, assisting him in the works of Castel S. Angelo and in many
others, nevertheless it cannot but be well to say also here so much as
his great excellence truly deserves. Among the first works, then, that
this Girolamo executed by himself, was an altar-piece twelve palms
high painted by him in oils at the age of twenty, which is now in the
Badia of S. Stefano, near his native town of Sermoneta; wherein, large
as life, are S. Peter, S. Stephen, and S. John the Baptist, with
certain children. After that altar-piece, which was much extolled, he
painted for the Church of S. Apostolo, in Rome, an altar-piece in oils
with the Dead Christ, Our Lady, S. John, the Magdalene, and other
figures, all executed with diligence. Then in the Pace, in the marble
chapel that Cardinal Cesis caused to be constructed, he decorated the
whole vaulting with stucco-work in a pattern of four pictures,
painting therein the Nativity of Jesus Christ, the Adoration of the
Magi, the Flight into Egypt, and the Massacre of the Innocents; all
which was a work worthy of much praise and executed with invention,
judgment, and diligence. For that same church, not long after, the
same Girolamo painted an altar-piece fifteen palms high, which is
beside the high-altar, of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, which was very
beautiful; and then in another altar-piece in oils, for the Sacristy
of the Church of S. Spirito in Rome, the Descent of the Holy Spirit
upon the Apostles, which is a work full of grace. In like manner, in
the Church of S. Maria de Anima, the church of the German colony, he
painted in fresco the whole of the Chapel of the Fugger family (for
which Giulio Romano once executed the altar-piece), with large scenes
of the Life of Our Lady. For the high-altar of S. Jacopo degli
Spagnuoli he painted in a large altar-piece a very beautiful Christ on
the Cross with some Angels about Him, Our Lady, and S. John, and
besides this two large pictures that are one on either side of it,
each nine palms high and with a single figure, S. James the Apostle
and S. Alfonso the Bishop; in which pictures it is evident that he
used much study and diligence. On the Piazza Giudea, in the Church of
S. Tommaso, he painted in fresco the whole of a chapel that looks out
over the court of the Cenci Palace, depicting there the Nativity of
the Madonna, the Annunciation by the Angel, and the Birth of Our
Saviour Jesus Christ. For Cardinal Capodiferro he painted a hall in
his palace, which is very beautiful, with stories of the ancient
Romans. And at Bologna he once executed for the Church of S. Martino
the altar-piece of the high-altar, which was much commended. For
Signor Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, whom he served
for some time, he executed many works, and in particular a picture
that is in Piacenza, painted for a chapel, wherein are Our Lady, S.
Joseph, S. Michael, S. John the Baptist, and an Angel, of eight palms.
[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF S. CATHARINE
(_After the painting by =Sermoneta=. Rome: S. Maria Maggiore_)
_Alinari_]
After his return from Lombardy he painted in the Minerva, in the
passage of the sacristy, a Christ on the Cross, and another in the
church. Then he painted in oils a S. Catharine and a S. Agatha; and in
S. Luigi he executed a scene in fresco in competition with Pellegrino
Pellegrini of Bologna and the Florentine Jacopo del Conte. In an
altar-piece in oils, sixteen palms high, executed not long since for
the Church of S. Alò, opposite to the Misericordia, a Company of the
Florentines, he painted Our Lady, S. James the Apostle, and the
Bishops S. Alò and S. Martino; and in S. Lorenzo in Lucina, in the
Chapel of the Countess of Carpi, he painted in fresco a S. Francis who
is receiving the Stigmata. In the Hall of Kings, at the time of Pope
Pius IV, as has been related, he executed a scene in fresco over the
door of the Chapel of Sixtus; in that scene, which was much extolled,
Pepin, King of the Franks, is presenting Ravenna to the Roman Church,
and is leading as prisoner Astulf, King of the Lombards; and we have
the design of it by Girolamo's own hand in our book, with many others
by the same master. And, finally, he has now in hand the Chapel of
Cardinal Cesis in S. Maria Maggiore, for which he has already executed
in a large altar-piece the Martyrdom of S. Catharine on the wheel,
which is a most beautiful picture, as are the others on which both
there and elsewhere, with much study, he is continually at work. I
shall not make mention of the portraits and other pictures and little
works of Girolamo, because, besides that they are without number,
these are enough to make him known as a valiant and excellent painter.
Having said above, in the Life of Perino del Vaga, that the painter
Marcello Mantovano worked many years under him at pictures that gave
him a great name, I have to say in this place, coming more to
particulars, that he once painted in the Church of S. Spirito the
whole Chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista and its altar-piece, with the
portrait of a Knight Commander of the same S. Spirito, who built that
church and constructed that chapel; which portrait is a very good
likeness, and the altar-piece most beautiful. Whereupon a Friar of the
Piombo, having seen his beautiful manner, caused him to paint in
fresco in the Pace, over the door that leads from the church into the
convent, Jesus Christ as a boy disputing with the Doctors in the
Temple, which is a very lovely work. But since he has always delighted
to make portraits and little things, abandoning larger works, he has
executed an infinite number of these; and among them may be seen some
of Pope Paul III, which are beautiful and speaking likenesses. In like
manner, from the designs of Michelagnolo and from his works he has
executed a vast number of things likewise small, and among these he
has depicted in one of his works the whole façade of the Judgment,
which is a rare thing and executed excellently well; and in truth, for
small paintings, it would not be possible to do better. For which
reason, finally, that most gentle Messer Tommaso de' Cavalieri, who
has always favoured him, has caused him to paint after the design of
Michelagnolo an altar-picture of the Annunciation of the Virgin, most
beautiful, for the Church of S. Giovanni Laterano; which design by
Buonarroti's own hand, imitated by this Marcello, Leonardo Buonarroti,
the nephew of Michelagnolo, presented to the Lord Duke Cosimo
together with some others of fortifications and architecture and other
things of the rarest. And this must suffice for Marcello, who has been
attending lately to working at little things, executing them with a
truly supreme and incredible patience.
Of Jacopo del Conte, a Florentine, who like those named above dwells
in Rome, enough will have been said, what with this and other places,
after certain other particulars have been given here. This Jacopo,
then, having been much inclined from his earliest youth to portraying
from the life, has desired that this should be his principal
profession, although on occasions he has executed altar-pictures and
works in fresco in some numbers, both in Rome and without. Of his
portraits--not to speak of them all, which would make a very long
story--I shall say only that he has portrayed all the Pontiffs that
there have been from Pope Paul III to the present day, and all the
lords and ambassadors of importance who have been at that Court, and
likewise the military captains and great men of the house of Colonna
and of the Orsini, Signor Piero Strozzi, and an infinite number of
Bishops, Cardinals, and other great prelates and lords, not to speak
of many men of letters and other men of quality; all which has caused
him to acquire fame, honour, and profit in Rome, so that he lives
honourably and much at his ease with his family in that city. From his
boyhood he drew so well that he gave promise, if he should persevere,
of becoming excellent, and so in truth he would have been, but, as I
have said, he turned to that to which he felt himself inclined by
nature. Nevertheless, his works cannot but be praised. By his hand is
a Dead Christ in an altar-piece that is in the Church of the Popolo,
and in another that he has executed for the Chapel of S. Dionigi in S.
Luigi, with stories, is the first-named Saint. But the most beautiful
work that he ever did was in two scenes in fresco that he once
painted, as has been told in another place, in the Florentine Company
of the Misericordia, with an altar-picture of Christ taken down from
the Cross, with the Thieves fixed on their crosses, and the Madonna in
a swoon, painted in oil-colours, all beautiful and executed with
diligence and with great credit to him. He has made many pictures
throughout Rome, and figures in various manners, and has executed a
number of full-length portraits, both nude and draped, of men and
women, which have proved very beautiful, because the subjects were not
otherwise. He has also portrayed, according as occasions arose, many
heads of noble ladies, gentlewomen and princesses who have been in
Rome; and among others, I know that he once portrayed Signora Livia
Colonna, a most noble lady, incomparable in her illustrious blood, her
virtue, and her beauty. And let this suffice for Jacopo del Conte, who
is still living and constantly at work.
I might have made known, also, many from our Tuscany and from other
parts of Italy, their names and their works, which I have passed over
lightly, because many of them, being old, have ceased to work, and
others who are young are now trying their hands and will become known
better by their works than by means of writings. But of Adone Doni of
Assisi, because he is still living and working, although I made
mention of him in the Life of Cristofano Gherardi, I shall give some
particulars of his works, such as are in Perugia and throughout all
Umbria, and in particular many altar-pieces in Foligno. But his best
works are in S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi, in the little chapel
where S. Francis died, wherein are some stories of the life of that
Saint executed in oils on the walls, which are much extolled, besides
which, he has painted the Passion of Christ in fresco at the head of
the refectory of that convent, in addition to many other works that
have done him honour; and his gentleness and courtesy have caused him
to be considered liberal and courteous.
In Orvieto there are two young men also of that same profession, one a
painter called Cesare del Nebbia, and the other a sculptor, both well
on the way to bringing it about that their city, which up to the
present has always invited foreign masters to adorn her, will no
longer be obliged, if they follow up the beginnings that they have
made, to seek other masters. There is working at Orvieto, in S. Maria,
the Duomo of that city, a young painter called Niccolò dalle
Pomarancie, who, having executed an altar-piece wherein is Christ
raising Lazarus, has given signs--not to speak of other works in
fresco--of winning a name among the others named above.
And now that we are come to the end of our Italian masters still
living, I shall say only that no less service has been rendered by one
Lodovico, a Florentine sculptor, who, so I am told, has executed
notable works in England and at Bari; but, since I have not found here
either his relatives or his family name, and have not seen his works,
I am not able (as I fain would) to make any other record of him than
this mention of his name.
DIVERS FLEMINGS
OF DIVERS FLEMINGS
Now, although in many places mention has been made of the works of
certain excellent Flemish painters and of their engravings, but
without any order, I shall not withhold the names of certain
others--for of their works I have not been able to obtain full
information--who have been in Italy, and I have known the greater
number of them, in order to learn the Italian manner; believing that
no less is due to their industry and to the labour endured by them in
our arts. Leaving aside, then, Martin of Holland, Jan van Eyck of
Bruges, and Hubert his brother, who in 1510 invented and brought to
light the method of painting in oil-colours, as has been told
elsewhere, and left many works by his hand in Ghent, Ypres, and
Bruges, where he lived and died in honour; after them, I say, there
followed Roger van der Weyden of Brussels, who executed many works in
several places, but principally in his native city, and for the Town
Hall four most beautiful panel-pictures in oils, of things
appertaining to Justice. A disciple of that Roger was Hans,[16] by
whom, as has been told, we have in Florence the Passion of Christ in a
little picture that is in the hands of the Duke. To him there
succeeded the Fleming Louis of Louvain, Pieter Christus, Justus of
Ghent, Hugo of Antwerp, and many others, who, for the reason that they
never went forth from their own country, always adhered to the Flemish
manner. And if Albrecht Dürer, of whom we have spoken at some length,
did once come to Italy, nevertheless he kept always to one and the
same manner; although he was spirited and vivacious, particularly in
his heads, as is well known to all Europe.
[Footnote 16: Hans Memling.]
But, leaving these, and together with them Lucas of Holland and
others, I became acquainted in Rome, in 1532, with one Michael Coxie,
who gave no little study to the Italian manner, and executed many
works in fresco in that city, and in particular two chapels in S.
Maria de Anima. Having then returned to his own country and made
himself known as an able man, I hear that among other works he
executed for King Philip of Spain an altar-picture copied from one by
the above-named Jan van Eyck that is in Ghent; and in that copy, which
was taken into Spain, is the Triumph of the Agnus Dei. There studied
in Rome, not long afterwards, Martin Heemskerk, a good master of
figures and landscapes, who has executed in Flanders many pictures and
many designs for copper-engravings, which, as has been related
elsewhere, have been engraved by Hieronymus Cock, whom I came to know
in Rome while I was serving Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. And all
these have been most beautiful inventors of stories, and close
observers of the Italian manner.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A MAN
(_After the painting by =Johannes Calcar=. Paris: Louvre, No. 1185_)
_X phot._]
In Naples, also, in the year 1545, I came to know Johann of Calcar, a
Flemish painter, who became very much my friend; a very rare
craftsman, and so well practised in the Italian manner, that his works
were not recognized as by the hand of a Fleming. But he died young in
Naples, while great things were expected of him; and he drew for
Vessalio his studies in anatomy. Before him, however, there was much
in repute one Dirk of Louvain, a good master in that manner; and also
Quentin of the same place, who in his figures always followed nature
as well as he was able, as also did a son of his called Johann. Joost
van Cleef, likewise, was a great colourist and rare in making
portraits from life, for which King Francis of France employed him
much in executing many portraits of various lords and ladies. Famous
painters of the same province, also, have been--and some of them still
are--Jan van Hemessen, Matthys Cock of Antwerp, Bernard of Brussels,
Jan Cornelis of Amsterdam, Lambert of the same city, Hendrik of
Dinant, Joachim Patinier of Bouvignes, and Jan Scorel, Canon of
Utrecht, who carried into Flanders many new methods of painting taken
from Italy. Besides these, there have been Jean Bellegambe of Douai,
Dirk of Haarlem, from the same place, and Franz Mostaert, who was
passing skilful in painting landscapes in oils, fantasies, bizarre
inventions, dreams, and suchlike imaginings. Hieronymus Bosch and
Pieter Brueghel of Breda were imitators of that Mostaert, and Lancelot
Blondeel has been excellent in painting fires, nights, splendours,
devils, and other things of that kind. Pieter Koeck has had much
invention in stories, and has made very beautiful cartoons for
tapestries and arras-hangings; with a good manner and practice in
matters of architecture, on which account he has translated into the
Teuton tongue the works on architecture of Sebastiano Serlio of
Bologna. And Jean Gossart of Mabuse was almost the first who took from
Italy into Flanders the true method of making scenes full of nude
figures and poetical inventions; and by his hand is a large
altar-piece in the Abbey of Middelburg in Zeeland. Of all these
information has been received from Maestro Giovanni Strada of Bruges,
a painter, and from Giovan Bologna of Douai, a sculptor; both Flemings
and men of excellence, as we shall relate in the Treatise on the
Academicians.
As for those of the same province who are still living and in repute,
the first among them, both for his works in painting and for his many
copper-plate engravings, is Franz Floris of Antwerp, a disciple of the
above-mentioned Lambert Lombard. This Floris, who is held to be most
excellent, has worked in such a manner in every field of his
profession, that no one, they say there, has expressed better the
emotions of the soul, sorrow, gladness, and the other passions, and
all with most beautiful and bizarre inventions; insomuch that,
likening him to the Urbinate, they call him the Flemish Raffaello. It
is true that this is not demonstrated to us fully by the printed
sheets, for the reason that the engraver, be he ever so able, never by
a great measure equals the originals or the design and manner of him
who has drawn them. A fellow-disciple with Floris, learning under the
discipline of the same master, has been Willem Key of Breda, and also
of Antwerp, a temperate, serious, and judicious man, and a close
imitator of the life and the objects of nature, and in addition
passing fertile in invention, and one who more than any other executes
his pictures with good gradation and all full of sweetness and grace;
and although he has not the facility, boldness, and terrible force of
his brother-disciple Floris, for all that he is held to be truly
excellent. Michael Coxie, of whom I have spoken above, saying that he
carried the Italian manner into Flanders, is much celebrated among the
Flemish craftsmen for being profoundly serious and making his figures
such that they have in them much of the virile and severe; wherefore
the Fleming Messer Domenicus Lampsonius, of whom mention will be made
in the proper place, discoursing of the two masters named above and of
this Michael, likens them to a fine trio in music, in which each plays
his part with excellence. Much esteemed, also, among the same men, is
Antonius Moor of Utrecht in Holland, painter to the Catholic King,
whose colours, they say, in portraying whatever he may choose from
nature, vie with the reality and deceive the eye most beautifully. The
same Lampsonius writes to me that Moor, who is a man of very gentle
ways and much beloved, has painted a most beautiful altar-picture of
Christ rising from the dead, with two Angels, S. Peter, and S. Paul,
which is a marvellous thing. Marten de Vos, who copies excellently
well from nature, is held to be good in invention and colouring. But
in the matter of making beautiful landscapes, none are equal to Jakob
Grimmer, Hans Bol, and others, all of Antwerp and able men, of whom,
nevertheless, I have not been able to obtain particular information.
Pieter Aertsen, called Long Peter, painted in his native city of
Amsterdam an altar-picture with wing-panels, containing Our Lady and
other Saints; which whole work cost two thousand crowns. They also
celebrate as a good painter Lambert of Amsterdam, who dwelt many years
in Venice, and had the Italian manner very well. This Lambert was the
father of Federigo, of whom, from his being one of our Academicians,
record will be made in the proper place. Pieter Brueghel of Antwerp,
likewise, they celebrate as an excellent master, and Lambert van Noort
of Amersfort in Holland, and as a good architect Gilis Mostaert,
brother of the above-named Franz; and Pieter Pourbus, a mere lad, has
given proof that he is destined to become an excellent painter.
Now, that we may learn something of the miniaturists of those
countries: they say that these have been excellent there, Marinus of
Zierickzee, Lucas Horebout of Ghent, Simon Bening of Bruges, and
Gerard; and likewise some women, Susanna, sister of the said Lucas,
who was invited for that work into the service of Henry VIII, King of
England, and lived there in honour all the rest of her life; Clara
Skeysers of Ghent, who at the age of eighty died, so they say, a
virgin; Anna, daughter of Meister Seghers, a physician; Levina,
daughter of the above-named Meister Simon of Bruges, who was married
by the said Henry of England to a nobleman, and held in estimation by
Queen Mary, even as she is now by Queen Elizabeth; and likewise
Catharina, daughter of Meister Jan van Hemessen, who went to Spain
into the service of the Queen of Hungary, with a good salary. In
short, many other women in those parts have been excellent
miniaturists.
In the work of glass and of making windows there have been many able
men in the same province; Arthus van Noort of Nymwegen, Borghese of
Antwerp, Dierick Jacobsz Vellaert, Dirk van Staren of Kampen, and Jan
Haeck of Antwerp, by whom are the windows in the Chapel of the
Sacrament in the Church of S. Gudule in Brussels. And here in Tuscany
many very beautiful windows of fired glass have been made for the Duke
of Florence by Wouter Crabeth and Giorgio, Flemings and able men, from
the designs of Vasari.
In architecture and sculpture the most celebrated Flemings are
Sebastian van Oja of Utrecht, who served Charles V in some
fortifications, and then King Philip; Willem van Antwerp; Willem Keur
of Holland, a good architect and sculptor; Jan van Dalen, sculptor,
poet and architect; and Jakob Breuck, sculptor and architect, who
executed many works for the Queen Regent of Hungary, and was the
master of Giovan Bologna of Douai, one of our Academicians, of whom we
shall speak in a short time. Jan de Mynsheere of Ghent, also, is held
to be a good architect, and Matthaeus Manemaker of Antwerp, who is
with the King of the Romans, an excellent sculptor; and Cornelis
Floris, brother of the above-named Franz, is likewise an excellent
sculptor and architect, and the first who introduced into Flanders the
method of making grotesques. Others who give their attention to
sculpture, with much honour to themselves, are Willem Paludanus, a
very studious and diligent sculptor, brother of the above-named
Heinrich; Jan der Sart of Nymwegen, Simon van Delft, and Joost
Janszoon of Amsterdam. And Lambert Suavius of Liège is a very good
architect and master in engraving prints with the burin, wherein he
has been followed by Joris Robyn of Ypres, Dirk Volkaerts and Philip
Galle, both of Haarlem, Lucas van Leyden, and many others; who have
all been in Italy in order to learn and to draw the antiquities, and
to return home, as for the most part they have done, excellent
masters. But greater than any of those named above has been Lambert
Lombard of Liège, a man great in letters, judicious in painting, and
excellent in architecture, the master of Franz Floris and Willem Key;
of the excellencies of which Lambert and of others I have received
much information in letters from M. Domenicus Lampsonius of Liège, a
man well lettered and of much judgment in everything, who was the
familiar confidant of Cardinal Pole of England during his lifetime,
and now is secretary to Monsignor the Prince Bishop of Liège. That
gentleman, I say, once sent me the life of the said Lambert written in
Latin, and he has saluted me several times in the name of many of our
craftsmen from that province; and a letter that I have by his hand,
dated October 30, 1564, is written in this tenor: