Aversa, General of the Monks of Monte Oliveto, to the end that I might
paint the refectory of a monastery built for them by King Alfonso I; but
when I arrived, I was for not accepting the work, seeing that the
refectory and the whole monastery were built in an ancient manner of
architecture, with the vaults in pointed arches, low and poor in lights,
and I doubted that I was like to win little honour thereby. However,
being pressed by Don Miniato Pitti and Don Ippolito da Milano, my very
dear friends, who were then Visitors to that Order, finally I accepted
the undertaking. Whereupon, recognizing that I would not be able to do
anything good save only with a great abundance of ornaments, dazzling
the eyes of all who might see the work with a variety and multitude of
figures, I resolved to have all the vaulting of the refectory wrought in
stucco, in order to remove by means of rich compartments in the modern
manner all the old-fashioned and clumsy appearance of those arches. In
this I was much assisted by the vaults and walls, which are made, as is
usual in that city, of blocks of tufa, which cut like wood, or even
better, like bricks not completely baked; and thus, cutting them, I was
able to sink squares, ovals, and octagons, and also to thicken them with
additions of the same tufa by means of nails. Having then reduced those
vaults to good proportions with that stucco-work, which was the first to
be wrought in Naples in the modern manner, and in particular the facades
and end-walls of that refectory, I painted there six panels in oils,
seven braccia high, three to each end-wall. In three that are over the
entrance of the refectory is the Manna raining down upon the Hebrew
people, in the presence of Moses and Aaron, and the people gathering it
up; wherein I strove to represent a variety of attitudes and vestments
in the men, women, and children, and the emotion wherewith they are
gathering up and storing the Manna, rendering thanks to God. On the
end-wall that is at the head is Christ at table in the house of Simon,
and Mary Magdalene with tears washing His feet and drying them with her
hair, showing herself all penitent for her sins; which story is divided
into three pictures, in the centre the supper, on the right hand a
buttery with a credence full of vases in various fantastic forms, and on
the left hand a steward who is bringing up the viands. The vaulting,
then, was divided into three parts; in one the subject is Faith, in the
second Religion, and in the third Eternity, and each of these forms a
centre with eight Virtues about it, demonstrating to the monks that in
that refectory they eat what is requisite for the perfection of their
lives. To enrich the spaces of the vaulting, I made them full of
grotesques, which serve as ornaments in forty-eight spaces for the
forty-eight celestial signs; and on six walls down the length of that
refectory, under the windows, which were made larger and richly
ornamented, I painted six of the Parables of Jesus Christ which are in
keeping with that place; and to all those pictures and ornaments there
correspond the carvings of the seats, which are wrought very richly. And
then I executed for the high-altar of the church an altar-picture eight
braccia high, containing the Madonna presenting the Infant Jesus Christ
to Simeon in the Temple, with a new invention. It is a notable thing
that since Giotto there had not been up to that time, in a city so great
and noble, any masters who had done anything of importance in painting,
although there had been brought there from without some things by the
hands of Perugino and Raffaello. On which account I exerted myself to
labour in such a manner, in so far as my little knowledge could reach,
that the intellects of that country might be roused to execute great and
honourable works; and, whether that or some other circumstance may have
been the reason, between that time and the present day many very
beautiful works have been done there, both in stucco and in painting.
Besides the pictures described above, I executed in fresco on the
vaulting of the strangers' apartment in the same monastery, with figures
large as life, Jesus Christ with the Cross on His shoulder, and many of
His Saints who have one likewise on their shoulders in imitation of Him,
to demonstrate that for one who wishes truly to follow Him it is
necessary to bear with good patience the adversities that the world
inflicts. For the General of that Order I executed a great picture of
Christ appearing to the Apostles as they struggled with the perils of
the sea, and taking S. Peter by the arm, who, having hastened towards
Him through the water, was fearing to drown; and in another picture, for
Abbot Capeccio, I painted the Resurrection. These works carried to
completion, I painted a chapel in fresco for the Lord Don Pietro di
Toledo, Viceroy of Naples, in his garden at Pozzuolo, besides executing
some very delicate ornaments in stucco; and arrangements had been made
to execute two great loggie for the same lord, but the undertaking was
not carried into effect, for the following reason. There had been some
difference between the Viceroy and the above-named monks, and the
Constable went with his men to the monastery to seize the Abbot and some
monks who had had some words with the Black Friars in a procession, over
a matter of precedence. But the monks made some resistance, assisted by
about fifteen young men who were assisting me in stucco-work and
painting, and wounded some of the bailiffs; on which account it became
necessary to get them out of the way, and they went off in various
directions. And so I, left almost alone, was unable not only to execute
the loggie at Pozzuolo, but also to paint twenty-four pictures of
stories from the Old Testament and from the life of S. John the Baptist,
which, not caring to remain any longer in Naples, I took to Rome to
finish, whence I sent them, and they were placed about the stalls and
over the presses of walnut-wood made from my architectural designs in
the Sacristy of S. Giovanni Carbonaro, a convent of Eremite and
Observantine Friars of S. Augustine, for whom I had painted a short time
before, for a chapel without their church, a panel-picture of Christ
Crucified, with a rich and varied ornament of stucco, at the request of
Seripando, their General, who afterwards became a Cardinal. In like
manner, half-way up the staircase of the same convent, I painted in
fresco a S. John the Evangelist who stands gazing at Our Lady clothed
with the sun and crowned with twelve stars, with her feet upon the moon.
In the same city I painted for Messer Tommaso Cambi, a Florentine
merchant and very much my friend, the times and seasons of the year on
four walls in the hall of his house, with pictures of Sleep and Dreaming
over a terrace where I made a fountain. And for the Duke of Gravina I
painted an altar-picture of the Magi adoring Christ, which he took to
his dominions; and for Orsanca, Secretary to the Viceroy, I executed
another altar-piece with five figures around a Christ Crucified, and
many pictures.
But, although I was regarded with favour by those lords and was earning
much, and my commissions were multiplying every day, I judged, since my
men had departed and I had executed works in abundance in one year in
that city, that it would be well for me to return to Rome. Which having
done, the first work that I executed was for Signor Ranuccio Farnese, at
that time Archbishop of Naples; painting on canvas and in oils four very
large shutters for the organ of the Piscopio in Naples, on the front of
which are five Patron Saints of that city, and on the inner side the
Nativity of Jesus Christ, with the Shepherds, and King David singing to
his psaltery, DOMINUS DIXIT AD ME, etc. And I finished likewise the
twenty-four pictures mentioned above and some for M. Tommaso Cambi,
which were all sent to Naples; which done, I painted five pictures of
the Passion of Christ for Raffaello Acciaiuoli, who took them to Spain.
In the same year, Cardinal Farnese being minded to cause the Hall of the
Cancelleria, in the Palace of S. Giorgio, to be painted, Monsignor
Giovio, desiring that it should be done by my hands, commissioned me to
make many designs with various inventions, which in the end were not
carried into execution. Nevertheless the Cardinal finally resolved that
it should be painted in fresco, and with the greatest rapidity that
might be possible, so that he might be able to use it at a certain time
determined by himself. That hall is a little more than a hundred palms
in length, fifty in breadth, and the same in height. On each end-wall,
fifty palms broad, was painted a great scene, and two on one of the long
walls, but on the other, from its being broken by windows, it was not
possible to paint scenes, and therefore there was made a pendant after
the likeness of the head-wall opposite. And not wishing to make a base,
as had been the custom up to that time with the craftsmen in all their
scenes, in order to introduce variety and do something new I caused
flights of steps to rise from the floor to a height of at least nine
palms, made in various ways, one to each scene; and upon these, then,
there begin to ascend figures that I painted in keeping with the
subject, little by little, until they come to the level where the scene
begins. It would be a long and perhaps tedious task to describe all the
particulars and minute details of those scenes, and therefore I shall
touch only on the principal things, and that briefly. In all of them,
then, are stories of the actions of Pope Paul III, and in each is his
portrait from life. In the first, wherein are the Dispatchings, so to
speak, of the Court of Rome, may be seen upon the Tiber various
embassies of various nations (with many portraits from life) that are
come to seek favours from the Pope and to offer him divers tributes;
and, in addition, two great figures in great niches placed over the
doors, which are on either side of the scene. One of these represents
Eloquence, and has above it two Victories that uphold the head of Julius
Caesar, and the other represents Justice, with two other Victories that
hold the head of Alexander the Great; and in the centre are the arms of
the above-named Pope, supported by Liberality and Remuneration. On the
main wall is the same Pope remunerating merit, distributing salaries,
knighthoods, benefices, pensions, bishoprics, and Cardinal's hats, and
among those who are receiving them are Sadoleto, Polo, Bembo, Contarini,
Giovio, Buonarroti, and other men of excellence, all portrayed from
life, and on that wall, within a great niche, is Grace with a horn of
plenty full of dignities, which she is pouring out upon the earth, and
the Victories that she has above her, after the likeness of the others,
support the head of the Emperor Trajan. There is also Envy, who is
devouring vipers and appears to be bursting with venom; and above, at
the top of the scene, are the arms of Cardinal Farnese, supported by
Fame and Virtue. In the other scene the same Pope Paul is seen all
intent on his buildings, and in particular on that of S. Pietro upon the
Vatican, and therefore there are kneeling before the Pope Painting,
Sculpture, and Architecture, who, having unfolded a design of the
ground-plan of that S. Pietro, are receiving orders to execute the work
and to carry it to completion. Besides these figures, there is
Resolution, who, opening the breast, lays bare the heart; with
Solicitude and Riches near. In a niche is Abundance, with two Victories
that hold the effigy of Vespasian, and in the centre, in another niche
that divides one scene from the other, is Christian Religion, with two
Victories above her that hold the head of Numa Pompilius; and the arms
that are above the scene are those of Cardinal San Giorgio, who built
that Palace. In the other scene, which is opposite to that of the
Dispatchings of the Court, is the universal peace made among Christians
by the agency of Pope Paul III, and particularly between the Emperor
Charles V and Francis, King of France, who are portrayed there;
wherefore there may be seen Peace burning arms, the Temple of Janus
being closed, and Fury in chains. Of the two great niches that are on
either side of the scene, in one is Concord, with two Victories above
her that are holding the head of the Emperor Titus, and in the other is
Charity with many children, while above the niche are two Victories
holding the head of Augustus; and over all are the arms of Charles V,
supported by Victory and Rejoicing. The whole work is full of the most
beautiful inscriptions and mottoes composed by Giovio, and there is one
in particular which says that those pictures were all executed in a
hundred days; which, indeed, like a young man, I did do, being such that
I gave no thought to anything but satisfying that lord, who, as I have
said, desired to have the work finished in that time for a particular
purpose. But in truth, although I exerted myself greatly in making
cartoons and studying that work, I confess that I did wrong in putting
it afterwards in the hands of assistants, in order to execute it more
quickly, as I was obliged to do; for it would have been better to toil
over it a hundred months and do it with my own hand, whereby, although I
would not have done it in such a way as to satisfy my wish to please the
Cardinal and to maintain my own honour, I would at least have had the
satisfaction of having executed it with my own hand. However, that error
was the reason that I resolved that I would never again do any work
without finishing it entirely by myself over a first sketch done by the
hands of assistants from designs by my hand. In that work the Spaniards,
Bizzerra and Roviale, who laboured much in it in my company, gained no
little practice; and also Battista da Bagnacavallo of Bologna, Bastiano
Flori of Arezzo, Giovan Paolo dal Borgo, Fra Salvadore Foschi of Arezzo,
and many other young men.
At that time I went often in the evening, at the end of the day's work,
to see the above-named most illustrious Cardinal Farnese at supper,
where there were always present, to entertain him with beautiful and
honourable discourse, Molza, Annibale Caro, M. Gandolfo, M. Claudio
Tolomei, M. Romolo Amaseo, Monsignor Giovio, and many other men of
learning and distinction, of whom the Court of that Lord is ever full.
One evening among others the conversation turned to the museum of Giovio
and to the portraits of illustrious men that he had placed therein with
beautiful order and inscriptions; and one thing leading to another, as
happens in conversation, Monsignor Giovio said that he had always had
and still had a great desire to add to his museum and his book of
Eulogies a treatise with an account of the men who had been illustrious
in the art of design from Cimabue down to our own times. Enlarging on
this, he showed that he had certainly great knowledge and judgment in
the matters of our arts; but it is true that, being content to treat the
subject in gross, he did not consider it in detail, and often, in
speaking of those craftsmen, either confused their names, surnames,
birthplaces, and works, or did not relate things exactly as they were,
but rather, as I have said, in gross. When Giovio had finished his
discourse, the Cardinal turned to me and said: "What do you say,
Giorgio? Will not that be a fine work and a noble labour?" "Fine,
indeed, most illustrious Excellency," I answered, "if Giovio be assisted
by someone of our arts to put things in their places and relate them as
they really are. That I say because, although his discourse has been
marvellous, he has confused and mistaken many things one for another."
"Then," replied the Cardinal, being besought by Giovio, Caro, Tolomei,
and the others, "you might give him a summary and an ordered account of
all those craftsmen and their works, according to the order of time; and
so your arts will receive from you this benefit as well." That
undertaking, although I knew it to be beyond my powers, I promised most
willingly to execute to the best of my ability; and so, having set
myself down to search through my records and the notes that I had
written on that subject from my earliest youth, as a sort of pastime and
because of the affection that I bore to the memory of our craftsmen,
every notice of whom was very dear to me, I gathered together everything
that seemed to me to touch on the subject, and took the whole to Giovio.
And he, after he had much praised my labour, said to me: "Giorgio, I
would rather that you should undertake this task of setting everything
down in the manner in which I see that you will be excellently well able
to do it, because I have not the courage, not knowing the various
manners, and being ignorant of many particulars that you are likely to
know; besides which, even if I were to do it, I would make at the most a
little treatise like that of Pliny. Do what I tell you, Vasari, for I
see by the specimen that you have given me in this account that it will
prove something very fine." And then, thinking that I was not very
resolute in the matter, he caused Caro, Molza, Tolomei, and others of my
dearest friends to speak to me. Whereupon, having finally made up my
mind, I set my hand to it, with the intention of giving it, when
finished, to one of them, that he might revise and correct it, and then
publish it under a name other than mine.
Meanwhile I departed from Rome in the month of October of the year 1546,
and came to Florence, and there executed for the Nuns of the famous
Convent of the Murate a picture in oils of a Last Supper for their
refectory; which work was allotted to me and paid for by Pope Paul III,
who had a sister-in-law, once Countess of Pitigliano, a nun in that
convent. And then I painted in another picture Our Lady with the Infant
Christ in her arms, who is espousing the Virgin-Martyr S. Catharine,
with two other Saints; which picture M. Tommaso Cambi caused me to
execute for a sister who was then Abbess of the Convent of the Bigallo,
without Florence. That finished, I painted two large pictures in oils
for Monsignor de' Rossi, Bishop of Pavia, of the family of the Counts of
San Secondo; in one of these is a S. Jerome, and in the other a Pieta,
and they were both sent to France. Then in the year 1547 I carried to
completion for the Duomo of Pisa, at the instance of M. Bastiano della
Seta, the Warden of Works, another altar-picture that I had begun; and
afterwards, for my very dear friend Simon Corsi, a large picture in oils
of Our Lady. Now, while I was executing these works, having carried
nearly to completion the Book of the Lives of the Craftsmen of Design,
there was scarcely anything left for me to do but to have it transcribed
in a good hand, when there presented himself to me most opportunely Don
Gian Matteo Faetani of Rimini, a monk of Monte Oliveto and a person of
intelligence and learning, who desired that I should execute some works
for him in the Church and Monastery of S. Maria di Scolca at Rimini,
where he was Abbot. He, then, having promised to have it transcribed for
me by one of his monks who was an excellent writer, and to correct it
himself, persuaded me to go to Rimini to execute, with this occasion,
the altar-picture and the high-altar of that church, which is about
three miles distant from the city. In that altar-picture I painted the
Magi adoring Christ, with an infinity of figures executed by me with
much study in that solitary place, counterfeiting the men of the Courts
of the three Kings in such a way, as well as I was able, that, although
they are all mingled together, yet one may recognize by the appearance
of the faces to what country each belongs and to which King he is
subject, for some have the flesh-colour white, some grey, and others
dark; besides which, the diversity of their vestments and the
differences in their adornments make a pleasing variety. That
altar-piece has on either side of it two large pictures, in which is the
rest of the Courts, with horses, elephants, and giraffes, and about the
chapel, in various places, are distributed Prophets, Sibyls, and
Evangelists in the act of writing. In the cupola, or rather, tribune, I
painted four great figures that treat of the praises of Christ, of His
Genealogy, and of the Virgin, and these are Orpheus and Homer with some
Greek mottoes, Virgil with the motto, IAM REDIT ET VIRGO, etc., and
Dante with these verses:
Tu sei colei, che l' umana natura
Nobilitasti si, che il suo Fattore
Non si sdegno di farsi tua fattura.
With many other figures and inventions, of which there is no need to say
any more. Then, the work of writing the above-mentioned book and
carrying it to completion meanwhile continuing, I painted for the
high-altar of S. Francesco, in Rimini, a large altar-picture in oils of
S. Francis receiving the Stigmata from Christ on the mountain of La
Vernia, copied from nature; and since that mountain is all of grey rocks
and stones, and in like manner S. Francis and his companion are grey, I
counterfeited a Sun within which is Christ, with a good number of
Seraphim, and so the work is varied, and the Saint, with other figures,
all illumined by the splendour of that Sun, and the landscape in shadow
with a great variety of changing colours; all which is not displeasing
to many persons, and was much extolled at that time by Cardinal
Capodiferro, Legate in Romagna.
Being then summoned from Rimini to Ravenna, I executed an altar-picture,
as has been told in another place, for the new church of the Abbey of
Classi, of the Order of Camaldoli, painting therein a Christ taken down
from the Cross and lying in the lap of Our Lady. And at this same time I
executed for divers friends many designs, pictures, and other lesser
works, which are so many and so varied, that it would be difficult for
me to remember even a part of them, and perhaps not pleasing for my
readers to hear so many particulars.
Meanwhile the building of my house at Arezzo had been finished, and I
returned home, where I made designs for painting the hall, three
chambers, and the facade, as it were for my own diversion during that
summer. In those designs I depicted, among other things, all the places
and provinces where I had laboured, as if they were bringing tributes,
to represent the gains that I had made by their means, to that house of
mine. For the time being, however, I did nothing but the ceiling of the
hall, which is passing rich in woodwork, with thirteen large pictures
wherein are the Celestial Gods, and in four angles the four Seasons of
the year nude, who are gazing at a great picture that is in the centre,
in which, with figures the size of life, is Excellence, who has Envy
under her feet and has seized Fortune by the hair, and is beating both
the one and the other; and a thing that was much commended at the time
was that as you go round the hall, Fortune being in the middle, from one
side Envy seems to be over Fortune and Excellence, and from another side
Excellence is over Envy and Fortune, as is seen often to happen in real
life. Around the walls are Abundance, Liberality, Wisdom, Prudence,
Labour, Honour, and other similar things, and below, all around, are
stories of ancient painters, Apelles, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Protogenes,
and others, with various compartments and details that I omit for the
sake of brevity. In a chamber, also, in a great medallion in the ceiling
of carved woodwork, I painted Abraham, with God blessing his seed and
promising to multiply it infinitely; and in four squares that are around
that medallion, I painted Peace, Concord, Virtue, and Modesty. And since
I always adored the memory and the works of the ancients, and perceived
that the method of painting in distemper-colours was being abandoned,
there came to me a desire to revive that mode of painting, and I
executed the whole work in distemper; which method certainly does not
deserve to be wholly despised or abandoned. At the entrance of the
chamber, as it were in jest, I painted a bride who has in one hand a
rake, with which she seems to have raked up and carried away with her
from her father's house everything that she has been able, and in the
hand that is stretched in front of her, entering into the house of her
husband, she has a lighted torch, signifying that where she goes she
carries a fire that consumes and destroys everything.