Benedetto of Mantua, Abbot of SS. Fiore e Lucilla, a monastery of the
Black Friars of Monte Cassino, who took infinite delight in matters of
painting and was much my friend, prayed me that I should consent to
paint a Last Supper, or some such thing, at the head of their refectory.
Whereupon I resolved to gratify his wish, and began to think of doing
something out of the common use; and so I determined, in agreement with
that good father, to paint for it the Nuptials of Queen Esther and King
Ahasuerus, all in a picture fifteen braccia long, and in oils, but first
to set it in place and then to work at it there. That method--and I can
speak with authority, for I have proved it--is in truth that which
should be followed by one who wishes that his pictures should have their
true and proper lights, for the reason that in fact working at pictures
in a place lower or other than that where they are to stand, causes
changes in their lights, shadows, and many other properties. In that
work, then, I strove to represent majesty and grandeur; and, although I
may not judge whether I succeeded, I know well that I disposed
everything in such a manner, that there may be recognized in passing
good order all the manners of servants, pages, esquires, soldiers of the
guard, the buttery, the credence, the musicians, a dwarf, and every
other thing that is required for a magnificent and royal banquet. There
may be seen, among others, the steward bringing the viands to the table,
accompanied by a good number of pages dressed in livery, besides
esquires and other servants; and at the ends of the table, which is
oval, are lords and other great personages and courtiers, who are
standing on their feet, as is the custom, to see the banquet. King
Ahasuerus is seated at table, a proud and enamoured monarch, leaning
upon the left arm and offering a cup of wine to the Queen, in an
attitude truly dignified and regal. In short, if I were to believe what
I heard said by persons at that time, and what I still hear from anyone
who sees the work, I might consider that I had done something, but I
know better how the matter stands, and what I would have done if my hand
had followed that which I had conceived in idea. Be that as it may, I
applied to it--and this I can declare freely--study and diligence. Above
the work, on a spandrel of the vaulting, comes a Christ who is offering
to the Queen a crown of flowers; and this was done in fresco, and placed
there to denote the spiritual conception of the story, which signified
that, the ancient Synagogue being repudiated, Christ was espousing the
new Church of his faithful Christians.
At this same time I made the portrait of Luigi Guicciardini, brother of
the Messer Francesco who wrote the History, because that Messer Luigi
was very much my friend, and that year, being Commissary of Arezzo, had
caused me out of love for me to buy a very large property in land,
called Frassineto, in Valdichiana, which has been the salvation and the
greatest prop of my house, and will be the same for my successors, if,
as I hope, they prove true to themselves. That portrait, which is in the
possession of the heirs of that Messer Luigi, is said to be the best and
the closest likeness of the infinite number that I have executed. But of
the portraits that I have painted, which are so many, I will make no
mention, because it would be a tedious thing; and, to tell the truth, I
have avoided doing them to the best of my ability. That finished, I
painted at the commission of Fra Mariotto da Castiglioni of Arezzo, for
the Church of S. Francesco in that city, an altar-picture of Our Lady,
S. Anne, S. Francis, and S. Sylvester. And at this same time I drew for
Cardinal di Monte, my very good patron, who was then Legate in Bologna,
and afterwards became Pope Julius III, the design and plan of a great
farm which was afterwards carried into execution at the foot of Monte
Sansovino, his native place, where I was several times at the orders of
that lord, who much delighted in building.
Having gone, after I had finished these works, to Florence, I painted
that summer on a banner for carrying in processions, belonging to the
Company of S. Giovanni de' Peducci of Arezzo, that Saint on one side
preaching to the multitude, and on the other the same Saint baptizing
Christ. Which picture, as soon as it was finished, I sent to my house at
Arezzo, that it might be delivered to the men of the above-named
Company; and it happened that Monsignor Giorgio, Cardinal d'Armagnac, a
Frenchman, passing through Arezzo and going to see my house for some
other purpose, saw that banner, or rather, standard, and, liking it, did
his utmost to obtain it for sending to the King of France, offering a
large price. But I would not break faith with those who had commissioned
me to paint it, for, although many said to me that I could make another,
I know not whether I could have done it as well and with equal
diligence. And not long afterwards I executed for Messer Annibale Caro,
according as he had requested me long before in a letter, which is
printed, a picture of Adonis dying in the lap of Venus, after the
invention of Theocritus; which work was afterwards taken to France,
almost against my will, and given to M. Albizzo del Bene, together with
a Psyche gazing with a lamp at Cupid, who wakens from his sleep, a spark
from the lamp having scorched him. Those figures, all nude and large as
life, were the reason that Alfonso di Tommaso Cambi, who was then a very
beautiful youth, well-lettered, accomplished, and most gentle and
courteous, had himself portrayed nude and at full length in the person
of the huntsman Endymion beloved by the Moon, whose white form, and the
fanciful landscape all around, have their light from the brightness of
the moon, which in the darkness of the night makes an effect passing
natural and true, for the reason that I strove with all diligence to
counterfeit the peculiar colours that the pale yellow light of the moon
is wont to give to the things upon which it strikes. After this, I
painted two pictures for sending to Ragusa, in one Our Lady, and in the
other a Pieta; and then in a great picture for Francesco Botti Our Lady
with her Son in her arms, and Joseph; and that picture, which I
certainly executed with the greatest diligence that I knew, he took with
him to Spain. These works finished, I went in the same year to see
Cardinal di Monte at Bologna, where he was Legate, and, dwelling with
him for some days, besides many other conversations, he contrived to
speak so well and to persuade me with such good reasons, that, being
constrained by him to do a thing which up to that time I had refused to
do, I resolved to take a wife, and so, by his desire, married a daughter
of Francesco Bacci, a noble citizen of Arezzo. Having returned to
Florence, I executed a great picture of Our Lady after a new invention
of my own and with more figures, which was acquired by Messer Bindo
Altoviti, who gave me a hundred crowns of gold for it and took it to
Rome, where it is now in his house. Besides this, I painted many other
pictures at the same time, as for Messer Bernardetto de' Medici, for
Messer Bartolommeo Strada, an eminent physician, and for others of my
friends, of whom there is no need to speak.
In those days, Gismondo Martelli having died in Florence, and having
left instructions in his testament that an altar-picture with Our Lady
and some Saints should be painted for the chapel of that noble family in
S. Lorenzo, Luigi and Pandolfo Martelli, together with M. Cosimo
Bartoli, all very much my friends, besought me that I should execute
that picture. Having obtained leave from the Lord Duke Cosimo, the
Patron and first Warden of Works of that church, I consented to do it,
but on condition that I should be allowed to paint in it something after
my own fancy from the life of S. Gismondo, in allusion to the name of
the testator. Which agreement concluded, I remembered to have heard that
Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, the architect of that church, had given a
particular form to all the chapels to the end that there might be made
for each not some little altar-piece, but some large scene or picture
which might fill the whole space. Wherefore, being disposed to follow in
that respect the wishes and directions of Brunelleschi, and paying
regard rather to honour than to the little profit that I could obtain
from that commission, which contemplated the painting of a small
altar-picture with few figures, I painted in an altar-piece ten braccia
in breadth, and thirteen in height, the story, or rather, martyrdom, of
the King S. Gismondo, when he, his wife, and his two sons were cast into
a well by another King, or rather, Tyrant. I contrived that the
ornamental border of that chapel, which is a semi-circle, should serve
as the opening of the gate of a great palace in the Rustic Order,
through which there should be a view of a square court supported by
pilasters and columns of the Doric Order; and I arranged that through
that opening there should be seen in the centre an octagonal well with
an ascent of steps around it, by which the executioners might ascend,
carrying the two sons nude in order to cast them into the well. In the
loggie around I painted on one side people gazing upon that horrid
spectacle, and on the other side, which is the left, I made some
soldiers who, having seized by force the wife of the King, are carrying
her towards the well in order to put her to death. And at the principal
door I made a group of soldiers that are binding S. Gismondo, who with
his relaxed and patient attitude shows that he is suffering most
willingly that death and martyrdom, and he stands gazing on four Angels
in the air, who are showing to him palms and crowns of martyrdom for
himself, his wife, and his sons, which appears to give him complete
comfort and consolation. I strove, likewise, to demonstrate the cruelty
and fierce anger of the impious Tyrant, who stands on the upper level of
the court to behold his vengeance and the death of S. Gismondo. In
short, so far as in me lay, I made every effort to give to all the
figures, to the best of my ability, the proper expressions and the
appropriate attitudes and spirited movements, and all that was required.
How far I succeeded, that I shall leave to be judged by others; but this
I must say, that I gave to it all the study, labour, and diligence in my
power and knowledge.
Meanwhile, the Lord Duke Cosimo desiring that the Book of the Lives,
already brought almost to completion with the greatest diligence that I
had found possible, and with the assistance of some of my friends,
should be given to the printers, I gave it to Lorenzo Torrentino,
printer to the Duke, and so the printing was begun. But not even the
Theories had been finished, when, Pope Paul III having died, I began to
doubt that I might have to depart from Florence before that book was
finished printing. Going therefore out of Florence to meet Cardinal di
Monte, who was passing on his way to the Conclave, I had no sooner made
obeisance to him and spoken a few words, than he said: "I go to Rome,
and without a doubt I shall be Pope. Make haste, if you have anything to
do, and as soon as you hear the news set out for Rome without awaiting
other advice or any invitation." Nor did that prognostication prove
false, for, being at Arezzo for that Carnival, when certain festivities
and masquerades were being arranged, the news came that the Cardinal had
become Julius III. Whereupon I mounted straightway on horseback and went
to Florence, whence, pressed by the Duke, I went to Rome, in order to be
present at the coronation of the new Pontiff and to take part in the
preparation of the festivities. And so, arriving in Rome and dismounting
at the house of Messer Bindo, I went to do reverence to his Holiness and
to kiss his feet. Which done, the first words that he spoke to me were
to remind me that what he had foretold of himself had not been false.
Then, after he was crowned and settled down a little, the first thing
that he wished to have done was to satisfy an obligation that he had to
the memory of Antonio, the first and elder Cardinal di Monte, by means
of a tomb to be made in S. Pietro a Montorio; of which the designs and
models having been made, it was executed in marble, as has been related
fully in another place. And meanwhile I painted the altar-picture of
that chapel, in which I represented the Conversion of S. Paul, but, to
vary it from that which Buonarroti had executed in the Pauline Chapel, I
made S. Paul young, as he himself writes, and fallen from his horse, and
led blind by the soldiers to Ananias, from whom by the imposition of
hands he receives the lost sight of his eyes, and is baptized; in which
work, either because the space was restricted, or whatever may have been
the reason, I did not satisfy myself completely, although it was perhaps
not displeasing to others, and in particular to Michelagnolo. For that
Pontiff, likewise, I executed another altar-picture for a chapel in the
Palace; but this, for reasons given elsewhere, was afterwards taken by
me to Arezzo and placed at the high-altar of the Pieve. If, however, I
had not fully satisfied either myself or others in the last-named
picture or in that of S. Pietro a Montorio, it would have been no matter
for surprise, because, being obliged to be continually at the beck and
call of that Pontiff, I was kept always moving, or rather, occupied in
making architectural designs, and particularly because I was the first
who designed and prepared all the inventions of the Vigna Julia, which
he caused to be erected at incredible expense. And although it was
executed afterwards by others, yet it was I who always committed to
drawing the caprices of the Pope, which were then given to Michelagnolo
to revise and correct. Jacopo Barozzi of Vignuola finished, after many
designs by his own hand, the rooms, halls, and many other ornaments of
that place; but the lower fountain was made under the direction of
myself and of Ammanati, who afterwards remained there and made the
loggia that is over the fountain. In that work, however, it was not
possible for a man to show his ability or to do anything right, because
from day to day new caprices came into the head of the Pope, which had
to be carried into execution according to the daily instructions given
by Messer Pier Giovanni Aliotti, Bishop of Forli.
During that time, being obliged in the year 1550 to go twice to
Florence on other affairs, the first time I finished the picture of S.
Gismondo, which the Duke went to see in the house of M. Ottaviano de'
Medici, where I executed it; and he liked it so much, that he said to me
that when I had finished my work in Rome I should come to serve him in
Florence, where I would receive orders as to what was to be done. I then
returned to Rome, where I gave completion to those works that I had
begun, and painted a picture of the Beheading of S. John for the
high-altar of the Company of the Misericordia, different not a little
from those that are generally done, which I set in place in the year
1553; and then I wished to return, but I was forced to execute for
Messer Bindo Altoviti, not being able to refuse him, two very large
loggie in stucco-work and fresco. One of them that I painted was at his
villa, made with a new method of architecture, because, the loggia being
so large that it was not possible to turn the vaulting without danger, I
had it made with armatures of wood, matting, and canes, over which was
done the stucco-work and fresco-painting, as if the vaulting were of
masonry, and even so it appears and is believed to be by all who see it;
and it is supported by many ornamental columns of variegated marble,
antique and rare. The other loggia is on the ground-floor of his house
on the bridge, and is covered with scenes in fresco. And after that I
painted for the ceiling of an antechamber four large pictures in oils of
the four Seasons of the year. These finished, I was forced to make for
Andrea della Fonte, who was much my friend, a portrait from life of his
wife, and with it I gave him a large picture of Christ bearing the
Cross, with figures the size of life, which I had made for a kinsman of
the Pope, but afterwards had not chosen to present to him. For the
Bishop of Vasona I painted a Dead Christ supported by Nicodemus and by
two Angels, and for Pier Antonio Bandini a Nativity of Christ, an effect
of night with variety in the invention.
While I was executing these works, I was also watching to see what the
Pope was intending to do, and finally I saw that there was little to be
expected from him, and that it was useless to labour in his service.
Wherefore, notwithstanding that I had already executed the cartoons for
painting in fresco the loggia that is over the fountain of the
above-named Vigna, I resolved that I would at all costs go to serve the
Duke of Florence, and the rather because I was pressed to do this by M.
Averardo Serristori and Bishop Ricasoli, the Ambassadors of his
Excellency in Rome, and also in letters by M. Sforza Almeni, his
Cupbearer and Chief Chamberlain. I transferred myself, therefore, to
Arezzo, in order to make my way from there to Florence, but first I was
forced to make for Monsignor Minerbetti, Bishop of Arezzo, as for my
lord and most dear friend, a lifesize picture of Patience in the form
that has since been used by Signor Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, as his
device and as the reverse of his medal. Which work finished, I came to
kiss the hand of the Lord Duke Cosimo, by whom in his kindness I was
received very warmly; and while it was being considered what I should
first take in hand, I caused Cristofano Gherardi of the Borgo to paint
in chiaroscuro after my designs the facade of M. Sforza Almeni, in that
manner and with those inventions that have been described at great
length in another place. Now at that time I happened to be one of the
Lords Priors of the city of Arezzo, whose office it is to govern that
city, but I was summoned by letters of the Lord Duke into his service,
and absolved from that duty; and, having come to Florence, I found that
his Excellency had begun that year to build that apartment of his Palace
which is towards the Piazza del Grano, under the direction of the
wood-carver Tasso, who was then architect to the Palace. The roof had
been placed so low that all those rooms had little elevation, and were,
indeed, altogether dwarfed; but, since to raise the crossbeams and the
whole roof would be a long affair, I advised that a series of timbers
should be placed, by way of border, with sunk compartments two braccia
and a half in extent, between the crossbeams of the roof, with a range
of consoles in the perpendicular line, so as to make a frieze of about
two braccia above the timbers. Which plan greatly pleasing his
Excellency, he gave orders straightway that so it should be done, and
that Tasso should execute the woodwork and the compartments, within
which was to be painted the Genealogy of the Gods; and that afterwards
the work should be continued in the other rooms.
[Illustration: LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT AND THE AMBASSADORS
(_After the fresco by =Giorgio Vasari=. Florence: Palazzo Vecchio_)
_Brogi_]
While the work for those ceilings was being prepared, having obtained
leave from the Duke, I went to spend two months between Arezzo and
Cortona, partly to give completion to some affairs of my own, and
partly to finish a work in fresco begun on the walls and vaulting of the
Company of Jesus at Cortona. In that place I painted three stories of
the life of Jesus Christ, and all the sacrifices offered to God in the
Old Testament, from Cain and Abel down to the Prophet Nehemiah; and
there, during that time, I also furnished designs and models for the
fabric of the Madonna Nuova, without the city. The work for the Company
of Jesus being finished, I returned to Florence in the year 1555 with
all my family, to serve Duke Cosimo. And there I began and finished the
compartments, walls, and ceiling of the above-named upper Hall, called
the Sala degli Elementi, painting in the compartments, which are eleven,
the Castration of Heaven in the air. In a terrace beside that Hall I
painted on the ceiling the actions of Saturn and Ops, and then on the
ceiling of another great chamber all the story of Ceres and Proserpine;
and in a still larger chamber, which is beside the last, likewise on the
ceiling, which is very rich, stories of the Goddess Berecynthia and of
Cybele with her Triumph, and the four Seasons, and on the walls all the
twelve Months. On the ceiling of another, not so rich, I painted the
Birth of Jove and the Goat Amaltheia nursing him, with the rest of the
other most notable things related of him; in another terrace beside the
same room, much adorned with stones and stucco-work, other things of
Jove and Juno; and finally, in the next chamber, the Birth of Hercules
and all his Labours. All that could not be included on the ceilings was
placed in the friezes of each room, or has been placed in the
arras-tapestries that the Lord Duke has caused to be woven for each room
from my cartoons, corresponding to the pictures high up on the walls. I
shall not speak of the grotesques, ornaments, and pictures of the
stairs, nor of many other smaller details executed by my hand in that
apartment of rooms, because, besides that I hope that a longer account
may be given of them on another occasion, everyone may see them at his
pleasure and judge of them.
While these upper rooms were being painted, there were built the others
that are on the level of the Great Hall, and are connected in a
perpendicular line with the first-named, with a very convenient system
of staircases public and private that lead from the highest to the
lowest quarters of the Palace. Meanwhile Tasso died, and the Duke, who
had a very great desire that the Palace, which had been built at
haphazard, in various stages and at various times, and more for the
convenience of the officials than with any good order, should be put to
rights, resolved that he would at all costs have it reconstructed in so
far as that was possible, and that in time the Great Hall should be
painted, and that Bandinelli should continue the Audience-chamber
already begun. In order, therefore, to bring the whole Palace into
accord, harmonizing the work already done with that which was to be
done, he ordained that I should make several plans and designs, and
finally a wooden model after some that had pleased him, the better to be
able to proceed to accommodate all the apartments according to his
pleasure, and to change and put straight the old stairs, which appeared
to him too steep, ill-conceived, and badly made. To which work I set my
hand, although it seemed to me a difficult enterprise and beyond my
powers, and I executed as best I could a very large model, which is now
in the possession of his Excellency; more to obey him than with any hope
that I might succeed. That model, when it was finished, pleased him
much, whether by his good fortune or mine, or because of the great
desire that I had to give satisfaction; whereupon I set my hand to
building, and little by little, doing now one thing and now another, the
work has been carried to the condition wherein it may now be seen. And
while the rest was being done, I decorated with very rich stucco-work in
a varied pattern of compartments the first eight of the new rooms that
are on a level with the Great Hall, what with saloons, chambers, and a
chapel, with various pictures and innumerable portraits from life that
come in the scenes, beginning with the elder Cosimo, and calling each
room by the name of some great and famous person descended from him. In
one, then, are the most notable actions of that Cosimo and those virtues
that were most peculiar to him, with his greatest friends and servants
and portraits of his children, all from life; and so, also, that of the
elder Lorenzo, that of his son, Pope Leo, that of Pope Clement, that of
Signor Giovanni, the father of our great Duke, and that of the Lord
Duke Cosimo himself. In the chapel is a large and very beautiful picture
by the hand of Raffaello da Urbino, between a S. Cosimo and a S. Damiano
painted by my hand, to whom that chapel is dedicated. Then in like
manner in the upper rooms painted for the Lady Duchess Leonora, which
are four, are actions of illustrious women, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and
Tuscan, one to each chamber. But of these, besides that I have spoken of
them elsewhere, there will be a full account in the Dialogue which I am
about to give to the world, as I have said; for to describe everything
here would have taken too long.
For all these my labours, continuous, difficult, and great as they were,
I was rewarded largely and richly by the magnanimous liberality of the
great Duke, in addition to my salaries, with donations and with
commodious and honourable houses both in Florence and in the country, to
the end that I might be able the more advantageously to serve him.
Besides which, he has honoured me with the supreme magistracy of
Gonfalonier and other offices in my native city of Arezzo, with the
right to substitute in them one of the citizens of that place, not to
mention that to my brother Ser Piero he has given offices of profit in
Florence, and likewise extraordinary favours to my relatives in Arezzo;
so that I shall never be weary of confessing the obligation that I feel
towards that Lord for so many marks of affection.