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Transcriber's note:
Letters enclosed in a square bracket with tilde denote that
there is an overscore or tilde above the letter; for example
N is denoted by [~N]. [C] denotes a reversed C.
The Great Masters in Painting and Sculpture Edited by G. C. Williamson
LUCA SIGNORELLI
* * * * *
THE GREAT MASTERS IN PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.
_The following Volumes have been issued_
BERNARDINO LUINI. By GEORGE C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D., Editor of the
Series.
VELASQUEZ. By R. A. M. STEVENSON.
ANDREA DEL SARTO. By H. GUINNESS.
LUCA SIGNORELLI. By MAUD CRUTTWELL. _December_ 1.
RAPHAEL. By H. STRACHEY. _January_ 1.
_In preparation._
CARLO CRIVELLI. By G. M'NEIL RUSHFORTH, M.A., Lecturer in Classics,
Oriel College, Oxford.
CORREGGIO. By SELWYN BRINTON, M.A., Author of "The Renaissance in
Italian Art."
FRA ANGELICO. By LANGTON DOUGLAS, M.A.
THE BROTHERS BELLINI. By S. ARTHUR STRONG, M.A., Librarian to the
House of Lords.
MICHAEL ANGELO. By CHARLES HOLROYD, Keeper of the National Gallery
of British Art.
TURNER. By CHARLES FRANCIS BELL, M.A., Deputy Keeper of the
Ashmolean Museum.
PERUGINO. By G. C. WILLIAMSON, Litt.D., Editor of the Series.
MEMLINC. By W. H. JAMES WEALE, late Keeper of the National Art
Library.
MURILLO. By MANUEL B. COSSIO, Litt.D., Ph. D., Director of the Musee
Pedagogique, Madrid.
REMBRANDT. By MALCOLM BELL.
_Others to follow._
LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Portrait of an unknown man_]
LUCA SIGNORELLI
by
MAUD CRUTTWELL
[Illustration]
London
George Bell & Sons
1899
"Pianga Cortona omai, vestasi oscura,
Che estinti son del Signorello i lumi;
Et, tu, Pittura, fa de gli occhi fuimi,
Che resti senza lui debile e scura."
_Epitaph composed at the time of his death_
"Il Cortonese Luca d'ingegno
E spirito pellegrino."
RIME DI GIOVANNI SANTI
PREFATORY NOTICE.
The references to Vasari, and Crowe and Cavalcaselle, are invariably to
the latest editions, both in Italian: "Opere di Giorgio Vasari"
(Firenze, G. C. Sansoni, 1879); "Cavalcaselle e Crowe" (Le Monnier,
1898).
The author desires to express her gratitude to Mr Bernhard Berensen,
author of "Lorenzo Lotto," etc., for much help in her work.
FLORENCE, _October_ 1899.
CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
BIBLIOGRAPHY xiii
GENEALOGICAL TREE xv
Chapter I. HIS LIFE 1
II. DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS GENIUS 17
III. EARLIEST WORKS 32
IV. MIDDLE PERIOD 49
V. ORVIETO 63
VI. LATER PAINTINGS 87
VII. LAST WORKS 98
VIII. DRAWINGS 107
IX. PUPILS AND GENERAL INFLUENCE 111
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 121
CATALOGUE OF WORKS 131
INDEX 141
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Portrait of a Man _Gallery, Berlin_ _Frontispiece_
Portrait of Signorelli _Museo del Duomo, Orvieto_ 8
The Deposition _Cathedral, Cortona_ 10
The Flagellation _Brera Gallery, Milan_ 32
Apostles _Santa Casa, Loreto_ 34
The Incredulity of S. Thomas _Santa Casa, Loreto_ 36
The Conversion of Saul _Santa Casa, Loreto_ 36
Madonna and Saints _Cathedral, Perugia_ 38
The Circumcision _National Gallery, London_ 40
Pan _Gallery, Berlin_ 42
Madonna _Uffizi, Florence_ 44
Madonna and Saints _Pitti, Florence_ 46
Holy Family _Rospigliosi Gallery, Rome_ 46
Holy Family _Uffizi, Florence_ 48
The Annunciation _Cathedral, Volterra_ 50
The Annunciation _Uffizi, Florence_ 52
The Crucifixion _Santo Spirito, Urbino_ 54
Miracle of S. Benedict _Monte Oliveto_ 56
Miracle of S. Benedict _Monte Oliveto_ 58
Saints _Gallery, Berlin_ 60
Holy Family _Gallery, Berlin_ 60
The Crucifixion _Municipio, Borgo San Sepolero_ 62
Portraits of Signorelli and Fra Angelico
_Cathedral, Orvieto_ 64
Patriarchs _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 68
The Preaching and Fall of Antichrist _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 70
The Crowning of the Elect _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 72
Subjects from Dante _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 74
Heaven _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 76
Hell _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 76
The Damnation _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 78
The Resurrection _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 80
Signs of Destruction _Cathedral, Orvieto_ 82
Madonna and Saints _Brera, Milan_ 90
Dead Christ upheld by Angels _S. Niccolo, Cortona_ 92
The Adoration of the Magi _Jarvis Collection,
New Haven, U.S.A._ 94
Madonna and Saints _Mancini Collection,
Citta di Castello_ 98
The Deposition _Santa Croce, Umbertide_ 100
Madonna, Saints, and Prophets _Gallery, Arezzo_ 102
Study of Nude Figure _Louvre, Paris_ 108
Magdalen at the Foot of the Cross _Academy, Florence_ 111
Tiberius Gracchus _Gallery, Buda-Pesth_ 116
ERRATUM
Page 6 line 1, _for_ "Pius II." _read_ "Sixtus IV."
The Frontispiece and the illustrations facing pp. 40, 42, and 60 (2) are
from photographs by Hanfstaengl (Munich), those facing pp. 46 (No. 2)
and 68 by Anderson (Rome), that facing page 108 by A. Braun & Co.
(Dornach and Paris), those facing pp. 94 and 116 from private
photographs, and the remainder by Alinari (Florence).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
LUCA SIGNORELLI. Vasari, con annotazione di Gaetano Milanesi. (Firenze,
G. C. Sansoni, 1879.) Vol. iii.
LUCA SIGNORELLI UND DIE ITALIENISCHE RENAISSANCE. Robert Vischer.
(Leipzig, 1879.)
LUCA SIGNORELLI. Cavalcaselle e Crowe. (Le Monnier, 1898.) Vol. viii.
UEBER LEBEN, WIRKEN UND WERKE DER MALER ANDREA MANTEGNA UND LUCA
SIGNORELLI. G. F. Waagen. (Historisches Taschenbuch von Raumer.)
LUCA SIGNORELLI. Manni. (Racolta Milanese di vari opuscoli, 1756.)
Vol. i.
STORIA DEL DUOMO DI ORVIETO. Padre della Valle, 1791.
IL DUOMO DI ORVIETO. Ludovico Luzi, 1866.
MEMORIE ECCLESIASTICHE E CIVILI DI CITTA DI CASTELLO. Muzi, 1844.
ISTRUZIONE STORICO. Giacomo Mancini, 1832.
NOTIZIE ... SOPRA LUCA SIGNORELLI. Girolamo Mancini, 1867.
GUIDA DEI MONUMENTI ... NELLA PROVINCIA DELL'UMBRIA, GUARDABASSI. 1872.
FAMILY TREE OF THE SIGNORELLI FAMILY.
VENTURA DI SIGNORELLI.
|
LUCA.
|
EGIDIO = A sister of LAZZARO DEI TALDI
| (great-grandfather of GIORGIO
| VASARI, the biographer).
+---------------------------+
| |
VENTURA. LUCA = GALIZIA CARNESECCA.
| |
| +----------------+---+-------------+----------+---------+
| | | | | |
| POLIDORO ANTONIO PIER TOMMASO GABRIELLA = FELICIA =
| (Painter and = 1. NANNINA = MARGHERITA MARIOTTO LUCA DELLA
| Builder). DI PAOLO DI VAGNOZZI. DEL MAZZA. BIOSCIA.
| DI FORZORE. | |
| 2. MATTEA DI | BERNARDINA.
| DOMENICO DI |
| | SIMONE. |
+-------------+ | +-+-----------+
| | | | |
LUCREZIA FRANCESCO ROSATA = GIULIO. FILIZIANO.
= DOMENICO (Painter). MARIOTTO
DI GILIO = FELICE DI FELICE
(Banker.) CARRARI. PASSERINI.
LUCA SIGNORELLI
CHAPTER I
HIS LIFE
(BORN 1441: DIED 1523)
It is a curious fact that, considering the number of documents which
exist relating to Signorelli, and the paintings time has spared, so
little should be known beyond the merest outline of his life. The very
dates of his birth and death are indirectly acquired; the documents
leave his youth and early manhood an absolute blank, and there are only
two of his numerous works which can with certainty be placed before his
thirty-third year.[1] We are, therefore, forced to fall back upon
traditionary record, and by the aid of his biographer Vasari, and the
evidence of youthful studies which his paintings contain, to patch
together a probable account of his life, up to the time when the
documents begin. On Vasari, in this case, we can depend with a certain
amount of confidence, since Signorelli was his kinsman, and they had
been in such personal communication as was possible between an old man
and a child.
From Vasari, then, we learn that Luca was born in Cortona, of Egidio
Signorelli, and a sister of Lazzaro de Taldi.[2] This Lazzaro, great
grandfather of the biographer, deserves special mention, since it was
through his means, and under his guardianship, that Luca was placed as a
child to study painting with Pier dei Franceschi, at Arezzo.[3] Vasari
tells us that Lazzaro was "a famous painter of his time, not only in his
own country, but throughout Tuscany, with a style of painting hardly to
be distinguished from that of his great friend, Pietro della
Francesca."[4] This, however, is an assertion that has never been
supported, and was probably based on the author's pride in his own
family, for in the Cortona tax-receipts for the year 1427, he is
described merely as a harness-maker (_Sellajo di Cavalli_.)[5] There is,
besides, no record of him among the painters of Arezzo, and no fragment
remains of the many works enumerated by his great-grandson. But it is of
little consequence whether he was a painter of pictures or a decorator
of saddles; what is to our purpose is the fact, that by his means Luca
was placed under the tutelage of the painter most capable of developing
the noblest qualities of his genius.
Luca was born about 1441, as we gather from Vasari, and if 1452 is the
correct date of his uncle Lazzaro's death, his apprenticeship to Pier
dei Franceschi must have begun before his eleventh year. It is probable
that, with his fellow-pupil Melozzo da Forli, his senior by three years,
Signorelli assisted the master with the frescoes in S. Francesco,
although there is no trace of any work that might be from his hand.
Vasari tells us that as a youth he laboured "to imitate the style of his
master," with such success, that (as he remarked of Lazzaro) "their work
was hardly to be distinguished apart."[6] The nearest approach to the
style of Piero that remains to us is "The Flagellation," of the Brera,
Milan, which, however, already shows signs of a more deeply impressed
technical influence, but it was probably under Piero's training that
Signorelli developed his broad methods of work, and the grand manner
which makes his painting so impressive. The later influence visible in
the above-mentioned "Flagellation," as throughout all his work, is that
of Antonio Pollaiuolo. To him and to Donatello are due the most
important features in his artistic development, and in technique he
follows much more readily than the Umbrian, the Florentine methods, with
which his painting has nearly everything in common. Of the influence of
Donatello it may justly be said that every painter and sculptor of the
fifteenth century submitted to it, but few were so completely touched by
his spirit as Signorelli. Not only, as we shall see later, did he
transfer attitudes and features from Donatello's statues into his
earlier paintings, but he caught, and even exaggerated, the confident
and somewhat arrogant spirit of his work, and exploited it with the same
uncompromising realism.
The influence of Antonio Pollaiuolo was still more important, and is so
evident in the whole mass of his painting, that with no other warrant
we may feel certain that he spent a considerable time either as pupil or
assistant to the Florentine master. The passion of Pollaiuolo was to
discover the science of movement in the human frame. "He understood the
nude in a more modern way than the masters before him," says Vasari,
"and he removed the skin from many corpses to see the anatomy
beneath."[7] He was, in fact, the great anatomical student among the
Quattrocento artists; and, having the same tastes, it was natural that
to his workshop Signorelli should turn, in order to satisfy his own
craving for knowledge of the structure of bones and muscles. The
internal evidence of his paintings warrants this supposition, but there
is no record of any residence in Florence, beyond the announcement of
Vasari, that he went there after his visit to Siena, not at all as a
student, but as a fully-fledged painter, making gifts of his pictures to
his friend and patron, Lorenzo dei Medici. His work, however, proves so
incontestably the training of Pollaiuolo, and shows so close an
acquaintance with Florentine works of art, that we may safely presume
the greater part of his youth, after leaving the studio of Pier dei
Franceschi, to have been passed in Florence as pupil or assistant of
Antonio.
It is a wide leap from these days of study to the beginning of his
citizen's life in Cortona, when, a man of thirty-eight, he first settled
down as a burgher discharging important duties there, but it would be
idle to attempt to fill the gap, and only one document exists to help in
any way to bridge it over. This is a commission from the Commune of
Citta di Castello, dated 1474,[8] requiring Signorelli to paint, over
some older frescoes in their Tower, a large "Madonna and Saints," but,
unfortunately the work itself no longer exists, for what time and
neglect had spared, the earthquake of 1789 completely destroyed. We may
presume that before 1479 he painted the important frescoes for the
Church of the Holy House at Loreto, since in that year he was first
appointed to the municipal offices in Cortona, which necessitated an
almost constant residence there for the next three years, as the
documents of election show.[9] These numerous papers (for the most part
discovered through the efforts of Signor Girolamo Mancini, and published
in his "Notizie"), are preserved in the archives of Cortona, and form
the chief evidence of the painter's whereabouts up to the end of his
long life. They record, first, his appointment in the autumn of 1479 to
the Council of XVIII., and to the Conservatori degli Ordinamente,[10] in
the following spring to the Priori, and in the summer to the General
Council, and they continue with few interruptions up to the very day of
his death. They decide for us the social status he enjoyed, for both
Priori and Councillors were chosen from the richest and most influential
families, although not necessarily noble.[11] His official life began in
a time of tumult and bloodshed. It was the year after the failure of the
Pazzi Conspiracy, and all around Cortona were pitched the camps of the
rival troops of Sixtus IV. and the excommunicated Florentines. Cortona
itself, as a frontier town of the Medici, was in the very centre of the
fray; and besides these more important quarrels, there were the
incessant internal bickerings between the nobles and the populace, which
at that time divided every Italian city against itself. Altogether, the
position of Magistrate in such a town, at such a time, could have been
no sinecure, and it is difficult to understand how the hard-working
painter could have found time or inclination to accept the citizen's
duties, which were so weighty an occupation in themselves.
Much time has been spent in the vain search for documents relating to
Signorelli's supposed visit, in 1484, to Rome, where, it is said, he was
summoned to paint, with Perugino, Pintorricchio, Botticelli, and Cosimo
Rosselli, the walls of the Sistine Chapel. Later criticism has perhaps
accounted for the absence of such a record. Of the two frescoes there,
formerly attributed to him, it is now no longer doubted that one--"The
Journey of Moses and Zipporah"--is by Pintorricchio, and the opinion is
gradually gaining ground that the other--"The Death of Moses"--although
much nearer to Signorelli's style, is not sufficiently so as to permit
us to accept it as his work.[12]
The notices of the next few years contain little of interest beyond the
facts, that in 1484 Signorelli painted the altar-piece in the Perugia
Cathedral, the first dated picture remaining, and that in 1488 he
received the much-coveted honour of citizenship from Citta di Castello,
for the "great ability" with which he painted a standard for the
brotherhood of the Blessed Virgin,[13] a work which no longer exists.
Soon after follows a document dated 1491, which bears witness that Luca
had been invited by the authorities of Santa Maria dei Fiori in Florence
to assist in judging the models and designs for the projected facade of
that church.[14] This is important as a proof of the high esteem in
which he was held in Florence, implying also that he must have
understood something of architecture. He declined the invitation,
perhaps for the same reason for which he had excused himself the month
before from serving as Priore in his native town, "being absent at a
distance of over forty miles,"[15] probably at Volterra. He painted
there in this year three pictures, all of which are still in the city;
the "Annunciation" and the "Madonna and Saints," dated 1491, and the
fresco of "S. Jerome" on the walls of the Municipio.
The next notice of importance is of the year 1497, when he received the
commission from the monks of S. Benedict to fresco the walls of their
cloister at Monte Oliveto.[16] Here he painted eight episodes from the
life of the patron saint, leaving the rest of the work to be completed
by Sodoma. Notwithstanding this task he found time, for four months of
this very year, to serve among the Priori in Cortona, and accepted,
besides, a fresh appointment as one of the Revisori degli Argenti.
In the following year he was in Siena, where he painted the altar-piece
for the Bicchi family, the wings of which are now in Berlin.
[Illustration: [_Museo del Duomo, Orvieto_
PORTRAIT OF SIGNORELLI]
We have now reached the most important time in Signorelli's life, the
year in which he received the commission for the decoration of the
Cappella Nuova in the Cathedral of Orvieto. Fifty years before, the roof
had been begun by Fra Angelico, and ever since he went away, leaving it
unfinished, the authorities had been undecided to whom to give the
important work. Benozzo Gozzoli had begged for it; Perugino, it is said,
had refused it; and now, in 1499, perhaps influenced to the choice by
the success of the Monte Oliveto frescoes, they entrusted the work to
Signorelli. Wishing first, however, to test his powers, they limited the
commission to the completion of the vaulting, and it was not till the
following year that they handed over to him the rest of the chapel, to
be painted with the story of the Last Judgment. With this dramatic
subject, and in these great spaces of the walls he had for the first
time a free field for the wide sweep of his brush, and the force of his
vivid imagination. The conceptions of Dante inspired, but did not
trammel him, and he had sufficient strength to make the great drama his
own, and to compel it to serve his ends in the display of the human
frame in its most vigorous aspects. The portrait he has painted of
himself in the first of the frescoes, as well as that in the Opera del
Duomo, show us a man in the very prime of life, full of energy and
determination.
Four years at least, Signorelli laboured at these frescoes, although not
consecutively, as we shall presently see. He had with him as assistant
his son Polidoro,[17] and perhaps Girolamo Genga, and other pupils. He
was apparently on friendly terms with the authorities, of one of whom,
the treasurer Niccolo Francesco, he painted a portrait, side by side
with his own above mentioned. It is on a brick or tile, on the back of
which is a flattering inscription, evidently composed by Niccolo
himself, in which he speaks of Signorelli as "worthy of comparison with
Apelles."[18]
Yet, notwithstanding this friendship with the treasurer, he could not
get the money due to him, and it required the intervention of no less a
person than Guidobaldo of Urbino, in 1506, to obtain it for him. A
letter from the Prince is preserved in the Orvieto archives,[19] in
which he writes: "Loving Maestro Luca di Cortona as I do, in no common
measure, for his ability and rare talents, I can refuse him no possible
favour in all that he may require of me," and goes on to beg the
authorities for their love to him, to pay their debt to the painter,
"which assuredly will be to me the greatest favour."
[Illustration: [_Cathedral, Cortona_
THE DEPOSITION]
Even in fulfilling so arduous an undertaking as these great frescoes
Luca did not abandon his magistrate's work in his own city, and during
the time, was serving both on the General Council and as one of the
Priori. In 1502, moreover, he found time to paint for his Cathedral at
Cortona the beautiful "Deposition," in which is a repetition of the
Pieta of the Capella Nuova. The realism and pathos of this dead Christ
are so convincing as to have given rise to the legend that it was
painted from the body of his son, who died, or was killed, in this year.
Vasari thus relates the incident: Luca had a son, "beautiful in face and
person, whom he loved most dearly," killed in Cortona, whereupon,
"overwhelmed with grief as he was, he had the body stripped, and with
the greatest fortitude of soul, without tears or lamentation, he made a
drawing of it, in order to have always before his eyes ... what Nature
had given him, and cruel Fate had snatched away."[20] This son, Antonio,
probably a painter also, must have been a man of mature years at the
time of his death, for he was already married to a second wife. The
story has taken hold of the fancy of Signorelli's biographers, in the
dearth of personal matter, and is the best known incident in his life,
but it is more than probable that Antonio was carried off by the plague
which, following close on the heels of the war of 1502, attacked
Cortona, in which case it becomes a mere legend. We learn from a
document, dated June 23rd, that the painter's house was not spared, for
he excused himself from serving as Priore in that month, because the
_peste bubbonica_ had broken out in his family.
Four years later, Polidoro, his eldest son, and his assistant at
Orvieto, died also. This happened while Signorelli was on a visit to
Siena, for it was there he bought the mourning cloth. The object of this
visit was to design one of the subjects for the famous pavement of the
Cathedral, but whether he ever did it we do not know; certainly it was
never executed in marble.
In the next year we have the usual records of official appointments, and
as a proof of his artistic activity, the two pictures still remaining in
the little town of Arcevia, dated 1507 and 1508, one of them, the
splendid _Ancona_, being among his finest works.
Now a man of nearly seventy, Signorelli's energies seemed to grow
greater with increasing age, for in 1508 we find him, besides being
elected to his usual offices, deputed as ambassador to Florence, to
demand there permission to reform the offices and ordinances of Cortona,
and in the same year he was at Rome, together with Perugino,
Pintorricchio, and Sodoma, working at the decoration of the Vatican
Chambers, already begun by Pier dei Franceschi. Giambattista Caporali
gives a glimpse into their social life in Rome, telling of a supper
given in their honour by Bramante[21]--Bramante, to whose introduction
to the Pope of the young Raffaelle it is due that none of their work,
with the exception of Perugino's ceiling, remains to us. How much
Signorelli painted we do not know. Vasari says, "He had successfully
completed one wall,"[22] but so enchanted was Julius II. with the
facile and modern style of Raffaelle, that after he had finished the
"Stanza della Segnatura," he forced him to destroy the paintings of the
older masters and delivered the entire work to him and his assistants: a
caprice which points a very significant turn in the history of
painting--the triumph of the late Renaissance over the giants of the
past.
Signorelli seemed destined to find nothing but disappointment in Rome.
Five years later, an old man of seventy-two, he again went there, this
time on the accession of Giovanni dei Medici, in 1513, to the Papal
chair. Knowing the luxurious nature of the new Pope, and remembering the
intense passion of his father Lorenzo for art and letters, to Rome
flocked poets and painters, sculptors and architects, from every part of
Italy, in the hope of work or of reward, and among them came Signorelli,
with reasonable expectation of employment, and notice from the son of
his old patron and friend.[23] Like his predecessor, however, Leo X.
preferred the more modern school of Raffaelle and his pupils, and Luca
had to return disappointed to Cortona. In connection with the visit
exists a curious document, which has smirched too long the honour of the
painter. It is the famous letter of Michelangelo, preserved among the
Buonarotti archives, in which he makes a complaint to the Capitano of
Cortona, that Signorelli, sick with the ingratitude of the Medici "for
the love of whom he would have had his head cut off," had borrowed of
him eighty _juli_ with which to return to Cortona; that on application
for the money, Luca declared it to have been already repaid, so that now
he--Michelangelo--sees no other way of obtaining his own but by
application to the Capitano for justice.[24] This is the gist of the
letter; we have to use our own knowledge of the character of the two men
to decipher the mystery, since no other document confirms or denies the
accusation. The reasonable explanation seems to be that some delay,
probably on the road, in the transmission of the money, irritated the
notoriously impatient temper of Michelangelo. Signorelli's character,
from all we know of it, seems to have been most upright and generous.
"Such was the goodness of his nature, that he never lent himself to
things that were not just and righteous," says Vasari,[25] and that he
should have been guilty of so petty a crime towards a friend, is not for
a moment to be believed. Moreover, his will, re-made in the following
year, proves him to have been in prosperous circumstances, while the
fact that he continued to hold his appointments, and to receive fresh
and even more honourable ones, testifies to the respect in which he was
held by his fellow-citizens. In pleasant contrast with Michelangelo's
accusation are the glimpses we have of his stately old age, through
Vasari. "And at last," he writes, "having completed works for nearly
all the princes of Italy, and being now old, he returned to Cortona,
where, in his last years, he worked more for pleasure than any other
reason, as one who, accustomed to labour, knew not how to be idle."[26]
Of these later paintings the "Deposition" of Umbertide proves that the
old man of seventy-five had lost little of his power. It is one of his
most beautiful and tender renderings of a scene he has so often painted.
The "Madonna," now in the Arezzo Gallery, painted three years later
(1519), shows, perhaps, a slight falling off in technical power, while
retaining to the full his characteristic grandeur of conception. It was
this picture which, Vasari tells us, was borne on the shoulders of the
brothers, for whose order it was painted, from Cortona to Arezzo, and
Luca, old as he was, insisted on accompanying them, partly to place it
in position, as was customary, and partly to revisit his friends and
relations. The biographer gives a characteristic incident in connection
with this visit, told so charmingly, that I can do no better than
transcribe it:--
"And he, being lodged in the house of the Vasari, where I was a little
child of eight years, I remember how that good old man, who was always
gracious and courteous, having learnt from the master who first taught
me my letters, that I cared for nothing else at school but drawing
pictures; I remember, I say, he turned to Antonio, my father, and said
to him: 'Antonio, since Giorgio takes after his family, let him by all
means be taught how to draw, because, even if he cares for literature,
to know how to draw cannot but be a source of honour and enjoyment, if
not of utility, to him, as to every honourable man.' Then he turned to
me, who stood up straight before him, and said, 'Learn, little
kinsman.'" And Vasari adds, how, hearing that he suffered much from
bleeding at the nose, which sometimes left him half dead, Signorelli
hung a jasper charm about his neck, "with infinite tenderness. Which
memory of Luca," he concludes, "will remain eternally fixed in my
soul."[27]--One of those delightful human touches of which the writings
of Vasari are so full.
This visit to Arezzo took place only four years before his death. He
must have died in 1523, at the age of eighty-two, but there is no
special record of the event, the date being gathered only from a
document, which tells of the election on the 8th of December of another
Inspector of Santa Margherita, to fill the place of the dead
painter.[28] On the 13th of October of the same year, he had made his
last will, leaving, with many minor bequests, the bulk of his property
to his son, Pier Tommaso, and his grandson, Giulio, and expressing his
desire to be buried in the tomb of his family in the Church of S.
Francesco.[29] In his first edition, Vasari tells us that, after his
death, his memory was honoured by many epitaphs, among which he quotes
the following:--
"Pianga Cortona omai, vestasi oscura,
Che estinti son' del Signorello i lumi;
Et tu, Pittura, fa de gli occhi fiumi,
Che resti senza lui debili e scura."[30]
Apparently Signorelli retained his health and energy up to the end of
his long life, for only the year before his death he had accepted fresh
appointments in Cortona, and, in addition to his old offices, was
filling those of Priore of the Fraternity of S. Mark, Sindaco del
Capitans, and several others, religious and secular. He was, moreover,
still actively painting, and in the very year of his death he completed
the altar-piece for the Church at Foiano, a work as noble and majestic
in conception as it is vigorous in execution, besides accepting a
commission from the Priori to paint them an altar-piece for the chapel
of their palace.
I can do no better than conclude this scanty history with the character
of the man, as it is told us by Vasari: "Luca was a person of excellent
habits, sincere and affectionate with his friends, sweet and agreeable
in his converse with everyone, specially courteous to those who had need
of his help, and kindly in his instructions to his pupils. He lived most
splendidly, and delighted in dressing well. For the which good qualities
he was always, in his own country and elsewhere, held in the highest
veneration."[31]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The "Madonna" (No. 281), and "The Flagellation" (No. 262), Brera,
Milan.
[2] It was the fame of Lazzaro's son Giorgio as an imitator of antique
vases that won for the family the name Vasari.
[3] Vasari, ii. 553.
[4] Vasari, ii. 554.
[5] Vasari, ii. 553. Editor's Notes.
[6] Vasari, iii. 683 and 684.
[7] Vasari, iii. 295.
[8] Muzi, "Memorie," p. 48; and Giacomo Mancini, "Istruzioni," ii. 66
and 67.
[9] For the dates of these various appointments, see the Chronological
Table, p. 121.
[10] I have thought it best only to translate those titles which have a
corresponding meaning in our own country.
[11] Vischer, p. 7.
[12] It is with the utmost diffidence I venture to hold a different
opinion from a critic of such weight as Morelli (see "Italian Painters,"
i. 92), but a careful comparison has forced me to subscribe to the later
judgments. Crowe & Cavalcaselle (see Cavalcaselle e Crowe, viii. 453)
and Vischer (Signorelli, p. 311) have both maintained that a great part
of the execution reveals the hand of Bartolommeo della Gatta. One of the
latest critics, Mr B. Berensen, presumes that the whole fresco is by
him. I know too little of this painter's style to be able to form an
opinion, feeling certain only that it is not by Signorelli.
[13] See Chronological Table, p. 122.
[14] Arch. dell opera del Duomo di Firenze. Deliberazioni dall'anno 1486
all'anno 1491. A Carte 77. The document merely mentions his name among
those who were unable to attend.
[15] See Chronological Table, p. 122.
[16] See "Guida all'arcicenobio di Monte Oliveto" (Siena, 1844), p. 20.
[17] Proved by a document in the Orvieto Archives, containing a list of
materials handed over by the Treasurer of the Works to Polidoro. See
Vischer, p. 102.
[18] Now in the Opera del Duomo, Orvieto. The portrait of Signorelli in
the frontispiece is the half of this painting.
[19] The letter is transcribed in Vischer, p. 356.
[20] Vasari, iii. 691.
[21] In the reprint of Cesariano's "Comments on Vitruvius," by G. B.
Caporali. (Perugia, 1536). The passage is quoted in Vermiglioli's
"Memorie di Pintorricchio" (1837), pp. 5 and 6.
[22] Vasari, iv. 329.
[23] The biographers of Signorelli, following the lead of Vasari, have
dwelt much on his friendship with contemporary princes--the Baglioni,
Vitelli, etc.; till we have grown to think of him rather as a silk-clad
courtier than a hard-working burgher and painter. It may well be that,
like Leonardo, he combined work with luxury, but the evidence is of too
slight a nature to allow us to consider that side of his life, if it
really existed. Of his friendship with Lorenzo dei Medici, however,
there is more proof, since he painted for him, and was evidently
influenced by his classic tastes, as several of his pictures show.
[24] The letter is transcribed in Vischer, p. 359.
[25] Vasari, iii. 683.
[26] Vasari, iii. 692.
[27] Vasari, iii. 693.
[28] Mancini, "Notizie," 94.
[29] Arch. Gen. di Contratti di Firenze. Rogiti di Ser Baldelli. Filza
dal 1507 al 1524.
[30]
"Let Cortona weep henceforth, and clothe herself in black,
For the light of Signorello is extinguished;
And thou, Painting, make rivers of thine eyes
For without him thou remainest weak and obscure."
[31] Vasari, iii. 695.