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LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT
PAINTERS SCULPTORS AND
ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO VASARI
VOLUME I. CIMABUE TO AGNOLO
GADDI 1912
LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS
BY GIORGIO VASARI:
NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES
[Illustration: 1511-1574]
LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO. LD. & THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LD. 1912-14
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I
PAGE
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THIS EDITION xi
DEDICATIONS TO COSIMO DE' MEDICI
EDITION OF 1550 xiii
EDITION OF 1568 xvii
IMPRIMATUR OF POPE PIUS V xxi
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE WHOLE WORK xxiii
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE LIVES xxxvii
GIOVANNI CIMABUE 1
ARNOLFO DI LAPO 11
NICCOLA AND GIOVANNI OF PISA [NICCOLA PISANO: GIOVANNI
PISANO] 27
ANDREA TAFI 45
GADDO GADDI 53
MARGARITONE 61
GIOTTO 69
AGOSTINO AND AGNOLO OF SIENA 95
STEFANO AND UGOLINO SANESE [UGOLINO DA SIENA] 107
PIETRO LAURATI [PIETRO LORENZETTI] 115
ANDREA PISANO 121
BUONAMICO BUFFALMACCO 133
AMBROGIO LORENZETTI 153
PIETRO CAVALLINI 159
SIMONE SANESE [SIMONE MEMMI _OR_ MARTINI] 165
TADDEO GADDI 175
ANDREA DI CIONE ORCAGNA 187
TOMMASO, CALLED GIOTTINO 201
GIOVANNI DAL PONTE 209
AGNOLO GADDI 215
INDEX OF NAMES 225
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I
PLATES IN COLOUR
FACING PAGE
CIMABUE Madonna and Child Florence: Accademia, 102 10
GIOTTO Madonna and Child Florence: Accademia, 103 82
PIETRO LAURATI Madonna and Child, Assisi: Lower Church 118
with SS. Francis
and John
AMBROGIO Madonna and Child, Siena: Pinacoteca, 77 156
LORENZETTI with SS. Mary
Magdalen and Dorothy
SIMONE SANESE The Knighting of Assisi: Lower Church,
S. Martin Chapel of S. Martin 168
LIPPO MEMMI Madonna and Child Berlin: Kaiser
Friedrich Museum, 1081A 172
TADDEO GADDI The Presentation Florence: Accademia, 107 182
in the Temple
ANDREA DI CIONE Christ Enthroned Florence: S. Maria
ORCAGNA Novella, Strozzi Chapel 192
GIOTTINO The Descent from Florence: Uffizi, 27 206
the Cross
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
CIMABUE Madonna, Child, Paris: Louvre, 1260 2
and Angels
ROMAN SCHOOL Isaac's Blessing Assisi: Upper Church 6
ROMAN SCHOOL The Deposition Assisi: Upper Church 6
from the Cross
CIMABUE The Crucifixion Assisi: Upper Church 8
ARNOLFO DI LAPO Reclining Female Florence:
(SCHOOL OF) Figure from a Tomb Collection Bardini 18
ARNOLFO DI LAPO Tomb of Adrian V Viterbo: S. Francesco 24
(SCHOOL OF)
NICCOLA PISANO Pulpit Pisa: The Baptistery 30
NICCOLA PISANO Detail: The Pisa: Relief from the
Adoration of Pulpit of the Baptistery 32
the Magi
NICCOLA PISANO Detail: The Siena: Relief from
Visitation and the Pulpit
The Nativity of the Baptistery 34
GIOVANNI PISANO Detail: A Sibyl Siena: Duomo (facade) 38
GIOVANNI PISANO Detail: The Massacre Pistoia: Relief from the
of the Innocents Pulpit, S. Andrea 40
GIOVANNI PISANO Madonna and Child Padua: Arena Chapel 42
MARGARITONE The Virgin and Child, London: N.G., 5040 64
with Scenes from
the Lives of the Saints
GIOTTO The Death of S. Francis Florence: S. Croce 70
ROMAN SCHOOL S. Francis Preaching Assisi: Upper Church 72
before Pope Honorius III
ROMAN SCHOOL The Body of S. Francis Assisi: Upper Church 74
before the Church of
S. Damiano
GIOTTO AND HIS The Raising of Lazarus Assisi: Lower Church 78
PUPILS
GIOTTO The Flight into Egypt Padua: Arena Chapel 88
GIOTTO The Crucifixion Assisi: Lower Church 90
(SCHOOL OF)
UGOLINO SANESE SS. Paul, Peter, Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich
and John the Baptist Museum, 1635 112
PIETRO LAURATI The Madonna Enthroned Arezzo: S. Maria della
Pieve 116
PIETRO LAURATI The Deposition from the Assisi: Lower Church 120
Cross
ANDREA PISANO Details: Salome and The Florence: Gates of the
Beheading of S. John the Baptistery 126
Baptist
ANDREA PISANO The Creation of Man Florence: Relief on the
Campanile 128
NINO PISANO Madonna and Child Orvieto: Museo dell'Opera 130
AMBROGIO Madonna and Child Milan: Cagnola Collection 154
LORENZETTI
AMBROGIO Central Panel of Massa Marittima: Municipio
LORENZETTI Polyptych: Madonna 158
and Child
PIETRO Detail from The Last Rome: Convent of S. Cecilia
CAVALLINI Judgment: Head of an 162
Apostle
PIETRO Detail from The Last Rome: Convent of S. Cecilia
CAVALLINI Judgment: Head of the 164
Christ in Glory
SIMONE SANESE Altar-piece: S. Louis Naples: S. Lorenzo 166
crowning King Robert
of Naples
SIMONE SANESE The Annunciation Antwerp: Royal
Museum, 257-8 170
LIPPO MEMMI Madonna and Child Altenburg: Lindenau
Museum, 43 174
TADDEO GADDI The Last Supper Florence: S. Croce, the
Refectory 178
BERNARDO DI CIONE Detail from The Florence: S. Maria Novella 190
ORCAGNA Paradise: Christ
with the Virgin
Enthroned
ANDREA DI CIONE The Death and Assumption Florence: Relief on the
ORCAGNA of the Virgin Tabernacle, Or San Michele 194
FRANCESCO TRAINI S. Thomas Aquinas Pisa: S. Caterina 198
GIOVANNI DAL S. Peter Enthroned Florence: Uffizi, 1292 212
PONTE
AGNOLO GADDI The Marriage of S. Philadelphia: J. G. Johnson 218
Catharine Collection
* * * * *
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|Transcriber's note: |
| |
|The CORRIGENDA have been corrected in this etext.|
+-------------------------------------------------+
CORRIGENDA
Page 49, lines 1, 27, _for_ "Apollonius" _read_ "Apollonio."
Page 120, line 10, _for_ "which tabernacle is quite round" _read_ "which
tabernacle is in the round."
Page 127, lines 11, 12, _for_ "oval spaces" _read_ "mandorle."
Page 196, line 18, _for_ "an oval space" _read_ "a mandorla."
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THIS EDITION
Vasari introduces himself sufficiently in his own prefaces and
introduction; a translator need concern himself only with the system by
which the Italian text can best be rendered in English. The style of
that text is sometimes laboured and pompous; it is often ungrammatical.
But the narrative is generally lively, full of neat phrases, and
abounding in quaint expressions--many of them still recognizable in the
modern Florentine vernacular--while, in such Lives as those of Giotto,
Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelagnolo, Vasari shows how well he can rise
to a fine subject. His criticism is generally sound, solid, and direct;
and he employs few technical terms, except in connection with
architecture, where we find passages full of technicalities, often so
loosely used that it is difficult to be sure of their exact meaning. In
such cases I have invariably adopted the rendering which seemed most in
accordance with Vasari's actual words, so far as these could be
explained by professional advice and local knowledge; and I have
included brief notes where they appeared to be indispensable.
In Mrs. Foster's familiar English paraphrase--for a paraphrase it is
rather than a translation--all Vasari's liveliness evaporates, even
where his meaning is not blurred or misunderstood. Perhaps I have gone
too far towards the other extreme in relying upon the Anglo-Saxon side
of the English language rather than upon the Latin, and in taking no
liberties whatever with the text of 1568. My intention, indeed, has been
to render my original word for word, and to err, if at all, in favour of
literalness. The very structure of Vasari's sentences has usually been
retained, though some freedom was necessary in the matter of the
punctuation, which is generally bewildering. As Mr. Horne's only too
rare translation of the Life of Leonardo da Vinci has proved, it is by
some such method that we can best keep Vasari's sense and Vasari's
spirit--the one as important to the student of Italian art as is the
other to the general reader. Such an attempt, however, places an English
translator of the first volume at a conspicuous disadvantage. Throughout
the earlier Lives Vasari seems to be feeling his way. He is not sure of
himself, and his style is often awkward. The more faithful the attempted
rendering, the more plainly must that awkwardness be reproduced.
Vasari's Introduction on Technique has not been included, because it has
no immediate connection with the Lives. In any case, there already
exists an adequate translation by Miss Maclehose. All Vasari's other
prefaces and introductions are given in the order in which they are
found in the edition of 1568.
With this much explanation, I may pass to personal matters, and record
my thanks to many Florentine friends for help in technical and
grammatical questions; to Professor Baldwin Brown for the notes on
technical matters printed with Miss Maclehose's translation of "Vasari
on Technique"; and to Mr. C. J. Holmes, of the National Portrait
Gallery, for encouragement in a task which has proved no less pleasant
than difficult.
G. DU C. DE V.
LONDON,
_March 1912_.
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT SIGNOR COSIMO DE' MEDICI,
DUKE OF FLORENCE
MY MOST HONOURED LORD,
Seeing that your Excellency, following in this the footsteps of your
most Illustrious ancestors, and incited and urged by your own natural
magnanimity, ceases not to favour and to exalt every kind of talent,
wheresoever it may be found, and shows particular favour to the arts of
design, fondness for their craftsmen,[1] and understanding and delight
in their beautiful and rare works; I think that you cannot but take
pleasure in this labour which I have undertaken, of writing down the
lives, the works, the manners, and the circumstances of all those who,
finding the arts already dead, first revived them, then step by step
nourished and adorned them, and finally brought them to that height of
beauty and majesty whereon they stand at the present day. And because
these masters have been almost all Tuscans, and most of these
Florentines, of whom many have been incited and aided by your most
Illustrious ancestors with every kind of reward and honour to put
themselves to work, it may be said that in your state, nay, in your most
blessed house the arts were born anew, and that through the generosity
of your ancestors the world has recovered these most beautiful arts,
through which it has been ennobled and embellished.
Wherefore, through the debt which this age, these arts, and these
craftsmen owe to your ancestors, and to you as the heir of their virtue
and of their patronage of these professions, and through that debt which
I, above all, owe them, seeing that I was taught by them, that I was
their subject and their devoted servant, that I was brought up under
Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, and under Alessandro, your predecessor,
and that, finally, I am infinitely attached to the blessed memory of the
Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, by whom I was supported, loved and
protected while he lived; for all these reasons, I say, and because from
the greatness of your worth and of your fortunes there will come much
favour for this work, and from your understanding of its subject there
will come a better appreciation than from any other for its usefulness
and for the labour and the diligence that I have given to its execution,
it has seemed to me that to your Excellency alone could it be fittingly
dedicated, and it is under your most honoured name that I have wished it
to come to the hands of men.
Deign, then, Excellency, to accept it, to favour it, and, if this may be
granted to it by your exalted thoughts, sometimes to read it; having
regard to the nature of the matter therein dealt with and to my pure
intention, which has been, not to gain for myself praise as a writer,
but as craftsman to praise the industry and to revive the memory of
those who, having given life and adornment to these professions, do not
deserve to have their names and their works wholly left, even as they
were, the prey of death and of oblivion. Besides, at the same time,
through the example of so many able men and through so many observations
on so many works that I have gathered together in this book, I have
thought to help not a little the masters of these exercises and to
please all those who therein have taste and pleasure. This I have
striven to do with that accuracy and with that good faith which are
essential for the truth of history and of things written. But if my
writing, being unpolished and as artless as my speech, be unworthy of
your Excellency's ear and of the merits of so many most illustrious
intellects; as for them, pardon me that the pen of a draughtsman, such
as they too were, has no greater power to give them outline and shadow;
and as for yourself, let it suffice me that your Excellency should deign
to approve my simple labour, remembering that the necessity of gaining
for myself the wherewithal to live has left me no time to exercise
myself with any instrument but the brush. Nor even with that have I
reached that goal to which I think to be able to attain, now that
Fortune promises me so much favour, that, with greater ease and greater
credit for myself and with greater satisfaction to others, I may
perchance be able, as well with the pen as with the brush, to unfold my
ideas to the world, whatsoever they may be. For besides the help and
protection for which I must hope from your Excellency, as my liege lord
and as the protector of poor followers of the arts, it has pleased the
goodness of God to elect as His Vicar on earth the most holy and most
blessed Julius III, Supreme Pontiff and a friend and patron of every
kind of excellence and of these most excellent and most difficult arts
in particular, from whose exalted liberality I expect recompense for
many years spent and many labours expended, and up to now without fruit.
And not only I, who have dedicated myself to the perpetual service of
His Holiness, but all the gifted craftsmen of this age, must expect from
him such honour and reward and opportunities for practising the arts so
greatly, that already I rejoice to see these arts arriving in his time
at the greatest height of their perfection, and Rome adorned by
craftsmen so many and so noble that, counting them with those of
Florence, whom your Excellency is calling every day into activity, I
hope that someone after our time will have to write a fourth part to my
book, enriching it with other masters and other masterpieces than those
described by me; in which company I am striving with every effort not to
be among the last.
Meanwhile, I am content if your Excellency has good hope of me and a
better opinion than that which, by no fault of mine, you have perchance
conceived of me; beseeching you not to let me be undone in your
estimation by the malignant tales of other men, until at last my life
and my works shall prove the contrary to what they say.
Now with that intent to which I hold, always to honour and to serve
your Excellency, dedicating to you this my rough labour, as I have
dedicated to you every other thing of mine and my own self, I implore
you not to disdain to grant it your protection, or at least to
appreciate the devotion of him who offers it to you; and recommending
myself to your gracious goodness, most humbly do I kiss your hand.
Your Excellency's most humble Servant,
GIORGIO VASARI,
_Painter of Arezzo_.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: The word "artist" has become impossible as a translation of
"artefice." Such words as "artificer," "art-worker," or "artisan," seem
even worse. "Craftsman" loses the alliterative connection with "art,"
but it comes nearest to expressing Vasari's idea of the "artefice" as a
practical workman (_cf._ his remark about Ambrogio Lorenzetti: "The ways
of Ambrogio were rather those of a 'gentiluomo' than of an
'artefice'").]
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT SIGNOR COSIMO DE' MEDICI,
DUKE OF FLORENCE AND SIENA
MY MOST HONOURED LORD,
Behold, seventeen years since I first presented to your most Illustrious
Excellency the Lives, sketched so to speak, of the most famous painters,
sculptors and architects, they come before you again, not indeed wholly
finished, but so much changed from what they were and in such wise
adorned and enriched with innumerable works, whereof up to that time I
had been able to gain no further knowledge, that from my endeavour and
in so far as in me lies nothing more can be looked for in them.
Behold, I say, once again they come before you, most Illustrious and
truly most Excellent Lord Duke, with the addition of other noble and
right famous craftsmen, who from that time up to our own day have passed
from the miseries of this life to a better, and of others who, although
they are still living in our midst, have laboured in these professions
to such purpose that they are most worthy of eternal memory. And in
truth it has been no small good-fortune for many that I, by the goodness
of Him in whom all things have their being, have lived so long that I
have almost rewritten this book; seeing that, even as I have removed
many things which had been included I know not how, in my absence and
without my consent, and have changed others, so too I have added many,
both useful and necessary, that were lacking. And as for the likenesses
and portraits of so many men of worth which I have placed in this work,
whereof a great part have been furnished by the help and co-operation of
your Excellency, if they are sometimes not very true to life, and if
they all have not that character and resemblance which the vivacity of
colours is wont to give them, that is not because the drawing and the
lineaments have not been taken from the life and are not characteristic
and natural; not to mention that a great part of them have been sent me
by the friends that I have in various places, and they have not all been
drawn by a good hand. Moreover, I have suffered no small inconvenience
in this from the distance of those who have engraved these heads,
because, if the engravers had been near me, it might perchance have been
possible to use in this matter more diligence than has been shown. But
however this may be, our lovers of art and our craftsmen, for the
convenience and benefit of whom I have put myself to so great pains,
must be wholly indebted to your most Illustrious Excellency for whatever
they may find in it of the good, the useful, and the helpful, seeing
that while engaged in your service I have had the opportunity, through
the leisure which it has pleased you to give me and through the
management of your many, nay, innumerable treasures, to put together and
to give to the world everything which appeared to be necessary for the
perfect completion of this work; and would it not be almost impiety, not
to say ingratitude, were I to dedicate these Lives to another, or were
the craftsmen to attribute to any other than yourself whatever they may
find in them to give them help or pleasure? For not only was it with
your help and favour that they first came to the light, as now they do
again, but you are, in imitation of your ancestors, sole father, sole
lord, and sole protector of these our arts. Wherefore it is very right
and reasonable that by these there should be made, in your service and
to your eternal and perpetual memory, so many most noble pictures and
statues and so many marvellous buildings in every manner.
But if we are all, as indeed we are beyond calculation, most deeply
obliged to you for these and for other reasons, how much more do I not
owe to you, who have always had (would that my brain and my hand had
been equal to my desire and right good will) so many valuable
opportunities to display my little knowledge, which, whatsoever it may
be, fails by a very great measure to counterbalance the greatness and
the truly royal magnificence of your mind? But how may I tell? It is in
truth better that I should stay as I am than that I should set myself to
attempt what would be to the most lofty and noble brain, and much more
so to my insignificance, wholly impossible.
Accept then, most Illustrious Excellency, this my book, or rather indeed
your book, of the Lives of the craftsmen of design; and like the
Almighty God, looking rather at my soul and at my good intentions than
at my work, take from me with right good will not what I would wish and
ought to give, but what I can.
Your most Illustrious Excellency's most indebted servant,
GIORGIO VASARI.
FLORENCE,
_January 9, 1568_.
PIUS PAPA QUINTUS
Motu proprio (et cet.). Cum, sicut accepimus, dilectus filius Philippus
Junta, typographus Florentinus, ad communem studiosorum utilitatem, sua
impensa, Vitas Illustrium Pictorum et Sculptorum Georgii Vasarii demum
auctas et suis imaginibus exornatas, Statuta Equitum Melitensium in
Italicam linguam translata, Receptariumque Novum pro Aromatariis,
aliaque opera tum Latina, tum Italica, saneque utilia et necessaria,
imprimi facere intendat, dubitetque ne hujusmodi opera postmodum ab
aliis sine ejus licentia et in ejus grave praejudicium imprimantur; nos
propterea, illius indemnitati consulere volentes, motu simili et ex
certa scientia, eidem Philippo concedimus et indulgemus ne praedicta
opera, dummodo prius ab Inquisitore visa et approbata fuerint, per ipsum
imprimenda, infra decennium a quoquo sine ipsius licentia imprimi aut
vendi vel in apothecis teneri possint; inhibentes omnibus et singulis
Christi fidelibus tam in Italia quam extra Italiam existentibus, sub
excommunicationis lata sententia, in terris vero S.R.E. mediate vel
immediate subjectis, etiam ducentorum ducatorum auri Camerae Apostolicae
applicandorum et amissionis librorum p[oe]nis, totiens ipso facto et
absque alia declaratione incurrendis quotiens contraventum fuerit, ne
intra decennium praefatum dicta opera sine ejusdem Philippi expressa
licentia imprimere, seu ab ipsis aut aliis impressa vendere, vel venalia
habere; mandantes universis veneralibus fratribus nostris
Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, eorumque Vicariis in spiritualibus
generalibus, et in Statu S.R.E. etiam Legatis, Vicelegatis, Praesidibus
et Gubernatoribus, ut quoties pro ipsius Philippi parte fuerint
requisiti, vel eorum aliquis fuerit requisitus, eidem, efficacis
defensionis praesidio assistentes, praemissa contra inobedientes et
rebelles, per censuras ecclesiasticas, etiam saepius aggravando, et per
alia juris remedia, auctoritate Apostolica exequantur; invocato etiam ad
hoc, si opus fuerit, auxilio brachii saecularis. Volumus autem quod
praesentis motus proprii nostri sola signatura sufficiat, et ubique fidem
faciat in judicio et extra, regula contraria non obstante et officii
sanctissimae Inquisitionis Florentinae.
Placet motu proprio M.
Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum, quintodecimo Cal. Maij,
anno secundo.
PREFACE TO THE WHOLE WORK
It was the wont of the finest spirits in all their actions, through a
burning desire for glory, to spare no labour, however grievous, in order
to bring their works to that perfection which might render them
impressive and marvellous to the whole world; nor could the humble
fortunes of many prevent their energies from attaining to the highest
rank, whether in order to live in honour or to leave in the ages to come
eternal fame for all their rare excellence. And although, for zeal and
desire so worthy of praise, they were, while living, highly rewarded by
the liberality of Princes and by the splendid ambition of States, and
even after death kept alive in the eyes of the world by the testimony of
statues, tombs, medals, and other memorials of that kind; none the less,
it is clearly seen that the ravening maw of time has not only diminished
by a great amount their own works and the honourable testimonies of
others, but has also blotted out and destroyed the names of all those
who have been kept alive by any other means than by the right vivacious
and pious pens of writers.
Pondering over this matter many a time in my own mind, and recognizing,
from the example not only of the ancients but of the moderns as well,
that the names of very many architects, sculptors, and painters, both
old and modern, together with innumerable most beautiful works wrought
by them, are going on being forgotten and destroyed little by little,
and in such wise, in truth, that nothing can be foretold for them but a
certain and wellnigh immediate death; and wishing to defend them as much
as in me lies from this second death, and to preserve them as long as
may be possible in the memory of the living; and having spent much time
in seeking them out and used the greatest diligence in discovering the
native city, the origin, and the actions of the craftsmen, and having
with great labour drawn them from the tales of old men and from various
records and writings, left by their heirs a prey to dust and food for
worms; and finally, having received from this both profit and pleasure,
I have judged it expedient, nay rather, my duty, to make for them
whatsoever memorial my weak talents and my small judgment may be able to
make. In honour, then, of those who are already dead, and for the
benefit, for the most part, of all the followers of these three most
excellent arts, Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, I will write the
Lives of the craftsmen of each according to the times wherein they
lived, step by step from Cimabue down to our own time; not touching on
the ancients save in so far as it may concern our subject, seeing that
no more can be said of them than those so many writers have said who
have come down to our own age. I will treat thoroughly of many things
that appertain to the science of one or other of the said arts; but
before I come to the secrets of these, or to the history of the
craftsmen, it seems to me right to touch a little on a dispute, born and
bred between many without reason, as to the sovereignty and nobility,
not of architecture, which they have left on one side, but of sculpture
and painting; there being advanced, on one side and on the other, many
arguments whereof many, if not all, are worthy to be heard and discussed
by their craftsmen.
I say, then, that the sculptors, as being endowed, perchance by nature
and by the exercise of their art, with a better habit of body, with more
blood, and with more energy, and being thereby more hardy and more fiery
than the painters, in seeking to give the highest rank to their art,
argue and prove the nobility of sculpture primarily from its antiquity,
for the reason that God Almighty made man, who was the first statue; and
they say that sculpture embraces many more arts as kindred, and has many
more of them subordinate to itself than has painting, such as
low-relief, working in clay, wax, plaster, wood, and ivory, casting in
metals, every kind of chasing, engraving and carving in relief on fine
stones and steel, and many others which both in number and in difficulty
surpass those of painting. And alleging, further, that those things
which stand longest and best against time and can be preserved longest
for the use of men, for whose benefit and service they are made, are
without doubt more useful and more worthy to be held in love and honour
than are the others, they maintain that sculpture is by so much more
noble than painting as it is more easy to preserve, both itself and the
names of all who are honoured by it both in marble and in bronze,
against all the ravages of time and air, than is painting, which, by its
very nature, not to say by external accidents, perishes in the most
sheltered and most secure places that architects have been able to
provide. Nay more, they insist that the small number not merely of their
excellent but even of their ordinary craftsmen, in contrast to the
infinite number of the painters, proves their greater nobility; saying
that sculpture calls for a certain better disposition, both of mind and
of body, that are rarely found together, whereas painting contents
itself with any feeble temperament, so long as it has a hand, if not
bold, at least sure; and that this their contention is proved by the
greater prices cited in particular by Pliny, by the loves caused by the
marvellous beauty of certain statues, and by the judgment of him who
made the statue of sculpture of gold and that of painting of silver, and
placed the first on the right and the second on the left. Nor do they
even refrain from quoting the difficulties experienced before the
materials, such as the marbles and the metals, can be got into
subjection, and their value, in contrast to the ease of obtaining the
panels, the canvases, and the colours, for the smallest prices and in
every place; and further, the extreme and grievous labour of handling
the marbles and the bronzes, through their weight, and of working them,
through the weight of the tools, in contrast to the lightness of the
brushes, of the styles, and of the pens, chalk-holders, and charcoals;
besides this, that they exhaust their minds together with all the parts
of their bodies, which is something very serious compared with the quiet
and light work of the painter, using only his mind and hand. Moreover,
they lay very great stress on the fact that things are more noble and
more perfect in proportion as they approach more nearly to the truth,
and they say that sculpture imitates the true form and shows its works
on every side and from every point of view, whereas painting, being
laid on flat with most simple strokes of the brush and having but one
light, shows but one aspect; and many of them do not scruple to say that
sculpture is as much superior to painting as is truth to falsehood. But
as their last and strongest argument, they allege that for the sculptor
there is necessary a perfection of judgment not only ordinary, as for
the painter, but absolute and immediate, in a manner that it may see
within the marble the exact whole of that figure which they intend to
carve from it, and may be able to make many parts perfect without any
other model before it combines and unites them together, as Michelagnolo
has done divinely well; although, for lack of this happiness of
judgment, they make easily and often some of those blunders which have
no remedy, and which, when made, bear witness for ever to the slips of
the chisel or to the small judgment of the sculptor. This never happens
to painters, for the reason that at every slip of the brush or error of
judgment that might befall them they have time, recognizing it
themselves or being told by others, to cover and patch it up with the
very brush that made it; which brush, in their hands, has this advantage
over the sculptor's chisels, that it not only heals, as did the iron of
the spear of Achilles, but leaves its wounds without a scar.
To these things the painters, answering not without disdain, say, in the
first place, that if the sculptors wish to discuss the matter on the
ground of the Scriptures the chief nobility is their own, and that the
sculptors deceive themselves very grievously in claiming as their work
the statue of our first father, which was made of earth; for the art of
this performance, both in its putting on and in its taking off, belongs
no less to the painters than to others, and was called "plastice" by the
Greeks and "fictoria" by the Latins, and was judged by Praxiteles to be
the mother of sculpture, of casting, and of chasing, a fact which makes
sculpture, in truth, the niece of painting, seeing that "plastice" and
painting are born at one and the same moment from design. And they say
that if we consider it apart from the Scriptures, the opinions of the
ages are so many and so varied that it is difficult to believe one more
than the other; and that finally, considering this nobility as they
wish it, in one place they lose and in the other they do not win, as may
be seen more clearly in the Preface to the Lives.
After this, in comparison with the arts related and subordinate to
sculpture, they say that they have many more than the sculptors, because
painting embraces the invention of history, the most difficult art of
foreshortening, all the branches of architecture needful for the making
of buildings, perspective, colouring in distemper, and the art of
working in fresco, an art different and distinct from all the others;
likewise working in oils on wood, on stone, and on canvas; illumination,
too, an art different from all the others; the staining of glass,
mosaics in glass, the art of inlaying and making pictures with coloured
woods, which is painting; making sgraffito[2] work on houses with iron
tools; niello[3] work and printing from copper, both members of
painting; goldsmith's enamelling, and the inlaying of gold for
damascening; the painting of glazed figures, and the making on
earthenware vessels of scenes and figures to resist the action of water;
weaving brocades with figures and flowers, and that most beautiful
invention, woven tapestries, that are both convenient and magnificent,
being able to carry painting into every place, whether savage or
civilized; not to mention that in every department of art that has to be
practised, design, which is our design, is used by all; so that the
members of painting are more numerous and more useful than those of
sculpture. They do not deny the eternity, for so the others call it, of
sculpture, but they say that this is no privilege that should make the
art more noble than it is by nature, seeing that it comes simply from
the material, and that if length of life were to give nobility to souls,
the pine, among the plants, and the stag, among the animals, would have
a soul more noble beyond compare than that of men; although they could
claim a similar immortality and nobility in their mosaics, seeing that
there may be seen some as ancient as the most ancient sculptures that
are in Rome, and that they used to be made of jewels and fine stones.
And as for their small or smaller number, they declare that this is not
because the art calls for a better habit of body and greater judgment,
but that it depends wholly on the poverty of their resources and on the
little favour, or avarice, as we would rather call it, of rich men, who
give them no supply of marble and no opportunity to work; in contrast
with what may be believed, nay, seen to have happened in ancient times,
when sculpture rose to its greatest height. Indeed, it is manifest that
he who cannot use and waste a small quantity of marble and hard stone,
which are very costly, cannot have that practice in the art that is
essential; he who does not practise does not learn it; and he who does
not learn it can do no good. Wherefore they should rather excuse with
these arguments the imperfection and the small number of their masters,
than seek to deduce nobility from them under false colours. As for the
higher prices of sculptures, they answer that, although theirs might be
much less, they have not to share them, being content with a boy who
grinds their colours and hands them their brushes or their cheap stools,
whereas the sculptors, besides the great cost of their material, require
many aids and spend more time on one single figure than they themselves
do on very many; wherefore their prices appear to come from the quality
and the durability of the material itself, from the aids that it
requires for its completion, and from the time that is taken in working
it, rather than from the excellence of the art itself. And although that
does not suffice and no greater price is found, as would be easily seen
by anyone who were willing to consider it diligently, let them find a
greater price than the marvellous, beautiful, and living gift that
Alexander the Great made in return for the most splendid and excellent
work of Apelles, bestowing on him, not vast treasures or high estate,
but his own beloved and most beautiful Campaspe; let them observe, in
addition, that Alexander was young, enamoured of her, and naturally
subject to the passions of love, and also both a King and a Greek; and
then, from this, let them draw what conclusion they please. As for the
loves of Pygmalion and of those other rascals no more worthy to be men,
cited as proof of the nobility of the art, they know not what to answer,
if, from a very great blindness of intellect and from a licentiousness
unbridled beyond all natural bounds, there can be made a proof of
nobility. As for the man, whosoever he was, alleged by the sculptors to
have made sculpture of gold and painting of silver, they are agreed that
if he had given as much sign of judgment as of wealth, there would be no
disputing it; and finally, they conclude that the ancient Golden Fleece,
however celebrated it may be, none the less covered nothing but an
unintelligent ram; wherefore neither the testimony of riches nor that of
dishonest desires, but those of letters, of practice, of excellence, and
of judgment are those to which we must pay attention. Nor do they make
any answer to the difficulty of obtaining the marbles and the metals,
save this, that it springs from their own poverty and from the little
favour of the powerful, as has been said, and not from any degree of
greater nobility. To the extreme fatigues of the body and to the dangers
peculiar to them and to their works, laughing and without any ado they
answer that if greater fatigues and dangers prove greater nobility, the
art of quarrying the marbles from the bowels of mountains by means of
wedges, levers, and hammers must be more noble than sculpture, that of
the blacksmith must surpass the goldsmith's, and that of masonry must be
superior to architecture.
They say, next, that the true difficulties lie rather in the mind than
in the body, wherefore those things that from their nature call for more
study and knowledge are more noble and excellent than those that avail
themselves rather of strength of body; and they declare that since the
painters rely more on the worth of the mind than the others, this
highest honour belongs to painting. For the sculptors the compasses and
squares suffice to discover and apply all the proportions and
measurements whereof they have need; for the painters there is
necessary, besides the knowledge how to make good use of the aforesaid
instruments, an accurate understanding of perspective, for the reason
that they have to provide a thousand other things beyond landscapes and
buildings, not to mention that they must have greater judgment by reason
of the quantity of the figures in one scene, wherein more errors can
come than in a single statue. For the sculptor it is enough to be
acquainted with the true forms and features of solid and tangible
bodies, subordinate on every side to the touch, and moreover of those
only that have something to support them. For the painter it is
necessary to know the forms not only of all the bodies supported and not
supported, but also of all those transparent and intangible; and besides
this they must know the colours that are suitable for the said bodies,
whereof the multitude and the variety, so absolute and admitting of such
infinite extension, are demonstrated better by the flowers, the fruits,
and the minerals than by anything else; and this knowledge is supremely
difficult to acquire and to maintain, by reason of their infinite
variety. They say, moreover, that whereas sculpture, through the
stubbornness and the imperfection of the material, does not represent
the emotions of the soul save with motion, which does not, however, find
much scope therein, and with the mere shape of the limbs and not even of
all these; the painters demonstrate them with all the forms of motion,
which are infinite, with the shape of the limbs, however subtle they may
be, and even with breath itself and the spiritual essence of sight; and
that, for greater perfection in demonstrating not only the passions and
emotions of the soul but also the events of the future, as living men
do, they must have, besides long practice in the art, a complete
understanding of physiognomy, whereof that part suffices for the
sculptor which deals with the quantity and the quality of the members,
without troubling about the quality of colours, as to the knowledge of
which anyone who judges by the eye knows how useful and necessary it is
for the true imitation of nature, whereunto the closer a man approaches
the more perfect he is.
After this they add that whereas sculpture, taking away bit by bit, at
one and the same time gives depth to and acquires relief for those
things that have solidity by their own nature, and makes use of touch
and sight, the painters, in two distinct actions, give relief and depth
to a flat surface with the help of one single sense; and this, when it
has been done by a person intelligent in the art, has caused many great
men, not to speak of animals, to stand fast in the most pleasing
illusion, which has never been seen to be done by sculpture, for the
reason that it does not imitate nature in a manner that may be called
as perfect as their own. And finally, in answer to that complete and
absolute perfection of judgment which is required for sculpture, by
reason of its having no means to add where it takes away; declaring,
first, that such mistakes are irreparable, as the others say, and not to
be remedied save by patches, which, even as in garments they are signs
of poverty of wardrobe, so too both in sculpture and in pictures are
signs of poverty of intellect and judgment; and saying, further, that
patience, at its own leisure, by means of models, protractors, squares,
compasses, and a thousand other devices and instruments for enlarging,
not only preserves them from mistakes but enables them to bring their
whole work to its perfection; they conclude, then, that this difficulty
which they put down as the greater is nothing or little when compared to
those which the painters have when working in fresco, and that the said
perfection of judgment is in no way more necessary for sculptors than
for painters, it being sufficient for the former to execute good models
in wax, clay, or something else, even as the latter make their drawings
on corresponding materials or on cartoons; and that finally, the quality
that little by little transfers their models to the marble is rather
patience than aught else.
But let us consider about judgment, as the sculptors wish, and see
whether it is not more necessary to one who works in fresco than to one
who chisels in marble. For here not only is there no place for patience
or for time, which are most mortal enemies to the union of the plaster
and the colours, but the eye does not see the true colours until the
plaster is well dry, nor can the hand judge of anything but of the soft
or the dry, in a manner that anyone who were to call it working in the
dark, or with spectacles of colours different from the truth, would not
in my belief be very far wrong. Nay, I do not doubt at all that such a
name is more suitable for it than for intaglio, for which wax serves as
spectacles both true and good. They say, too, that for this work it is
necessary to have a resolute judgment, to foresee the end in the fresh
plaster and how the work will turn out on the dry; besides that the work
cannot be abandoned so long as the plaster is still fresh, and that it
is necessary to do resolutely in one day what sculpture does in a month.
And if a man has not this judgment and this excellence, there are seen,
on the completion of his work or in time, patches, blotches,
corrections, and colours superimposed or retouched on the dry, which is
something of the vilest, because afterwards mould appears and reveals
the insufficiency and the small knowledge of the craftsmen, even as the
pieces added in sculpture lead to ugliness; not to mention that when it
comes about that the figures in fresco are washed, as is often done
after some time to restore them, what has been worked on the fresh
plaster remains, and what has been retouched on the dry is carried away
by the wet sponge.
They add, moreover, that whereas the sculptors make two figures
together, or at the most three, from one block of marble, they make many
of them on one single panel, with all those so many and so varied
aspects which the sculptors claim for one single statue, compensating
with the variety of their postures, foreshortenings, and attitudes, for
the fact that the work of the sculptors can be seen from every side;
even as Giorgione da Castelfranco did once in one of his pictures,
wherein a figure with its back turned, having a mirror on either side,
and a pool of water at its feet, shows its back in the painting, its
front in the pool, and its sides in the mirrors, which is something that
sculpture has never been able to do. In addition to this, they maintain
that painting leaves not one of the elements unadorned and not abounding
with all the excellent things that nature has bestowed on them, giving
its own light and its own darkness to the air, with all its varieties of
feeling, and filling it with all the kinds of birds together; to water,
its clearness, the fishes, the mosses, the foam, the undulations of the
waves, the ships, and all its various moods; and to the earth, the
mountains, the plains, the plants, the fruits, the flowers, the animals,
and the buildings; with so great a multitude of things and so great a
variety of their forms and of their true colours, that nature herself
many a time stands in a marvel thereat; and finally, giving to fire so
much of its heat and light that it is clearly seen burning things, and,
almost quivering with its flames, rendering luminous in part the
thickest darkness of the night. Wherefore it appears to them that they
can justly conclude and declare that contrasting the difficulties of the
sculptors with their own, the labours of the body with those of the
mind, the imitation of the mere form with the imitation of the
impression, both of quantity and of quality, that strikes the eye, the
small number of the subjects wherein sculpture can and does demonstrate
its excellence with the infinite number of those which painting presents
to us (not to mention the perfect preservation of them for the intellect
and the distribution of them in those places wherein nature herself has
not done so); and finally, weighing the whole content of the one with
that of the other, the nobility of sculpture, as shown by the intellect,
the invention, and the judgment of its craftsmen, does not correspond by
a great measure to that which painting enjoys and deserves. And this is
all that on the one side and on the other has come to my ears that is
worthy of consideration.
But because it appears to me that the sculptors have spoken with too
much heat and the painters with too much disdain, and seeing that I have
long enough studied the works of sculpture and have ever exercised
myself in painting, however small, perhaps, may be the fruit that is to
be seen of it; none the less, by reason of that which it is worth, and
by reason of the undertaking of these writings, judging it my duty to
demonstrate the judgment that I have ever made of it in my own mind (and
may my authority avail the most that it can), I will declare my opinion
surely and briefly over such a dispute, being convinced that I will not
incur any charge of presumption or of ignorance, seeing that I will not
treat of the arts of others, as many have done before to the end that
they might appear to the crowd intelligent in all things by means of
letters, and as happened, among others, to Phormio the Peripatetic of
Ephesus, who, in order to display his eloquence, lecturing and making
disputation about the virtues and parts of the excellent captain, made
Hannibal laugh not less at his presumption than at his ignorance.