fair enterprises throughout all Italy, and above all in Tuscany, was the
cause that in the city of Pistoia, in the year 1032, a beginning was
made for the Church of S. Paolo, in the presence of the Blessed Atto,
Bishop of that city, as may be read in a contract made at that time,
and, in short, for many other buildings whereof it would take too long
to make mention at present. I cannot forbear to say, however, following
the course of time, that afterwards, in the year 1060, there was erected
in Pisa the round church of S. Giovanni, opposite the Duomo and in the
same square. And something marvellous and almost wholly incredible is to
be found recorded in an old book of the Works of the said Duomo, namely,
that the columns of the said S. Giovanni, the pillars, and the vaulting
were raised and completed in fifteen days and no more. In the same book,
which anyone can see who has the wish, it may be read that for the
building of this church there was imposed a tax of one danaio for each
fire, but it is not said therein whether of gold or of small coin; and
at that time there were in Pisa, as may be seen in the same book, 34,000
fires. Truly this work was vast, of great cost, and difficult to
execute, and above all the vaulting of the tribune, made in the shape of
a pear and covered without with lead. The outer side is full of columns,
carvings, and groups, and on the frieze of the central door is a Jesus
Christ with the twelve Apostles in half-relief, after the Greek manner.
The people of Lucca, about the same time--that is, in the year 1061--as
rivals of the people of Pisa, began the Church of S. Martino in Lucca
from the design of certain disciples of Buschetto, there being then no
other architects in Tuscany. Attached to the facade of this church there
may be seen a marble portico with many ornaments and carvings made in
memory of Pope Alexander II, who had been, a short time before he was
elected to the Pontificate, Bishop of that city. Of this construction
and of Alexander himself everything is fully told in nine Latin verses,
and the same may be seen in certain other ancient letters engraved on
the marble under the portico, between the doors. On the said facade are
certain figures, and under the portico many scenes in marble from the
life of S. Martin, in half-relief, and in the Greek manner. But the
best, which are over one of the doors, were made 170 years after by
Niccola Pisano and finished in 1233, as will be told in the proper
place; the Wardens, when these were begun, being Abellenato and
Aliprando, as it may be clearly seen from certain letters carved in
marble in the same place. These figures by the hand of Niccola Pisano
show how much improvement there came from him to the art of sculpture.
Similar to these were most, nay, all of the buildings that were erected
in Italy from the times aforesaid up to the year 1250, seeing that
little or no acquisition or improvement can be seen to have been made in
the space of so many years by architecture, which stayed within the same
limits and went on ever in that rude manner, whereof many examples are
still to be seen, of which I will at present make no mention, for the
reason that they will be spoken of below according to the occasions that
may come before me.
In like manner the good sculptures and pictures which had been buried
under the ruins of Italy remained up to the same time hidden from or not
known to the men boorishly reared in the rudeness of the modern use of
that age, wherein no other sculptures or pictures existed than those
which a remnant of old Greeks were making either in images of clay or
stone, or painting monstrous figures and covering only the bare
lineaments with colour. These craftsmen, as the best, being the only
ones in these professions, were summoned to Italy, whither they brought
sculpture and painting, together with mosaic, in that style wherein
they knew them; and even so they taught them rudely and roughly to the
Italians, who afterwards made use of them, as has been told and will be
told further, up to a certain time. And the men of those times, not
being used to see other excellence or greater perfection in any work
than that which they themselves saw, marvelled and took these for the
best, for all that they were vile, until the spirits of the generation
then arising, helped in some places by the subtlety of the air, became
so greatly purged that about 1250, Heaven, moved to pity for the lovely
minds that the Tuscan soil was producing every day, restored them to
their first condition. And although those before them had seen remains
of arches, of colossi, of statues, of urns, and of storied columns in
the ages that came after the sackings, the destructions, and the
burnings of Rome, and never knew how to make use of them or draw from
them any benefit, up to the time mentioned above, the minds that came
after, discerning well enough the good from the bad and abandoning the
old manners, turned to imitating the ancient with all their industry and
wit.
But in order that it may be understood more clearly what I call "old"
and what "ancient," the "ancient" were the works made before Constantine
in Corinth, in Athens, in Rome, and in other very famous cities, until
the time of Nero, the Vespasians, Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus;
whereas those others are called "old" that were executed from S.
Silvester's day up to that time by a certain remnant of Greeks, who knew
rather how to dye than how to paint. For since the excellent early
craftsmen had been killed in these wars, as has been said, to the
remainder of these Greeks, old but not ancient, there had been left
nothing but elementary outlines on a ground of colour; and to this at
the present day witness is borne by an infinity of mosaics, which,
wrought throughout all Italy by these Greeks, are to be seen in every
old church in any city whatsoever of Italy, and above all in the Duomo
of Pisa, in S. Marco at Venice, and in other places as well; and so,
too, they kept making many pictures in that manner, with eyes staring,
hands outstretched, and standing on tiptoe, as may still be seen in S.
Miniato without Florence, between the door that leads into the sacristy
and that which leads into the convent; and in S. Spirito in the said
city, the whole side of the cloister opposite the church; and in like
manner at Arezzo, in S. Giuliano and S. Bartolommeo and in other
churches; and in Rome, in the old Church of S. Pietro, scenes right
round between the windows--works that have more of the monstrous in
their lineaments than of likeness to whatsoever they represent. Of
sculptures, likewise, they made an infinity, as may still be seen in
low-relief over the door of S. Michele in the Piazza Padella of
Florence, and in Ognissanti; and tombs and adornments in many places for
the doors of churches, wherein they have certain figures for corbels to
support the roof, so rude and vile, so misshapen, and of such a
grossness of manner, that it appears impossible that worse could be
imagined.
Thus far have I thought fit to discourse from the beginning of sculpture
and of painting, and peradventure at greater length than was necessary
in this place, which I have done, indeed, not so much carried away by my
affection for art as urged by the common benefit and advantage of our
craftsmen. For having seen in what way she, from a small beginning,
climbed to the greatest height, and how from a state so noble she fell
into utter ruin, and that, in consequence, the nature of this art is
similar to that of the others, which, like human bodies, have their
birth, their growth, their growing old, and their death; they will now
be able to recognize more easily the progress of her second birth and of
that very perfection whereto she has risen again in our times. And I
hope, moreover, that if ever (which God forbid) it should happen at any
time, through the negligence of men, or through the malice of time, or,
finally, through the decree of Heaven, which appears to be unwilling
that the things of this earth should exist for long in one form, that
she falls again into the same chaos of ruin; that these my labours,
whatsoever they may be worth (if indeed they may be worthy of a happier
fortune), both through what has been already said and through what
remains to say, may be able to keep her alive or at least to encourage
the most exalted minds to provide them with better assistance; so much
so that, what with my good will and the works of these masters, she may
abound in those aids and adornments wherein, if I may freely speak the
truth, she has been wanting up to the present day.
But it is now time to come to the Life of Giovanni Cimabue, and even as
he gave the first beginning to the new method of drawing and painting,
so it is just and expedient that he should give it to the Lives, in
which I will do my utmost to observe, the most that I can, the order of
their manners rather than that of time. And in describing the forms and
features of the craftsmen I will be brief, seeing that their portraits,
which have been collected by me with no less cost and fatigue than
diligence, will show better what sort of men the craftsmen themselves
were in appearance than describing them could ever do; and if the
portrait of any one of them should be wanting, that is not through my
fault but by reason of its being nowhere found. And if the said
portraits were not peradventure to appear to someone to be absolutely
like to others that might be found, I wish it to be remembered that the
portrait made of a man when he was eighteen or twenty years old will
never be like to the portrait that may have been made fifteen or twenty
years later. To this it must be added that portraits in drawing are
never so like as are those in colours, not to mention that the
engravers, who have no draughtsmanship, always rob the faces (being
unable or not knowing how to make exactly those minutenesses that make
them good and true to life) of that perfection which is rarely or never
found in portraits cut in wood. In short, how great have been therein my
labour, expense, and diligence, will be evident to those who, in
reading, will see whence I have to the best of my ability unearthed
them.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 4: The libbra is twelve ounces of our ordinary pound
(avoirdupois).]
[Footnote 5: It is difficult to find a rendering of "cappella maggiore"
that is absolutely satisfactory. There may be a chapel in some churches
that is actually larger than the "principal chapel." The principal
chapel generally contains the choir, but not always, and when Vasari
wants to say "choir" he uses the word "coro." The rendering "principal
chapel" has therefore been adopted as the least misleading.]
CONCERNING THE LIVES OF THE PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS, WHO
HAVE LIVED FROM CIMABUE TO THE PRESENT DAY. WRITTEN BY MESSER GIORGIO
VASARI, PAINTER OF AREZZO
GIOVANNI CIMABUE
[Illustration: _Alinari_
MADONNA, CHILD AND ANGELS
(_After the painting by_ Cimabue. _Paris: Louvre, 1260_)]
LIFE OF GIOVANNI CIMABUE,
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
By the infinite flood of evils which had laid prostrate and submerged
poor Italy there had not only been ruined everything that could truly
claim the name of building, but there had been blotted out (and this was
of graver import) the whole body of the craftsmen, when, by the will of
God, in the city of Florence, in the year 1240, there was born, to give
the first light to the art of painting, Giovanni, surnamed Cimabue, of
the family, noble in those times, of Cimabue. He, while growing up,
being judged by his father and by others to have a beautiful and acute
intelligence, was sent, to the end that he might exercise himself in
letters, to a master in S. Maria Novella, his relative, who was then
teaching grammar to the novices of that convent; but Cimabue, in place
of attending to his letters, would spend the whole day, as one who felt
himself led thereto by nature, in drawing, on books and other papers,
men, horses, houses, and diverse other things of fancy; to which natural
inclination fortune was favourable, for certain Greek painters had been
summoned to Florence by those who then governed the city, for nothing
else but to restore to Florence the art of painting, which was rather
out of mind than out of fashion, and they began, among the other works
undertaken in the city, the Chapel of the Gondi, whereof to-day the
vaulting and the walls are little less than eaten away by time, as may
be seen in S. Maria Novella beside the principal chapel, where it
stands. Wherefore Cimabue, having begun to take his first steps in this
art which pleased him, playing truant often from school, would stand the
livelong day watching these masters at work, in a manner that, being
judged by his father and by these painters to be in such wise fitted
for painting that there could be hoped for him, applying himself to this
profession, an honourable success, to his own no small satisfaction he
was apprenticed by the said father to these men; whereupon, exercising
himself without ceasing, in a short time nature assisted him so greatly
that he surpassed by a long way, both in drawing and in colouring, the
manner of the masters who were teaching him. For they, giving no thought
to making any advance, had made those works in that fashion wherein they
are seen to-day--that is, not in the good ancient manner of the Greeks
but in that rude modern manner of those times; and because, although he
imitated these Greeks, he added much perfection to the art, relieving it
of a great part of their rude manner, he gave honour to his country with
his name and with the works that he made, to which witness is borne in
Florence by the pictures that he wrought, such as the front of the altar
in S. Cecilia, and in S. Croce a panel with a Madonna, which was and
still is placed against a pilaster on the right within the choir. After
this, he made a S. Francis on a small panel on a gold ground, and
portrayed him from nature (which was something new in those times) as
best he knew, and round him all the stories of his life, in twenty small
pictures full of little figures on a gold ground.
Having next undertaken to make a large panel for the monks of
Vallombrosa, in the Abbey of S. Trinita in Florence, he showed in that
work (using therein great diligence, so as to rise equal to the esteem
which had already been conceived of him) better inventions and a
beautiful method in the attitude of a Madonna, whom he made with the
Child in her arms and with many angels round her in adoration, on a gold
ground; which panel, being finished, was placed by these monks over the
high-altar of the said church, and being afterwards removed, in order to
give that place to the panel by Alesso Baldovinetti which is there
to-day, it was placed in a smaller chapel in the left-hand aisle of the
said church.
Working next in fresco on the Hospital of the Porcellana, at the corner
of the Via Nuova which goes into the Borg' Ognissanti, on the facade
which has in the middle the principal door, and making on one side the
Annunciation of the Virgin by the Angel, and on the other Jesus Christ
with Cleophas and Luke, figures as large as life, he swept away that
ancient manner, making the draperies, the vestments, and everything else
in this work, a little more lively and more natural and softer than the
manner of these Greeks, all full of lines and profiles both in mosaic
and in painting; which manner, rough, rude, and vulgar, the painters of
those times, not by means of study, but by a certain convention, had
taught one to the other for many and many a year, without ever thinking
of bettering their draughtsmanship, of beauty of colouring, or of any
invention that might be good.
Cimabue, being summoned again after this work by the same Prior who had
caused him to make the works in S. Croce, made him a large Crucifix on
wood, which is still seen to-day in the church; which work was the
reason, it appearing to the Prior that he had been well served, that he
took him to S. Francesco in Pisa, their convent, in order to make a S.
Francis on a panel, which was held by these people to be a most rare
work, there being seen therein a certain greater quality of excellence,
both in the air of the heads and in the folds of the draperies, than had
been shown in the Greek manner up to that time by anyone who had wrought
anything, not only in Pisa, but in all Italy. Cimabue having next made
for the same church on a large panel the image of Our Lady, with the
Child in her arms and with many angels round her, also on a ground of
gold, it was after no long time removed from where it had been set up
the first time, in order to make there the marble altar that is there at
present, and was placed within the church beside the door on the left
hand; and for this work he was much praised and rewarded by the people
of Pisa. In the same city of Pisa, at the request of the then Abbot of
S. Paolo in Ripa d'Arno, he made a S. Agnes on a little panel, and round
her, with little figures, all the stories of her life; which little
panel is to-day over the altar of the Virgins in the said church.
By reason of these works, then, the name of Cimabue being very famous
everywhere, he was brought to Assisi, a city of Umbria, where, in
company with certain Greek masters, in the lower Church of S.
Francesco, he painted part of the vaulting, and on the walls the life of
Jesus Christ and that of S. Francis. In these pictures he surpassed by a
long way those Greek painters; wherefore, growing in courage, he began
by his own self to paint the upper church in fresco, and in the chief
apse, over the choir, on four sides, he made certain stories of Our
Lady--namely, her death; when her soul is borne by Christ to Heaven upon
a throne of clouds; and when, in the midst of a choir of angels, He
crowns her, with a great number of saints below, both male and female,
now eaten away by time and by dust. Next, in the sections of the
vaulting of the said church, which are five, he painted in like manner
many scenes. In the first, over the choir, he made the four Evangelists,
larger than life, and so well that to-day there is still recognized in
them much that is good, and the freshness of the colours in the flesh
shows that painting began to make great progress in fresco work through
the labours of Cimabue. The second section he made full of golden stars
on a ground of ultramarine. In the third he made in certain medallions
Jesus Christ, the Virgin His mother, S. John the Baptist, and S.
Francis--namely, in every medallion one of these figures, and in every
quarter segment of the vaulting a medallion. And between this and the
fifth section he painted the fourth with golden stars, as above, on a
ground of ultramarine. In the fifth he painted the four Doctors of the
Church, and beside each one of these one of the four chief Religious
Orders--a work truly laborious and executed with infinite diligence. The
vaulting finished, he wrought, also in fresco, the upper walls of the
whole left-hand side of the church, making towards the high-altar,
between the windows and right up to the vaulting, eight scenes from the
Old Testament, commencing from the beginning of Genesis and following
the most notable events. And in the space that is round the windows, up
to the point where they end in the gallery that encircles the interior
of the wall of the church, he painted the remainder of the Old Testament
in eight other scenes. And opposite this work, in sixteen other scenes
corresponding to these, he painted the acts of Our Lady and of Jesus
Christ. And on the end wall over the principal door, and round the rose
window of the church, he made her Ascension into Heaven and the Holy
Spirit descending on the Apostles. This work, truly very great and
rich and most excellently executed, must have, in my judgment, amazed
the world in those times, seeing, above all, that painting had lain so
long in such great darkness; and to me, who saw it again in the year
1563, it appeared very beautiful, thinking how in so great darkness
Cimabue could see so great light. But of all these pictures (and to this
we should give consideration), those on the roof, as being less injured
by dust and by other accidents, have been preserved much better than the
others. These works finished, Giovanni put his hand to painting the
lower walls--namely, those that are from the windows downwards--and made
certain works upon them, but being called to Florence on some business
of his own, he did not carry this work further; but it was finished, as
will be told in the proper place, by Giotto, many years afterwards.
[Illustration: _Anderson_
"ISAAC'S BLESSING"
(_After the fresco of the_ Roman School. _Assisi: Upper Church of S.
Francesco_)]
[Illustration: _Anderson_
THE DEPOSITION FROM THE CROSS
(_After the fresco by_ Pietro Laurati [Lorenzetti]. _Assisi: Lower
Church of S. Francesco_)]
Having returned, then, to Florence, Cimabue painted in the cloister of
S. Spirito (wherein there is painted in the Greek manner, by other
masters, the whole side facing the church) three small arches by his own
hand, from the life of Christ, and truly with much design. And at the
same time he sent certain works wrought by himself in Florence to
Empoli, which works are still held to-day in great veneration in the
Pieve of that township. Next, he made for the Church of S. Maria Novella
the panel of Our Lady that is set on high between the Chapel of the
Rucellai and that of the Bardi da Vernia; which work was of greater size
than any figure that had been made up to that time. And certain angels
that are round it show that, although he still had the Greek manner, he
was going on approaching in part to the line and method of the modern.
Wherefore this work caused so great marvel to the people of that age, by
reason of there not having been seen up to then anything better, that it
was borne in most solemn procession from the house of Cimabue to the
church, with much rejoicing and with trumpets, and he was thereby much
rewarded and honoured. It is said, and it may be read in certain records
of old painters, that while Cimabue was painting the said panel in
certain gardens close to the Porta S. Pietro, there passed through
Florence King Charles the Elder of Anjou, and that, among the many signs
of welcome made to him by the men of this city, they brought him to see
Cimabue's panel; whereupon, for the reason that it had not yet been seen
by anyone, in the showing it to the King there flocked together to it
all the men and all the women of Florence, with the utmost rejoicing and
in the greatest crowd in the world. Wherefore, by reason of the joy that
the neighbours had thereby, they called that place the Borgo Allegri;
which place, although enclosed in time within the walls, has ever after
retained the same name.
In S. Francesco in Pisa, where he wrought, as has been said above,
certain other works, there is in the cloister, beside the door that
leads into the church, in a corner, a small panel in distemper by the
hand of Cimabue, wherein is a Christ on the Cross, with certain angels
round Him, who, weeping, are taking with their hands certain words that
are written round the head of Christ and are presenting them to the ears
of a Madonna who stands weeping on the right, and on the other side to
S. John the Evangelist, who is on the left, all grieving. And the words
to the Virgin are: MULIER, ECCE FILIUS TUUS; and those to S. John: ECCE
MATER TUA; and those that an angel standing apart holds in his hand,
say: EX ILLA HORA ACCEPIT EAM DISCIPULUS IN SUAM. Wherein it is to be
observed that Cimabue began to give light and to open the way to
invention, assisting art with words in order to express his conception;
which was certainly something whimsical and new.
Now because, by means of these works, Cimabue had acquired a very great
name, together with much profit, he was appointed as architect, in
company with Arnolfo Lapi, a man then excellent in architecture, for the
building of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence. But at length, having lived
sixty years, he passed to the other life in the year 1300, having little
less than resurrected painting. He left many disciples, and among others
Giotto, who was afterwards an excellent painter; which Giotto dwelt,
after Cimabue, in his master's own house in the Via del Cocomero.
Cimabue was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, with that epitaph made for him
by one of the Nini:
CREDIDIT UT CIMABOS PICTURAE CASTRA TENERE,
SIC TENUIT, VIVENS: NUNC TENET ASTRA POLI.
[Illustration: _Anderson_
THE CRUCIFIXION
(_After the fresco by_ Cimabue. _Assisi: Upper Church of S.
Francesco_)]