tribune with mosaics, made therein a number of compartments, which,
narrow at the top beside the lantern, went on widening as far as the
level of the cornice below; and they divided the upper part into circles
of various scenes. In the first are all the ministers and executors of
the Divine Will, namely, the Angels, the Archangels, the Cherubim, the
Seraphim, the Powers, the Thrones, and the Dominions. In the second row,
also in mosaic, and after the Greek manner, are the principal works done
by God, from the creation of light down to the Flood. In the circle that
is below these, which goes on widening with the eight sides of that
tribune, are all the acts of Joseph and of his twelve brethren. Below
these, then, there follow as many other spaces of the same size that
circle in like manner onward, wherein there is the life of Jesus Christ,
also in mosaic, from the time when He was conceived in Mary's womb up to
the Ascension into Heaven. Then, resuming the same order, under the
three friezes there is the life of S. John the Baptist, beginning with
the appearing of the Angel to Zacharias the priest, up to his beheading
and to the burial that his disciples gave him. All these works, being
rude, without design and without art, I do not absolutely praise; but of
a truth, having regard to the method of working of that age and to the
imperfection that the art of painting then showed, not to mention that
the work is solid and that the pieces of the mosaic are very well put
together, the end of this work is much better--or to speak more exactly,
less bad--than is the beginning, although the whole, with respect to the
work of to-day, moves us rather to laughter than to pleasure or marvel.
Finally, over the side of the principal chapel in the said tribune,
Andrea made by himself and without the help of Apollonio, to his own
great credit, the Christ that is still seen there to-day, seven braccia
high. Becoming famous for these works throughout all Italy, and being
reputed in his own country as excellent, he well deserved to be largely
honoured and rewarded. It was truly very great good-fortune, that of
Andrea, to be born at a time when, all work being rudely done, there was
great esteem even for that which deserved to be esteemed very little, or
rather not at all. This same thing befell Fra Jacopo da Turrita, of the
Order of S. Francis, seeing that, having made the works in mosaic that
are in the recess behind the altar of the said S. Giovanni,
notwithstanding that they were little worthy of praise he was
remunerated for them with extraordinary rewards, and afterwards, as an
excellent master, summoned to Rome, where he wrought certain things in
the chapel of the high-altar of S. Giovanni Laterano, and in that of S.
Maria Maggiore. Next, being summoned to Pisa, he made the Evangelists in
the principal apse of the Duomo, with other works that are there,
assisted by Andrea Tafi and by Gaddo Gaddi, and using the same manner
wherein he had done his other works; but he left them little less than
wholly imperfect, and they were afterwards finished by Vicino.
The works of these men, then, were prized for some time; but when the
works of Giotto, as will be said in its own place, were set in
comparison with those of Andrea, of Cimabue, and of the others, people
recognized in part the perfection of the art, seeing the difference that
there was between the early manner of Cimabue and that of Giotto, in the
figures of the one and of the other and in those that their disciples
and imitators made. From this beginning the others sought step by step
to follow in the path of the best masters, surpassing one another
happily from one day to another, so that from such depths these arts
have been raised, as is seen, to the height of their perfection.
Andrea lived eighty-one years, and died before Cimabue, in 1294. And by
reason of the reputation and the honour that he gained with his mosaic,
seeing that he, before any other man, introduced and taught it in better
manner to the men of Tuscany, he was the cause that Gaddo Gaddi, Giotto,
and the others afterwards made the most excellent works of that craft
which have acquired for them fame and an eternal name. After the death
of Andrea there was not wanting one to magnify him with this
inscription:
QUI GIACE ANDREA, CH' OPRE LEGGIADRE E BELLE
FECE IN TUTTA TOSCANA, ED ORA E ITO
A FAR VAGO LO REGNO DELLE STELLE.
A disciple of Andrea was Buonamico Buffalmacco, who, being very young,
played him many tricks, and had from him the portrait of Pope Celestine
IV, a Milanese, and that of Innocent IV, both one and the other of whom
he portrayed afterwards in the pictures that he made in S. Paolo a Ripa
d' Arno in Pisa. A disciple and perhaps a son of the same man was
Antonio d'Andrea Tafi, who was a passing good painter; but I have not
been able to find any work by his hand. There is only mention made of
him in the old book of the Company of the Men of Design.
Deservedly, then, did Andrea Tafi gain much praise among the early
masters, for the reason that, although he learnt the principles of
mosaic from those whom he brought from Venice to Florence, he added
nevertheless so much of the good to the art, putting the pieces together
with much diligence and executing the work smooth as a table, which is
of the greatest importance in mosaic, that he opened the way to good
work to Giotto, among others, as will be told in his Life; and not only
to Giotto, but to all those who have exercised themselves in this sort
of painting from his day up to our own times. Wherefore it can be truly
affirmed that those marvellous works which are being made to-day in S.
Marco at Venice, and in other places, had their first beginning from
Andrea Tafi.
GADDO GADDI
LIFE OF GADDO GADDI,
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Gaddo, painter of Florence, displayed at this same time more design in
his works, wrought after the Greek manner, than did Andrea Tafi and the
other painters that were before him, and this perchance arose from the
intimate friendship and intercourse that he held with Cimabue, seeing
that, by reason either of their conformity of blood or of the goodness
of their minds, finding themselves united one to the other by a strait
affection, from the frequent converse that they had together and from
their discoursing lovingly very often about the difficulties of the arts
there were born in their minds conceptions very beautiful and grand; and
this came to pass for them the more easily inasmuch as they were
assisted by the subtlety of the air of Florence, which is wont to
produce spirits both ingenious and subtle, removing continually from
round them that little of rust and grossness that most times nature is
not able to remove, together with the emulation and with the precepts
that the good craftsmen provide in every age. And it is seen clearly
that works concerted between those who, in their friendship, are not
veiled with the mask of duplicity (although few so made are to be
found), arrive at much perfection; and the same men, conferring on the
difficulties of the sciences that they are learning, purge them and
render them so clear and easy that the greatest praise comes therefrom.
Whereas some, on the contrary, diabolically working with profession of
friendship, and using the cloak of truth and of lovingness to conceal
their envy and malice, rob them of their conceptions, in a manner that
the arts do not so soon attain to that excellence which they would if
love embraced the minds of the gracious spirits; as it truly bound
together Gaddo and Cimabue, and in like manner Andrea Tafi and Gaddo,
who was taken by Andrea into company with himself in order to finish the
mosaics of S. Giovanni, where that Gaddo learnt so much that afterwards
he made by himself the Prophets that are seen round that church in the
square spaces beneath the windows; and having wrought these by his own
self and with much better manner, they brought him very great fame.
Wherefore, growing in courage and being disposed to work by himself, he
applied himself continually to studying the Greek manner together with
that of Cimabue. Whence, after no long time, having become excellent in
the art, there was allotted to him by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria
del Fiore the lunette over the principal door within the church, wherein
he wrought in mosaic the Coronation of Our Lady; which work, when
finished, was judged by all the masters, both foreign and native, the
most beautiful that had yet been seen in all Italy in that craft, there
being recognized therein more design, more judgment, and more
diligence than in all the rest of the works in mosaic that were then
to be found in Italy.
Wherefore, the fame of this work spreading, Gaddo was called to Rome in
the year 1308 (which was the year after the fire that burnt down the
Church and the Palaces of the Lateran) by Clement V, for whom he
finished certain works in mosaic left imperfect by Fra Jacopo da
Turrita. He then wrought certain works, also in mosaic, in the Church of
S. Pietro, both in the principal chapel and throughout the church, and
in particular a large God the Father, with many other figures, on the
facade; and helping to finish some scenes in mosaic that are in the
facade of S. Maria Maggiore, he somewhat improved the manner, and
departed also a little from that manner of the Greeks, which had in it
nothing whatever of the good.
Next, having returned to Tuscany, he wrought in the Duomo Vecchio
without the city of Arezzo, for the Tarlati, Lords of Pietramala,
certain works in mosaic on a vault that was all made of sponge-stone and
served for roof to the middle part of that church, which, being too much
burdened by the ancient vault of stone, fell down in the time of Bishop
Gentile of Urbino, who had it afterwards all rebuilt with bricks.
Departing from Arezzo, Gaddo went to Pisa, where, in the niche over the
Chapel of the Incoronata in the Duomo, he made a Madonna who is
ascending into Heaven, and, above, a Jesus Christ who is awaiting her
and has a rich chair prepared as a seat for her; which work, for those
times, was wrought so well and with so great diligence that it has been
very well preserved, even to our own day. After this Gaddo returned to
Florence, in mind to rest; wherefore, undertaking to make little panels
in mosaic, he executed some with egg-shells, with incredible diligence
and patience, as can be seen, among others, in some that are still
to-day in the Church of S. Giovanni in Florence. It is read, also, that
he made two of them for King Robert, but nothing more is known of these.
And let this be enough to have said of Gaddo Gaddi with regard to work
in mosaic.
In painting he made many panels, and among others that which is in S.
Maria Novella, in the tramezzo[8] of the church, in the Chapel of the
Minerbetti, and many others that were sent into diverse parts of
Tuscany. And working thus, now in mosaic and now in painting, he made
both in the one and in the other exercise many passing good works, which
maintained him ever in good credit and reputation. I could here enlarge
further in discoursing of Gaddo, but seeing that the manners of the
painters of those times cannot, for the most part, render great
assistance to the craftsmen, I will pass this over in silence, reserving
myself to be longer in the Lives of those who, having improved the arts,
can give some measure of assistance.
Gaddo lived seventy-three years, and died in 1312, and was given
honourable burial in S. Croce by his son Taddeo. And although he had
other sons, Taddeo alone, who was held at the baptismal font by Giotto,
applied himself to painting, learning at first the principles from his
father and then the rest from Giotto. A disciple of Gaddo, besides
Taddeo his son, was Vicino, painter of Pisa, who wrought very well
certain works in mosaic in the principal apse of the Duomo of Pisa, as
these words demonstrate, that are still seen in that apse:
TEMPORE DOMINI JOANNIS ROSSI, OPERARII ISTIUS ECCLESIAE, VICINUS
PICTOR INCEPIT ET PERFECIT HANC IMAGINEM BEATAE MARIAE; SED
MAJESTATIS, ET EVANGELISTAE, PER ALIOS INCEPTAE, IPSE COMPLEVIT ET
PERFECIT, A.D. 1321, DE MENSE SEPTEMBRIS. BENEDICTUM SIT NOMEN
DOMINI DEI NOSTRI JESU CHRISTI. AMEN.
In the Chapel of the Baroncelli, in the same Church of S. Croce, there
is a portrait of Gaddo by the hand of his son Taddeo, in a Marriage of
Our Lady, and beside him is Andrea Tafi. And in our aforesaid book there
is a drawing by the hand of Gaddo, made in miniature, like that of
Cimabue, wherein it is seen how strong he was in draughtsmanship.
Now, seeing that in an old book, from which I have drawn these few facts
that have been related about Gaddo Gaddi, there is also an account of
the building of S. Maria Novella, the Church of the Preaching Friars in
Florence, a building truly magnificent and highly honoured, I will not
pass by in silence by whom and at what time it was built. I say, then,
that the Blessed Dominic being in Bologna, and there being conceded to
him the property of Ripoli without Florence, he sent thither twelve
friars under the care of the Blessed Giovanni da Salerno; and not many
years afterwards these friars came to Florence to occupy the church and
precincts of S. Pancrazio, and they were settled there, when Dominic
himself came to Florence, whereupon they left that place and went to
settle in the Church of S. Paolo, according to his pleasure. Later,
there being conceded to the said Blessed Giovanni the precincts of S.
Maria Novella, with all its wealth, by the Legate of the Pope and by the
Bishop of the city, they were put in possession and began to occupy the
said precincts on the last day of October, 1221. And because the said
church was passing small and faced westward, with its entrance on the
Piazza Vecchia, the friars, being now grown to a good number and having
great repute in the city, began to think of increasing the said church
and convent. Wherefore, having got together a very great sum of money,
and having many in the city who were promising every assistance, they
began the building of the new church on St. Luke's Day, in 1278; the
first stone of the foundations being most solemnly laid by Cardinal
Latino degli Orsini, Legate of Pope Nicholas III to the Florentines. The
architects of the said church were Fra Giovanni, a Florentine, and Fra
Ristoro da Campi, lay-brothers of the same Order, who rebuilt the Ponte
alla Carraja and that of S. Trinita, destroyed by the flood of 1264 on
October 1. The greater part of the site of the said church and convent
was presented to the friars by the heirs of Messer Jacopo, Cavaliere de'
Tornaquinci. The cost, as has been said, was met partly by alms and
partly by the money of diverse persons who assisted gallantly, and in
particular with the assistance of Frate Aldobrandino Cavalcanti, who was
afterwards Bishop of Arezzo and is buried over the door of the Virgin.
Some say that, besides everything else, he got together by his own
industry all the labour and material that went into the said church,
which was finished when the Prior of this convent was Fra Jacopo
Passavanti, who was therefore deemed worthy of a marble tomb in front of
the principal chapel, on the left hand. This church was consecrated in
the year 1420, by Pope Martin V, as is seen in an inscription on marble
on the righthand pillar of the principal chapel, which runs thus:
A.D. 1420. DIE SEPTIMA SEPTEMBRIS, DOMINUS MARTINUS DIVINA
PROVIDENTIA PAPA V. PERSONALITER HANC ECCLESIAM CONSECRAVIT, ET
MAGNAS INDULGENTIAS CONTULIT VISITANTIBUS EANDEM.
Of all these things and of many others there is an account in a
chronicle of the building of the said church, which is in the hands of
the fathers of S. Maria Novella, and in the History of Giovanni Villani
likewise; and I have not wished to withhold these few facts regarding
this church and convent, both because it is one of the most important
and most beautiful churches in Florence, and also because they have
therein, as will be said below, many excellent works made by the most
famous craftsmen that have lived in the years past.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 8: The literal meaning of tramezzo is "something that acts as
a partition between one thing and another." There are cases where it
might be translated "rood-screen"; but in general it may be taken to
mean transept, which may be said to divide a church into two parts. In
all cases where the word occurs, reference will be made to this note.]
MARGARITONE
LIFE OF MARGARITONE,
PAINTER, SCULPTOR, AND ARCHITECT, OF AREZZO
Among the old painters who were much alarmed by the praises rightly
given by men to Cimabue and to his disciple Giotto, whose good work in
painting was making their glory shine throughout all Italy, was one
Margaritone, painter of Arezzo, who, with the others who in that unhappy
century were holding the highest rank in painting, recognized that their
works were little less than wholly obscuring his own fame. Margaritone,
then, being held excellent among the other painters of these times who
were working after the Greek manner, wrought many panels in distemper at
Arezzo, and he painted in fresco--in even more pictures, but in a long
time and with much fatigue--almost the whole Church of S. Clemente,
Abbey of the Order of Camaldoli, which is to-day all in ruins and thrown
down, together with many other buildings and a strong fortress called S.
Chimenti, for the reason that Duke Cosimo de' Medici, not only on that
spot but right round that city, pulled down many buildings and the old
walls (which were restored by Guido Pietramalesco, formerly Bishop and
Patron of that city); in order to rebuild the latter with connecting
wings and bastions, much stronger and smaller than they were, and in
consequence more easy to guard and with few men. There were, in the said
pictures, many figures both small and great, and although they were
wrought after the Greek manner, it was recognized, none the less, that
they had been made with good judgment and lovingly; to which witness is
borne by works by the same man's hand which have survived in that city,
and above all a panel that is now in S. Francesco, in the Chapel of the
Conception, with a modern frame, wherein is a Madonna held by these
friars in great veneration. He made in the same church, also after the
Greek manner, a great Crucifix which is now placed in that chapel where
there is the Office of the Wardens of Works; this is wrought on the
planking, with the Cross outlined, and of this sort he made many in that
city. For the Nuns of S. Margherita he wrought a work that is to-day set
up against the tramezzo[9] of the church--namely, a canvas fixed on a
panel, wherein are scenes with small figures from the life of Our Lady
and of S. John the Baptist, in considerably better manner than the
large, and executed with more diligence and grace. This work is notable,
not only because the said small figures are so well made that they look
like miniatures, but also because it is a marvel to see that a work on
canvas has been preserved for three hundred years. He made throughout
the whole city an infinity of pictures, and at Sargiano, a convent of
the Frati de' Zoccoli, a S. Francis portrayed from nature on a panel,
whereon he placed his name, as on a work, in his judgment, wrought
better than was his wont. Next, having made a large Crucifix on wood,
painted after the Greek manner, he sent it to Florence to Messer
Farinata degli Uberti, a most famous citizen, for the reason that he
had, among other noble deeds, freed his country from imminent ruin and
peril. This Crucifix is to-day in S. Croce, between the Chapel of the
Peruzzi and that of the Giugni. In S. Domenico in Arezzo, a church and
convent built by the Lords of Pietramala in the year 1275, as their arms
still prove, he wrought many works, and then returned to Rome (where he
had already been held very dear by Pope Urban IV), to the end that he
might do certain works in fresco at his commission in the portico of S.
Pietro; these were in the Greek manner, and passing good for those
times.
[Illustration: _Mansell_
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SCENES FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS
(_After the painting by_ Margaritone. _London: National Gallery, 5040_)]
Next, having made a S. Francis on a panel at Ganghereto, a place above
Terra Nuova in Valdarno, his spirit grew exalted and he gave himself to
sculpture, and that with so much zeal that he succeeded much better than
he had done in painting, because, although his first sculptures were in
Greek manner, as four wooden figures show that are in a Deposition from
the Cross in the Prieve, and some other figures in the round placed in
the Chapel of S. Francesco over the baptismal font, none the less he
adopted a better manner after he had seen in Florence the works of
Arnolfo and of the other then most famous sculptors. Wherefore, having
returned to Arezzo in the year 1275, in the wake of the Court of Pope
Gregory, who passed through Florence on his return from Avignon to Rome,
there came to him opportunity to make himself more known, for the reason
that this Pope died in Arezzo, after having presented thirty thousand
crowns to the Commune to the end that there might be finished the
building of the Vescovado, formerly begun by Maestro Lapo and little
advanced, and the Aretines, besides making the Chapel of S. Gregorio
(where Margaritone afterwards made a panel) in the Vescovado, in memory
of the said Pontiff, also ordained that a tomb of marble should be made
for him by the same man in the said Vescovado. Putting his hand to the
work, he brought it to completion, including therein the portrait of the
Pope from nature, done both in marble and in painting, in a manner that
it was held the best work that he had ever yet made. Next, work being
resumed on the building of the Vescovado, Margaritone carried it very
far on, following the design of Lapo; but he did not, however, deliver
it finished, because a few years later, in the year 1289, the wars
between the Florentines and the Aretines were renewed, by the fault of
Guglielmino Ubertini, Bishop and Lord of Arezzo, assisted by the Tarlati
da Pietramala and by the Pazzi di Valdarno, although evil came to them
thereby, for they were routed and slain at Campaldino; and there was
spent in that war all the money left by the Pope for the building of the
Vescovado. And therefore the Aretines ordained that in place of this
there should serve the impost paid by the district (thus do they call a
tax), as a particular revenue for that work; which impost has lasted up
to our own day, and continues to last.
Now returning to Margaritone: from what is seen in his works, as regards
painting, he was the first who considered what a man must do when he
works on panels of wood, to the end that they may stay firm in the
joinings, and that they may not show fissures and cracks opening out
after they have been painted; for he was used to put over the whole
surface of the panels a canvas of linen cloth, attached with a strong
glue made from shreds of parchment and boiled over a fire; and then
over the said canvas he spread gesso, as is seen in many panels by him
and by others. He wrought, besides, on gesso mingled with the same glue,
friezes and diadems in relief and other ornaments in the round; and he
was the inventor of the method of applying Armenian bole, and of
spreading gold-leaf thereon and burnishing it. All these things, never
seen before, are seen in many of his works, and in particular in the
Pieve of Arezzo, in an altar-front wherein are stories of S. Donatus,
and in S. Agnesa and S. Niccolo in the same city.