Madonna that is on the abutment of the Ponte Vecchio, with great honour
for himself, he left his brother Bernardo to execute by himself a Hell
in the Campo Santo, which is described by Dante, and which was
afterwards spoilt in the year 1530 and restored by Sollazzino, a painter
of our own times; and he returned to Florence, where, in the middle of
the Church of S. Croce, on a very great wall on the right, he painted in
fresco the same subjects that he painted in the Campo Santo of Pisa, in
three similar pictures, excepting, however, the scene where S. Macarius
is showing to three Kings the misery of man, and the life of the hermits
who are serving God on that mountain. Making, then, all the rest of that
work, he laboured therein with better design and more diligence than he
had done in Pisa, holding, nevertheless, to almost the same plan in the
invention, the manner, the scrolls, and the rest, without changing
anything save the portraits from life, for those in this work were
partly of his dearest friends, whom he placed in Paradise, and partly of
men little his friends, who were put by him in Hell. Among the good is
seen portrayed from life in profile, with the triple crown on his head,
Pope Clement VI, who changed the Jubilee in his reign from every hundred
to every fifty years, and was a friend of the Florentines, and had some
of Orcagna's pictures, which were very dear to him. Among the same is
Maestro Dino del Garbo, a most excellent physician of that time, dressed
as was then the wont of doctors, with a red bonnet lined with miniver on
his head, and held by the hand by an angel; with many other portraits
that are not recognized. Among the damned he portrayed Guardi, serjeant
of the Commune of Florence, being dragged along by the Devil with a
hook, and he is known by three red lilies that he has on his white
bonnet, such as were then wont to be worn by the serjeants and other
similar officials; and this he did because Guardi once made distraint on
his property. He also portrayed there the notary and the judge who had
been opposed to him in that action. Near to Guardi is Ceccho d'Ascoli, a
famous wizard of those times; and a little above--namely, in the
middle--is a hypocrite friar, who, having issued from a tomb, is seeking
furtively to put himself among the good, while an angel discovers him
and thrusts him among the damned.
Besides Bernardo, Andrea had a brother called Jacopo, who was engaged in
sculpture, but with little profit; and in making on occasion for this
Jacopo designs in relief and in clay, there came to him the wish to make
something in marble and to see whether he remembered the principles of
that art, wherein, as it has been said, he had worked in Pisa; and so,
putting himself with more study to the test, he made progress therein in
such a fashion that afterwards he made use of it with honour, as it will
be told. Afterwards he devoted himself with all his energy to the study
of architecture, thinking that at some time or another he would have to
make use of it. Nor did his thought deceive him, seeing that in the year
1355, the Commune of Florence having bought some citizens' houses near
their Palace (in order to have more space and to make a larger square,
and also in order to make a place where the citizens could take shelter
in rainy or wintry days, and carry on under cover such business as was
transacted on the Ringhiera when bad weather did not hinder), they
caused many designs to be made for the building of a magnificent and
very large Loggia for this purpose near the Palace, and at the same time
for the Mint where the money is struck. Among these designs, made by the
best masters in the city, that of Orcagna being universally approved and
accepted as greater, more beautiful, and more magnificent than all the
others, by decree of the Signori and of the Commune there was begun
under his direction the great Loggia of the square, on the foundations
made in the time of the Duke of Athens, and it was carried on with
squared stone very well put together, with much diligence. And what was
something new in those times, the arches of the vaulting were made no
longer quarter-acute, as it had been the custom up to that time, but
they were turned in half-circles in a new and laudable method, which
gave much grace and beauty to this great fabric, which was brought to
completion in a short time under the direction of Andrea. And if there
had been taken thought to put it beside S. Romolo and to turn the arches
with the back to the north, which they did not do, perchance, in order
to have it conveniently near to the gate of the Palace, it would have
been as useful a building for the whole city as it is beautiful in
workmanship; whereas, by reason of the great wind, in winter no one
can stand there. In this Loggia, between the arches on the front wall,
in some ornamental work by his own hand, Orcagna made seven marble
figures in half-relief representing the seven Theological and Cardinal
Virtues, as accompaniment to the whole work, so beautiful that they made
him known for no less able as sculptor than as painter and architect;
not to mention that he was in all his actions as pleasant, courteous,
and lovable a man as was ever any man of his condition. And because he
would never abandon the study of any one of his professions for that of
another, while the Loggia was building he made a panel in distemper with
many large figures, with little figures in the predella, for that chapel
of the Strozzi wherein he had formerly made some works in fresco with
his brother Bernardo; on which panel, it appearing to him that it could
bear better testimony to his profession than the works wrought in fresco
could do, he wrote his name with these words: ANNO DOMINI MCCCLVII,
ANDREAS CIONIS DE FLORENTIA ME PINXIT.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
THE DEATH AND ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN
(_Relief on the Tabernacle by_ Andrea di Cione Orcagna, _Or San Michele,
Florence_)]
This work completed, he made some pictures, also on panel, which were
sent to the Pope in Avignon and are still in the Cathedral Church of
that city. A little while afterwards the men of the Company of
Orsanmichele, having collected large sums of money from offerings and
donations given to their Madonna by reason of the mortality of 1348,
resolved to make round her a chapel, or rather shrine, not only very
ornate and rich with marbles carved in every way and with other stones
of price, but also with mosaic and ornaments of bronze, as much as could
possibly be desired, in a manner that both in workmanship and in
material it might surpass every other work of so great a size wrought up
to that day. Wherefore, the charge of the whole being given to Orcagna
as the most excellent of that age, he made so many designs that finally
one of them pleased the authorities, as being better than all the
others. The work, therefore, being allotted to him, they put complete
reliance in his judgment and counsel; wherefore, giving the making of
all the rest to diverse master-carvers brought from several districts,
he applied himself with his brother to executing all the figures of the
work, and, the whole being finished, he had them built in and put
together very thoughtfully without mortar, with clamps of copper fixed
with lead, to the end that the shining and polished marbles might not
become discoloured; and in this he succeeded so well, with profit and
honour from those who came after him, that to one who studies that work
it appears, by reason of such union and methods of joining discovered by
Orcagna, that the whole chapel has been shaped out of one single piece
of marble. And although it is in a German manner, for that style it has
so great grace and proportion that it holds the first place among the
works of those times, above all because its composition of figures great
and small, and of angels and prophets in half-relief round the Madonna,
is very well executed. Marvellous, also, is the casting of the bands of
bronze, diligently polished, which, encircling the whole work, enclose
and bind it together in a manner that it is therefore as stout and
strong as it is beautiful in all other respects. But how much he
laboured in order to show the subtlety of his intellect in that gross
age is seen in a large scene in half-relief on the back part of the said
shrine, wherein, with figures of one braccio and a half each, he made
the twelve Apostles gazing on high at the Madonna, while she, in an oval
space, surrounded by angels, is ascending to Heaven. In one of these
Apostles he portrayed himself in marble, old, as he was, with the beard
shaven, with the cap wound round the head, and with the face flat and
round, as it is seen above in his portrait, drawn from that one. Besides
this, he inscribed these words in the marble below: ANDREAS CIONIS,
PICTOR FLORENTINUS, ORATORII ARCHIMAGISTER EXTITIT HUJUS, MCCCLIX.
It is known that the building of this Loggia and of the marble shrine,
with all the master-work, cost ninety-six thousand florins of gold,
which were very well spent, for the reason that it is, both in the
architecture and in the sculptures and other ornaments, as beautiful as
any other work whatsoever of those times, and is such that, by reason of
the parts made therein by him, the name of Andrea Orcagna has been and
will be ever living and great.
He used to write in his pictures: FECE ANDREA DI CIONE, SCULTORE; and in
his sculptures: FECE ANDREA DI CIONE, PITTORE; wishing that his painting
should be known by his sculpture, and his sculpture by his painting.
There are throughout all Florence many panels made by him, which are
partly known by the name, such as a panel in S. Romeo, and partly by the
manner, such as one that is in the Chapter-house of the Monastery of the
Angeli. Some of them that he left unfinished were completed by Bernardo,
his brother, who survived him, but not for many years. And because, as
it has been said, Andrea delighted in making verses and various forms of
poetry, when already old he wrote some sonnets to Burchiello, then a
youth; and finally, being sixty years of age, he finished the course of
his life in 1389, and was borne with honour from his dwelling, which was
in the Via Vecchia de' Corazzai, to his tomb.
There were many men able in sculpture and in architecture at the same
time as Orcagna, of whom the names are not known, but their works are to
be seen, and these are worthy of nothing but praise and commendation.
Among their works is not only the Monastery of the Certosa of Florence,
made at the expense of the noble family of the Acciaiuoli, and in
particular of Messer Niccola, Grand Seneschal of the King of Naples, but
also the tomb of the same man, whereon he is portrayed in stone, and
that of his father and one of his sisters, which has a covering of
marble, whereon both were portrayed very well from nature in the year
1366. There, too, wrought by the hand of the same men, is the tomb of
Messer Lorenzo, son of the said Niccola, who, dying at Naples, was
brought to Florence and laid to rest there with the most honourable pomp
of funeral obsequies. In like manner, in the tomb of Cardinal Santa
Croce of the same family, which is in a choir then built anew in front
of the high-altar, there is his portrait on a slab of marble, very well
wrought in the year 1390.
Disciples of Andrea in painting were Bernardo Nello di Giovanni Falconi
of Pisa, who wrought many panels in the Duomo of Pisa, and Tommaso di
Marco of Florence, who, besides many other works, made in the year 1392
a panel that is in S. Antonio in Pisa, set up against the tramezzo[19]
of the church.
After the death of Andrea, his brother Jacopo, occupied himself in
sculpture, as it has been said, and in architecture, was employed in the
year 1328 on the foundation and building of the Tower and Gate of S.
Piero Gattolini, and it is said that he made the four marzocchi[20] of
stone which were placed on the four corners of the Palazzo Principale of
Florence, all overlaid with gold. This work was much censured, by reason
of there being laid on those places, without necessity, a greater weight
than peradventure was expedient; and many would have been pleased to
have the marzocchi made rather of plates of copper, hollow within, and
then, after being gilded in the fire, set up in the same place, because
they would have been much less heavy and more durable. It is said, too,
that the same man made the horse, gilded and in full relief, that is in
S. Maria del Fiore, over the door that leads to the Company of S.
Zanobi, which horse is believed to be there in memory of Piero Farnese,
Captain of the Florentines; however, knowing nothing more about this, I
could not vouch for it. About the same time Mariotto, nephew of Andrea,
made in fresco the Paradise of S. Michele Bisdomini, in the Via de'
Servi in Florence, and the panel with an Annunciation that is on the
altar; and for Monna Cecilia de' Boscoli he made another panel with many
figures, placed near the door of the same church.
But among all the disciples of Orcagna none was more excellent than
Francesco Traini, who made a panel with a ground of gold for a nobleman
of the house of Coscia, who is buried at Pisa in the Chapel of S.
Domenico, in the Church of S. Caterina; which panel contained a S.
Dominic standing two braccia and a half high, with six scenes of his
life on either side of him, animated and vivacious and well coloured.
And in the same church, in the Chapel of S. Tommaso d'Aquino, he made a
panel in distemper with fanciful invention, which is much praised,
placing therein the said S. Thomas seated, portrayed from the life: I
say from the life, because the friars of that place had an image of him
brought from the Abbey of Fossa Nuova, where he died in the year 1323.
Below, round S. Thomas, who is placed seated in the air with some books
in his hand, which are illuminating the Christian people with their rays
and lustre, there are kneeling a great number of doctors and clergy of
every sort, Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes, among whom is the portrait
of Pope Urban VI. Under the feet of S. Thomas are standing Sabellius,
Arius, Averroes, and other heretics and philosophers, with their books
all torn; and the said figure of S. Thomas is placed between Plato, who
is showing him the _Timaeus_, and Aristotle, who is showing him the
_Ethics_. Above, a Jesus Christ, in like manner in the air between the
four Evangelists, is blessing S. Thomas, and appears to be in the act of
sending down upon him the Holy Spirit, and filling him with it and with
His grace. This work, when finished, acquired very great fame and praise
for Francesco Traini, for in making it he surpassed his master Andrea by
a great measure in colouring, in harmony, and in invention. This Andrea
was very diligent in his drawings, as it may be seen in our book.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
S. THOMAS AQUINAS
(_After the painting by_ Francesco Traini. _Pisa: Church of S.
Caterina_)]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 18: This is probably a printer's error for "nemico," as that
Pope was anything but the friend of Manfredi.]
[Footnote 19: See note on p. 57.]
[Footnote 20: Lions of stone, emblems of the city of Florence.]
TOMMASO, CALLED GIOTTINO
LIFE OF TOMMASO, CALLED GIOTTINO,
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
When those arts that proceed from design come into competition and their
craftsmen work in rivalry, without doubt the good intellects, exercising
themselves with much study, discover new things every day in order to
satisfy the various tastes of men; and some, speaking for the present of
painting, executing works obscure and unusual and demonstrating in them
the difficulty of making them, make known by the shadows the brightness
of their genius. Others, fashioning the sweet and delicate, thinking
these to be likely to be more pleasing to the eyes of all who behold
them by reason of their having more relief, easily attract to themselves
the minds of the greater part of men. Others, again, painting with unity
and lowering the tones of the colours, reducing to their proper places
the lights and shades of their figures, deserve very great praise, and
reveal the thoughts of the intellect with beautiful dexterity of mind;
even as they were ever revealed with a sweet manner in the works of
Tommaso di Stefano, called Giottino, who, being born in the year 1324
and having learnt from his father the first principles of painting,
resolved while still very young to attempt, in so far as he might be
able with assiduous study, to be an imitator of the manner of Giotto
rather than of that of his father Stefano. In this attempt he succeeded
so well that he gained thereby, besides the manner, which was much more
beautiful than that of his master, the surname of Giottino, which never
left him; nay, by reason both of the manner and of the name it was the
opinion of many, who, however, were in very great error, that he was the
son of Giotto; but in truth it is not so, it being certain, or to speak
more exactly, believed (it being impossible for such things to be
affirmed by any man) that he was the son of Stefano, painter of
Florence.
He was, then, so diligent in painting and so greatly devoted to it,
that, although many of his works are not to be found, those nevertheless
that have been found are good and in a beautiful manner, for the reason
that the draperies, the hair, the beards, and all the rest of his work
were made and harmonized with so great softness and diligence, that it
is seen that without doubt he added harmony to this art and had it much
more perfect than his master Giotto and his father Stefano. In his youth
Giottino painted a chapel near the side-door of S. Stefano al Ponte
Vecchio in Florence, wherein, although it is to-day much spoilt by damp,
the little that has remained shows the dexterity and the genius of the
craftsman. Next, he made the two Saints, Cosimo and Damiano, for the
Frati Ermini in the Canto alla Macine, but little is seen of them
to-day, for they too have been ruined by time. And he wrought in fresco
a chapel in the old S. Spirito in that city, which was afterwards ruined
in the burning of that church; and in fresco, over the principal door of
the church, the story of the Sending of the Holy Spirit; and on the
square before the said church, on the way to the Canto alla Cuculia, on
the corner of the convent, he painted that shrine that is still seen
there, with Our Lady and other Saints round her, wherein both the heads
and the other parts lean strongly towards the modern manner, for the
reason that he sought to vary and to blend the flesh-colours, and to
harmonize all the figures with grace and judgment by means of a variety
of colours and draperies. In like manner he wrought the stories of
Constantine with much diligence in the Chapel of S. Silvestro in S.
Croce, showing very beautiful ideas in the gestures of the figures; and
then, behind an ornament of marble made for the tomb of Messer Bertino
de' Bardi, a man who at that time had held honourable military rank, he
made this Messer Bertino in armour, after the life, issuing from a
sepulchre on his knees, being summoned with the sound of the trumpets of
the Judgment by two angels, who are in the air accompanying a
beautifully-wrought Christ in the clouds. On the right hand of the
entrance of the door of S. Pancrazio the same man made a Christ who is
bearing His Cross, and some Saints near Him, that have exactly the
manner of Giotto. In S. Gallo (which convent was without the Gate called
by the same name, and was destroyed in the siege) in a cloister, there
was a Pieta painted in fresco, whereof there is a copy in the aforesaid
S. Pancrazio, on a pillar beside the principal chapel. In S. Maria
Novella, in the Chapel of S. Lorenzo de' Giuochi, as one enters by the
door on the left, on the front wall, he wrought in fresco a S. Cosimo
and a S. Damiano, and, in Ognissanti, a S. Christopher and a S. George,
which were spoilt by the malice of time, and then restored by other
painters by reason of the ignorance of a Provost little conversant with
such matters. In the said church there has remained whole the arch that
is over the door of the sacristy, wherein there is in fresco a Madonna
with the Child in her arms by the hand of Tommaso, which is a good work,
by reason of his having wrought it with diligence.
By means of these works Giottino had acquired so good a name, imitating
his master both in design and in invention, as it has been told, that
there was said to be in him the spirit of Giotto himself, both because
of the vividness of his colouring and of his mastery in draughtsmanship;
and in the year 1343, on July 2, when the Duke of Athens was driven out
by the people and when he had renounced the sovereignty and restored
their liberty to the Florentines, Giottino was forced by the twelve
Reformers of the State, and in particular by the prayers of Messer
Agnolo Acciaiuoli, then a very great citizen, who had great influence
with him, to paint in contempt, on the tower of the Palace of the
Podesta, the said Duke and his followers, who were Messer Ceritieri
Visdomini, Messer Maladiasse, his Conservator, and Messer Ranieri da San
Gimignano, all with the cap of Justice ignominiously on their heads.
Round the head of the Duke were many beasts of prey and other sorts,
signifying his nature and his character; and one of those his
counsellors had in his hand the Palace of the Priors of the city, and
was handing it to him, like a disloyal traitor to his country. And all
had below them the arms and emblems of their families, and some writings
which can hardly be read to-day because they have been eaten away by
time. In this work, both by reason of the draughtsmanship and of the
great diligence wherewith it was executed, the manner of the craftsman
gave universal pleasure to all. Afterwards, at the Campora, a seat of
the Black Friars without the Porta a S. Piero Gattolini, he made a S.
Cosimo and a S. Damiano, which were spoilt in the whitewashing of the
church; and on the bridge of Romiti in Valdarno he painted in fresco the
shrine that is built over the middle, with his own hand and in a
beautiful manner.
It is found recorded by many who wrote thereon that Tommaso applied
himself to sculpture and wrought a figure in marble on the Campanile of
S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, four braccia high and facing the place
where the Orphans now dwell. In S. Giovanni Laterano in Rome, likewise,
he brought to fine completion a scene wherein he represented the Pope in
several capacities, which is now seen to have been eaten away and
corroded by time; and in the house of the Orsini he painted a hall full
of famous men; with a very beautiful S. Louis on a pillar in the
Araceli, on the right hand beside the altar.
In the lower church of S. Francesco at Assisi, in an arch over the
pulpit (there being no other space that was not painted) he wrought the
Coronation of Our Lady, with many angels round her, so gracious, so
beautiful in the expressions of the faces, and so sweet and delicate in
manner, that they show, with the usual harmony of colour which was
something peculiar to this painter, that he had proved himself the peer
of all who had lived up to that time; and round this arch he made some
stories of S. Nicholas. In like manner, in the Monastery of S. Chiara in
the same city, in the middle of the church, he painted a scene in
fresco, wherein is S. Chiara supported in the air by two angels who
appear real; she is restoring to life a child that was dead, while round
her are standing many women all full of wonder, with great beauty in the
faces and in the very gracious head-dresses and costumes of those times
that they are wearing. In the same city of Assisi, over the gate of the
city that leads to the Duomo--namely, in an arch on the inner side--he
made a Madonna with the Child in her arms, with so great diligence that
she appears alive, and a S. Francis and another Saint, both very
beautiful; both of which works, although the story of S. Chiara
remained unfinished by reason of Tommaso having fallen sick and returned
to Florence, are perfect and most worthy of all praise.
[Illustration: GIOTTINO: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS
(_Florence: Uffizi 27. Panel_)]