that the adornment with wrought marble of the Chamber of the Madonna in
S. Maria at Loreto should be carried out, according to the beginning
made by Bramante, ordained that Andrea should bring that work to
completion. The ornamentation of that Chamber, which Bramante had begun,
had at the corners four double projections, which, adorned by pillars
with bases and carved capitals, rested on a socle rich with carvings,
and two braccia and a half in height; over which socle, between the two
aforesaid pillars, he had made a large niche to contain seated figures,
and, above each of these niches, a smaller one, which, reaching to the
collarino of the capitals of those pillars, left a frieze of the same
height as the capitals. Above these were afterwards laid architrave,
frieze, and richly carved cornice, which, going right round all the four
walls, project over the four corners; and in the middle of each of the
larger walls--for the Chamber is greater in length than in breadth--were
left two spaces, since there was the same projection in the centre of
those walls as there was at the corners; whence the larger niche below,
with the smaller one above it, came to be enclosed by a space of five
braccia on either side. In this space were two doors, one on either
side, through which one entered into the chapel; and above the doors was
a space of five braccia between one niche and another, wherein were to
be carved scenes in marble. The front wall was the same, but without
niches in the centre, and the height of the socle, with the projection,
formed an altar, which was set off by the pillars and the niches at the
corners. In the same front wall, in the centre, was a space of the same
breadth as the spaces at the sides, to contain some scenes in the upper
part, while below, the same in height as the spaces of the sides, but
beginning immediately above the altar, was a bronze grating opposite to
the inner altar, through which it was possible to hear the Mass and to
see the inside of the Chamber and the aforesaid altar of the Madonna.
Altogether, then, the spaces and compartments for the scenes were
seven: one in front, above the grating, two on each of the longer sides,
and two on the upper part--that is to say, behind the altar of the
Madonna; and, in addition, there were eight large and eight small
niches, with other smaller spaces for the arms and devices of the Pope
and of the Church.
Andrea, then, having found the work in this condition, distributed over
these spaces, with a rich and beautiful arrangement, scenes from the
life of the Madonna. In one of the two side-walls, he began in one part
the Nativity of the Madonna, and executed half of it; and it was
completely finished afterwards by Baccio Bandinelli. In the other part
he began the Marriage of the Virgin, but this also remained unfinished,
and after the death of Andrea it was completed as we see it by Raffaello
da Montelupo. On the front wall he arranged that there should be made,
in two small squares which are on either side of the bronze grating, in
one the Visitation and in the other the scene of the Virgin and Joseph
going to have themselves enrolled for taxes; which scenes were
afterwards executed by Francesco da San Gallo, then a young man. Then,
in that part where the greatest space is, Andrea made the Angel Gabriel
bringing the Annunciation to the Virgin--which happened in that very
chamber which these marbles enclose--with such grace and beauty that
there is nothing better to be seen, for he made the Virgin wholly intent
on that Salutation, and the Angel, kneeling, appears to be not of
marble, but truly celestial, with "Ave Maria" issuing from his mouth. In
company with Gabriel are two other Angels, in full-relief and detached
from the marble, one of whom is walking after him and the other appears
to be flying. Behind a building stand two other Angels, carved out by
the chisel in such a way that they seem to be alive. In the air, on a
cloud much undercut--nay, almost entirely detached from the marble--are
many little boys upholding a God the Father, who is sending down the
Holy Spirit by means of a ray of marble, which, descending from Him
completely detached, appears quite real; as, likewise, is the Dove upon
it, which represents the Holy Spirit. Nor can one describe how great is
the beauty and how delicate the carving of a vase filled with flowers,
which was made in this work by the gracious hand of Andrea, who
lavished so much excellence on the plumes of the Angels, the hair, the
grace of their features and draperies, and, in short, on every other
thing, that this divine work cannot be extolled enough. And, in truth,
that most holy place, which was the very house and habitation of the
Mother of the Son of God, could not obtain from the resources of the
world a greater, richer, or more beautiful adornment than that which it
received from the architecture of Bramante and the sculpture of Andrea
Sansovino; although, even if it were entirely of the most precious gems
of the East, it would be little more than nothing in comparison with
such merits.
Andrea spent an almost incredible amount of time over this work, and
therefore had no time to finish the others that he had begun; for, in
addition to those mentioned above, he began in a space on one of the
side-walls the Nativity of Jesus Christ, with the Shepherds and four
Angels singing; and all these he finished so well that they seem to be
wholly alive. But the story of the Magi, which he began above that one,
was afterwards finished by Girolamo Lombardo, his disciple, and by
others. On the back wall he arranged that two large scenes should be
made, one above the other; in one, the Death of Our Lady, with the
Apostles bearing her to her burial, four Angels in the air, and many
Jews seeking to steal that most holy corpse; and this was finished after
Andrea's lifetime by the sculptor Bologna. Below this one, then, he
arranged that there should be made a scene of the Miracle of Loreto,
showing in what manner that chapel, which was the Chamber of Our Lady,
wherein she was born, brought up, and saluted by the Angel, and in which
she reared her Son up to the age of twelve and lived ever after His
Death, was finally carried by the Angels, first into Sclavonia,
afterwards to a forest in the territory of Recanati, and in the end to
the place where it is now held in such veneration and continually
visited in solemn throng by all the Christian people. This scene, I say,
was executed in marble on that wall, according to the arrangement made
by Andrea, by the Florentine sculptor Tribolo, as will be related in due
place. Andrea likewise blocked out the Prophets for the niches, but did
not finish them completely, save one alone, and the others were
afterwards finished by the aforesaid Girolamo Lombardo and by other
sculptors, as will be seen in the Lives that are to follow. But with
regard to all the works wrought by Andrea in this undertaking, they are
the most beautiful and best executed works of sculpture that had ever
been made up to that time.
In like manner, the Palace of the Canons of the same church was also
carried on by Andrea, after the arrangements made by Bramante at the
commission of Pope Leo. But this, also, remained unfinished after the
death of Andrea, and the building was continued under Clement VII by
Antonio da San Gallo, and then by the architect Giovanni Boccalino,
under the patronage of the very reverend Cardinal da Carpi, up to the
year 1563. While Andrea was at work on the aforesaid Chapel of the
Virgin, there were built the fortifications of Loreto and other works,
which were highly extolled by the all-conquering Signor Giovanni de'
Medici, with whom Andrea had a very strait friendship, having become
first acquainted with him in Rome.
Having four months of holiday in the year for repose while he was
working at Loreto, he used to spend that time in agriculture at his
native place of Monte Sansovino, enjoying meanwhile a most tranquil rest
with his relatives and friends. Living thus at the Monte during the
summer, he built there a commodious house for himself and bought much
property; and for the Friars of S. Agostino in that place he had a
cloister made, which, although small, is very well designed, but also
out of the square, since those Fathers insisted on having it built over
the old walls. Andrea, however, made the interior rectangular by
increasing the thickness of the pilasters at the corners, in order to
change it from an ill-proportioned structure into one with good and true
measurements. He designed, also, for a Company that had its seat in that
cloister, under the title of S. Antonio, a very beautiful door of the
Doric Order; and likewise the tramezzo[3] and pulpit of the Church of S.
Agostino. He also caused a little chapel to be built for the friars
half-way down the hill on the descent to the fountain, without the door
that leads to the old Pieve, although they had no wish for it. He made
the design for the house of Messer Pietro, a most skilful astrologer, at
Arezzo; and a large figure of terra-cotta for Montepulciano, of King
Porsena, which was a rare work, although I have never seen it again
since the first time, so that I fear that it may have come to an evil
end. And for a German priest, who was his friend, he made a lifesize S.
Rocco of terra-cotta, very beautiful; which priest had it placed in the
Church of Battifolle, in the district of Arezzo. This was the last piece
of sculpture that Andrea executed.
He gave the design, also, for the steps ascending to the Vescovado of
Arezzo; and for the Madonna delle Lagrime, in the same city, he made the
design of a very beautiful ornament that was to be executed in marble,
with four figures, each four braccia high; but this work was carried no
farther, on account of the death of our Andrea. For he, having reached
the age of sixty-eight, and being a man who would never stay idle, set
to work to move some stakes from one place to another at his villa,
whereby he caught a chill; and in a few days, worn out by a continuous
fever, he died, in the year 1529.
The death of Andrea grieved his native place by reason of the honour
that he had brought it, and his sons and the women of his household, who
lost both their dearest one and their support. And not long ago Muzio
Camillo, one of the three aforesaid sons, who was displaying a most
beautiful intellect in the studies of learning and letters, followed
him, to the great loss of his family and displeasure of his friends.
Andrea, in addition to his profession of art, was truly a person of much
distinction, for he was wise in his discourse, and reasoned most
beautifully on every subject. He was prudent and regular in his every
action, much the friend of learned men, and a philosopher of great
natural gifts. He gave much attention to the study of cosmography, and
left to his family a number of drawings and writings on the subject of
distances and measurements. He was somewhat small in stature, but robust
and beautifully made. His hair was soft and long, his eyes light in
colour, his nose aquiline, and his skin pink and white; but he had a
slight impediment in his speech.
His disciples were the aforesaid Girolamo Lombardo, the Florentine
Simone Cioli, Domenico dal Monte Sansovino (who died soon after him),
and the Florentine Leonardo del Tasso, who made the S. Sebastian of
wood over his own tomb in S. Ambrogio at Florence, and the marble panel
of the Nuns of S. Chiara. A disciple of Andrea, likewise, was the
Florentine Jacopo Sansovino--so called after his master--of whom there
will be a long account in the proper place.
Architecture and sculpture, then, are much indebted to Andrea, in that
he enriched the one with many rules of measurement and devices for
drawing weights, and with a degree of diligence that had not been
employed before, and in the other he brought his marble to perfection
with marvellous judgment, care, and mastery.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] See note on p. 57, Vol. I.
BENEDETTO DA ROVEZZANO
LIFE OF BENEDETTO DA ROVEZZANO
SCULPTOR
Great, I think, must be the displeasure of those who, having executed
some work of genius, yet, when they hope to enjoy the fruits of this in
their old age, and to see the beautiful results achieved by other
intellects in works similar to their own, and to be able to perceive
what perfection there may be in that field of art that they themselves
have practised, find themselves robbed by adverse fortune, by time, by a
bad habit of body, or by some other cause, of the sight of their eyes;
whence they are not able, as they were before, to perceive either the
deficiencies or the perfection of men whom they hear of as living and
practising their own professions. And even more are they grieved to hear
the praises of the new masters, not through envy, but because they are
not able to judge, like others, whether that fame be well-deserved or
not.
This misfortune happened to Benedetto da Rovezzano, a sculptor of
Florence, of whom we are now about to write the Life, to the end that
the world may know how able and practised a sculptor he was, and with
what diligence he carved marble in strong relief against its ground in
the marvellous works that he made. Among the first of many labours that
this master executed in Florence, may be numbered a chimney-piece of
grey-stone that is in the house of Pier Francesco Borgherini, wherein
are capitals, friezes, and many other ornaments, carved by his hand in
open-work with great diligence. In the house of Messer Bindo Altoviti,
likewise, is a chimney-piece by the same hand, with a lavatory of
marble, and some other things executed with much delicacy; but
everything in these that has to do with architecture was designed by
Jacopo Sansovino, then a young man.
Next, in the year 1512, Benedetto received the commission for a tomb of
marble, with rich ornaments, in the principal chapel of the Carmine in
Florence, for Piero Soderini, who had been Gonfalonier in that city; and
that work was executed by him with incredible diligence, seeing that,
besides foliage, carved emblems of death, and figures, he made therein
with basanite, in low-relief, a canopy in imitation of black cloth, with
so much grace and such beautiful finish and lustre, that the stone
appears to be exquisite black satin rather than basanite. And, to put it
in a few words, for all that the hand of Benedetto did in this work
there is no praise that would not seem too little.
And since he also gave his attention to architecture, there was restored
from the design of Benedetto a house near S. Apostolo in Florence,
belonging to Messer Oddo Altoviti, Patron and Prior of that church.
There Benedetto made the principal door in marble, and, over the door of
the house, the arms of the Altoviti in grey-stone, with the wolf, lean,
excoriated, and carved in such strong relief, that it seems to be almost
separate from the shield; and some pendant ornaments carved in open-work
with such delicacy, that they appear to be not of stone, but of the
finest paper. In the same church, above the two chapels of Messer Bindo
Altoviti, for which Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo painted the panel-picture
of the Conception in oils, Benedetto made a marble tomb for the said
Messer Oddo, surrounded by an ornament full of most masterly foliage,
with a sarcophagus, likewise very beautiful.
Benedetto also executed, in competition with Jacopo Sansovino and Baccio
Bandinelli, as has been related, one of the Apostles, four and a half
braccia in height, for S. Maria del Fiore--namely, a S. John the
Evangelist, which is a passing good figure, wrought with fine design and
skill. This figure is in the Office of Works, in company with the
others.
Next, in the year 1515, the chiefs and heads of the Order of
Vallombrosa, wishing to transfer the body of S. Giovanni Gualberto from
the Abbey of Passignano to the Church of S. Trinità, an abbey of the
same Order, in Florence, commissioned Benedetto to make a design, upon
which he was to set to work, for a chapel and tomb combined, with a vast
number of lifesize figures in the round, which were to be suitably
distributed over that work in some niches separated by pilasters filled
with ornaments and friezes and with delicately carved grotesques. And
below this whole work there was to be a base one braccio and a half in
height, wherein were to be scenes from the life of the said S. Giovanni
Gualberto; while endless numbers of other ornaments were to be round the
sarcophagus, and as a crown to the work. On this tomb, then, Benedetto,
assisted by many carvers, laboured continually for ten years, with vast
expense to that Congregation; and he brought the work to completion in
their house of Guarlondo, a place near San Salvi, without the Porta alla
Croce, where the General of the Order that was having the work executed
almost always lived. Benedetto, then, carried out the making of that
chapel and tomb in such a manner as amazed Florence; but, as Fate would
have it--for even marbles and the finest works of men of excellence are
subject to the whims of fortune--after much discord among those monks,
their government was changed, and the work remained unfinished in the
same place until the year 1530. At which time, war raging round
Florence, all those labours were ruined by soldiers, the heads wrought
with such diligence were impiously struck off from the little figures,
and the whole work was so completely destroyed and broken to pieces,
that the monks afterwards sold what was left for a mere song. If any one
wishes to see a part of it, let him go to the Office of Works of S.
Maria del Fiore, where there are a few pieces, bought as broken marble
not many years ago by the officials of that place. And, in truth, even
as everything is brought to fine completion in those monasteries and
other places where peace and concord reign, so, on the contrary, nothing
ever reaches perfection or an end worthy of praise in places where there
is naught save rivalry and discord, because what takes a good and wise
man a hundred years to build up can be destroyed by an ignorant and
crazy boor in one day. And it seems as if fortune wishes that those who
know the least and delight in nothing that is excellent, should always
be the men who govern and command, or rather, ruin, everything: as was
also said of secular Princes, with no less learning than truth, by
Ariosto, at the beginning of his seventeenth canto. But returning to
Benedetto: it was a sad pity that all his labours and all the money
spent by that Order should have come to such a miserable end.
By the same architect were designed the door and vestibule of the Badia
of Florence, and likewise some chapels, among them that of S. Stefano,
erected by the family of the Pandolfini. Finally, Benedetto was summoned
to England into the service of the King, for whom he executed many works
in marble and in bronze, and, in particular, his tomb; from which works,
through the liberality of that King, he gained enough to be able to live
in comfort for the rest of his life. Thereupon he returned to Florence;
but, after he had finished some little things, a sort of giddiness,
which even in England had begun to affect his eyes, and other troubles
caused, so it was said, by standing too long over the fire in the
founding of metals, or by some other reasons, in a short time robbed him
completely of the sight of his eyes; wherefore he ceased to work about
the year 1550, and to live a few years after that. Benedetto endured
that blindness during the last years of his life with the patience of a
good Christian, thanking God that He had first enabled him, by means of
his labours, to live an honourable life.
Benedetto was a courteous gentleman, and he always delighted in the
society of men of culture. His portrait was copied from one made, when
he was a young man, by Agnolo di Donnino. This original is in our book
of drawings, wherein there are also some drawings very well executed by
the hand of Benedetto, who deserves, on account of all those works, to
be numbered among our most excellent craftsmen.
[Illustration: TOMB OF PIETRO SODERINI
(_After_ Benedetto da Rovezzano. _Florence: S. Maria del Carmine_)
_Alinari_]
BACCIO DA MONTELUPO AND RAFFAELLO, HIS SON
LIVES OF BACCIO DA MONTELUPO
SCULPTOR
AND OF RAFFAELLO, HIS SON
So strong is the belief of mankind that those who are negligent in the
arts which they profess to practise can never arrive at any perfection
in them, that it was in the face of the judgment of many that Baccio da
Montelupo learnt the art of sculpture; and this happened to him because
in his youth, led astray by pleasures, he would scarcely ever study,
and, although he was exhorted and upbraided by many, he thought little
or nothing of art. But having come to years of discretion, which bring
sense with them, he was forced straightway to learn how far he was from
the good way. Whereupon, seeing with shame that others were going ahead
of him in that art, he resolved with a stout heart to follow and
practise with all possible zeal that which in his idleness he had
hitherto shunned. This resolution was the reason that he produced in
sculpture such fruits as the opinions of many no longer expected from
him.
Having thus devoted himself with all his powers to his art, and
practising it continually, he became a rare and excellent master. And of
this he gave a proof in a work in hard-stone, wrought with the chisel,
on the corner of the garden attached to the Palace of the Pucci in
Florence; which was the escutcheon of Pope Leo X, with two children
supporting it, executed in a beautiful and masterly manner. He made a
Hercules for Pier Francesco de' Medici; and from the Guild of Porta
Santa Maria he received the commission for a statue of S. John the
Evangelist, to be executed in bronze, in securing which he had many
difficulties, since a number of masters made models in competition with
him. This figure was afterwards placed on the corner of S. Michele in
Orto, opposite to the Ufficio; and the work was finished by him with
supreme diligence. It is said that when he had made the figure in clay,
all who saw the arrangement of the armatures, and the moulds laid upon
them, held it to be a beautiful piece of work, recognizing the rare
ingenuity of Baccio in such an enterprise; and when they had seen it
cast with the utmost facility, they gave Baccio credit for having shown
supreme mastery, and having made a solid and beautiful casting. These
labours endured in that profession, brought him the name of a good and
even excellent master; and that figure is esteemed more than ever at the
present day by all craftsmen, who hold it to be most beautiful.
Setting himself also to work in wood, he carved lifesize Crucifixes, of
which he made an endless number for all parts of Italy, and among them
one that is over the door of the choir of the Monks of S. Marco at
Florence. These are all excellent and full of grace, but there are some
that are much more perfect than the rest, such as the one of the Murate
in Florence, and another, no less famous than the first, in S. Pietro
Maggiore; and for the Monks of SS. Fiora e Lucilla he made a similar
one, which they placed over the high-altar of their abbey at Arezzo, and
which is held to be much the most beautiful of them all. For the visit
of Pope Leo X to Florence, Baccio erected between the Palace of the
Podestà and the Badia a very beautiful triumphal arch of wood and clay;
with many little works, which have either disappeared or been dispersed
among the houses of citizens.
Having grown weary, however, of living in Florence, he went off to
Lucca, where he executed some works in sculpture, and even more in
architecture, in the service of that city, and, in particular, the
beautiful and well-designed Temple of S. Paulino, the Patron Saint of
the people of Lucca, built with proofs of a fine and well-trained
intelligence both within and without, and richly adorned. Living in that
city, then, up to the eighty-eighth year of his life, he ended his days
there, and received honourable burial in the aforesaid S. Paulino from
those whom he had honoured when alive.
[Illustration: S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST
(_After_ Baccio da Montelupo. _Florence: Or San Michele_)
_Alinari_]
A contemporary of Baccio was Agostino, a very famous sculptor and carver
of Milan, who began in S. Maria, at Milan, the tomb of Monsignore de
Foix, which remains unfinished even now; and in it may still be seen
many large figures, some finished, some half completed, and others only
blocked out, with a number of scenes in half-relief, in pieces and not
built in, and a great quantity of foliage and trophies. For the Biraghi,
also, he made another tomb, which is finished and erected in S.
Francesco, with six large figures, the base wrought with scenes, and
other very beautiful ornaments, which bear witness to the masterly skill
of that valiant craftsman.
Baccio left at his death, among other sons, Raffaello, who applied
himself to sculpture, and not merely equalled his father, but surpassed
him by a great measure. This Raffaello, beginning in his youth to work
in clay, in wax, and in bronze, acquired the name of an excellent
sculptor, and was therefore taken by Antonio da San Gallo to Loreto,
together with many others, in order to finish the ornamentation of that
Chamber, according to the directions left by Andrea Sansovino; where
Raffaello completely finished the Marriage of Our Lady, begun by the
said Sansovino, executing many things in a beautiful and perfect manner,
partly over the beginnings of Andrea, and partly from his own invention.
Wherefore he was deservedly esteemed to be one of the best craftsmen who
worked there in his time.