weighed down by his family. Finally, having always lived a life without
reproach, he fell grievously ill, and took to his bed; and Pope Paul
III, hearing this, and recognizing too late the harm that he was like to
suffer in the loss of so great a man, sent Jacopo Melighi, the
accountant of S. Pietro, to give him a present of one hundred crowns,
and to make him most friendly offers. However, his sickness increased,
either because it was so ordained, or, as many believe, because his
death was hastened with poison by some rival who desired his place, from
which he drew two hundred and fifty crowns of salary; and, the
physicians discovering this too late, he died, very unwilling to give up
his life, more on account of his poor family than for his own sake, as
he thought in what sore straits he was leaving them. He was much
lamented by his children and his friends, and he received honourable
burial, next to Raffaello da Urbino, in the Ritonda, whither he was
followed by all the painters, sculptors, and architects of Rome, doing
him honour and bewailing him; with the following epitaph:
BALTHASARI PERUTIO SENENSI, VIRO ET PICTURA ET ARCHITECTURA
ALIISQUE INGENIORUM ARTIBUS ADEO EXCELLENTI, UT SI PRISCORUM
OCCUBUISSET TEMPORIBUS, NOSTRA ILLUM FELICIUS LEGERENT. VIX.
ANN. LV, MENS. XI, DIES XX.
LUCRETIA ET JO. SALUSTIUS OPTIMO CONJUGI ET PARENTI, NON SINE LACRIMIS
SIMONIS, HONORII, CLAUDII, ÆMILIÆ, AC SULPITIÆ, MINORUM FILIORUM,
DOLENTES POSUERUNT, DIE IIII JANUARII, MDXXXVI.
The name and fame of Baldassarre became greater after his death than
they had been during his lifetime; and then, above all, was his talent
missed, when Pope Paul III resolved to have S. Pietro finished, because
men recognized how great a help he would have been to Antonio da San
Gallo. For, although Antonio had to his credit all that is to be seen
executed by him, yet it is believed that in company with Baldassarre he
would have done more towards solving some of the difficulties of that
work. The heir to many of the possessions of Baldassarre was Sebastiano
Serlio of Bologna, who wrote the third book on architecture and the
fourth on the antiquities of Rome with their measurements; in which
works the above-mentioned labours of Baldassarre were partly inserted in
the margins, and partly turned to great advantage by the author. Most of
these writings of Baldassarre came into the hands of Jacomo Melighino of
Ferrara, who was afterwards chosen by Pope Paul as architect for his
buildings, and of the aforesaid Francesco da Siena, his former assistant
and disciple, by whose hand is the highly renowned escutcheon of
Cardinal Trani in Piazza Navona, with some other works. From this
Francesco we received the portrait of Baldassarre, and information about
some matters which I was not able to ascertain when this book was
published for the first time. Another disciple of Baldassarre was
Virgilio Romano, who executed a façade with some prisoners in
sgraffito-work in the centre of the Borgo Nuovo in his native city, and
many other beautiful works. From the same master, also, Antonio del
Rozzo, a citizen of Siena and a very excellent engineer, learnt the
first principles of architecture; and Baldassarre was followed, in like
manner, by Riccio, a painter of Siena, who, however, afterwards imitated
to no small extent the manner of Giovanni Antonio Sodoma of Vercelli.
And another of his pupils was Giovan Battista Peloro, an architect of
Siena, who gave much attention to mathematics and cosmography, and made
with his own hand mariner's compasses, quadrants, many irons and
instruments for measuring, and likewise the ground-plans of many
fortifications, most of which are in the possession of Maestro Giuliano,
a goldsmith of Siena, who was very much his friend. This Giovan Battista
made for Duke Cosimo de' Medici a plan of Siena, all in relief and
altogether marvellous, with the valleys and the surroundings for a mile
and a half round--the walls, the streets, the forts, and, in a word, a
most beautiful model of the whole place. But, since he was unstable by
nature, he left Duke Cosimo, although he had a good allowance from that
Prince; and, thinking to do better, he made his way into France, where
he followed the Court without any success for a long time, and finally
died at Avignon. And although he was an able and well-practised
architect, yet in no place are there to be seen any buildings erected by
him or after his design, for he always stayed such a short time in any
one place, that he could never bring anything to completion; wherefore
he consumed all his time with designs, measurements, models, and
caprices. Nevertheless, as a follower of our arts, he has deserved to
have record made of him.
Baldassarre drew very well in every manner, with great judgment and
diligence, but more with the pen, in water-colours, and in chiaroscuro,
than in any other way, as may be seen from many drawings by his hand
that belong to different craftsmen. Our book, in particular, contains
various drawings; and in one of these is a scene full of invention and
caprice, showing a piazza filled with arches, colossal figures,
theatres, obelisks, pyramids, temples of various kinds, porticoes, and
other things, all after the antique, while on a pedestal stands a
Mercury, round whom are all sorts of alchemists with bellows large and
small, retorts, and other instruments for distilling, hurrying about and
giving him a clyster in order to purge his body--an invention as
ludicrous as it is beautiful and bizarre.
Friends and intimate companions of Baldassarre, who was always
courteous, modest, and gentle with every man, were Domenico Beccafumi of
Siena, an excellent painter, and Il Capanna, who, in addition to many
other works that he painted in Siena, executed the façade of the house
of the Turchi and another that is on the Piazza.
GIOVAN FRANCESCO PENNI OF FLORENCE AND PELLEGRINO DA MODENA
LIVES OF GIOVAN FRANCESCO PENNI OF FLORENCE
[_CALLED IL FATTORE_]
AND OF PELLEGRINO DA MODENA
PAINTERS
Giovan Francesco Penni, called Il Fattore, a painter of Florence, was no
less indebted to Fortune than he was to the goodness of his own nature,
in that his ways of life, his inclination for painting, and his other
qualities brought it about that Raffaello da Urbino took him into his
house and educated him together with Giulio Romano, looking on both of
them ever afterwards as his children, and proving at his death how much
he thought both of the one and of the other by leaving them heirs to his
art and to his property alike. Now Giovan Francesco, who began from his
boyhood, when he first entered the house of Raffaello, to be called Il
Fattore, and always retained that name, imitated in his drawings the
manner of Raffaello, and never ceased to follow it, as may be perceived
from some drawings by his hand that are in our book. And it is nothing
wonderful that there should be many of these to be seen, all finished
with great diligence, because he delighted much more in drawing than in
colouring.
The first works of Giovan Francesco were executed by him in the Papal
Loggie at Rome, in company with Giovanni da Udine, Perino del Vaga, and
other excellent masters; and in these may be seen a marvellous grace,
worthy of a master striving at perfection of workmanship. He was very
versatile, and he delighted much in making landscapes and buildings. He
was a good colourist in oils, in fresco, and in distemper, and made
excellent portraits from life; and he was much assisted in every respect
by nature, so that he gained great mastery over all the secrets of art
without much study. He was a great help to Raffaello, therefore, in
painting a large part of the cartoons for the tapestries of the Pope's
Chapel and of the Consistory, and particularly the ornamental borders.
He also executed many other things from the cartoons and directions of
Raffaello, such as the ceiling for Agostino Chigi in the Trastevere,
with many pictures, panels, and various other works, in which he
acquitted himself so well, that every day he won greater affection from
Raffaello. On the Monte Giordano, in Rome, he painted a façade in
chiaroscuro, and in S. Maria de Anima, by the side-door that leads to
the Pace, a S. Christopher in fresco, eight braccia high, which is a
very good figure; and in this work is a hermit with a lantern in his
hand, in a grotto, executed with good draughtsmanship, harmony, and
grace.
Giovan Francesco then came to Florence, and painted for Lodovico Capponi
at Montughi, a place without the Porta a San Gallo, a shrine with a
Madonna, which is much extolled.
Raffaello having meanwhile been overtaken by death, Giulio Romano and
Giovan Francesco, who had been his disciples, remained together for a
long time, and finished in company such of Raffaello's works as had been
left unfinished, and in particular those that he had begun in the Vigna
of the Pope, and likewise those of the Great Hall in the Palace, wherein
are painted by the hands of these two masters the stories of
Constantine, with excellent figures, executed in an able and beautiful
manner, although the invention and the sketches of these stories came in
part from Raffaello. While these works were in progress, Perino del
Vaga, a very excellent painter, took to wife a sister of Giovan
Francesco; on which account they executed many works in company. And
afterwards Giulio and Giovan Francesco, continuing to work together,
painted a panel in two parts, containing the Assumption of Our Lady,
which went to Monteluci, near Perugia; and also other works and pictures
for various places.
[Illustration: THE BAPTISM OF CONSTANTINE
(_After the fresco by =Giovanni Francesco Penni [Il Fattore]=. Rome: The
Vatican_)
_Anderson_]
Then, receiving a commission from Pope Clement to paint a panel-picture
like the one by Raffaello (which is in S. Pietro a Montorio), which was
to be sent to France, whither Raffaello had meant to send the first,
they began it; but soon afterwards, having fallen out with each other,
they divided their inheritance of drawings and everything else left
to them by Raffaello, and Giulio went off to Mantua, where he executed
an endless number of works for the Marquis. Thither, not long
afterwards, Giovan Francesco also made his way, drawn either by love of
Giulio or by the hope of finding work; but he received so cold a welcome
from Giulio that he soon departed, and, after travelling round Lombardy,
he returned to Rome. And from Rome he went to Naples by ship in the
train of the Marchese del Vasto, taking with him the now finished copy
of the panel-picture of S. Pietro a Montorio, with other works, which he
left in Ischia, an island belonging to the Marquis, while the panel was
placed where it is at the present day, in the Church of S. Spirito degli
Incurabili at Naples. Having thus settled in Naples, where he occupied
himself with drawing and painting, Giovan Francesco was entertained and
treated with great kindness by Tommaso Cambi, a Florentine merchant, who
managed the affairs of that nobleman. But he did not live there long,
because, being of a sickly habit of body, he fell ill and died, to the
great grief of the noble Marquis and of all who knew him.
He had a brother called Luca, likewise a painter, who worked in Genoa
with his brother-in-law Perino, as well as at Lucca and many other
places in Italy. In the end he went to England, where, after executing
certain works for the King and for some merchants, he finally devoted
himself to making designs for copper-plates for sending abroad, which he
had engraved by Flemings. Of such he sent abroad a great number, which
are known by his name as well as by the manner; and by his hand, among
others, is a print wherein are some women in a bath, the original of
which, by the hand of Luca himself, is in our book.
A disciple of Giovan Francesco was Leonardo, called Il Pistoia because
he came from that city, who executed some works at Lucca, and made many
portraits from life in Rome. At Naples, for Diomede Caraffa, Bishop of
Ariano, and now a Cardinal, he painted a panel-picture of the Stoning of
S. Stephen for his chapel in S. Domenico. And for Monte Oliveto he
painted another, which was placed on the high-altar, although it was
afterwards removed to make room for a new one, similar in subject, by
the hand of Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo. Leonardo earned large sums from
these Neapolitan nobles, but he accumulated little, for he squandered it
all as it came to his hand; and finally he died in Naples, leaving
behind him the reputation of having been a good colourist, but not of
having shown much excellence in draughtsmanship.
Giovan Francesco lived forty years, and his works date about 1528.
A friend of Giovan Francesco, and likewise a disciple of Raffaello, was
Pellegrino da Modena, who, having acquired in his native city the name
of a man of fine genius for painting, and having heard of the marvels of
Raffaello da Urbino, determined, in order to justify by means of labour
the hopes already conceived of him, to go to Rome. Arriving there, he
placed himself under Raffaello, who never refused anything to men of
ability. There were then in Rome very many young men who were working at
painting and seeking in mutual rivalry to surpass one another in
draughtsmanship, in order to win the favour of Raffaello and to gain a
name among men; and thus Pellegrino, giving unceasing attention to his
studies, became not only a good draughtsman, but also a well-practised
master of the whole of his art. And when Leo X commissioned Raffaello to
paint the Loggie, Pellegrino also worked there, in company with the
other young men; and so well did he succeed, that Raffaello afterwards
made use of him in many other things.
He executed three figures in fresco in S. Eustachio at Rome, over an
altar near the entrance into the church; and in the Church of the
Portuguese, near the Scrofa, he painted in fresco the Chapel of the
High-Altar, as well as the altar-piece. Afterwards, Cardinal Alborense
having caused a chapel richly adorned with marbles to be erected in S.
Jacopo, the Church of the Spanish people, with a S. James of marble by
Jacopo Sansovino, four braccia and a half in height, and much extolled,
Pellegrino painted there in fresco the stories of that Apostle, giving
an air of great sweetness to his figures in imitation of his master
Raffaello, and designing the whole composition so well, that the work
made him known as an able man with a fine and beautiful genius for
painting. This work finished, he made many others in Rome, both by
himself and in company with others.
[Illustration: THE LAST SUPPER
(_After the fresco by =Gaudenzio Milanese [Gaudenzio Ferrari]=. Milan:
S. Maria della Passione_)
_Anderson_]
But finally, when death had come upon Raffaello, Pellegrino returned to
Modena, where he executed many works; among others, he painted for a
Confraternity of Flagellants a panel-picture in oils of S. John
baptizing Christ, and another panel for the Church of the Servi,
containing S. Cosimo and S. Damiano, with other figures. Afterwards,
having taken a wife, he had a son, who was the cause of his death. For
this son, having come to words with some companions, young men of
Modena, killed one of them; the news of which being carried to
Pellegrino, he, in order to help his son from falling into the hands of
justice, set out to smuggle him away. But he had not gone far from his
house, when he stumbled against the relatives of the dead youth, who
were going about searching for the murderer; and they, confronting
Pellegrino, who had no time to escape, and full of fury because they had
not been able to catch his son, gave him so many wounds that they left
him dead on the ground. This event was a great grief to the people of
Modena, who knew that by the death of Pellegrino they had been robbed of
a spirit truly excellent and rare.
A contemporary of this craftsman was the Milanese Gaudenzio, a resolute,
well-practised, and excellent painter, who made many works in fresco at
Milan; and in particular, for the Frati della Passione, a most beautiful
Last Supper, which remained unfinished by reason of his death. He also
painted very well in oils, and there are many highly-esteemed works by
his hand at Vercelli and Veralla.
ANDREA DEL SARTO
LIFE OF ANDREA DEL SARTO
A MOST EXCELLENT PAINTER OF FLORENCE
At length, after the Lives of many craftsmen who have been excellent,
some in colouring, some in drawing, and others in invention, we have
come to the most excellent Andrea del Sarto, in whose single person
nature and art demonstrated all that painting can achieve by means of
draughtsmanship, colouring, and invention, insomuch that, if Andrea had
possessed a little more fire and boldness of spirit, to correspond to
his profound genius and judgment in his art, without a doubt he would
have had no equal. But a certain timidity of spirit and a sort of
humility and simplicity in his nature made it impossible that there
should be seen in him that glowing ardour and that boldness which, added
to his other qualities, would have made him truly divine in painting;
for which reason he lacked those adornments and that grandeur and
abundance of manners which have been seen in many other painters. His
figures, however, for all their simplicity and purity, are well
conceived, free from errors, and absolutely perfect in every respect.
The expressions of his heads, both in children and in women, are
gracious and natural, and those of men, both young and old, admirable in
their vivacity and animation; his draperies are beautiful to a marvel,
and his nudes very well conceived. And although his drawing is simple,
all that he coloured is rare and truly divine.
Andrea was born in Florence, in the year 1478, to a father who was all
his life a tailor; whence he was always called Andrea del Sarto by
everyone. Having come to the age of seven, he was taken away from his
reading and writing school and apprenticed to the goldsmith's craft. But
in this he was always much more willing to practise his hand in
drawing, to which he was drawn by a natural inclination, than in using
the tools for working in silver or gold; whence it came to pass that
Gian Barile, a painter of Florence, but one of gross and vulgar taste,
having seen the boy's good manner of drawing, took him under his
protection, and, making him abandon his work as goldsmith, directed him
to the art of painting. Andrea, beginning with much delight to practise
it, recognized that nature had created him for that profession; and in a
very short space of time, therefore, he was doing such things with
colours as filled Gian Barile and the other craftsmen in the city with
marvel. Now after three years, through continual study, he had acquired
an excellent mastery over his work, and Gian Barile saw that by
persisting in his studies the boy was likely to achieve an extraordinary
success. Having therefore spoken of him to Piero di Cosimo, who was held
at that time to be one of the best painters in Florence, he placed
Andrea with Piero. And Andrea, as one full of desire to learn, laboured
and studied without ceasing; while nature, which had created him to be a
painter, so wrought in him, that he handled and managed his colours with
as much grace as if he had been working for fifty years. Wherefore Piero
conceived an extraordinary love for him, feeling marvellous pleasure in
hearing that when Andrea had any time to himself, particularly on
feast-days, he would spend the whole day in company with other young
men, drawing in the Sala del Papa, wherein were the cartoons of
Michelagnolo and Leonardo da Vinci, and that, young as he was, he
surpassed all the other draughtsmen, both native and foreign, who were
always competing there with one another.
[Illustration: "NOLI ME TANGERE"
(_After the panel by =Andrea del Sarto=. Florence: Uffizi, 93_)
_Alinari_]
Among these young men, there was one who pleased Andrea more than any
other with his nature and conversation, namely, the painter
Franciabigio; and Franciabigio, likewise, was attracted by Andrea.
Having become friends, therefore, Andrea said to Franciabigio that he
could no longer endure the caprices of Piero, who was now old, and that
for this reason he wished to take a room for himself. Hearing this,
Franciabigio, who was obliged to do the same thing because his master
Mariotto Albertinelli had abandoned the art of painting, said to his
companion Andrea that he also was in need of a room, and that it would
be to the advantage of both of them if they were to join forces.
Having therefore taken a room on the Piazza del Grano, they executed
many works in company; among others, the curtains that cover the
panel-pictures on the high-altar of the Servi; for which they received
the commission from a sacristan very closely related to Franciabigio. On
one of those curtains, that which faces the choir, they painted the
Annunciation of the Virgin; and on the other, which is in front, a
Deposition of Christ from the Cross, like that of the panel-picture
which was there, painted by Filippo and Pietro Perugino.
The men of that company in Florence which is called the Company of the
Scalzo used to assemble at the head of the Via Larga, above the houses
of the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, and opposite to the garden of
S. Marco, in a building dedicated to S. John the Baptist, which had been
built in those days by a number of Florentine craftsmen, who had made
there, among other things, an entrance-court of masonry with a loggia
which rested on some columns of no great size. And some of them,
perceiving that Andrea was on the way to becoming known as an excellent
painter, and being richer in spirit than in pocket, determined that he
should paint round that cloister twelve pictures in chiaroscuro--that is
to say, in fresco with terretta--containing twelve scenes from the life
of S. John the Baptist. Whereupon, setting his hand to this, he painted
in the first the scene of S. John baptizing Christ, with much diligence
and great excellence of manner, whereby he gained credit, honour, and
fame to such an extent, that many persons turned to him with commissions
for works, as to one whom they thought to be destined in time to reach
that honourable goal which was foreshadowed by his extraordinary
beginnings in his profession.
Among other works that he made in that first manner, he painted a
picture which is now in the house of Filippo Spini, held in great
veneration in memory of so able a craftsman. And not long after this he
was commissioned to paint for a chapel in S. Gallo, the Church of the
Eremite Observantines of the Order of S. Augustine, without the Porta a
S. Gallo, a panel-picture of Christ appearing in the garden to Mary
Magdalene in the form of a gardener; which work, what with the colouring
and a certain quality of softness and harmony, is sweetness itself, and
so well executed, that it led to his painting two others not long
afterwards for the same church, as will be related below. This panel is
now in S. Jacopo tra Fossi, on the Canto degli Alberti, together with
the two others.
After these works, Andrea and Franciabigio, leaving the Piazza del
Grano, took new rooms in the Sapienza, near the Convent of the Nunziata;
whence it came about that Andrea and Jacopo Sansovino, who was then a
young man and was working at sculpture in the same place under his
master Andrea Contucci, formed so warm and so strait a friendship
together, that neither by day nor by night were they ever separated one
from another. Their discussions were for the most part on the
difficulties of art, so that it is no marvel that both of them should
have afterwards become most excellent, as is now being shown of Andrea
and as will be related in the proper place of Jacopo.
[Illustration: THE LAST SUPPER
(_After the fresco by =Andrea del Sarto=. Florence: S. Salvi_)
_Anderson_]