of his life, contenting himself with little, this does not mean that in
art he was otherwise than exalted in genius, most resolute, and masterly
in every sort of labour; and with his works, in addition to the
adornment that they confer on the places where they are, he rendered a
most valuable service to his fellow-craftsmen with regard to manner,
drawing, and colouring, and that with fewer errors than any other
painter of Florence, for the reason that, as has been said above, he
understood very well the management of light and shade and how to make
things recede in the darks, and painted his pictures with a sweetness
full of vivacity; not to mention that he showed us the method of working
in fresco with perfect unity and without doing much retouching on the
dry, which makes his every work appear to have been painted in a single
day. Wherefore he should serve in every place as an example to Tuscan
craftsmen, and receive supreme praise and a palm of honour among the
number of their most celebrated champions.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] Jacques de Beaune.
[7] There is here a gap in the text.
MADONNA PROPERZIA DE' ROSSI
LIFE OF MADONNA PROPERZIA DE' ROSSI
SCULPTOR[8] OF BOLOGNA
It is an extraordinary thing that in all those arts and all those
exercises wherein at any time women have thought fit to play a part in
real earnest, they have always become most excellent and famous in no
common way, as one might easily demonstrate by an endless number of
examples. Everyone, indeed, knows what they are all, without exception,
worth in household matters; besides which, in connection with war,
likewise, it is known who were Camilla, Harpalice, Valasca, Tomyris,
Penthesilea, Molpadia, Orizia, Antiope, Hippolyta, Semiramis, Zenobia,
and, finally, Mark Antony's Fulvia, who so often took up arms, as the
historian Dion tells us, to defend her husband and herself. But in
poetry, also, they have been truly marvellous, as Pausanias relates.
Corinna was very celebrated as a writer of verse, and Eustathius makes
mention in his "Catalogue of the Ships of Homer"--as does Eusebius in
his book of "Chronicles"--of Sappho, a young woman of great renown, who,
in truth, although she was a woman, was yet such that she surpassed by a
great measure all the eminent writers of that age. And Varro, on his
part, gives extraordinary but well-deserved praise to Erinna, who, with
her three hundred verses, challenged the fame of the brightest light of
Greece, and counterbalanced with her one small volume, called the
"Elecate," the ponderous "Iliad" of the great Homer. Aristophanes
celebrates Carissena, a votary of the same profession, as a woman of
great excellence and learning; and the same may be said for Teano,
Merone, Polla, Elpe, Cornificia, and Telesilla, to the last of whom, in
honour of her marvellous talents, a most beautiful statue was set up in
the Temple of Venus.
Passing by the numberless other writers of verse, do we not read that
Arete was the teacher of the learned Aristippus in the difficulties of
philosophy, and that Lastheneia and Assiotea were disciples of the
divine Plato? In the art of oratory, Sempronia and Hortensia, women of
Rome, were very famous. In grammar, so Athenæus relates, Agallis was
without an equal. And as for the prediction of the future, whether we
class this with astrology or with magic, it is enough to say that
Themis, Cassandra, and Manto had an extraordinary renown in their times;
as did Isis and Ceres in matters of agriculture, and the Thespiades in
the whole field of the sciences.
But in no other age, for certain, has it been possible to see this
better than in our own, wherein women have won the highest fame not only
in the study of letters--as has been done by Signora Vittoria del Vasto,
Signora Veronica Gambara, Signora Caterina Anguisciuola, Schioppa,
Nugarola, Madonna Laura Battiferri, and a hundred others, all most
learned as well in the vulgar tongue as in the Latin and the Greek--but
also in every other faculty. Nor have they been too proud to set
themselves with their little hands, so tender and so white, as if to
wrest from us the palm of supremacy, to manual labours, braving the
roughness of marble and the unkindly chisels, in order to attain to
their desire and thereby win fame; as did, in our own day, Properzia de'
Rossi of Bologna, a young woman excellent not only in household matters,
like the rest of them, but also in sciences without number, so that all
the men, to say nothing of the women, were envious of her.
This Properzia was very beautiful in person, and played and sang in her
day better than any other woman of her city. And because she had an
intellect both capricious and very ready, she set herself to carve
peach-stones, which she executed so well and with such patience, that
they were singular and marvellous to behold, not only for the subtlety
of the work, but also for the grace of the little figures that she made
in them and the delicacy with which they were distributed. And it was
certainly a miracle to see on so small a thing as a peach-stone the
whole Passion of Christ, wrought in most beautiful carving, with a vast
number of figures in addition to the Apostles and the ministers of the
Crucifixion. This encouraged her, since there were decorations to be
made for the three doors of the first façade of S. Petronio all in
figures of marble, to ask the Wardens of Works, by means of her husband,
for a part of that work; at which they were quite content, on the
condition that she should let them see some work in marble executed by
her own hand. Whereupon she straightway made for Count Alessandro de'
Peppoli a portrait from life in the finest marble, representing his
father, Count Guido, which gave infinite pleasure not only to them, but
also to the whole city; and the Wardens of Works, therefore, did not
fail to allot a part of the work to her. In this, to the vast delight of
all Bologna, she made an exquisite scene, wherein--because at that time
the poor woman was madly enamoured of a handsome young man, who seemed
to care but little for her--she represented the wife of Pharaoh's
Chamberlain, who, burning with love for Joseph, and almost in despair
after so much persuasion, finally strips his garment from him with a
womanly grace that defies description. This work was esteemed by all to
be most beautiful, and it was a great satisfaction to herself, thinking
that with this illustration from the Old Testament she had partly
quenched the raging fire of her own passion. Nor would she ever do any
more work in connection with that building, although there was no person
who did not beseech her that she should go on with it, save only Maestro
Amico, who out of envy always dissuaded her and went so far with his
malignity, ever speaking ill of her to the Wardens, that she was paid a
most beggarly price for her work.
She also made two angels in very strong relief and beautiful
proportions, which may now be seen, although against her wish, in the
same building. In the end she devoted herself to copper-plate engraving,
which she did without reproach, gaining the highest praise. And so the
poor love-stricken young woman came to succeed most perfectly in
everything, save in her unhappy passion.
The fame of an intellect so noble and so exalted spread throughout all
Italy, and finally came to the ears of Pope Clement VII, who,
immediately after he had crowned the Emperor in Bologna, made inquiries
after her; but he found that the poor woman had died that very week, and
had been buried in the Della Morte Hospital, as she had directed in her
last testament. At which the Pope, who was eager to see her, felt much
sorrow at her death; but more bitter even was it for her
fellow-citizens, who regarded her during her lifetime as one of the
greatest miracles produced by nature in our days.
In our book are some very good drawings by the hand of this Properzia,
done with the pen and copied from the works of Raffaello da Urbino; and
her portrait was given to me by certain painters who were very much her
friends.
[Illustration: TWO ANGELS, _after_ Madonna Properzia de' Rossi
(THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN, _after_ Tribolo)
(_Bologna: S. Petronio_)
_Alinari_]
But, although Properzia drew very well, there have not been wanting
women not only to equal her in drawing, but also to do as good work in
painting as she did in sculpture. Of these the first is Sister
Plautilla, a nun and now Prioress in the Convent of S. Caterina da
Siena, on the Piazza di S. Marco in Florence. She, beginning little by
little to draw and to imitate in colours pictures and paintings by
excellent masters, has executed some works with such diligence, that she
has caused the craftsmen to marvel. By her hand are two panels in the
Church of that Convent of S. Caterina, of which the one with the Magi
adoring Jesus is much extolled. In the choir of the Convent of S. Lucia,
at Pistoia, there is a large panel, containing Our Lady with the Child
in her arms, S. Thomas, S. Augustine, S. Mary Magdalene, S. Catherine of
Siena, S. Agnese, S. Catherine the Martyr, and S. Lucia; and another
large panel by the same hand was sent abroad by the Director of the
Hospital of Lelmo. In the refectory of the aforesaid Convent of S.
Caterina there is a great Last Supper, with a panel in the work-room,
both by the hand of the same nun. And in the houses of gentlemen
throughout Florence there are so many pictures, that it would be tedious
to attempt to speak of them all. A large picture of the Annunciation
belongs to the wife of the Spaniard, Signor Mondragone, and Madonna
Marietta de' Fedini has another like it. There is a little picture of
Our Lady in S. Giovannino, at Florence; and an altar-predella in S.
Maria del Fiore, containing very beautiful scenes from the life of S.
Zanobi. And because this venerable and talented sister, before
executing panels and works of importance, gave attention to painting in
miniature, there are in the possession of various people many
wonderfully beautiful little pictures by her hand, of which there is no
need to make mention. The best works from her hand are those that she
has copied from others, wherein she shows that she would have done
marvellous things if she had enjoyed, as men do, advantages for
studying, devoting herself to drawing, and copying living and natural
objects. And that this is true is seen clearly from a picture of the
Nativity of Christ, copied from one which Bronzino once painted for
Filippo Salviati. In like manner, the truth of such an opinion is proved
by this, that in her works the faces and features of women, whom she has
been able to see as much as she pleased, are no little better than the
heads of the men, and much nearer to the reality. In the faces of women
in some of her works she has portrayed Madonna Costanza de' Doni, who
has been in our time an unexampled pattern of beauty and dignity;
painting her so well, that it is impossible to expect more from a woman
who, for the reasons mentioned above, has had no great practice in her
art.
With much credit to herself, likewise, has Madonna Lucrezia, the
daughter of Messer Alfonso Quistelli della Mirandola, and now the wife
of Count Clemente Pietra, occupied herself with drawing and painting, as
she still does, after having been taught by Alessandro Allori, the pupil
of Bronzino; as may be seen from many pictures and portraits executed by
her hand, which are worthy to be praised by all. But Sofonisba of
Cremona, the daughter of Messer Amilcaro Anguisciuola, has laboured at
the difficulties of design with greater study and better grace than any
other woman of our time, and she has not only succeeded in drawing,
colouring, and copying from nature, and in making excellent copies of
works by other hands, but has also executed by herself alone some very
choice and beautiful works of painting. Wherefore she well deserved that
King Philip of Spain, having heard of her merits and abilities from the
Lord Duke of Alba, should have sent for her and caused her to be
escorted in great honour to Spain, where he keeps her with a rich
allowance about the person of the Queen, to the admiration of all that
Court, which reveres the excellence of Sofonisba as a miracle. And it is
no long time since Messer Tommaso Cavalieri, a Roman gentleman, sent to
the Lord Duke Cosimo (in addition to a drawing by the hand of the divine
Michelagnolo, wherein is a Cleopatra) another drawing by the hand of
Sofonisba, containing a little girl laughing at a boy who is weeping
because one of the cray-fish out of a basket full of them, which she has
placed in front of him, is biting his finger; and there is nothing more
graceful to be seen than that drawing, or more true to nature.
Wherefore, in memory of the talent of Sofonisba, who lives in Spain, so
that Italy has no abundance of her works, I have placed it in my book of
drawings.
We may truly say, then, with the divine Ariosto, that--
Le donne son venute in eccellenza
Di ciascun' arte ov' hanno posto cura.
And let this be the end of the Life of Properzia, sculptor of Bologna.
FOOTNOTE:
[8] The translator is unwilling to use the somewhat ugly word
"sculptress."
ALFONSO LOMBARDI OF FERRARA, MICHELAGNOLO DA SIENA, GIROLAMO SANTA CROCE
OF NAPLES, DOSSO AND BATTISTA DOSSI
LIVES OF ALFONSO LOMBARDI OF FERRARA, MICHELAGNOLO DA SIENA, AND
GIROLAMO SANTA CROCE OF NAPLES
SCULPTORS
AND DOSSO AND BATTISTA DOSSI
PAINTERS OF FERRARA
Alfonso of Ferrara, working in his early youth with stucco and wax, made
an endless number of portraits from life on little medallions for many
nobles and gentlemen of his own country. Some of these are still to be
seen, white in colour and made of wax or stucco, and bear witness to the
fine intellect and judgment that he possessed; such as those of Prince
Doria, of Duke Alfonso of Ferrara, of Clement VII, of the Emperor
Charles V, of Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, of Bembo, of Ariosto, and of
other suchlike personages. Finding himself in Bologna at the coronation
of Charles V, he executed the decorations of the door of S. Petronio as
a part of the preparations for that festival; and he had come into such
repute through being the first to introduce the good method of making
portraits from life in the form of medals, as has been related, that
there was not a single man of distinction in those Courts for whom he
did not execute some work, to his own great profit and honour. But, not
being content with the gain and the glory that came to him from making
works in clay, in wax, and in stucco, he set himself to work in marble;
and such was the proficience that he showed in some things that he made,
although these were of little importance, that he was commissioned to
execute the tomb of Ramazzotto, which brought him very great fame and
honour, in S. Michele in Bosco, without Bologna. After that work he made
some little scenes of marble in half-relief on the predella of the
altar at the tomb of S. Dominic, in the same city. And for the door of
S. Petronio, also, on the left hand of the entrance into the church, he
executed some little scenes in marble, containing a very beautiful
Resurrection of Christ. But what pleased the people of Bologna most of
all was the Death of Our Lady, wrought with a very hard mixture of clay
and stucco, with figures in full-relief, in an upper room of the Della
Vita Hospital; and marvellous, among other things in that work, is the
Jew who leaves his hands fixed to the bier of the Madonna. With the same
mixture, also, he made a large Hercules with the dead Hydra under his
feet, for the upper room of the Governor in the Palazzo Pubblico of that
city; which statue was executed in competition with Zaccaria da
Volterra, who was greatly surpassed by the ability and excellence of
Alfonso. For the Madonna del Baracane the same master made two Angels in
stucco, who are upholding a canopy in half-relief; and in some
medallions in the middle aisle of S. Giuseppe, between one arch and
another, he made the twelve Apostles from the waist upwards, of
terra-cotta and in full-relief. In terra-cotta, likewise, for the
corners of the vaulting of the Madonna del Popolo in the same city, he
executed four figures larger than life; namely, S. Petronio, S. Procolo,
S. Francis, and S. Dominic, figures which are all very beautiful and
grand in manner. And by the hand of the same man are some works in
stucco at Castel Bolognese, and some others in the Company of S.
Giovanni at Cesena.
Let no one marvel that hitherto our account of this master has dealt
with scarcely any work save in clay, wax, and stucco, and very little in
marble, because--besides the fact that Alfonso was always inclined to
that sort of work--after passing a certain age, being very handsome in
person and youthful in appearance, he practised art more for pleasure
and to satisfy his own vanity than with any desire to set himself to
chisel stone. He used always to wear on his arms, on his neck, and in
his clothing, ornaments of gold and suchlike fripperies, which showed
him to be rather a courtier, vain and wanton, than a craftsman desirous
of glory. Of a truth, just as such ornaments enhance the splendour of
those to whom, on account of their wealth, high estate, and noble blood,
they are becoming, so are they worthy of reproach in craftsmen and
others, who should not measure themselves, some for one reason and some
for another, with the rich, seeing that such persons, in place of being
praised, are held in less esteem by men of judgment, and often laughed
to scorn. Now Alfonso, charmed with himself and indulging in expressions
and wanton excesses little worthy of a good craftsman, on one occasion
robbed himself through this behaviour of all the glory that he had won
by labouring at his profession. For one evening, chancing to be at a
wedding in the house of a Count in Bologna, and having made love for
some time to a lady of quality, he had the luck to be invited by her to
dance the torch-dance; whereupon, whirling round with her, and overcome
by the frenzy of his passion, he said with a trembling voice, sighing
deeply, and gazing at his lady with eyes full of tenderness: "S'amor non
è, che dunque è quel ch' io sento?"[9] Hearing this, the lady, who had a
shrewd wit, answered, in order to show him his error: "A louse,
perhaps." Which answer was heard by many, so that the saying ran through
all Bologna, and he was held to scorn ever afterwards. Truly, if Alfonso
had given his attention not to the vanities of the world, but to the
labours of art, without a doubt he would have produced marvellous works;
for if he achieved this in part without exerting himself much, what
would he have done if he had faced the dust and heat?
The aforesaid Emperor Charles V being in Bologna, and the most excellent
Tiziano da Cadore having come to make a portrait of his Majesty, Alfonso
likewise was seized with a desire to execute a portrait of that
Sovereign. And having no other means of contriving to do that, he
besought Tiziano, without revealing to him what he had in mind, that he
should do him the favour of introducing him, in the place of one of
those who used to carry his colours, into the presence of his Majesty.
Wherefore Tiziano, who loved him much, like the truly courteous man that
he has always been, took Alfonso with him into the apartments of the
Emperor. Alfonso, as soon as Tiziano had settled down to work, took up a
position behind him, in such a way that he could not be seen by the
other, who was wholly intent on his portrait; and, taking up a little
box in the shape of a medallion, he made therein a portrait of the
Emperor in stucco, and had it finished at the very moment when Tiziano
had likewise brought his picture to completion. The Emperor then rising,
Alfonso closed the box and had already hidden it in his sleeve, to the
end that Tiziano might not see it, when his Majesty said to him: "Show
me what you have done." He was thus forced to give his portrait humbly
into the hand of the Emperor, who, having examined it and praised it
highly, said to him: "Would you have the courage to do it in marble?"
"Yes, your sacred Majesty," answered Alfonso. "Do it, then," added the
Emperor, "and bring it to me in Genoa." How unusual this proceeding must
have seemed to Tiziano every man may imagine for himself. For my part, I
believe that it must have appeared to him that he had compromised his
credit. But what must have seemed to him most strange was this, that
when his Majesty sent a present of a thousand crowns to Tiziano, he bade
him give the half, or five hundred crowns, to Alfonso, keeping the other
five hundred for himself, at which it is likely enough that Tiziano felt
aggrieved. Alfonso, then, setting to work with the greatest zeal in his
power, brought the marble head to completion with such diligence, that
it was pronounced to be a very fine thing: which was the reason that,
when he had taken it to the Emperor, his Majesty ordered that three
hundred crowns more should be given to him.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF THE VIRGIN
(_After the terra-cotta by =Alfonso Lombardi=. Bologna: S. Maria della
Vita_)
_Poppi_]
Alfonso having come into great repute through the gifts and praises
bestowed on him by the Emperor, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici took him to
Rome, where he kept many sculptors and painters about his person, in
addition to a vast number of other men of ability; and he commissioned
him to make a copy in marble of a very famous antique head of the
Emperor Vitellius. In that work Alfonso justified the opinion held of
him by the Cardinal and by all Rome, and he was charged by the same
patron to make a portrait-bust in marble of Pope Clement VII, after the
life, and shortly afterwards one of Giuliano de' Medici, father of the
Cardinal; but the latter was left not quite finished. These heads were
afterwards sold in Rome, and bought by me at the request of the
Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, together with some pictures; and in
our own day they have been placed by the Lord Duke Cosimo de' Medici in
that hall of the new apartments of his palace wherein I have painted, on
the ceiling and the walls, all the stories of Pope Leo X; they have been
placed, I say, in that hall, over the doors made of that red veined
marble which is found near Florence, in company with the heads of other
illustrious men of the house of Medici.
But returning to Alfonso; he then went on to execute many works in
sculpture for the same Cardinal, but these, being small things, have
disappeared. After the death of Clement, when a tomb had to be made for
him and also for Leo, the work was allotted by Cardinal de' Medici to
Alfonso; whereupon he made a model with figures of wax, which was held
to be very beautiful, after some sketches by Michelagnolo Buonarroti,
and went off to Carrara with money to have the marble quarried. But not
long afterwards the Cardinal, having departed from Rome on his way to
Africa, died at Itri, and the work slipped out of the hands of Alfonso,
because he was dismissed by its executors, Cardinals Salviati, Ridolfi,
Pucci, Cibo, and Gaddi, and it was entrusted by the favour of Madonna
Lucrezia Salviati, daughter of the great Lorenzo de' Medici, the elder,
and sister of Leo, to Baccio Bandinelli, a sculptor of Florence, who had
made models for it during the lifetime of Clement.