beside himself, determined to return to Bologna; and, having arrived in
Florence, he presented to Duke Alessandro a most beautiful head in
marble of the Emperor Charles V, which is now in Carrara, whither it was
sent by Cardinal Cibo, who removed it after the death of Duke Alessandro
from the guardaroba of that Prince. The Duke, when Alfonso arrived in
Florence, was in the humour to have his portrait taken; for it had
already been done on medals by Domenico di Polo, a gem-engraver, and by
Francesco di Girolamo dal Prato, for the coinage by Benvenuto Cellini,
and in painting by Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo and Jacopo da Pontormo, and
he wished that Alfonso should likewise portray him. Wherefore he made a
very beautiful portrait of him in relief, much better than the one
executed by Danese da Carrara, and then, since he was wholly set on
going to Bologna, he was given the means to make one there in marble,
after the model. And so, having received many gifts and favours from
Duke Alessandro, Alfonso returned to Bologna, where, being still far
from content on account of the death of the Cardinal, and sorely vexed
by the loss of the tombs, there came upon him a pestilent and incurable
disease of the skin, which wasted him away little by little, until,
having reached the age of forty-nine, he passed to a better life, never
ceasing to rail at Fortune, which had robbed him of a patron to whom he
might have looked for all the blessings which could make him happy in
this life, and saying that she should have closed his own eyes, since
she had reduced him to such misery, rather than those of Cardinal
Ippolito de' Medici. Alfonso died in the year 1536.
[Illustration: TOMB OF ADRIAN VI
(_After_ Michelagnolo da Siena. _Rome: S. Maria dell' Anima_)
_Anderson_]
Michelagnolo, a sculptor of Siena, after he had spent the best years of
his life in Sclavonia with other excellent sculptors, made his way to
Rome on the following occasion. After the death of Pope Adrian, Cardinal
Hincfort, who had been the friend and favourite of that Pontiff,
determined, as one not ungrateful for the benefits received from him, to
erect to him a tomb of marble; and he gave the charge of this to
Baldassarre Peruzzi, the painter of Siena. And that master, having made
the model, desired that the sculptor Michelagnolo, his friend and
compatriot, should undertake the work on his own account. Michelagnolo,
therefore, made on that tomb a lifesize figure of Pope Adrian, lying
upon the sarcophagus and portrayed from nature, with a scene, also in
marble, below him, showing his arrival in Rome and the Roman people
going to meet him and to do him homage. Around the tomb, moreover, in
four niches, are four Virtues in marble, Justice, Fortitude, Peace, and
Prudence, all executed with much diligence by the hand of Michelagnolo
after the counsel of Baldassarre. It is true, indeed, that some of the
things that are in this work were wrought by the Florentine sculptor,
Tribolo, then a very young man, and these were considered the best of
all; but Michelagnolo executed the minor details of the work with
supreme diligence and subtlety, and the little figures that are in it
deserve to be extolled more than all the rest. Among other things, there
are some variegated marbles wrought with a high finish, and put
together so well that nothing more could be desired. For these
labours Michelagnolo received a just and honourable reward from the
aforesaid Cardinal, and was treated with much favour by him for the rest
of his life; and, in truth, with right good reason, seeing that this
tomb and the Cardinal's gratitude have done as much to bring fame to him
as did the work to give a name to Michelagnolo in his lifetime and
renown after his death. This work finished, no long time elapsed before
Michelagnolo passed from this life to the next, at about the age of
fifty.
Girolamo Santa Croce of Naples, although he was snatched from us by
death in the very prime of life, at a time when greater things were
looked for from him, yet showed in the works of sculpture that he made
at Naples during his few years, what he would have done if he had lived
longer; for the works that he executed in sculpture at Naples were
wrought and finished with all the lovingness that could be desired in a
young man who wishes to surpass by a great measure those who for many
years before his day have held the sovereignty in some noble profession.
In S. Giovanni Carbonaro at Naples he built the Chapel of the Marchese
di Vico, which is a round temple, partitioned by columns and niches,
with some tombs carved with much diligence. And because the altar-piece
of this chapel, made of marble in half-relief and representing the Magi
bringing their offerings to Christ, is by the hand of a Spaniard,
Girolamo executed in emulation of this work a S. John in a niche, so
beautifully wrought in full-relief, that it showed that he was not
inferior to the Spaniard either in courage or in judgment; on which
account he won such a name, that, although Giovanni da Nola was held in
Naples to be a marvellous sculptor and better than any other,
nevertheless Girolamo worked in competition with him as long as he
lived, notwithstanding that his rival was now old and had executed a
vast number of works in that city, where it is much the custom to make
chapels and altar-pieces of marble. Competing with Giovanni, then,
Girolamo undertook to execute a chapel in Monte Oliveto at Naples, just
within the door of the church, on the left hand, while Giovanni executed
another opposite to his, on the other side, in the same style. In his
chapel Girolamo made a lifesize Madonna in the round, which is held to
be a very beautiful figure; and since he took infinite pains in
executing the draperies and the hands, and in giving bold relief to the
marble by undercutting, he brought it to such perfection that it was the
general opinion that he had surpassed all those who had handled tools
for working marble at Naples in his time. This Madonna he placed between
a S. John and a S. Peter, figures very well conceived and executed, and
finished in a beautiful manner, as are also some children which are
placed above them.
In addition to these, he made two large and most beautiful statues in
full-relief for the Church of Capella, a seat of the Monks of Monte
Oliveto. He then began a statue of the Emperor Charles V, at the time of
his return from Tunis; but after he had blocked it and carved it with
the pointed chisel, and even in some places with the broad-toothed
chisel, it remained unfinished, because fortune and death, envying the
world such excellence, snatched him from us at the age of thirty-five.
It was confidently expected that Girolamo, if he had lived, even as he
had outstripped all his compatriots in his profession, would also have
surpassed all the craftsmen of his time. Wherefore his death was a
grievous blow to the Neapolitans, and all the more because he had been
endowed by nature not only with a most beautiful genius, but also with
as much modesty, sweetness, and gentleness as could be looked for in
mortal man; so that it is no marvel if all those who knew him are not
able to restrain their tears when they speak of him. His last sculptures
were executed in 1537, in which year he was buried at Naples with most
honourable obsequies.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SS. PETER AND JOHN
(_After the altar-piece_ by Girolamo Santa Croce. _Naples: Monte
Oliveto_)
_Alinari_]
Old as he was, Giovanni da Nola, who was a well-practised sculptor, as
may be seen from many works made by him at Naples with good skill of
hand, but not with much design, still remained alive. Him Don Pedro di
Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca, and at that time Viceroy of Naples,
commissioned to execute a tomb of marble for himself and his wife; and
therein Giovanni made a great number of scenes of the victories obtained
by that lord over the Turks, with many statues for the same work, which
stands quite by itself, and was executed with much diligence. This tomb
was to have been taken to Spain; but, since that nobleman did not do
this while he was alive, it remained in Naples. Giovanni died at the age
of seventy, and was buried in Naples, in the year 1558.
About the same time that Heaven presented to Ferrara, or rather, to the
world, the divine Lodovico Ariosto, there was born in the same city the
painter Dosso, who, although he was not as rare among painters as
Ariosto among poets, nevertheless acquitted himself in his art in such a
manner, that, besides the great esteem wherein his works were held in
Ferrara, his merits caused the learned poet, his intimate friend, to
honour his memory by mentioning him in his most celebrated writings; so
that the pen of Messer Lodovico has given more renown to the name of
Dosso than did all the brushes and colours that he used in the whole of
his life. Wherefore I, for my part, declare that there could be no
greater good-fortune than that of those who are celebrated by such great
men, since the might of the pen forces most of mankind to accept their
fame, even though they may not wholly deserve it.
Dosso was much beloved by Duke Alfonso of Ferrara: first for his good
abilities in the art of painting, and then because he was a very
pleasant and amiable person--a manner of man in whom the Duke greatly
delighted. Dosso had the reputation in Lombardy of executing landscapes
better than any other painter engaged in that branch of the profession,
whether in mural painting, in oils, or in gouache; and all the more
after the German manner became known. In Ferrara, for the Cathedral
Church, he executed a panel-picture with figures in oils, which was held
to be passing beautiful; and in the Duke's Palace he painted many rooms,
in company with a brother of his, called Battista. These two were always
enemies, one against the other, although they worked together by the
wish of the Duke. In the court of the said palace they executed stories
of Hercules in chiaroscuro, with an endless number of nudes on those
walls; and in like manner they painted many works on panel and in fresco
throughout all Ferrara. By their hands is a panel in the Duomo of
Modena; and they painted many things in the Cardinal's Palace at Trento,
in company with other painters.
At this same time the painter and architect, Girolamo Genga, was
executing various decorations in the Imperiale Palace, above Pesaro, as
will be related in the proper place, for Duke Francesco Maria of Urbino;
and among the number of painters who were summoned to that work by order
of the same Signor Francesco Maria, invitations were sent to Dosso and
Battista of Ferrara, principally for the painting of landscapes; many
paintings having been executed long before in that palace by Francesco
di Mirozzo[10] of Forlì, Raffaello dal Colle of Borgo a San Sepolcro,
and many others. Now, having arrived at the Imperiale, Dosso and
Battista, according to the custom of men of their kidney, found fault
with most of the paintings that they saw, and promised the Duke that
they would do much better work; and Genga, who was a shrewd person,
seeing how the matter was likely to end, gave them an apartment to paint
by themselves. Thereupon, setting to work, they strove with all labour
and diligence to display their worth; but, whatever may have been the
reason, never in all the course of their lives did they do any work less
worthy of praise, or rather, worse, than that one. It seems often to
happen, indeed, that in their greatest emergencies, when most is
expected of them, men become blinded and bewildered in judgment, and do
worse work than at any other time; which may result, perchance, from
their own malign and evil disposition to be always finding fault with
the works of others, or from their seeking to force their genius
overmuch, seeing that to proceed step by step according to the ruling of
nature, yet without neglecting diligence and study, appears to be a
better method than seeking to wrest from the brain, as it were by force,
things that are not there; and it is a fact that in the other arts as
well, but above all in that of writing, lack of spontaneity is only too
easily recognized, and also, so to speak, over-elaboration in
everything.
[Illustration: DOSSO DOSSI: A NYMPH WITH A SATYR
(_Florence: Pitti_, 147. _Canvas_)]
Now, when the work of the Dossi was unveiled, it proved to be so
ridiculous that they left the service of the Duke in disgrace; and he
was forced to throw to the ground all that they had executed, and to
have it repainted by others after the designs of Genga.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SS. GEORGE AND MICHAEL
(_After the painting by =Dosso Dossi=. Modena: Pinacoteca, 437_)
_Anderson_]
Finally, they painted a very beautiful panel-picture in the Duomo of
Faenza for the Chevalier, M. Giovan Battista de' Buosi, of Christ
disputing in the Temple; in which work they surpassed themselves, by
reason of the new manner that they used, and particularly in the
portraits of that Chevalier and of others. That picture was set up in
that place in the year 1536. Ultimately Dosso, having grown old, spent
his last years without working, being pensioned until the close of his
life by Duke Alfonso. And in the end Battista survived him, executing
many works by himself, and maintaining himself in a good condition.
Dosso was buried in his native city of Ferrara.
There lived in the same times the Milanese Bernazzano, a very excellent
painter of landscapes, herbage, animals, and other things of earth, air,
and water. And since, as one who knew himself to have little aptitude
for figures, he did not give much attention to them, he associated
himself with Cesare da Sesto, who painted them very well and in a
beautiful manner. It is said that Bernazzano executed in a courtyard
some very beautiful landscapes in fresco, in which he painted a
strawberry-bed full of strawberries, ripe, green, and in blossom, and so
well imitated, that some peacocks, deceived by their natural appearance,
were so persistent in picking at them as to make holes in the plaster.
FOOTNOTE:
[9] "What is it that I feel, if it is not love?"
[10] This seems to be an error for Melozzo.
GIOVANNI ANTONIO LICINIO OF PORDENONE, AND OTHER PAINTERS OF FRIULI
LIVES OF GIOVANNI ANTONIO LICINIO OF PORDENONE, AND OF OTHER PAINTERS OF
FRIULI
It would seem, as has been remarked already in the same connection, that
Nature, the kindly mother of the universe, sometimes presents the rarest
things to certain places that never had any knowledge of such gifts, and
that at times she creates in some country men so much inclined to design
and to painting, that, without masters, but only by imitating living and
natural objects, they become most excellent. And it also happens very
often that when one man has begun, many set themselves to work in
competition with him, and labour to such purpose, without seeing Rome,
Florence, or any other place full of notable pictures, but merely
through rivalry one with another, that marvellous works are seen to
issue from their hands. All this may be seen to have happened more
particularly in Friuli, where, in our own day, in consequence of such a
beginning, there has been a vast number of excellent painters--a thing
which had not occurred in those parts for many centuries.
While Giovanni Bellini was working in Venice and teaching his art to
many, as has been related, he had two disciples who were rivals one with
another--Pellegrino da Udine, who, as will be told, was afterwards
called Da San Daniele, and Giovanni Martini of Udine. Let us begin,
then, by speaking of Giovanni. He always imitated the manner of Bellini,
which was somewhat crude, hard, and dry; nor was he ever able to give it
sweetness or softness, although he was a diligent and finished painter.
This may have happened because he was always making trial of certain
reflections, half-lights, and shadows, with which, cutting the relief in
the middle, he contrived to define light and shade very abruptly, in
such a way that the colouring of all his works was always crude and
unpleasant, although he strove laboriously with his art to imitate
Nature. By the hand of this master are numerous works in many places in
Friuli, particularly in the city of Udine, in the Duomo of which there
is a panel-picture executed in oils, of S. Mark seated with many figures
round him, which is held to be the best of all that he ever painted.
There is another on the altar of S. Ursula in the Church of the Friars
of S. Pietro Martire, wherein the first-mentioned Saint is standing with
some of her virgins round her, all painted with much grace and beautiful
expressions of countenance. This Giovanni, besides being a passing good
painter, was endowed by Nature with beauty and grace of features and an
excellent character, and, what is most desirable, with such foresight
and power of management, that, after his death, in default of heirs
male, he left an inheritance of much property to his wife. And she,
being, so I have heard, a lady as shrewd as she was beautiful, knew so
well how to manage her life after the death of her husband, that she
married two very beautiful daughters into the richest and most noble
houses of Udine.
Pellegrino da San Daniele, who was a rival of Giovanni, as has been
related, and a man of greater excellence in painting, received at
baptism the name of Martino. But Giovanni Bellini, judging that he was
destined to become, as he afterwards did, a truly rare master of art,
changed his name from Martino to Pellegrino.[11] And even as his name
was changed, so he may be said by chance to have changed his country,
since, living by preference at San Daniele, a township ten miles distant
from Udine, and spending most of his time in that place, where he had
taken a wife, he was called ever afterwards not Martino da Udine, but
Pellegrino da San Daniele. He painted many pictures in Udine, and some
may still be seen on the doors of the old organ, on the outer side of
which is painted a sunken arch in perspective, containing a S. Peter
seated among a multitude of figures and handing a pastoral staff to S.
Ermacora the Bishop. On the inner side of the same doors, likewise, in
some niches, he painted the four Doctors of the Church in the act of
studying. For the Chapel of S. Giuseppe he executed a panel-picture in
oils, drawn and coloured with much diligence, in the middle of which is
S. Joseph standing in a beautiful attitude, with an air of dignity, and
beside him is Our Lord as a little Child, while S. John the Baptist is
below in the garb of a little shepherd-boy, gazing intently on his
Master. And since this picture is much extolled, we may believe what is
said of it--namely, that he painted it in competition with the aforesaid
Giovanni, and that he put forward every effort to make it, as it proved
to be, more beautiful than that which Giovanni painted of S. Mark, as
has been related above. Pellegrino also painted at Udine, for the house
of Messer Pre Giovanni, intendant to the illustrious Signori della
Torre, a picture of Judith from the waist upwards, with the head of
Holofernes in one hand, which is a very beautiful work. By the hand of
the same man is a large panel in oils, divided into several pictures,
which may be seen on the high-altar of the Church of S. Maria in the
town of Civitale, at a distance of eight miles from Udine; and in it are
some heads of virgins and other figures with great beauty of expression.
And in his township of San Daniele, in a chapel of S. Antonio, he
painted in fresco scenes of the Passion of Jesus Christ, and that so
finely that he well deserved to be paid more than a thousand crowns for
the work. He was much beloved for his talents by the Dukes of Ferrara,
and, in addition to other favours and many gifts, he obtained through
their good offices two Canonicates in the Duomo of Udine for two of his
relatives.
Among his pupils, of whom he had many, making much use of them and
rewarding them liberally, was one of Greek nationality, a man of no
little ability, who had a very beautiful manner and imitated Pellegrino
closely. But Luca Monverde of Udine, who was much beloved by Pellegrino,
would have been superior to the Greek, if he had not been snatched from
the world prematurely when still a mere lad; although one work by his
hand was left on the high-altar of S. Maria delle Grazie in Udine, a
panel-picture in oils, his first and last, in which, in a recess in
perspective, there is a Madonna seated on high with the Child in her
arms, painted by him with a soft gradation of shadow, while on the level
surface below there are two figures on either side, so beautiful that
they show that if he had lived longer he would have become truly
excellent.
Another disciple of the same Pellegrino was Bastianello Florigorio, who
painted a panel-picture that is over the high-altar of S. Giorgio in
Udine, of a Madonna in the sky surrounded by an endless number of little
angels in various attitudes, all adoring the Child that she holds in her
arms; while below there is a very well executed landscape. There is also
a very beautiful S. John, and a S. George in armour and on horseback,
who, foreshortened in a spirited attitude, is slaying the Dragon with
his lance; while the Maiden, who is there on one side, appears to be
thanking God and the glorious Virgin for the succour sent to her. In the
head of the S. George Bastianello is said to have made his own portrait.
He also painted two pictures in fresco in the Refectory of the Friars of
S. Pietro Martire: in one is Christ seated at table with the two
disciples at Emmaus, and breaking the bread with a benediction, and in
the other is the death of S. Peter Martyr. The same master painted in
fresco in a niche on a corner of the Palace of M. Marguando, an
excellent physician, a nude man in foreshortening, representing a S.
John, which is held to be a good painting. Finally, he was forced
through some dispute to depart from Udine, for the sake of peace, and to
live like an exile in Civitale.
Bastianello had a crude and hard manner, because he much delighted in
drawing works in relief and objects of Nature by candle-light. He had
much beauty of invention, and he took great pleasure in executing
portraits from life, making them truly beautiful and very like; and at
Udine, among others, he made one of Messer Raffaello Belgrado, and one
of the father of M. Giovan Battista Grassi, an excellent painter and
architect, from whose loving courtesy we have received much particular
information touching our present subject of Friuli. Bastianello lived
about forty years.
Another disciple of Pellegrino was Francesco Floriani of Udine, who is
still alive and is a very good painter and architect, like his younger
brother, Antonio Floriani, who, thanks to his rare abilities in his
profession, is now in the service of his glorious Majesty the Emperor
Maximilian. Some of the pictures of that same Francesco were to be seen
two years ago in the possession of the Emperor, who was then a King; one
of these being a Judith who has cut off the head of Holofernes, painted
with admirable judgment and diligence. And in the collection of that
monarch there is a book of pen-drawings by the same master, full of
lovely inventions, buildings, theatres, arches, porticoes, bridges,
palaces, and many other works of architecture, all useful and very
beautiful.
Gensio Liberale was also a disciple of Pellegrino, and in his pictures,
among other things, he imitated every sort of fish excellently well.
This master is now in the service of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria,
a splendid position, which he deserves, for he is a very good painter.