beautiful façades in the Campo Marzio; one with the stories of Ancus
Martius, and the other with the Festivals of the Saturnalia, formerly
celebrated in that place, with all the two-horse and four-horse chariots
circling round the obelisks, which are held to be most beautiful,
because they are so well executed both in design and in nobility of
manner, that they reproduce most vividly those very spectacles as
representations of which they were painted. On the Canto della Chiavica,
on the way to the Corte Savella, they painted a façade which is a divine
thing, and is held to be the most beautiful of all the beautiful works
that they executed; for, in addition to the story of the maidens passing
over the Tiber, there is at the foot, near the door, a Sacrifice painted
with marvellous industry and art, wherein may be seen duly represented
all the instruments and all those ancient customs that used to have a
place in sacrifices of that kind. Near the Piazza del Popolo, below S.
Jacopo degli Incurabili, they painted a façade with stories of Alexander
the Great, which is held to be very fine; and there they depicted the
ancient statues of the Nile and the Tiber from the Belvedere. Near S.
Simeone they painted the façade of the Gaddi Palace, which is truly a
cause of marvel and amazement, when one observes the lovely vestments in
it, so many and so various, and the vast number of ancient helmets,
girdles, buskins, and barques, adorned with all the delicacy and
abundance of detail that an inventive imagination could conceive. There,
with a multitude of beautiful things which overload the memory, are
represented all the ways of the ancients, the statues of sages, and most
lovely women: and there are all the sorts of ancient sacrifices with
their ritual, and an army in the various stages between embarking and
fighting with an extraordinary variety of arms and implements, all
executed with such grace and finished with such masterly skill, that the
eye is dazzled by the vast abundance of beautiful inventions. Opposite
to this is a smaller façade, which could not be improved in beauty and
variety; and there, in the frieze, is the story of Niobe causing herself
to be worshipped, with the people bringing tribute, vases, and various
kinds of gifts; which story was depicted by them with such novelty,
grace, art, force of relief and genius in every part, that it would
certainly take too long to describe the whole. Next, there follows the
wrath of Latona, and her terrible vengeance on the children of the
over-proud Niobe, whose seven sons are slain by Phoebus and the seven
daughters by Diana; with an endless number of figures in imitation of
bronze, which appear to be not painted but truly of metal. Above these
are executed other scenes, with some vases in imitation of gold,
innumerable things of fancy so strange that mortal eye could not picture
anything more novel or more beautiful, and certain Etruscan helmets; but
one is left confused by the variety and abundance of the conceptions, so
beautiful and so fanciful, which issued from their minds. These works
have been imitated by a vast number of those who labour at that branch
of art. They also painted the courtyard of that house, and likewise the
loggia, which they decorated with little grotesques in colour that are
held to be divine. In short, all that they touched they brought to
perfection with infinite grace and beauty; and if I were to name all
their works, I should fill a whole book with the performances of these
two masters alone, since there is no apartment, palace, garden, or villa
in Rome that does not contain some work by Polidoro and Maturino.
Now, while Rome was rejoicing and clothing herself in beauty with their
labours, and they were awaiting the reward of all their toil, the envy
of Fortune, in the year 1527, sent Bourbon to Rome; and he gave that
city over to sack. Whereupon was divided the companionship not only of
Polidoro and Maturino, but of all the thousands of friends and relatives
who had broken bread together for so many years in Rome. Maturino took
to flight, and no long time passed before he died, so it is believed in
Rome, of plague, in consequence of the hardships that he had suffered in
the sack, and was buried in S. Eustachio. Polidoro turned his steps to
Naples; but on his arrival, the noblemen of that city taking but little
interest in fine works of painting, he was like to die of hunger.
Working, therefore, at the commission of certain painters, he executed a
S. Peter in the principal chapel of S. Maria della Grazia; and in this
way he assisted those painters in many things, more to save his life
than for any other reason. However, the fame of his talents having
spread abroad, he executed for Count ... a vault painted in distemper,
together with some walls, all of which is held to be very beautiful
work. In like manner, he executed a courtyard in chiaroscuro for Signor
..., with some loggie, which are very beautiful, rich in ornaments, and
well painted. He also painted for S. Angelo, beside the Pescheria at
Naples, a little panel in oils, containing a Madonna and some naked
figures of souls in torment, which is held to be most beautiful, but
more for the drawing than for the colouring; and likewise some pictures
for the Chapel of the High-Altar, each with a single full-length figure,
and all executed in the same manner.
It came to pass that Polidoro, living in Naples and seeing his talents
held in little esteem, determined to take his leave of men who thought
more of a horse that could jump than of a master whose hands could give
to painted figures the appearance of life. Going on board ship,
therefore, he made his way to Messina, where, finding more consideration
and more honour, he set himself to work; and thus, working continually,
he acquired good skill and mastery in the use of colour. Thereupon he
executed many works, which are dispersed in various places; and turning
his attention to architecture, he gave proof of his worth in many
buildings that he erected. After a time, Charles V passing through
Messina on his return from victory in Tunis, Polidoro made in his honour
most beautiful triumphal arches, from which he gained vast credit and
rewards. And then this master, who was always burning with desire to
revisit Rome, which afflicts with an unceasing yearning those who have
lived there many years, when making trial of other countries, painted as
his last work in Messina a panel-picture of Christ bearing the Cross,
executed in oils with much excellence and very pleasing colour. In it he
made a number of figures accompanying Christ to His Death--soldiers,
pharisees, horses, women, children, and the Thieves in front; and he
kept firmly before his mind the consideration of how such an execution
must have been marshalled, insomuch that his nature seemed to have
striven to show its highest powers in this work, which is indeed most
excellent. After this he sought many times to shake himself free of that
country, although he was looked upon with favour there; but he had a
reason for delay in a woman, beloved by him for many years, who detained
him with her sweet words and cajoleries. However, so mightily did his
desire to revisit Rome and his friends work in him, that he took from
his bank a good sum of money that he possessed, and, wholly determined,
prepared to depart.
Polidoro had employed as his assistant for a long time a lad of the
country, who bore greater love to his master's money than to his master;
but, the money being kept, as has been said, in the bank, he was never
able to lay his hands upon it and carry it off. Wherefore, an evil and
cruel thought entering his head, he resolved to put his master to death
with the help of some accomplices, on the following night, while he was
sleeping, and then to divide the money with them. And so, assisted by
his friends, he set upon Polidoro in his first sleep, while he was
slumbering deeply, and strangled him with a cloth. Then, giving him
several wounds, they made sure of his death; and in order to prove that
it was not they who had done it, they carried him to the door of the
woman whom he had loved, making it appear that her relatives or other
persons of the house had killed him. The assistant gave a good part of
the money to the villains who had committed so hideous an outrage, and
bade them be off. In the morning he went in tears to the house of a
certain Count, a friend of his dead master, and related the event to
him; but for all the diligence that was used for many days in seeking
for the perpetrator of the crime, nothing came to light. By the will of
God, however, nature and virtue, in disdain at being wounded by the hand
of fortune, so worked in one who had no interest in the matter, that he
declared it to be impossible that any other but the assistant himself
could have committed the murder. Whereupon the Count had him seized and
put to the torture, and without the application of any further torment
he confessed the crime and was condemned by the law to the gallows; but
first he was torn with red-hot pincers on the way to execution, and
finally quartered.
For all this, however, life was not restored to Polidoro, nor was there
given back to the art of painting a genius so resolute and so
extraordinary, such as had not been seen in the world for many an age.
If, indeed, at the time when he died, invention, grace, and boldness in
the painting of figures could have laid down their lives, they would
have died with him. Happy was the union of nature and art which embodied
a spirit so noble in human form; and cruel was the envy and hatred of
his fate and fortune, which robbed him of life with so strange a death,
but shall never through all the ages rob him of his name. His obsequies
were performed with full solemnity, and he was given burial in the
Cathedral Church, lamented bitterly by all Messina, in the year 1543.
Great, indeed, is the obligation owed by craftsmen to Polidoro, in that
he enriched art with a great abundance of vestments, all different and
most strange, and of varied ornaments, and gave grace and adornment to
all his works, and likewise made figures of every sort, animals,
buildings, grotesques, and landscapes, all so beautiful, that since his
day whosoever has aimed at catholicity has imitated him. It is a
marvellous thing and a fearsome to see from the example of this master
the instability of Fortune and what she can bring to pass, causing men
to become excellent in some profession from whom something quite
different might have been expected, to the no small vexation of those
who have laboured in vain for many years at the same art. It is a
marvellous thing, I repeat, to see those same men, after much travailing
and striving, brought by that same Fortune to a miserable and most
unhappy end at the very moment when they were hoping to enjoy the fruits
of their labours; and that with calamities so monstrous and terrible,
that pity herself takes to flight, art is outraged, and benefits are
repaid with an extraordinary and incredible ingratitude. Wherefore, even
as painting may rejoice in the fruitful life of Polidoro, so could he
complain of Fortune, which at one time showed herself friendly to him,
only to bring him afterwards, when it was least expected, to a dreadful
death.
IL ROSSO
LIFE OF IL ROSSO
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Men of account who apply themselves to the arts and pursue them with all
their powers are sometimes exalted and honoured beyond measure, at a
moment when it was least expected, before the eyes of all the world, as
may be seen clearly from the labours that Il Rosso, a painter of
Florence, devoted to the art of painting; for if these were not
acknowledged in Rome and Florence by those who could reward them, yet in
France he found one to recompense him for them, and that in such sort,
that his glory might have sufficed to quench the thirst of the most
overweening ambition that could possess the heart of any craftsman, be
he who he may. Nor could he have obtained in this life greater
dignities, honour, or rank, seeing that he was regarded with favour and
much esteemed beyond any other man of his profession by a King so great
as is the King of France. And, indeed, his merits were such, that, if
Fortune had secured less for him, she would have done him a very great
wrong, for the reason that Rosso, in addition to his painting, was
endowed with a most beautiful presence; his manner of speech was
gracious and grave; he was an excellent musician, and had a fine
knowledge of philosophy; and what was of greater import than all his
other splendid qualities was this, that he always showed the invention
of a poet in the grouping of his figures, besides being bold and
well-grounded in draughtsmanship, graceful in manner, sublime in the
highest flights of imagination, and a master of beautiful composition of
scenes. In architecture he showed an extraordinary excellence; and he
was always, however poor in circumstances, rich in the grandeur of his
spirit. For this reason, whosoever shall follow in the labours of
painting the walk pursued by Rosso, must be celebrated without ceasing,
as are that master's works, which have no equals in boldness and are
executed without effort and strain, since he kept them free of that dry
and painful elaboration to which so many subject themselves in order to
veil the worthlessness of their works with the cloak of importance.
In his youth, Rosso drew from the cartoon of Michelagnolo, and would
study art with but few masters, having a certain opinion of his own that
conflicted with their manners; as may be seen from a shrine executed in
fresco for Piero Bartoli at Marignolle, without the Porta a S. Piero
Gattolini in Florence, containing a Dead Christ, wherein he began to
show how great was his desire for a manner bold and grand, graceful and
marvellous beyond that of all others. While still a beardless boy, at
the time when Lorenzo Pucci was made a Cardinal by Pope Leo, he executed
over the door of S. Sebastiano de' Servi the arms of the Pucci, with two
figures, which made the craftsmen of that day marvel, for no one
expected for him such a result as he achieved. Wherefore he so grew in
courage, that, after having painted a picture with a half-length figure
of Our Lady and a head of S. John the Evangelist for Maestro Jacopo, a
Servite friar, who was something of a poet, at his persuasion he painted
the Assumption of the Madonna in the cloister of the Servites, beside
the scene of the Visitation, which was executed by Jacopo da Pontormo.
In this he made a Heaven full of angels, all in the form of little naked
children dancing in a circle round the Madonna, foreshortened with a
most beautiful flow of outlines and with great grace of manner, as they
wheel through the sky: insomuch that, if the colouring had been executed
by him with that mature mastery of art which he afterwards came to
achieve, he would have surpassed the other scenes by a great measure,
even as he actually did equal them in grandeur and excellence of design.
He made the Apostles much burdened with draperies, and, indeed,
overloaded with their abundance; but the attitudes and some of the heads
are more than beautiful.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS
(_After the panel by =Il Rosso=. Florence: Uffizi, 47_)
_Alinari_]
The Director of the Hospital of S. Maria Nuova commissioned him to paint
a panel: but when he saw it sketched, having little knowledge of that
art, the Saints appeared to him like devils; for it was Rosso's custom
in his oil-sketches to give a sort of savage and desperate air to the
faces, after which, in finishing them, he would sweeten the expressions
and bring them to a proper form. At this the patron fled from his house
and would not have the picture, saying that the painter had cheated him.
In like manner, over another door that leads into the cloister of the
Convent of the Servites, Rosso painted the escutcheon of Pope Leo, with
two children; but it is now ruined. And in the houses of citizens may be
seen several of his pictures and many portraits. For the visit of Pope
Leo to Florence he executed a very beautiful arch on the Canto de'
Bischeri. Afterwards he painted a most beautiful picture of the Dead
Christ for Signor di Piombino, and also decorated a little chapel for
him. At Volterra, likewise, he painted a most lovely Deposition from the
Cross.
Having therefore grown in credit and fame, he executed for S. Spirito,
in Florence, the panel-picture of the Dei family, which they had
formerly entrusted to Raffaello da Urbino, who abandoned it because of
the cares of the work that he had undertaken in Rome. This picture Rosso
painted with marvellous grace, draughtsmanship, and vivacity of
colouring. Let no one imagine that any work can display greater force or
show more beautifully from a distance than this one, which, on account
of the boldness of the figures and the extravagance of the attitudes, no
longer employed by any of the other painters, was held to be an
extraordinary work. And although it did not bring him much credit at
that time, the world has since come little by little to recognize its
excellence and has given it abundant praise; for with regard to the
blending of colour it would be impossible to excel it, seeing that the
lights which are in the brightest parts unite with the lower lights
little by little as they merge into the darks, with such sweetness and
harmony, and with such masterly skill in the projection of the shadows,
that the figures stand out from one another and bring each other into
relief by means of the lights and shades. Such vigour, indeed, has this
work, that it may be said to have been conceived and executed with more
judgment and mastery than any that has ever been painted by any other
master, however superior his judgment.
For S. Lorenzo, at the commission of Carlo Ginori, he painted a
panel-picture of the Marriage of Our Lady, which is held to be a most
beautiful work. And, in truth, with regard to his facility of method,
there has never been anyone who has been able to surpass him in masterly
skill and dexterity, or even to approach within any distance of him; and
he was so sweet in colouring, and varied his draperies with such grace,
and took such delight in his art, that he was always held to be
marvellous and worthy of the highest praise. Whosoever shall observe
this work must recognize that all that I have written is most true,
above all as he studies the nudes, which are very well conceived, with
all the requirements of anatomy. His women are full of grace, and the
draperies that adorn them fanciful and bizarre. He showed, also, the
sense of fitness that is necessary in the heads of the old, with their
harshness of features, and in those of women and children, with
expressions sweet and pleasing. He was so rich in invention, that he
never had any space left over in his pictures, and he executed all his
work with such facility and grace, that it was a marvel.
For Giovanni Bandini, also, he painted a picture with some very
beautiful nudes, representing the scene of Moses slaying the Egyptian,
wherein were things worthy of the highest praise; and this was sent, I
believe, into France. And for Giovanni Cavalcanti, likewise, he executed
another, which went to England, of Jacob receiving water from the women
at the well; this was held to be a divine work, seeing that it contained
nudes and women wrought with supreme grace. For women, indeed, he always
delighted to paint transparent pieces of drapery, head-dresses with
intertwined tresses, and ornaments for their persons.
While Rosso was engaged on this work, he was living in the Borgo de'
Tintori, the rooms of which look out on the gardens of the Friars of S.
Croce; and he took much pleasure in a great ape, which had the
intelligence rather of a man than of a beast. For this reason he held it
very dear, and loved it like his own self; and since it had a marvellous
understanding, he made use of it for many kinds of service. It happened
that this beast took a fancy to one of his assistants, by name
Battistino, who was a young man of great beauty; and from the signs that
his Battistino made to him he understood all that he wished to say. Now
against the wall of the rooms at the back, which looked out upon the
garden of the friars, was a pergola belonging to the Guardian, loaded
with great Sancolombane grapes; and the young men used to let the ape
down with a rope to the pergola, which was some distance from their
window, and pull the beast up again with his hands full of grapes. The
Guardian, finding his pergola stripped, but not knowing the culprit,
suspected that it must be mice, and lay in hiding; and seeing Rosso's
ape descending, he flew into a rage, seized a long pole, and rushed at
him with hands uplifted in order to beat him. The ape, seeing that
whether he went up or stayed where he was, the Guardian could reach him,
began to spring about and destroy the pergola, and then, making as
though to throw himself on the friar's back, seized with both his hands
the outermost crossbeams which enclosed the pergola. Meanwhile the friar
made play with his pole, and the ape, in his terror, shook the pergola
to such purpose, and with such force, that he tore the stakes and rods
out of their places, so that both pergola and ape fell headlong on the
back of the friar, who shrieked for mercy. The rope was pulled up by
Battistino and the others, who brought the ape back into the room safe
and sound. Thereupon the Guardian, drawing off and planting himself on a
terrace that he had there, said things not to be found in the Mass; and
full of anger and resentment he went to the Council of Eight, a tribunal
much feared in Florence. There he laid his complaint; and, Rosso having
been summoned, the ape was condemned in jest to carry a weight fastened
to his tail, to prevent him from jumping on pergole, as he did before.
And so Rosso made a wooden cylinder swinging on a chain, and kept it on
the ape, in such a way that he could go about the house but no longer
jump about over other people's property. The ape, seeing himself
condemned to such a punishment, seemed to guess that the friar was
responsible. Every day, therefore, he exercised himself in hopping step
by step with his legs, holding the weight with his hands; and thus,
resting often, he succeeded in his design. For, being one day loose
about the house, he hopped step by step from roof to roof, during the
hour when the Guardian was away chanting Vespers, and came to the roof
over his chamber. There, letting go the weight, he kept up for half an
hour such a lovely dance, that not a single tile of any kind remained
unbroken. Then he went back home; and within three days, when rain came,
were heard the Guardian's lamentations.
Rosso, having finished his works, took the road to Rome with Battistino
and the ape; in which city his works were sought for with extraordinary
eagerness, great expectations having been awakened about them by the
sight of some drawings executed by him, which were held to be
marvellous, for Rosso drew divinely well and with the highest finish.
There, in the Pace, over the pictures of Raffaello, he executed a work
which is the worst that he ever painted in all his days. Nor can I
imagine how this came to pass, save from a reason which has been seen
not only in his case, but also in that of many others, and which appears
to be an extraordinary thing, and one of the secrets of nature; and it
is this, that he who changes his country or place of habitation seems to
change his nature, talents, character, and personal habits, insomuch
that sometimes he seems to be not the same man but another, and all
dazed and stupefied. This may have happened to Rosso in the air of Rome,
and on account of the stupendous works of architecture and sculpture
that he saw there, and the paintings and statues of Michelagnolo, which
may have thrown him off his balance; which works also drove Fra
Bartolommeo di San Marco and Andrea del Sarto to flight, and prevented
them from executing anything in Rome. Certain it is, be the cause what
it may, that Rosso never did worse; and, what is more, this work has to
bear comparison with those of Raffaello da Urbino.