picture of a Dead Christ supported by two angels, which was a most
beautiful piece of work, and is now in the possession of the heirs of
Monsignor della Casa. For Baviera he made drawings of all the Gods, for
copper-plates, which were afterwards engraved by Jacopo Caraglio; one of
them being Saturn changing himself into a horse, and the most noteworthy
that of Pluto carrying off Proserpine. He executed a sketch for the
Beheading of S. John the Baptist, which is now in a little church on the
Piazza de' Salviati in Rome.
Meanwhile the sack of the city took place, and poor Rosso was taken
prisoner by the Germans and used very ill, for, besides stripping him of
his clothes, they made him carry weights on his back barefooted and with
nothing on his head, and remove almost the whole stock from a
cheesemonger's shop. Thus ill-treated by them, he escaped with
difficulty to Perugia, where he was warmly welcomed and reclothed by the
painter Domenico di Paris, for whom he drew the cartoon for a
panel-picture of the Magi, a very beautiful work, which is to be seen in
the house of Domenico. But he did not stay long in that place, for,
hearing that Bishop Tornabuoni, who was very much his friend, and had
also fled from the sack, had gone to Borgo a San Sepolcro, he made his
way thither.
There was living at that time in Borgo a San Sepolcro a pupil of Giulio
Romano, the painter Raffaello dal Colle; and this master, having
undertaken for a small price to paint a panel for S. Croce, the seat of
a Company of Flagellants, in his native city, lovingly resigned the
commission and gave it to Rosso, to the end that he might leave some
example of his handiwork in that place. At this the Company showed
resentment, but the Bishop gave him every facility; and when the
picture, which brought him credit, was finished, it was set up in S.
Croce. The Deposition from the Cross that it contains is something very
rare and beautiful, because he rendered in the colours a certain effect
of darkness to signify the eclipse that took place at Christ's death,
and because it was executed with very great diligence.
Afterwards, at Città di Castello, he received the commission for a
panel-picture, on which he was about to set to work, when, as it was
being primed with gesso, a roof fell upon it and broke it to pieces;
while upon him there came a fever so violent, that he was like to die of
it, on which account he had himself carried from Castello to Borgo a San
Sepolcro. This malady being followed by a quartan fever, he then went on
to the Pieve a San Stefano for a change of air, and finally to Arezzo,
where he was entertained in the house of Benedetto Spadari, who so went
to work with the help of Giovanni Antonio Lappoli of Arezzo and the many
friends and relatives that they had, that Rosso was commissioned to
paint in fresco a vault previously allotted to the painter Niccolò
Soggi, in the Madonna delle Lagrime. And so eager were they that he
should leave such a memorial of himself in that city, that he was given
a payment of three hundred crowns of gold. Whereupon Rosso began his
cartoons in a room that they had allotted to him in a place called
Murello; and there he finished four of them. In one he depicted our
First Parents, bound to the Tree of the Fall, with Our Lady drawing from
their mouths the Sin in the form of the Apple, and beneath her feet the
Serpent; and in the air--wishing to signify that she was clothed with
the sun and moon--he made nude figures of Phoebus and Diana. In the
second is Moses bearing the Ark of the Covenant, represented by Our Lady
surrounded by five Virtues. In another is the Throne of Solomon, also
represented by the Madonna, to whom votive offerings are being brought,
to signify those who have recourse to her for benefits: together with
other bizarre fancies, which were conceived by the fruitful brain of M.
Giovanni Pollastra, the friend of Rosso and a Canon of Arezzo, in
compliment to whom Rosso made a most beautiful model of the whole work,
which is now in my house at Arezzo. He also drew for that work a study
of nude figures, which is a very choice thing; and it is a pity that it
was never finished, for, if he had put it into execution and painted it
in oils, instead of having to do it in fresco, it would indeed have been
a miracle. But he was ever averse to working in fresco, and therefore
went on delaying the execution of the cartoons, meaning to have the work
carried out by Raffaello dal Borgo and others, so that in the end it was
never done.
At that same time, being a courteous person, he made many designs for
pictures and buildings in Arezzo and its neighbourhood; among others,
one for the Rectors of the Fraternity, of the chapel which is at the
foot of the Piazza, wherein there is now the Volto Santo. For the same
patrons he drew the design for a panel-picture to be painted by his
hand, containing a Madonna with a multitude under her cloak, which was
to be set up in the same place; and this design, which was not put into
execution, is in our book, together with many other most beautiful
drawings by the hand of the same master.
But to return to the work that he was to execute in the Madonna delle
Lagrime: there came forward as his security for this work Giovanni
Antonio Lappoli of Arezzo, his most faithful friend, who gave him proofs
of loving kindness with every sort of service. But in the year 1530,
when Florence was being besieged, the Aretines, having been restored to
liberty by the small judgment of Papo Altoviti, attacked the citadel and
razed it to the ground. And because that people looked with little
favour on Florentines, Rosso would not trust himself to them, and went
off to Borgo a San Sepolcro, leaving the cartoons and designs for his
work hidden away in the citadel.
Now those who had given him the commission for the panel at Castello,
wished him to finish it; but he, on account of the illness that he had
suffered at Castello, would not return to that city. He finished their
panel, therefore, at Borgo a San Sepolcro; nor would he ever give them
the pleasure of a glance at it. In it he depicted a multitude, with
Christ in the sky being adored by four figures, and he painted Moors,
Gypsies, and the strangest things in the world; but, with the exception
of the figures, which are perfect in their excellence, the composition
is concerned with anything rather than the wishes of those who ordered
the picture of him. At the same time that he was engaged on that work,
he disinterred dead bodies in the Vescovado, where he was living, and
made a most beautiful anatomical model. Rosso was, in truth, an ardent
student of all things relating to art, and few days passed without his
drawing some nude from life.
He had always had the idea of finishing his life in France, and of thus
delivering himself from that misery and poverty which are the lot of men
who work in Tuscany, or in the country where they were born; and he
resolved to depart. And with a view to appearing more competent in all
matters, and to being ignorant of none, he had just learned the Latin
tongue; when there came upon him a reason for further hastening his
departure. For one Holy Thursday, on which day matins are chanted in the
evening, one of his disciples, a young Aretine, being in church, made a
blaze of sparks and flames with a lighted candle-end and some resin, at
the moment when the "darkness," as they call it, was in progress; and
the boy was reproved by some priests, and even struck. Seeing this,
Rosso, who had the boy seated at his side, sprang up full of anger
against the priests. Thereupon an uproar began, without anyone knowing
what it was all about, and swords were drawn against poor Rosso, who was
busy with the priests. Taking to flight, therefore, he contrived to
regain his own rooms without having been struck or overtaken by anyone.
But he held himself to have been affronted; and having finished the
panel for Castello, without troubling about his work at Arezzo or the
wrong that he was doing to Giovanni Antonio, his security (for he had
received more than a hundred and fifty crowns), he set off by night.
Taking the road by Pesaro, he made his way to Venice, where, being
entertained by Messer Pietro Aretino, he made for him a drawing, which
was afterwards engraved, of Mars sleeping with Venus, with the Loves and
Graces despoiling him and carrying off his cuirass. Departing from
Venice, he found his way into France, where he was received by the
Florentine colony with much affection. There he painted some pictures,
which were afterwards placed in the Gallery at Fontainebleau; and these
he then presented to King Francis, who took infinite pleasure in them,
but much more in the presence, speech, and manner of Rosso, who was
imposing in person, with red hair in accordance with his name, and
serious, deliberate, and most judicious in his every action. The King,
then, after straightway granting him an allowance of four hundred
crowns, and giving him a house in Paris, which he occupied but seldom,
because he lived most of the time at Fontainebleau, where he had rooms
and lived like a nobleman, appointed him superintendent over all the
buildings, pictures, and other ornaments of that place.
[Illustration: THE TRANSFIGURATION
(_After the panel by =Il Rosso=. Città da Castello: Duomo_)
_Alinari_]
There, in the first place, Rosso made a beginning with a gallery over
the lower court, which he completed not with a vault, but with a
ceiling, or rather, soffit, of woodwork, partitioned most beautifully
into compartments. The side-walls he decorated all over with
stucco-work, fantastic and bizarre in its distribution, and with carved
cornices of many kinds; and on the piers were lifesize figures.
Everything below the cornices, between one pier and another, he
adorned with festoons of stucco, vastly rich, and others painted, and
all composed of most beautiful fruits and every sort of foliage. And
then, in a large space, he caused to be painted after his own designs,
if what I have heard is true, about twenty-four scenes in fresco,
representing, I believe, the deeds of Alexander the Great; for which, as
I have said, he made all the designs, executing them in chiaroscuro with
water-colours. At the two ends of this gallery are two panel-pictures in
oils by his hand, designed and painted with such perfection, that there
is little better to be seen in the art of painting. In one of these are
a Bacchus and a Venus, executed with marvellous art and judgment. The
Bacchus is a naked boy, so tender, soft, and delicate, that he seems to
be truly of flesh, yielding to the touch, and rather alive than painted;
and about him are some vases painted in imitation of gold, silver,
crystal, and various precious stones, so fantastic, and surrounded by
devices so many and so bizarre, that whoever beholds this work, with its
vast variety of invention, stands in amazement before it. Among other
details, also, is a Satyr raising part of a pavilion, whose head, in its
strange, goatlike aspect, is a marvel of beauty, and all the more
because he seems to be smiling and full of joy at the sight of so
beautiful a boy. There is also a little boy riding on a wonderful bear,
with many other ornaments full of grace and beauty. In the other picture
are Cupid and Venus, with other lovely figures; but the figure to which
Rosso gave the greatest attention was the Cupid, whom he represented as
a boy of twelve, although well grown, riper in features than is expected
at that age, and most beautiful in every part.
The King, seeing these works, and liking them vastly, conceived an
extraordinary affection for Rosso; wherefore no long time passed before
he gave him a Canonicate in the Sainte Chapelle of the Madonna at Paris,
with so many other revenues and benefits, that Rosso lived like a
nobleman, with a goodly number of servants and horses, giving banquets
and showing all manner of courtesies to all his friends and
acquaintances, especially to the Italian strangers who arrived in those
parts.
After this, he executed another hall, which is called the Pavilion,
because it is in the form of a Pavilion, being above the rooms on the
first floor, and thus situated above any of the others. This apartment
he decorated from the level of the floor to the roof with a great
variety of beautiful ornaments in stucco, figures in the round
distributed at equal intervals, and children, festoons, and various
kinds of animals. In the compartments on the walls are seated figures in
fresco, one in each; and such is their number, that there may be seen
among them images of all the Heathen Gods and Goddesses of the ancients.
Last of all, above the windows, is a frieze all adorned with stucco, and
very rich, but without pictures.
He then executed a vast number of works in many chambers, bathrooms, and
other apartments, both in stucco and in painting, of some of which
drawings may be seen, executed in engraving and published abroad, which
are full of grace and beauty; as are also the numberless designs that
Rosso made for salt-cellars, vases, bowls, and other things of fancy,
all of which the King afterwards caused to be executed in silver; but
these were so numerous that it would take too long to mention them all.
Let it be enough to say that he made designs for all the vessels of a
sideboard for the King, and for all the details of the trappings of
horses, triumphal masquerades, and everything else that it is possible
to imagine, showing in these such fantastic and bizarre conceptions,
that no one could do better.
In the year 1540, when the Emperor Charles V went to France under the
safeguard of King Francis, and visited Fontainebleau, having with him
not more than twelve men, Rosso executed one half of the decorations
that the King ordained in order to honour that great Emperor, and the
other half was executed by Francesco Primaticcio of Bologna. The works
that Rosso made, such as arches, colossal figures, and other things of
that kind, were, so it was said at the time, the most astounding that
had ever been made by any man up to that age. But a great part of the
rooms finished by Rosso at the aforesaid Palace of Fontainebleau were
destroyed after his death by the same Francesco Primaticcio, who has
made a new and larger structure in the same place.
Among those who worked with Rosso on the aforesaid decorations in stucco
and relief, and beloved by him beyond all the others, were the
Florentine Lorenzo Naldino, Maestro Francesco of Orleans, Maestro Simone
of Paris, Maestro Claudio, likewise a Parisian, Maestro Lorenzo of
Picardy, and many others. But the best of them all was Domenico del
Barbieri, who is an excellent painter and master of stucco, and a
marvellous draughtsman, as is proved by his engraved works, which may be
numbered among the best in common circulation. The painters, likewise,
whom he employed in those works at Fontainebleau, were Luca Penni,
brother of Giovan Francesco Penni, called Il Fattore, who was a disciple
of Raffaello da Urbino; the Fleming Leonardo, a very able painter, who
executed the designs of Rosso to perfection in colours; Bartolommeo
Miniati, a Florentine; with Francesco Caccianimici, and Giovan Battista
da Bagnacavallo. These last entered his service when Francesco
Primaticcio went by order of the King to Rome, to make moulds of the
Laocoon, the Apollo, and many other choice antiquities, for the purpose
of casting them afterwards in bronze. I say nothing of the carvers, the
master-joiners, and innumerable others of whom Rosso availed himself in
those works, because there is no need to speak of them all, although
many of them executed works worthy of much praise.
In addition to the things mentioned above, Rosso executed with his own
hand a S. Michael, which is a rare work. For the Constable he painted a
panel-picture of the Dead Christ, a choice thing, which is at a seat of
that noble, called Ecouen; and he also executed some exquisite
miniatures for the King. He then drew a book of anatomical studies,
intending to have it printed in France; of which there are some sheets
by his own hand in our book of drawings. Among his possessions, also,
after he was dead, were found two very beautiful cartoons, in one of
which is a Leda of singular beauty, and in the other the Tiburtine Sibyl
showing to the Emperor Octavian the Glorious Virgin with the Infant
Christ in her arms. In the latter he drew the King, the Queen, their
Guard, and the people, with such a number of figures, and all so well
drawn, that it may be said with truth that this was one of the most
beautiful things that Rosso ever did.
By reason of these works and many others, of which nothing is known, he
became so dear to the King, that a little before his death he found
himself in possession of more than a thousand crowns of income, without
counting the allowances for his work, which were enormous; insomuch
that, living no longer as a painter, but rather as a prince, he kept a
number of servants and horses to ride, and had his house filled with
tapestries, silver, and other valuable articles of furniture. But
Fortune, who never, or very seldom, maintains for long in high estate
one who puts his trust too much in her, brought him headlong down in the
strangest manner ever known. For while Francesco di Pellegrino, a
Florentine, who delighted in painting and was very much his friend, was
associating with him in the closest intimacy, Rosso was robbed of some
hundreds of ducats; whereupon the latter, suspecting that no one but the
same Francesco could have done this, had him arrested by the hands of
justice, rigorously examined, and grievously tortured. But he, knowing
himself innocent, and declaring nothing but the truth, was finally
released; and, moved by just anger, he was forced to show his resentment
against Rosso for the shameful charge that he had falsely laid upon him.
Having therefore issued a writ for libel against him, he pressed him so
closely, that Rosso, not being able to clear himself or make any
defence, felt himself to be in a sorry plight, perceiving that he had
not only accused his friend falsely, but had also stained his own
honour; and to eat his words, or to adopt any other shameful method,
would likewise proclaim him a false and worthless man. Resolving,
therefore, to kill himself by his own hand rather than be punished by
others, he took the following course. One day that the King happened to
be at Fontainebleau, he sent a peasant to Paris for a certain most
poisonous essence, pretending that he wished to use it for making
colours or varnishes, but intending to poison himself, as he did. The
peasant, then, returned with it; and such was the malignity of the
poison, that, merely through holding his thumb over the mouth of the
phial, carefully stopped as it was with wax, he came very near losing
that member, which was consumed and almost eaten away by the deadly
potency of the poison. And shortly afterwards it slew Rosso, although he
was in perfect health, he having drunk it to the end that it might take
his life, as it did in a few hours.
This news, being brought to the King, grieved him beyond measure, since
it seemed to him that by the death of Rosso he had lost the most
excellent craftsman of his day. However, to the end that the work might
not suffer, he had it carried on by Francesco Primaticcio of Bologna,
who, as has been related, had already done much work for him; giving him
a good Abbey, even as he had presented a Canonicate to Rosso.
Rosso died in the year 1541, leaving great regrets behind him among his
friends and brother-craftsmen, who have learned by his example what
benefits may accrue from a prince to one who is eminent in every field
of art, and well-mannered and gentle in all his actions, as was that
master, who for many reasons deserved, and still deserves, to be admired
as one truly most excellent.
BARTOLOMMEO DA BAGNACAVALLO AND OTHERS
LIVES OF BARTOLOMMEO DA BAGNACAVALLO, AND OTHER PAINTERS OF ROMAGNA
It is certain that the result of emulation in the arts, caused by a
desire for glory, proves for the most part to be one worthy of praise;
but when it happens that the aspirant, through presumption and
arrogance, comes to hold an inflated opinion of himself, in course of
time the name for excellence that he seeks may be seen to dissolve into
mist and smoke, for the reason that there is no advance to perfection
possible for him who knows not his own failings and has no fear of the
work of others. More readily does hope mount towards proficience for
those modest and studious spirits who, leading an upright life, honour
the works of rare masters and imitate them with all diligence, than for
those who have their heads full of smoky pride, as had Bartolommeo da
Bagnacavallo, Amico of Bologna, Girolamo da Cotignola, and Innocenzio da
Imola, painters all, who, living in Bologna at one and the same time,
felt the greatest jealousy of one another that could possibly be
imagined. And, what is more, their pride and vainglory, not being based
on the foundation of ability, led them astray from the true path, which
brings to immortality those who strive more from love of good work than
from rivalry. This circumstance, then, was the reason that they did not
crown the good beginnings that they had made with that final excellence
which they expected; for their presuming to the name of masters turned
them too far aside from the good way.
Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo had come to Rome in the time of Raffaello,
in order to attain with his works to that perfection which he believed
himself to be already grasping with his intellect. And being a young man
who had some fame at Bologna and had awakened expectations, he was set
to execute a work in the Church of the Pace at Rome, in the first chapel
on the right hand as one enters the church, above the chapel of
Baldassarre Peruzzi of Siena. But, thinking that he had not achieved the
success that he had promised himself, he returned to Bologna. There he
and the others mentioned above, in competition one with another,
executed each a scene from the Lives of Christ and His Mother in the
Chapel of the Madonna in S. Petronio, near the door of the façade, on
the right hand as one enters the church; among which little difference
in merit is to be seen between one and another. But Bartolommeo acquired
from this work the reputation of having a manner both softer and
stronger than the others; and although there is a vast number of strange
things in the scene of Maestro Amico, in which he depicted the
Resurrection of Christ with armed men in crouching and distorted
attitudes, and many soldiers crushed flat by the stone of the Sepulchre,
which has fallen upon them, nevertheless that of Bartolommeo, as having
more unity of design and colouring, was more extolled by other
craftsmen. On account of this Bartolommeo associated himself with Biagio
Bolognese, a person with much more practice than excellence in art; and
they executed in company at S. Salvatore, for the Frati Scopetini, a
refectory which they painted partly in fresco and partly "a secco,"
containing the scene of Christ satisfying five thousand people with five
loaves and two fishes. They painted, also, on a wall of the library, the
Disputation of S. Augustine, wherein they made a passing good view in
perspective. These masters, thanks to having seen the works of Raffaello
and associated with him, had a certain quality which, upon the whole,
gave promise of excellence, but in truth they did not attend as they
should have done to the more subtle refinements of art. Yet, since there
were no painters in Bologna at that time who knew more than they did,
they were held by those who then governed the city, as well as by all
the people, to be the best masters in Italy.
[Illustration: THE HOLY FAMILY WITH SAINTS
(_After the panel by =Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo=. Bologna: Accademia,
133_)
_Anderson_]