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LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO
VASARI:
VOLUME VI. FRA GIOCONDO TO NICCOLÒ SOGGI 1913
NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES
[Illustration: 1511-1574]
PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LIMITED 7 GRAFTON
ST. LONDON, W. 1912-14
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI
PAGE
FRA GIOCONDO, LIBERALE, AND OTHERS 1
FRANCESCO GRANACCI [IL GRANACCIO] 55
BACCIO D' AGNOLO 63
VALERIO VICENTINO [VALERIO BELLI], GIOVANNI DA CASTEL BOLOGNESE
[GIOVANNI BERNARDI], MATTEO DAL NASSARO, AND OTHERS 73
MARC' ANTONIO BOLOGNESE, AND OTHERS 89
ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO 121
GIULIO ROMANO 143
FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO 171
PERINO DEL VAGA 187
GIORGIO VASARI, TO THE CRAFTSMEN IN DESIGN 227
DOMENICO BECCAFUMI 233
GIOVANNI ANTONIO LAPPOLI 253
NICCOLÒ SOGGI 267
INDEX OF NAMES 281
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME VI
PLATES IN COLOUR
FACING PAGE
GIOVAN FRANCESCO CAROTO
Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua
Florence: Uffizi, 1121 16
FRANCESCO MONSIGNORI (BONSIGNORI)
Portrait of a Gentleman
London: N.G., 736 28
FRANCESCO MORONE
Madonna and Child
London: N.G., 285 32
GIROLAMO DAI LIBRI
Madonna and Child, with S. Anne
London: N.G., 748 48
FRANCESCO GRANACCI (IL GRANACCIO)
The Holy Family
Florence: Pitti, 199 58
FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO
Portrait of a Lady
Florence: Uffizi, 1123 174
DOMENICO BECCAFUMI
S. Catharine before the Crucifix
Siena: Pinacoteca, 420 238
PLATES IN MONOCHROME
LIBERALE OF VERONA
S. Mary Magdalene with Saints
Verona: S. Anastasia 10
LIBERALE OF VERONA
Miniature
Siena: Duomo Library 14
GIOVAN FRANCESCO CAROTO
Madonna and Child, with S. Anne and Saints
Verona: S. Fermo Maggiore 18
FRANCESCO TURBIDO (IL MORO)
Portrait of a Man
Munich: Pinacothek, 1125 24
FRANCESCO MONSIGNORI (BONSIGNORI)
S. Sebastian
Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 46c 30
FRANCESCO MORONE
The Crucifixion
Verona: S. Bernardino 34
PAOLO CAVAZZUOLA
The Deposition
Verona: Museo Civico, 392 40
GIOVAN MARIA (FALCONETTO)
Palazzo del Capitanio
Padua 46
GIROLAMO DAI LIBRI
Madonna and Child, with Saints
Verona: Museo Civico, 290 50
FRANCESCO GRANACCI (IL GRANACCIO)
The Madonna giving the Girdle to S. Thomas
Florence: Uffizi, 1280 62
GIOVANNI DA CASTEL BOLOGNESE (GIOVANNI BERNARDI)
Cassetta Farnese
Naples: Museo Nazionale 78
VALERIO VICENTINO (VALERIO BELLI)
Casket of Rock Crystal
Florence: Uffizi 82
ALESSANDRO CESATI
BENVENUTO CELLINI
Medals
London: British Museum 84
PASTORINO OF SIENA
DOMENICO POGGINI
Medals
London: British Museum 84
MARTIN SCHONGAUER
Christ and the Virgin Enthroned
London: British Museum, B. 71 92
ALBRECHT DÜRER
Hercules
London: British Museum, B. 73 92
ALBRECHT DÜRER
Christ taking leave of His Mother
London: British Museum, B. 92 94
ALBRECHT DÜRER
S. Jerome in his Study
London: British Museum, B. 60 96
LUCAS VAN LEYDEN
"Ecce Homo" of 1510
London: British Museum 98
MARC' ANTONIO BOLOGNESE
The Death of Lucretia
London: British Museum, B. 192 102
MARC' ANTONIO BOLOGNESE (AFTER BANDINELLI)
The Martyrdom of S. Lawrence (engraving)
London: British Museum 104
ANTONIO DA SAN GALLO (THE YOUNGER) (WITH MICHELAGNOLO BUONARROTI)
Palazzo Farnese
Rome 138
GIULIO ROMANO
Detail: The Battle of Constantine
Rome: The Vatican 146
GIULIO ROMANO
The Marriage Banquet of Cupid and Psyche
Mantua: Palazzo del Tè 154
GIULIO ROMANO
The Destruction of the Giants by the Thunderbolts of Jove
Mantua: Palazzo del Tè, Sala dei Giganti 160
FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO
The Flagellation
Rome: S. Pietro in Montorio 176
FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO
Andrea Doria
Rome: Palazzo Doria 182
PERINO DEL VAGA
The Passage of the Red Sea
Rome: The Vatican, Loggia 192
FRA GIOCONDO, LIBERALE, AND OTHER CRAFTSMEN OF VERONA
LIVES OF FRA GIOCONDO, LIBERALE, AND OTHER CRAFTSMEN OF VERONA
If writers of history were to live a few years longer than the number
commonly granted as the span of human life, I, for my part, have no
manner of doubt that they would have something to add to the accounts of
the past previously written by them, for the reason that, even as it is
not possible for a single man, be he ever so diligent, to learn the
exact truth in a flash, or to discover all the details of his subject in
the little time at his command, so it is as clear as the light of day
that Time, who is said to be the father of truth, is always revealing
new things every day to the seeker after knowledge. If, many years ago,
when I first wrote and also published these Lives of the Painters and
other Craftsmen, I had possessed that full information which I have
since received concerning Fra Giocondo of Verona, a man of rare parts
and a master of all the most noble faculties, I would without a doubt
have made that honourable record of him which I am now about to make for
the benefit of craftsmen, or rather, of the world; and not of him only,
but also of many other masters of Verona, who have been truly excellent.
And let no one marvel that I place them all under the image of one only,
because, not having been able to obtain portraits of them all, I am
forced to do this; but, so far as in me lies, not one of them shall
thereby have his excellence defrauded of its due.
Now, since the order of time and merit so demands, I shall speak first
of Fra Giocondo. This man, when he assumed the habit of S. Dominic, was
called not simply Fra Giocondo, but Fra Giovanni Giocondo. How the name
Giovanni dropped from him I know not, but I do know that he was always
called Fra Giocondo by everyone. And although his chief profession was
that of letters, and he was not only a very good philosopher and
theologian, but also an excellent Greek scholar (which was a rare thing
at that time, when learning and letters were just beginning to revive in
Italy), nevertheless he was also a very fine architect, being a man who
always took supreme delight in that art, as Scaliger relates in his
epistle against Cardan, and the learned Budé in his book "De Asse," and
in the observations that he wrote on the Pandects.
Fra Giocondo, then, who was a fine scholar, a capable architect, and an
excellent master of perspective, spent many years near the person of the
Emperor Maximilian, and was master in the Greek and Latin tongues to the
learned Scaliger, who writes that he heard him dispute with profound
learning on matters of the greatest subtlety before the same Maximilian.
It is related by persons still living, who remember the facts very
clearly, that at the time when Verona was under the power of that
Emperor the bridge which is called the Ponte della Pietra, in that city,
was being restored, and it was seen to be necessary to refound the
central pier, which had been destroyed many times in the past, and Fra
Giocondo gave the design for refounding it, and also for safeguarding it
in such a manner that it might never be destroyed again. His method of
safeguarding it was as follows: he gave orders that the pier should be
kept always bound together with long double piles fixed below the water
on every side, to the end that these might so protect it that the river
should not be able to undermine it; for the place where it is built is
in the main current of the river, the bed of which is so soft that no
solid ground can be found on which to lay its foundations. And
excellent, in truth, as is evident from the result, was the advice of
Fra Giocondo, for the reason that the pier has stood firm from that time
to our own, as it still does, without ever showing a crack; and there is
hope that, by the observation of the suggestions given by that good
monk, it will stand for ever.
In his youth Fra Giocondo spent many years in Rome, giving his attention
to the study of antiquities, and not of buildings only, but also of the
ancient inscriptions that are in the tombs, and the other relics of
antiquity, both in Rome itself and its neighbourhood, and in every part
of Italy; and he collected all these inscriptions and memorials into a
most beautiful book, which he sent as a present, according to the
account of the citizens of Verona mentioned above, to the elder Lorenzo
de' Medici, the Magnificent, to whom, by reason of the great
friendliness and favour that he showed to all men of talent, both Fra
Giocondo and Domizio Calderino, his companion and compatriot, were
always most deeply devoted. Of this book Poliziano makes mention in his
Mugellane, in which he uses various parts of it as authorities, calling
Fra Giocondo a profound master in antiquities.
The same Giocondo wrote some observations, which are in print, on the
Commentaries of Cæsar; and he was the first who made a drawing of the
bridge built by Cæsar over the River Rhone, and described by him in
those same Commentaries, but misunderstood in the time of Fra Giocondo.
Him the aforesaid Budé confesses to have had as his master in the study
of architecture, thanking God that he had been taught his Vitruvius by a
teacher so learned and so diligent as was that monk, who corrected in
that author a vast number of errors not recognized up to that time; and
this he was able to do with ease, because he was a master of every kind
of learning, and had a good knowledge of both the Greek tongue and the
Latin. This and other things declares Budé, extolling Fra Giocondo as an
excellent architect, and adding that by the researches of the same monk
there were discovered in an old library in Paris the greater part of the
Epistles of Pliny, which, after having been so long out of the hands of
mankind, were printed by Aldus Manutius, as may be read in a Latin
letter written by him and printed with the same.
When living in Paris in the service of King Louis XII, Fra Giocondo
built two superb bridges over the Seine, covered with shops--works truly
worthy of that magnanimous King and of the marvellous intellect of Fra
Giocondo. Wherefore that master, in addition to the inscription in his
praise that may still be seen on those works, won the honour of being
celebrated by Sannazzaro, a rare poet, in this most beautiful distich:
Jocundus geminum imposuit tibi, Sequana, pontem;
Hunc tu jure potes dicere pontificem.
Besides this, he executed a vast number of other works for that King
throughout all his kingdom; but of these, after having made mention of
those above, as being the greatest, I shall say no more.
Then, happening to be in Rome at the death of Bramante, he was placed,
in company with Raffaello da Urbino and Giuliano da San Gallo, in charge
of the Church of S. Pietro, to the end that the structure begun by
Bramante might be carried forward. Now, from the circumstance that it
had been erected in haste, and for other reasons given in another place,
it was threatening to fall in many parts, and by the advice of Fra
Giocondo, Raffaello, and Giuliano, the foundations were in great measure
renewed; in which work persons who were present and are still living
declare that those masters adopted the following method. They excavated
below the foundations many large pits after the manner of wells, but
square, at a proper distance one from another, which they filled with
masonry; and between every two of these piers, or rather pits filled
with masonry, they threw very strong arches across the space below,
insomuch that the whole building came to be placed on new foundations
without suffering any shock, and was secured for ever from the danger of
showing any more cracks.
But the work for which it seems to me that Fra Giocondo deserves the
greatest praise is one on account of which an everlasting gratitude is
due to him not only from the Venetians, but from the whole world as
well. For he reflected that the life of the Republic of Venice depended
in great measure on the preservation of its impregnable position on the
lagoons on which that city, as it were by a miracle, is built; and that,
whenever those lagoons silted up with earth, the air would become
infected and pestilential, and the city consequently uninhabitable, or
at the least exposed to all the dangers that threaten cities on the
mainland. He set himself, therefore, to think in what way it might be
possible to provide for the preservation of the lagoons and of the site
on which the city had been built in the beginning. And having found a
way, Fra Giocondo told the Signori that, if they did not quickly come to
some resolution about preventing such an evil, in a few years, to judge
by that which could be seen to have happened in part, they would become
aware of their error, without being in time to be able to retrieve it.
Roused by this warning, and hearing the powerful arguments of Fra
Giocondo, the Signori summoned an assembly of the best engineers and
architects that there were in Italy, at which many opinions were given
and many designs made; but that of Fra Giocondo was held to be the best,
and was put into execution. They made a beginning, therefore, with
excavating a great canal, which was to divert two-thirds or at least
one-half of the water brought down by the River Brenta, and to conduct
that water by a long détour so as to debouch into the lagoons of
Chioggia; and thus that river, no longer flowing into the lagoons at
Venice, has not been able to fill them up by bringing down earth, as it
has done at Chioggia, where it has filled and banked up the lagoons in
such a manner that, where there was formerly water, many tracts of land
and villas have sprung up, to the great benefit of the city of Venice.
Wherefore it is the opinion of many persons, and in particular of the
Magnificent Messer Luigi Cornaro, a Venetian gentleman of ripe wisdom
gained both by learning and by long experience, that, if it had not been
for the warning of Fra Giocondo, all the silting up that took place in
the lagoons of Chioggia would have happened, and perhaps on a greater
scale, in those of Venice, inflicting incredible damage and almost ruin
on that city. The same Messer Luigi, who was very much the friend of Fra
Giocondo, as he is and always has been of all men of talent, declares
that his native city of Venice owes an eternal debt of gratitude for
this to the memory of Fra Giocondo, who on this account, he says, might
reasonably be called the second founder of Venice; and that he almost
deserves more praise for having preserved by that expedient the grandeur
and nobility of that marvellous and puissant city, than do those who
built it at the beginning in such a weak and ill-considered fashion,
seeing that the benefit received from him will be to all eternity, as it
has been hitherto, of incalculable utility and advantage to Venice.
Not many years after Fra Giocondo had executed this divine work, the
Venetians suffered a great loss in the burning of the Rialto, the place
in which are the magazines of their most precious merchandise--the
treasure, as it were, of that city. This happened at the very time when
that Republic had been reduced by long-continued wars and by the loss
of the greater part, or rather almost the whole, of her dominions on the
mainland to a desperate condition; and the Signori then governing were
full of doubt and hesitation as to what they should do. However, the
rebuilding of that place being a matter of the greatest importance, they
resolved that it should be reconstructed at all costs. And wishing to
give it all possible grandeur, in keeping with the greatness and
magnificence of that Republic, and having already recognized the talent
of Fra Giocondo and his great ability in architecture, they gave him the
commission to make a design for that structure; whereupon he drew one in
the following manner. He proposed to occupy all the space that lies
between the Canale delle Beccherie,[1] in the Rialto, and the Rio del
Fondaco delle Farine,[2] taking as much ground between one canal and the
other as would make a perfect square--that is, the length of the sides
of this fabric was to be as great as the space which one covers at the
present day in walking from the debouchure of one of those canals into
the Grand Canal to that of the other. He intended, also, that the same
two canals should debouch on the other side into a common canal, which
was to run from the one to the other, so that the fabric might be left
entirely surrounded by water, having the Grand Canal on one side, the
two smaller canals on two other sides, and on the last the new canal
that was to be made. Then he desired that between the water and the
buildings, right round the square, there should be made, or rather
should be left, a beach or quay of some breadth, which might serve as a
piazza for the selling in duly appointed places of the vegetables,
fruits, fish, and other things, that come from many parts to the city.
It was also his opinion that right round the outer side of the buildings
there should be erected shops looking out upon those same quays, and
that these shops should serve only for the sale of eatables of every
kind. And in these four sides the design of Fra Giocondo had four
principal gates--namely, one to each side, placed in the centre, one
directly opposite to another. But before going into the central piazza,
by whichever side one entered, one would have found both on the right
hand and on the left a street which ran round the block of buildings
and had shops on either side, with handsome workshops above them and
magazines for the use of those shops, which were all to be devoted to
the sale of woven fabrics--that is, fine woollen cloth and silk, which
are the two chief products of that city. This street, in short, was to
contain all the shops that are called the Tuscan's and the
silk-merchant's.
From this double range of shops there was to be access by way of the
four gates into the centre of the whole block--that is to say, into a
vast piazza surrounded on every side by spacious and beautiful loggie
for the accommodation of the merchants and for the use of the great
number of people who flock together for the purposes of their trade and
commerce to that city, which is the custom-house of all Italy, or rather
of Europe. Under those loggie, on every side, were to be the shops of
the bankers, goldsmiths, and jewellers; and in the centre was to be
built a most beautiful temple dedicated to S. Matthew, in which the
people of quality might be able to hear the divine offices in the
morning. With regard to this temple, however, some persons declare that
Fra Giocondo changed his mind, and wished to build two under the loggie,
so as not to obstruct the piazza. And, in addition, this superb
structure was to have so many other conveniences, embellishments, and
adornments, all in their proper places, that whoever sees at the present
day the beautiful design that Fra Giocondo made for the whole, declares
that nothing more lovely, more magnificent, or planned with better
order, could be imagined or conceived by the most excellent of
craftsmen, be his genius never so happy.
It was proposed, also, with the advice of the same master, and as a
completion to this work, to build the Bridge of the Rialto of stone,
covered with shops, which would have been a marvellous thing. But this
enterprise was not carried into effect, for two reasons: first, because
the Republic, on account of the extraordinary expenses incurred in the
last war, happened to be drained dry of money; and, secondly, because a
gentleman of great position and much authority at that time (of the
family, so it is said, of Valereso), being a man of little judgment in
such matters, and perchance influenced by some private interest, chose
to favour one Maestro Zanfragnino,[3] who, so I am informed, is still
alive, and who had worked for him on buildings of his own. This
Zanfragnino--a fit and proper name for a master of his calibre--made the
design for that medley of marble which was afterwards carried into
execution, and which is still to be seen; and many who are still alive,
and remember the circumstances very well, are even yet not done with
lamenting that foolish choice.
Fra Giocondo, having seen that shapeless design preferred to his
beautiful one, and having perceived how much more virtue there often is
in favour than in merit with nobles and great persons, felt such disdain
that he departed from Venice, nor would he ever return, although he was
much entreated to do it. And the design, with others by the same monk,
remained in the house of the Bragadini, opposite to S. Marina, in the
possession of Frate Angelo, a member of that family and a friar of S.
Dominic, who, by reason of his many merits, afterwards became Bishop of
Vicenza.
Fra Giocondo was very versatile, and delighted, in addition to the
pursuits already mentioned, in simples and in agriculture. Thus Messer
Donato Giannotti, the Florentine, who was very much his friend for many
years in France, relates that once, when living in that country, the
monk reared a peach-tree in an earthen pot, and that this little tree,
when he saw it, was so laden with fruit that it was a marvellous sight.
On one occasion, by the advice of some friends, he had set it in a place
where the King was to pass and would be able to see it, when certain
courtiers, who passed by first, plucked all the peaches off that little
tree, as suchlike people were sure to do, and, playing about with one
another, scattered what they could not eat along the whole length of the
street, to the great displeasure of Fra Giocondo. The matter coming to
the ears of the King, he first laughed over the jest with the courtiers,
and then, after thanking the monk for what he had done to please him,
gave him a present of such a kind that he was consoled.
[Illustration: THE MAGDALENE WITH SAINTS
(_After the painting by =Liberale da Verona=. Verona: S. Anastasia_)
_Anderson_]
Fra Giocondo was a man of saintly and most upright life, much beloved by
all the great men of letters of his age, and in particular by Domizio
Calderino, Matteo Bosso, and Paolo Emilio, the writer of the History of
France, all three his compatriots. Very much his friends, likewise, were
Sannazzaro, Budé, and Aldus Manutius, with all the Academy of Rome; and
he had a disciple in Julius Cæsar Scaliger, one of the most learned men
of our times. Finally, being very old, he died, but precisely at what
time and in what place this happened, and consequently where he was
buried, is not known.
Even as it is true that the city of Verona is very similar to Florence
in situation, manners, and other respects, so it is also true that in
the first as well as in the second there have always flourished men of
the finest genius in all the noblest and most honourable professions.
Saying nothing of the learned, for with them I have nothing to do here,
and continuing to speak of the men of our arts, who have always had an
honourable abode in that most noble city, I come to Liberale of Verona,
a disciple of Vincenzio di Stefano, a native of the same city, already
mentioned in another place, who executed for the Church of Ognissanti,
belonging to the Monks of S. Benedict, at Mantua, in the year 1463, a
Madonna that was a very praiseworthy example of the work of those times.
Liberale imitated the manner of Jacopo Bellini, for when a young man,
while the said Jacopo was painting the Chapel of S. Niccolò at Verona,
he gave his attention under Bellini to the studies of design in such
thorough fashion that, forgetting all that he had learned from Vincenzio
di Stefano, he acquired the manner of Bellini and retained it ever
after.
The first paintings of Liberale were in the Chapel of the Monte della
Pietà in S. Bernardino, in his native city; and there, in the principal
picture, he painted a Deposition from the Cross, with certain Angels,
some of whom have in their hands the Mysteries (for so they are called)
of the Passion, and all with their weeping faces show grief at the Death
of the Saviour. Very natural, in truth, are these figures, as are other
works of the same kind by this master, who strove to show in many places
that he was able to paint weeping countenances. This may also be seen in
S. Anastasia, a church of Friars of S. Dominic, likewise in Verona,
where he painted a Dead Christ with the Maries mourning for Him on the
pediment of the Chapel of the Buonaveri; and he executed many pictures
in the same manner of painting as the work mentioned above, which are
dispersed among the houses of various gentlemen in Verona.
In the same chapel he painted a God the Father surrounded by many Angels
who are playing instruments and singing, with three figures on either
side--S. Peter, S. Dominic, and S. Thomas Aquinas on one side, and S.
Lucia, S. Agnese, and another female Saint on the other; but the first
three are much the finer, being executed in a better manner and with
more relief. On the main wall of that chapel he painted Our Lady, with
the Infant Christ marrying S. Catharine, the Virgin-Martyr; and in this
work he made a portrait of Messer Piero Buonaveri, the owner of the
chapel. Around this group are some Angels presenting flowers, with some
heads that are smiling, executed with such grace in their gladness, that
they prove that he was able to paint a smiling face as well as he had
painted tears in other figures. In the altar-piece of the same chapel he
painted S. Mary Magdalene in the air, supported by some Angels, with S.
Catharine below--a work which was held to be very beautiful. On the
altar of the Madonna in the Church of S. Maria della Scala, belonging to
the Servite Friars, he executed the story of the Magi on two
folding-doors that enclose that Madonna, which is held in vast
veneration in that city; but the work did not long remain there, for it
was removed because it was being spoilt by the smoke of the candles, and
placed in the sacristy, where it is much admired by the painters of
Verona.
In the tramezzo[4] of the Church of S. Bernardino, above the Chapel of
the Company of the Magdalene, he painted in fresco the story of the
Purification, wherein is a figure of Simeon that is much extolled, as
also is that of the Infant Christ, who with great affection is kissing
that old man, who is holding Him in his arms; and very beautiful,
likewise, is a priest standing there on one side, who, with his arms
extended and his face uplifted towards Heaven, appears to be thanking
God for the salvation of the world. Beside this chapel is a picture of
the story of the Magi by the hand of the same Liberale; and in the
pediment of the picture there is the Death of the Madonna, executed
with little figures, which are highly extolled. Great, indeed, was his
delight in painting works with little figures, with which he always took
such pains that they seem to be the work rather of an illuminator than
of a painter, as may be seen in the Duomo of the same city, where there
is a picture by his hand of the story of the Magi, with a vast number of
little figures, horses, dogs, and various other animals, and near them a
group of rosy-coloured Cherubim, who serve as a support to the Mother of
Jesus. In this picture the heads are so finished, and everything is
executed with such diligence, that, as I have said, it appears to be the
work of an illuminator.
He also painted stories of Our Lady on a small predella, likewise after
the manner of miniatures, for the Chapel of the Madonna in the Duomo.
But this was afterwards removed from that chapel by order of Monsignor
Messer Giovan Matteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona, and placed in the Palace
of the Vescovado, which is the residence of the Bishops, in that chapel
wherein they hear Mass every morning. And there that predella stands in
company with a most beautiful Crucifix in relief, executed by Giovanni
Battista Veronese, a sculptor, who now lives in Mantua. Liberale also
painted a panel-picture for the Chapel of the Allegni in S. Vitale,
containing a figure of S. Mestro, the Confessor, a Veronese and a man of
great sanctity, whom he placed between a S. Francis and a S. Dominic.
For the Chapel of S. Girolamo in the Vittoria, a church and convent of
certain Eremite Friars, he executed at the commission of the
Scaltritegli family an altar-piece of S. Jerome in the habit of a
Cardinal, with a S. Francis and a S. Paul, all much extolled. And in the
tramezzo[5] of the Church of S. Giovanni in Monte he painted the
Circumcision of Christ and other works, which were destroyed not long
since, because it was considered that the tramezzo impaired the beauty
of the church.
Being then summoned to Siena by the General of the Monks of Monte
Oliveto, Liberale illuminated many books for that Order; and in these he
succeeded so well, that he was commissioned in consequence to illuminate
some that had been left unfinished--that is to say, only written--in
the library of the Piccolomini. He also illuminated some books of
plain-song for the Duomo of that city, where he would have remained
longer, executing many works that he had in hand; but, being driven away
by envy and persecution, he set off to return to Verona, with eight
hundred crowns that he had earned, which he lent afterwards to the Monks
of Monte Oliveto at S. Maria in Organo, from whom he drew interest to
support him from day to day.
Having thus returned to Verona, he gave his attention for the rest of
his life more to illumination than to any other kind of work. At
Bardolino, a place on the Lake of Garda, he painted a panel-picture
which is now in the Pieve; and another for the Church of S. Tommaso
Apostolo. For the Chapel of S. Bernardo, likewise, in the Church of S.
Fermo, a convent of Friars of S. Francis, he painted a panel-picture of
the first-named Saint, with some scenes from his life in the predella.
In the same place, also, and in others, he executed many nuptial
pictures, one of which, containing the Madonna with the Child in her
arms marrying S. Catharine, is in the house of Messer Vincenzio de'
Medici at Verona.
On the corner of the house of the Cartai, on the way from the Ponte
Nuovo to S. Maria in Organo, in Verona, he painted a Madonna and S.
Joseph in fresco, a work which was much extolled. Liberale would have
liked to paint the Chapel of the Riva family, which had been built in
order to honour the memory of Giovanni Riva, a captain of men-at-arms at
the battle of the Taro, in the Church of S. Eufemia; but he did not
receive the commission, which was given to some strangers, and he was
told that he was too old and that his sight was failing him. When this
chapel was opened, a vast number of faults were perceived in it, and
Liberale said that he who had given the commission had been much more
blind than himself.
[Illustration: MINIATURE
(_After_ Liberale da Verona. _Siena: Duomo Library_)
_Anderson_]
Finally, being eighty-four years of age, or even more, Liberale allowed
himself to be ruled by his relatives, and particularly by a married
daughter, who, like the rest, treated him very badly. At which, having
grown angry both with her and with his other relatives, and happening to
have under his charge one Francesco Turbido, called Il Moro, then a
young man, who was a diligent painter and much affected towards him,
he appointed him as heir to the house and garden that he had at S.
Giovanni in Valle, a very pleasant part of the city; and with him he
took up his quarters, saying that he would rather give the enjoyment of
his property to one who loved virtue than to those who ill-treated their
nearest of kin. But no long time passed before he died, which was on the
day of S. Chiara in the year 1536, at the age of eighty-five; and he was
buried in S. Giovanni in Valle.
His disciples were Giovan Francesco Caroto and Giovanni Caroto,
Francesco Turbido, called Il Moro, and Paolo Cavazzuola, of whom, since
they were truly excellent masters, I shall make mention in their due
order.
Giovan Francesco Caroto was born at Verona in the year 1470, and after
having learned the first rudiments of letters, being drawn to painting,
he abandoned the studies of grammar and placed himself to learn painting
under the Veronese Liberale, undertaking to recompense him for his
pains. Young as he was, then, Giovan Francesco devoted himself with such
love and diligence to design, that even in his earliest years he was a
great assistance to Liberale both in that and in colouring. No long time
after, when his judgment had increased with his years, he saw the works
of Andrea Mantegna in Verona; and thinking, as indeed was the truth,
that these were of another manner and better than those of his master,
he so wrought upon his father that he was given leave, with the gracious
consent of Liberale, to apprentice himself to Mantegna. Having gone to
Mantua, therefore, and having placed himself under Mantegna, in a short
time he made such proficience that Andrea sent out works by Caroto as
works by his own hand. In short, before many years had passed by, he had
become an able master. The first works that he executed after leaving
the discipline of Mantegna were on the altar of the three Magi in the
Church of the Hospital of S. Cosimo at Verona, where he painted on the
folding-doors that enclose that altar the Circumcision of Christ and the
Flight into Egypt, with other figures. In the Church of the Frati
Ingiesuati, called S. Girolamo, in two angles of a chapel, he painted
the Madonna and the Angel of the Annunciation. And for the Prior of the
Friars of S. Giorgio he executed a little panel-picture of the Manger,
in which he may be seen to have greatly improved his manner, since the
heads of the shepherds and of all the other figures have expressions so
sweet and so beautiful, that this work was much extolled, and that
rightly; and if it were not that the priming of gesso is peeling off
through having been badly prepared, so that the picture is gradually
perishing, it would be enough by itself to keep him alive for ever in
the memory of his fellow-citizens.
Next, having been commissioned by the men who governed the Company of
the Angel Raphael to paint their chapel in the Church of S. Eufemia, he
executed therein two stories of the Angel Raphael in fresco, and in the
altar-piece, in oils, three large Angels, Raphael in the centre, and
Gabriel and Michael on either side, and all with good draughtsmanship
and colouring. He was reproached, indeed, for having made the legs of
those Angels too slender and wanting in softness; to which he made a
pleasant and gracious answer, saying that even as Angels were
represented with wings and with bodies, so to speak, celestial and
ethereal, as if they were birds, so it was only right to make their legs
lean and slender, to the end that they might fly and soar upwards with
greater ease. For that altar of the Church of S. Giorgio where there is
a Christ bearing His Cross, he painted S. Rocco and S. Sebastian, with
some scenes in the predella executed with very beautiful little figures.
And by order of the Company of the Madonna he painted on the predella of
the altar of that Company, in S. Bernardino, the Nativity of the Madonna
and the Massacre of the Innocents, with a great variety of attitudes in
the murderers and in the groups of children whom their mothers are
defending with all their might. This work is held in great veneration,
and is kept covered, the better to preserve it; and it was the reason
that the men of the Fraternity of S. Stefano commissioned him to paint
three pictures with similar figures for their altar in the old Duomo of
Verona, containing three little scenes from the life of Our Lady--her
Marriage, the Nativity of Christ, and the story of the Magi.
[Illustration: GIOVAN FRANCESCO CAROTO: ELISABETTA GONZAGA, DUCHESS OF
MANTUA
(_Florence: Uffizi, 1121. Panel_)]
After these works, thinking that he had gained enough credit in Verona,
Giovan Francesco was minded to depart and make trial of other places;
but his friends and relatives, pressing him much, persuaded him to
take to wife a young woman of noble birth, the daughter of Messer
Braliassarti Grandoni, whom he married in 1505. In a short time,
however, after he had had a son by her, she died in child-birth; and
Giovan Francesco, thus left free, departed from Verona and went off to
Milan, where Signor Anton Maria Visconti received him into his house and
caused him to execute many works for its adornment.
Meanwhile there was brought to Milan by a Fleming a head of a young man,
taken from life and painted in oils, which was admired by everyone in
that city; but Giovan Francesco, seeing it, laughed and said: "I am
confident that I can do a better." At which the Fleming mocked him, but
after many words the matter came to this, that Giovan Francesco was to
try his hand, losing his own picture and twenty-five crowns if he lost,
and winning the Fleming's head and likewise twenty-five crowns if he
won. Setting to work, therefore, with all his powers, Giovan Francesco
made a portrait of an aged gentleman with shaven face, with a falcon on
his wrist; but, although this was a good likeness, the head of the
Fleming was judged to be the better. Giovan Francesco did not make a
good choice in executing his portrait, for he took a head that could not
do him honour; whereas, if he had chosen a handsome young man, and had
made as good a likeness of him as he did of the old man, he would at
least have equalled his adversary's picture, even if he had not
surpassed it. But for all this the head of Giovan Francesco did not fail
to win praise, and the Fleming showed him courtesy, for he contented
himself with the head of the shaven old man, and, being a noble and
courteous person, would by no means accept the five-and-twenty crowns.
This picture came after some time into the possession of Madonna
Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua, who paid a very good price for
it to the Fleming and placed it as a choice work in her study, in which
she had a vast number of very beautiful coins, pictures, works in
marble, and castings.
After completing his work for Visconti, Giovan Francesco, being invited
by Guglielmo, Marquis of Montferrat, went willingly to serve him, as
Visconti straitly besought him to do. On his arrival, a fine provision
was assigned to him; and, setting to work, he painted for that noble at
Casale, in a chapel where he heard Mass, as many pictures as were
necessary to fill it and adorn it on every side, with subjects from the
Old Testament and the New, which were executed by him with supreme
diligence, as was also the chief altar-piece. He then executed many
works throughout the apartments of that Castle, which brought him very
great fame. And in S. Domenico, by order of that Marquis, he painted the
whole of the principal chapel for the adornment of the tomb wherein he
was to be laid to rest; in which work Giovan Francesco acquitted himself
so well, that he was rightly rewarded with honourable gifts by the
liberality of his patron, who also favoured him by making him one of his
own chamberlains, as may be seen from an instrument that is in the
possession of his heirs at Verona. He made portraits of that lord and of
his wife, with many pictures that they sent to France, and also the
portrait of Guglielmo, their eldest child, who was then a boy, and
likewise portraits of their daughters and of all the ladies who were in
the service of the Marchioness.
On the death of the Marquis Guglielmo, Giovan Francesco departed from
Casale, after first selling all the property that he had in those parts,
and made his way to Verona, where he so arranged his affairs and those
of his son, to whom he gave a wife, that in a short time he found
himself in possession of more than seven thousand ducats. But he did not
therefore abandon his painting; indeed, having a quiet mind, and not
being obliged to rack his brain for a livelihood, he gave more attention
to it than ever. It is true that either from envy or for some other
reason he was accused of being a painter who could do nothing but little
figures; wherefore, in executing the altar-piece of the Chapel of the
Madonna in S. Fermo, a convent of Friars of S. Francis, wishing to show
that the accusation was a calumny, he painted the figures larger than
life, and so well, that they were the best that he had ever done. In the
air is Our Lady seated in the lap of S. Anne, with some Angels standing
upon clouds, and beneath are S. Peter, S. John the Baptist, S. Rocco,
and S. Sebastian; and not far away, in a most beautiful landscape, is S.
Francis receiving the Stigmata. This work, indeed, is held by craftsmen
to be not otherwise than good.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD WITH S. ANNE AND SAINTS
(_After the painting by =Giovan Francesco Caroto=. Verona: S. Fermo
Maggiore_)
_Alinari_]
For the Chapel of the Cross in S. Bernardino, a seat of the Frati
Zoccolanti, he painted Christ kneeling on one knee and taking leave of
His Mother. In this work, stirred to emulation by the many notable
pictures by the hands of other masters that are in that place, he strove
to surpass them all; wherefore, in truth, he acquitted himself very
well, and was praised by all who saw it, save only by the Guardian of
that convent, who, like the boorish and solemn fool that he was,
reproved Giovan Francesco with biting words, saying that he had made
Christ show such little reverence to His Mother as to kneel only upon
one knee. To which Giovan Francesco answered by saying: "Father, first
do me the favour of kneeling down and rising up again, and I will then
tell you for what reason I have painted Christ so." The Guardian, after
much persuasion, knelt down, placing on the ground first his right knee
and then his left; and in rising up he raised first the left and then
the right. Which done, Giovan Francesco said: "Did you observe, Father
Guardian, that you neither knelt down nor rose up with both knees
together? I tell you, therefore, that this Christ of mine is right,
because one might say that He is either coming to His knees before His
Mother, or beginning, after having knelt a while, to raise one leg in
order to rise." At which the Guardian had to appear a little appeased,
although he went off muttering under his breath.
Giovan Francesco was very sharp in his answers; and it is also related
of him that once, being told by a priest that his figures were too
seductive for altar-pieces, he replied: "A lusty fellow you must be, if
painted figures so move you. Think how much you are to be trusted in
places where there are living people for you to touch." At Isola, a
place on the Lake of Garda, he painted two panel-pictures for the Church
of the Zoccolanti; and at Malsessino, a township above that same lake,
he painted a very beautiful Madonna over the door of a church, and some
Saints within the church, at the request of Fracastoro, a very famous
poet, who was much his friend. For Count Giovan Francesco Giusti,
executing a subject conceived by that nobleman, he painted a young man
wholly naked except for the parts of shame, and in an attitude of
indecision as to whether he shall rise up or not; and on one side he had
a most beautiful young woman representing Minerva, who with one hand
was pointing out to him a figure of Fame on high, and with the other was
urging him to follow her; but Sloth and Idleness, who were behind the
young man, were striving to detain him. Below these was a figure with an
uncouth face, rather that of a slave and a plebeian than of one of noble
blood, who had two great snails clinging to his elbows and was seated on
a crab, and near him was another figure with the hands full of poppies.
This invention, in which are other beautiful details and fancies, was
executed by Giovan Francesco with supreme diligence and love; and it
serves as the head-board of a bedstead at that nobleman's lovely place
near Verona, which is called S. Maria in Stella.
The same master painted the whole of a little chamber with various
scenes in little figures, for Count Raimondo della Torre. And since he
delighted to work in relief, he executed not only models for his own
purposes and for the arrangement of draperies, but also other things of
his own fancy, of which there are some to be seen in the house of his
heirs, and in particular a scene in half-relief, which is not otherwise
than passing good. He also executed portraits on medallions, and some
are still to be seen, such as that of Guglielmo, Marquis of Montferrat,
which has on the reverse a Hercules slaying ..., with a motto that runs:
"Monstra domat." He painted portraits of Count Raimondo della Torre,
Messer Giulio his brother, and Messer Girolamo Fracastoro.
But when Giovan Francesco became old, he began gradually to lose his
mastery over art, as may be seen from the organ-doors in S. Maria della
Scala, from the panel-picture of the Movi family, wherein is a
Deposition from the Cross, and from the Chapel of S. Martino in S.
Anastasia. Giovan Francesco had always a great opinion of himself, and
not for anything in the world would he have ever copied another man's
work in his own. Now Bishop Giovan Matteo Giberti wished him to paint
some stories of the Madonna in the great chapel of the Duomo, and had
the designs for these drawn in Rome by Giulio Romano, who was very much
his friend (for Giberti was Datary to Pope Clement VII). But, when the
Bishop had returned to Verona, Giovan Francesco would never consent to
execute these designs; at which the Bishop, in disdain, caused them to
be put into execution by Francesco, called Il Moro.
Giovan Francesco held an opinion, in which he was not far from the
truth, that varnishing pictures spoiled them, and made them become old
sooner than they otherwise would; and for this reason he used varnish in
the darks while painting, together with certain purified oils. He was
also the first who executed landscapes well in Verona; wherefore there
are some by his hand to be seen in that city, which are very beautiful.
Finally, when seventy-six years of age, Giovan Francesco died the death
of a good Christian, leaving his grandchildren and his brother, Giovanni
Caroto, passing well provided. This Giovanni, after first applying
himself to art under his brother, and then spending some time in Venice,
had just returned to Verona when Giovan Francesco passed to the other
life; and thus he took a hand with the grandchildren in inspecting the
things of art that had been left to them. Among these they found a
portrait of an old man in armour, very beautiful both in drawing and in
colour, which was the best work by the hand of Giovan Francesco that was
ever seen; and likewise a little picture containing a Deposition from
the Cross, which was presented to Signor Spitech, a man of great
authority with the King of Poland, who had come at that time to some
baths that are in the territory of Verona. Giovan Francesco was buried
in the Madonna dell' Organo, in the Chapel of S. Niccolò, which he
himself had adorned with his paintings.
Giovanni Caroto, brother of Giovan Francesco, although he followed the
manner of the latter, yet gained less reputation in the practice of
painting. This master painted the altar-piece in the above-mentioned
Chapel of S. Niccolò, wherein is the Madonna enthroned on clouds; and
below this he placed a portrait of himself, taken from life, and that of
his wife Placida. He also painted some little figures of female Saints
for the altar of the Schioppi in the Church of S. Bartolommeo, together
with a portrait of Madonna Laura degli Schioppi, who had caused that
chapel to be built, and who was much celebrated by the writers of those
times no less for her virtues than for her beauty. Giovanni likewise
painted a S. Martin in a little altar-piece for S. Giovanni in Fonte,
near the Duomo; and he made a portrait of Messer Marc' Antonio della
Torre (who afterwards became a man of learning and gave public lectures
at Padua and Pavia) as a young man, and also one of Messer Giulio; which
heads are in the possession of their heirs at Verona. For the Prior of
S. Giorgio he painted a picture of Our Lady, which, as a good painting,
has been kept ever since, as it still is, in the chamber of the Priors.
And he painted another picture, representing the transformation of
Actæon into a stag, for the organist Brunetto, who afterwards presented
it to Girolamo Cicogna, an excellent embroiderer, and engineer to Bishop
Giberti; and it now belongs to Messer Vincenzio Cicogna, his son.