the triumphal arches and the Colosseum. These were revised by the
Veronese architect Falconetto, and they were meant for the adornment of
the book of the Antiquities of Verona, which had been written after his
own original research by Messer Torello Saraina, who afterwards had the
book printed. This book was sent to me by Giovanni Caroto when I was in
Bologna (where I was executing the work of the Refectory of S. Michele
in Bosco), together with the portrait of the reverend Father, Don
Cipriano da Verona, who was twice General of the Monks of Monte Oliveto;
and the portrait, which was sent to me by Giovanni to the end that I
might make use of it, as I did, for one of those pictures, is now in my
house at Florence, with other paintings by the hands of various masters.
Finally, having lived without children and without ambition, but with
good means, Giovanni died at about the age of sixty, full of gladness
because he saw some of his disciples, particularly Anselmo Canneri and
Paolo Veronese, already in good repute. Paolo is now working in Venice,
and is held to be a good master; and Anselmo has executed many works
both in oils and in fresco, and in particular at the Villa Soranza on
the Tesino, and in the Palace of the Soranzi at Castelfranco, and also
in many other places, but more at Vicenza than anywhere else. But to
return to Giovanni; he was buried in S. Maria dell' Organo, where he had
painted a chapel with his own hand.
Francesco Turbido, called Il Moro, a painter of Verona, learned the
first rudiments of art, when still quite young, from Giorgione da
Castelfranco, whom he imitated ever afterwards in colouring and in
softness of painting. But just when Il Moro was making progress, he came
to words with I know not whom, and handled him so roughly, that he was
forced to leave Venice and return to Verona. There, abandoning his
painting, since he was somewhat ready with his hands and associated with
the young noblemen, being a person of very good breeding, he lived for a
time without doing any work. And associating in this way, in particular,
with the Counts Sanbonifazi and the Counts Giusti, two illustrious
families of Verona, he became so intimate with them that he lived in
their houses as if he had been born in them; and, what is more, no long
time passed before Count Zenovello Giusti gave him a natural daughter of
his own for a wife, and granted him a commodious apartment in his own
house for himself, his wife, and the children that were born to them.
It is said that Francesco, while living in the service of those
noblemen, always carried a pencil in his pouch; and wherever he went, if
only he had time, he would draw a head or something else on the walls.
Wherefore the same Count Zenovello, seeing him to be so much inclined to
painting, relieved him of his other duties, like the generous nobleman
that he was, and made him give his whole attention to art; and since
Francesco had all but forgotten everything, he placed himself, through
the good offices of that patron, under Liberale, a famous painter and
illuminator of that time. And thus, practising under that master without
ever ceasing, he went on making such progress from one day to another,
that not only did all that he had forgotten awaken in his memory, but he
also acquired in a short time as much more knowledge as sufficed to make
him an able craftsman. It is true, however, that, although he always
held to the manner of Liberale, he yet imitated the softness and
well-blended colouring of Giorgione, his first instructor, believing
that the works of Liberale, while good in other respects, suffered from
a certain dryness.
Now Liberale, having recognized the beauty of Francesco's spirit,
conceived such an affection for him, that he loved him ever afterwards
as a son, and, when death came upon him, left him heir to all his
possessions. And thus, after the death of Liberale, Francesco followed
in his steps and executed many works, which are dispersed among various
private houses. Of those in Verona which deserve to be extolled above
all others, the first is the great chapel of the Duomo, on the vaulting
of which are four large pictures painted in fresco, wherein are the
Nativity of the Madonna and the Presentation in the Temple, and, in the
picture in the centre, which appears to recede inwards, three Angels in
the air, who are seen foreshortened from below, and are holding a crown
of stars wherewith to crown the Madonna, who is in the recess, in the
act of ascending into Heaven, accompanied by many Angels, while the
Apostles are gazing upwards in attitudes of great variety; and these
Apostles are figures twice the size of life. All these pictures were
executed by Il Moro after the designs of Giulio Romano, according to the
wish of Bishop Giovan Matteo Giberti, who gave the commission for the
work, and who, as has been said, was very much the friend of that same
Giulio.
After this Il Moro painted the façade of the house of the Manuelli,
which stands on the abutment of the Ponte Nuovo, and a façade for
Torello Saraina, the doctor, who wrote the above-mentioned book of the
Antiquities of Verona. In Friuli, likewise, he painted in fresco the
principal chapel of the Abbey of Rosazzo, for Bishop Giovan Matteo, who
held it "in commendam," and, being a noble and truly religious
dignitary, rebuilt it; for it had been allowed to fall completely into
ruin, as such buildings are generally found to be, by those who had held
it "in commendam" before him, attending only to the drawing of the
revenues and spending not a farthing in the service of God and of the
Church.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A MAN
(_After the painting by =Francesco Turbido [Il Moro]=. Munich:
Pinacoteca, 1125_)
_Bruckmann_]
Il Moro afterwards painted many works in oils at Verona and in Venice.
On the outer wall (of a chapel) in S. Maria in Organo he executed in
fresco the figures that are still there, with the exception of the Angel
Michael and the Angel Raphael, which are by the hand of Paolo
Cavazzuola. For the same chapel he painted an altar-piece in oils,
wherein he made a portrait of Messer Jacopo Fontani, who gave the
commission for the work, in a figure of S. James, in addition to the
Madonna and other very beautiful figures. And in a large semicircle
above that altar-piece, occupying the whole width of the chapel, he
painted the Transfiguration of Our Lord, and the Apostles beneath, which
were held to be among the best figures that he ever executed. For the
Chapel of the Bombardieri, in S. Eufemia, he painted an altar-piece with
S. Barbara in the heavens, in the centre, and a S. Anthony below, with
his hand on his beard, which is a most beautiful head, and on the other
side a S. Rocco, which is also held to be a very good figure; whence
this work is rightly looked upon as one executed with supreme diligence
and unity of colouring. In a picture on the altar of the Santificazione,
in the Madonna della Scala, he painted a S. Sebastian, in competition
with Paolo Cavazzuola, who executed a S. Rocco in another picture; and
he afterwards painted an altar-piece that was taken to Bagolino, a place
in the mountains of Brescia.
Il Moro executed many portraits, and his heads are in truth beautiful to
a marvel, and very good likenesses of those whom they were meant to
represent. At Verona he executed a portrait of Count Francesco
Sanbonifazio, who, on account of the length of his body, was called the
Long Count; with that of one of the Franchi, which was an amazing head.
He also painted the portrait of Messer Girolamo Verità, which remained
unfinished, because Il Moro was inclined to be dilatory in his work; and
this, still unfinished, is in the possession of the sons of that good
nobleman. Among many other portraits, likewise, he executed one of the
Venetian, Monsignor de' Martini, a knight of Rhodes, and to the same man
he sold a head of marvellous beauty and excellence, which he had painted
many years before as the portrait of a Venetian gentleman, the son of
one who was then Captain in Verona. This head, through the avarice of
the Venetian, who never paid him, was left in the hands of Francesco,
and he disposed of it to Monsignor de' Martini, who had the Venetian
dress changed into that of a shepherd or herdsman. It is as rare a
portrait as ever issued from the hand of any craftsman, and it is now in
the house of the heirs of the same Monsignor de' Martini, where it is
rightly held in vast veneration. In Venice he painted a portrait of
Messer Alessandro Contarini, Procurator of S. Mark and Proveditor of the
forces, and one of Messer Michele San Michele for one of Messer
Michele's dearest friends, who took the portrait to Orvieto; and it is
said that he executed another of the same architect, Messer Michele,
which is now in the possession of Messer Paolo Ramusio, the son of
Messer Giovan Battista. He also painted a portrait of Fracastoro, a very
famous poet, at the instance of Monsignor Giberti, by whom it was sent
to Giovio, who placed it in his museum.
Il Moro executed many other works, of which there is no need to make
mention, although they are all well worthy of remembrance, because he
was as diligent a colourist as any master that lived in his day, and
because he bestowed much time and labour on his work. So great, indeed,
was his diligence, that it brought upon him more blame than praise, as
may also be seen at times to happen to others, for the reason that he
accepted any commission and took the earnest-money from every patron,
and trusted to the will of God to finish the work; and if he did this in
his youth, everyone may imagine what he must have done in his last
years, when to his natural slowness there was added that which old age
brings in its train. By this method of procedure he brought upon himself
more entanglements and annoyances than he cared for; and Messer Michele
San Michele, therefore, moved by compassion for him, took him into his
house in Venice and treated him like a friend and man of talent.
Finally, having been invited back to Verona by his former patrons, the
Counts Giusti, Il Moro died among them in their beautiful Palace of S.
Maria in Stella, and was buried in the church of that villa, being
accompanied to his tomb by all those loving noblemen, and even laid to
rest with extraordinary affection by their own hands; for they loved him
as a father, since they had all been born and brought up while he was
living in their house. In his youth Il Moro was very courageous and
agile in body, and handled all kinds of arms with great skill. He was
most faithful to his friends and patrons, and he showed spirit in all
his actions. His most intimate friends were the architect, Messer
Michele San Michele, Danese da Carrara, an excellent sculptor, and the
very reverend and most learned Fra Marco de' Medici, who often went
after his studies to sit with him, watching him at work, and discoursing
lovingly with him, in order to refresh his mind when he was weary with
labour.
A disciple and son-in-law of Il Moro, who had two daughters, was
Battista d' Agnolo, who was afterwards called Battista del Moro. This
master, although he had his hands full for a time with the complications
of the inheritance that Il Moro bequeathed to him, has yet executed many
works which are not otherwise than passing good. In Verona he has
painted a S. John the Baptist in the Church of the Nuns of S. Giuseppe,
and in the tramezzo[6] of S. Eufemia, above the altar of S. Paolo, a
scene in fresco showing the latter Saint presenting himself to Ananias
after being converted by Christ; which work, although he executed it
when still a lad, is much extolled. For the noble Counts Canossi he
painted two apartments, and in a hall two friezes with battle-pieces,
which are very beautiful and praised by everyone. In Venice he painted
the façade of a house near the Carmine, a work of no great size, but
much extolled, in which he executed a figure of Venice crowned and
seated upon a lion, the device of that Republic. For Camillo Trevisano
he painted the façade of his house at Murano, and in company with his
son Marco he decorated the inner court with very beautiful scenes in
chiaroscuro. And in competition with Paolo Veronese he painted a large
chamber in the same house, which proved to be so beautiful that it
brought him much honour and profit.
The same master has also executed many works in miniature, of which the
most recent is a very beautiful drawing of S. Eustachio adoring Christ,
who has appeared to him between the horns of a deer, with two dogs near
him, which could not be more excellent, and a landscape full of trees,
receding and fading away little by little into the distance, which is an
exquisite thing. This drawing has been very highly praised by the many
persons who have seen it, and particularly by Danese da Carrara, who saw
it when he was in Verona, carrying out the work of the Chapel of the
Signori Fregosi, which is one of rare distinction among all the number
that there are in Italy at the present day. Danese, I say, having seen
this drawing, was lost in astonishment at its beauty, and exhorted the
above-mentioned Fra Marco de' Medici, his old and particular friend, not
for anything in the world to let it slip through his hands, but to
contrive to place it among the other choice examples of all the arts in
his possession. Whereupon Battista, having heard that Fra Marco desired
it, and knowing of his friendship with his father-in-law, gave it to
him, almost forcing him to accept it, in the presence of Danese; nor was
that good Father ungrateful to him for so much courtesy. However, since
that same Battista and his son Marco are alive and still at work, I
shall say nothing more of them for the present.
Il Moro had another disciple, called Orlando Fiacco, who has become a
good master and a very able painter of portraits, as may be seen from
the many that he has painted, all very beautiful and most lifelike. He
made a portrait of Cardinal Caraffa when he was returning from Germany,
which he took secretly by torch-light while the Cardinal was at supper
in the Vescovado of Verona; and this was such a faithful likeness that
it could not have been improved. He also painted a very lifelike
portrait of the Cardinal of Lorraine, when, coming from the Council of
Trent, he passed through Verona on his return to Rome; and likewise
portraits of the two Bishops Lippomani of Verona, Luigi the uncle and
Agostino the nephew, which Count Giovan Battista della Torre now has in
a little apartment. Other portraits that he painted were those of Messer
Adamo Fumani, a Canon and a very learned gentleman of Verona, of Messer
Vincenzio de' Medici of Verona, and of his consort, Madonna Isotta, in
the guise of S. Helen, and of their grandson, Messer Niccolò. He has
likewise executed portraits of Count Antonio della Torre, of Count
Girolamo Canossi, and his brothers, Count Lodovico and Count Paolo, of
Signor Astorre Baglioni, Captain-General of all the light cavalry of
Venice and Governor of Verona, the latter clad in white armour and most
beautiful in aspect, and of his consort, Signora Ginevra Salviati. In
like manner, he has portrayed the eminent architect Palladio and many
others; and he still continues at work, wishing to become in the art of
painting as true an Orlando as once was that great Paladin of France.
[Illustration: BONSIGNORI (MONSIGNORI): PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN
(_London: National Gallery, 736. Tempera Panel_)]
In Verona, where an extraordinary degree of attention has been given to
design ever since the death of Fra Giocondo, there have flourished at
all times men excellent in painting and architecture, as will now be
seen, in addition to what has been observed hitherto, in the Lives of
Francesco Monsignori, of Domenico Morone and his son Francesco, of Paolo
Cavazzuola, of the architect Falconetto, and, lastly, of the
miniaturists Francesco and Girolamo.
Francesco Monsignori, the son of Alberto, was born at Verona in the year
1455; and when he was well grown he was advised by his father, who had
always delighted in painting, although he had not practised it save for
his own pleasure, to give his attention to design. Having, therefore,
gone to Mantua to seek out Mantegna, who was then working in that city,
he exerted himself in such a manner, being fired by the fame of his
instructor, that no long time passed before Francesco II, Marquis of
Mantua, who found an extraordinary delight in painting, took him into
his own service; and in the year 1487 he gave him a house for his
habitation in Mantua, and assigned him an honourable provision. For
these benefits Francesco was not ungrateful, for he always served that
lord with supreme fidelity and lovingness; whence the Marquis came to
love and favour him more and more every day, insomuch that he could not
leave the city without having Francesco in his train, and was once heard
to say that Francesco was as dear to him as the State itself.
Francesco painted many works for that lord in his Palace of S.
Sebastiano at Mantua, and also in the Castello di Gonzaga and in the
beautiful Palace of Marmirolo without the city. In the latter Francesco
had finished painting in the year 1499, after a vast number of other
pictures, some triumphs and many portraits of gentlemen of the Court;
and on Christmas Eve, on which day he had finished those works, the
Marquis presented to him an estate of a hundred fields in the territory
of Mantua, at a place called La Marzotta, with a mansion, garden,
meadows, and other things of great beauty and convenience. He was most
excellent at taking portraits from life, and the Marquis caused him to
paint many portraits, of himself, of his sons, and of many other lords
of the house of Gonzaga, which were sent to France and Germany as
presents for various Princes. And many of these portraits are still in
Mantua, such as those of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa; of Doge
Barbarigo of Venice; of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan; of
Massimiliano, also Duke of Milan, who died in France; of the Emperor
Maximilian; of Signor Ercole Gonzaga, who afterwards became a Cardinal;
of his brother, Duke Federigo (then a young man); of Signor Giovan
Francesco Gonzaga; of Messer Andrea Mantegna, the painter; and of many
others; of all which Francesco preserved copies drawn on paper in
chiaroscuro, which are now in the possession of his heirs at Mantua.
Above the pulpit of S. Francesco de' Zoccolanti, in the same city, is a
picture that he painted of S. Louis and S. Bernardino holding a large
circle that contains the name of Jesus; and in the refectory of those
friars there is a picture on canvas as large as the whole of the
head-wall, of the Saviour in the midst of the twelve Apostles, painted
in perspective and all very beautiful, and executed with many proofs of
consideration. Among them is the traitor Judas, with a face wholly
different from those of the others, and in a strange attitude; and the
others are all gazing intently at Jesus, who is speaking to them, being
near His Passion. On the right hand of this work is a S. Francis of the
size of life, a very beautiful figure, the countenance of which is the
very presentment of that sanctity which was peculiar to that most
saintly man; and he is presenting to Christ the Marquis Francesco, who
is kneeling at his feet, portrayed from life in a long coat pleated and
worked with a curly pattern, according to the fashion of those times,
and embroidered with white crosses, perchance because he may have been
at that time Captain of the Venetians. And in front of the Marquis is a
portrait, with the hands clasped, of his eldest son, who was then a very
beautiful boy, and afterwards became Duke Federigo. On the other side is
painted a S. Bernardino, equal in excellence to the figure of S.
Francis, and likewise presenting to Christ the brother of the Marquis,
Cardinal Sigismondo Gonzaga, a very beautiful kneeling figure, robed in
the habit of a Cardinal, with the rochet, which is also a portrait from
life; and in front of that Cardinal is a portrait of Signora Leonora,
the daughter of the same Marquis, who was then a girl, and afterwards
became Duchess of Urbino. This whole work is held by the most excellent
painters to be a marvellous thing.
[Illustration: S. SEBASTIAN
(_After the painting by =Francesco Monsignori [Bonsignori]=. Berlin:
Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 46 c_)
_Hanfstaengl_]
The same master painted a picture of S. Sebastian, which was afterwards
placed in the Madonna delle Grazie, without the city of Mantua; and to
this he devoted extraordinary pains, copying many things in it from the
life. It is related that the Marquis, going one day, while Francesco was
executing this picture, to see him at work, as he used often to do, said
to him: "Francesco, you must take some fine figure as your model in
painting this Saint." To which Francesco answered: "I am using as my
model a porter with a very handsome figure, whom I bind in a fashion of
my own in order to make the work natural." "But the limbs of this Saint
of yours," rejoined the Marquis, "are not true to life, for they have
not the appearance of being strained by force or by that fear which one
would expect in a man bound and shot with arrows; and by your leave I
will undertake to show you what you ought to do in order to make this
figure perfect." "Nay, but I beg you to do it, my lord," said Francesco;
and the Marquis added: "When you have your porter bound here, send for
me, and I will show you what you must do." The next day, therefore, when
Francesco had the porter bound in the manner that he wished, he sent a
secret summons to the Marquis, but without knowing what he intended to
do. And the Marquis, bursting out of a neighbouring room in a great
fury, with a loaded cross-bow in his hand, rushed towards the porter,
crying out at the top of his voice, "Traitor, prepare to die! At last I
have caught thee as I would have thee," and other suchlike words; which
hearing, the wretched porter, thinking himself as good as dead,
struggled in a frenzy of terror with the ropes wherewith he was bound,
and made frantic efforts to break them, thus truly representing one
about to be shot with arrows, and revealing fear in his face and the
horror of death in his strained and distorted limbs, as he sought to
escape from his peril. This done, the Marquis said to Francesco, "There
he is in the state that he ought to be: the rest is for you to do";
which the painter having well considered, made his figure as perfect as
could be imagined.
Francesco painted in the Gonzaga Palace, besides many other things, the
Election of the first Lords of Mantua, with the jousts that were held on
the Piazza di S. Piero, which is seen there in perspective. When the
Grand Turk sent one of his men with a most beautiful dog, a bow, and a
quiver, as presents for the Marquis, the latter caused the dog, the Turk
who had brought it, and the other things, to be painted in the same
Gonzaga Palace; and, this done, wishing to see whether the painted dog
were truly lifelike, he had one of his own dogs, of a breed very hostile
to the Turkish dog, brought to the place where the other one stood on a
pedestal painted in imitation of stone. The living dog, then, arriving
there, had no sooner seen the painted one than, precisely as if it had
been a living animal and the very one for whom he had a mortal hatred,
he broke loose from his keeper and rushed at it with such vehemence, in
order to bite it, that he struck his head full against the wall and
dashed it all to pieces.
[Illustration: GIOVAN FRANCESCO MORONE: MADONNA AND CHILD
(_London: National Gallery, 285. Panel_)]