anyone, and his life was very pure. He had, besides other children, a
son called Francesco, who learned his art from him, and executed
miracles of illumination when still a mere lad, so that Girolamo
declared that he had not known as much at that age as his son knew. But
this young man was led away from him by a brother of his mother, who,
being passing rich, and having no children, took him with him to Vicenza
and placed him in charge of a glass-furnace that he was setting up. When
Francesco had spent his best years in this, his uncle's wife dying, he
fell from his high hopes, and found that he had wasted his time, for
the uncle took another wife, and had children by her, and thus Francesco
did not become his uncle's heir, as he had thought to be. Thereupon he
returned to his art after an absence of six years, and, after acquiring
some knowledge, set himself to work. Among other things, he made a large
globe, four feet in diameter, hollow within, and covered on the outer
side, which was of wood, with a glue made of bullock's sinews, which was
of a very strong admixture, so that there should be no danger of cracks
or other damage in any part. This sphere, which was to serve as a
terrestrial globe, was then carefully measured and divided under the
personal supervision of Fracastoro and Beroldi, both eminent physicians,
cosmographers, and astrologers; and it was to be painted by Francesco
for Messer Andrea Navagiero, a Venetian gentleman, and a most learned
poet and orator, who wished to make a present of it to King Francis of
France, to whom he was about to go as Ambassador from his Republic. But
Navagiero had scarcely arrived in France after a hurried journey, when
he died, and this work remained unfinished. A truly rare work it would
have been, thus executed by Francesco with the advice and guidance of
two men of such distinction; but it was left unfinished, as we have
said, and, what was worse, in its incomplete condition it received some
injury, I know not what, in the absence of Francesco. However, spoiled
as it was, it was bought by Messer Bartolommeo Lonichi, who has never
consented to give it up to anyone, although he has been much besought
and offered vast prices.
Before this, Francesco had made two smaller globes, one of which is in
the possession of Mazzanti, Archpriest of the Duomo of Verona, and the
other belonged to Count Raimondo della Torre, and is now in the hands of
his son, Count Giovan Batista, who holds it very dear, because this one,
also, was made with the measurements and personal assistance of
Fracastoro, who was a very familiar friend of Count Raimondo.
Finally, growing weary of the extraordinary labour that miniatures
demand, Francesco devoted himself to painting and to architecture, in
which he became very skilful, executing many works in Venice and in
Padua. About that time the Bishop of Tournai, a very rich and noble
Fleming, had come to Italy in order to study letters, to see the
country, and to learn our manners and ways of living. This man,
delighting much in architecture, and happening to be in Padua, became so
enamoured of the Italian method of building that he resolved to take the
modes of our architecture with him to his own country; and in order to
facilitate this purpose, he drew Francesco, whose ability he had
recognized, into his service with an honourable salary, meaning to take
him to Flanders, where he intended to carry out many magnificent works.
But when the time came to depart, poor Francesco, who had caused designs
to be made of all the best and greatest and most famous buildings in
Italy, was overtaken by death, while still young and the object of the
highest expectations, leaving his patron much grieved by his loss.
Francesco left an only brother, in whom, being a priest, the Dai Libri
family became extinct, after producing in succession three men most
excellent in their field of art. Nor have any disciples survived them to
keep this art alive, excepting the above-mentioned churchman, Don
Giulio, who, as we have related, learned it from Girolamo when he was
working at Candiana, where the former was a friar; and this Don Giulio
has since raised it to a height of excellence which very few have
reached and no one has ever surpassed.
I knew for myself some of the facts about the excellent and noble
craftsmen mentioned above, but I would never have been able to learn the
whole of what I have related of them if the great goodness and diligence
of the reverend and most learned Fra Marco de' Medici of Verona, a man
profoundly conversant with all the most noble arts and sciences, and
with him Danese Cattaneo of Carrara, a sculptor of great excellence,
both being very much my friends, had not given me that complete and
perfect information which I have just written down, to the best of my
ability, for the convenience and advantage of all who may read these our
Lives, in which the courtesy of many friends, who have taken pains with
the investigation of these matters in order to please me and to benefit
the world, has been, as it still is, of great assistance to me. And let
this be the end of the Lives of these craftsmen of Verona, the portraits
of each of whom I have not been able to obtain, because this full notice
did not reach my hands until I found myself almost at the close of my
work.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Canal of the slaughter-houses.
[2] Small canal of the corn-magazines.
[3] Scarpagnino.
[4] See note on page 57, Vol. I.
[5] See note on page 57, Vol. I.
[6] See note on page 57, Vol. I.
[7] From "terra," earth.
[8] See note on page 57, Vol. I.
[9] _I.e._, "of the books."
FRANCESCO GRANACCI (IL GRANACCIO)
LIFE OF FRANCESCO GRANACCI (IL GRANACCIO)
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Great, indeed, is the good fortune of those craftsmen who are brought
into contact, either by their birth or by the associations that are
formed in childhood, with those men whom Heaven has chosen out to be
distinguished and exalted above all others in our arts, for the reason
that a good and beautiful manner can be acquired with the greatest
facility by seeing the methods and works of men of excellence, not to
mention that rivalry and emulation, as we have said elsewhere, have
great power over our minds.
Francesco Granacci, of whom we have already spoken, was one of those who
were placed by the Magnificent Lorenzo de' Medici to learn in his
garden; whence it happened that, recognizing, boy as he was, the great
genius of Michelagnolo, and what extraordinary fruits he was likely to
produce when full grown, he could never tear himself away from his side,
and even strove with incredible attention and humility to be always
following that great brain, insomuch that Michelagnolo was constrained
to love him more than all his other friends, and to confide so much in
him, that there was no one with whom he was more willing to confer
touching his works or to share all that he knew of art at that time,
than with Granacci. Then, after they had been companions together in the
workshop of Domenico Ghirlandajo, it came to pass that Granacci, because
he was held to be the best of Ghirlandajo's young men, the strongest
draughtsman, and the one who had most grace in painting in distemper,
assisted David and Benedetto Ghirlandajo, the brothers of Domenico, to
finish the altar-piece of the high-altar in S. Maria Novella, which had
been left unfinished at the death of the same Domenico. By this work
Granacci gained much experience, and afterwards he executed in the same
manner as that altar-piece many pictures that are in the houses of
citizens, and others which were sent abroad.
And since he was very gracious, and made himself very useful in certain
ceremonies that were performed in the city during the festivals of the
Carnival, he was constantly employed by the Magnificent Lorenzo de'
Medici in many similar works, and in particular for the masquerade that
represented the Triumph of Paulus Emilius, which was held in honour of
the victory that he gained over certain foreign nations. In this
masquerade, which was full of most beautiful inventions, Granacci
acquitted himself so well, although he was a mere lad, that he won the
highest praise. And here I will not omit to tell that the same Lorenzo
de' Medici, as I have said in another place, was the first inventor of
those masquerades that represent some particular subject, and are called
in Florence "Canti";[10] for it is not known that any were performed in
earlier times.
In like manner Granacci was employed in the sumptuous and magnificent
preparations that were made in the year 1513 for the entry of Pope Leo
X, one of the Medici, by Jacopo Nardi, a man of great learning and most
beautiful intellect, who, having been commanded by the Tribunal of Eight
to prepare a splendid masquerade, executed a representation of the
Triumph of Camillus. This masquerade, in so far as it lay in the
province of the painter, was so beautifully arranged and adorned by
Granacci that no man could imagine anything better; and the words of the
song, which Jacopo composed, began thus:
Contempla in quanta gloria sei salita,
Felice alma Fiorenza,
Poichè dal Ciel discesa,
with what follows. For the same spectacle Granacci executed a great
quantity of theatrical scenery, as he did both before and afterwards.
And while working with Ghirlandajo he painted standards for ships, and
also banners and devices for certain Knights of the Golden Spur, for
their public entry into Florence, all at the expense of the Captains of
the Guelph Party, as was the custom at that time, and as has been done
in our own day, not long since.
[Illustration: FRANCESCO GRANACCI: THE HOLY FAMILY
(_Florence: Pitti, 199. Panel_)]
In like manner he made many beautiful embellishments and decorations of
his own invention for the Potenze[11] and their tournaments. These
festivals were of a kind which is peculiar to the Florentines, and very
pleasing, and in them were seen men standing almost upright on
horseback, with very short stirrups, and breaking a lance with the same
facility as do the warriors firmly seated on their saddles; and all this
was done for the above-mentioned visit of Leo to Florence. Granacci also
made, besides other things, a most beautiful triumphal arch opposite to
the door of the Badia, covered with scenes in chiaroscuro and very
lovely things of fancy. This arch was much extolled, and particularly
for the invention of the architecture, and because he had made an
imitation of that same door of the Badia for the entrance of the Via del
Palagio, executed in perspective with the steps and every other thing,
so that the painted and supposititious door was in no way different from
the real and true one. To adorn the same arch he executed with his own
hand some very beautiful figures of clay in relief, and on the summit of
the arch he placed a great inscription with these words: LEONI X PONT.
MAX. FIDEI CULTORI.
But to come at length to some works by Granacci that are in existence,
let me relate that, having studied the cartoon of Michelagnolo
Buonarroti while the latter was executing it for the Great Hall of the
Palace, he found it so instructive and made such proficience, that, when
Michelagnolo was summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II to the end that he
might paint the vaulting of the Chapel in his Palace, Granacci was one
of the first to be sent for by Buonarroti to help him to paint that work
in fresco after the cartoons that he himself had prepared. It is true
that Michelagnolo, being dissatisfied with the manner and method of
every one of his assistants, afterwards found means to make them all
return to Florence without dismissing them, by closing the door on them
all and not allowing himself to be seen.
In Florence Granacci painted for Pier Francesco Borgherini a scene in
oils on the head-board of a couch which stood in an apartment wherein
Jacopo da Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, and Francesco Ubertini had painted
many stories from the life of Joseph, in Pier Francesco's house in Borgo
Sant' Apostolo; and in this scene were little figures representing a
story of the same Joseph, executed with extraordinary finish and with
great charm and beauty of colouring, and a building in perspective,
wherein he depicted Joseph ministering to Pharaoh, which could not be
more beautiful in any part. For the same man, also, he painted a round
picture, likewise in oils, of the Trinity, or rather, God the Father
supporting a Christ Crucified. And in the Church of S. Piero Maggiore
there is a picture of the Assumption by his hand, with many Angels and a
S. Thomas, to whom the Madonna is giving the Girdle. The figure of S.
Thomas is very graceful, turning to one side in a beautiful attitude
worthy of the hand of Michelagnolo, and such, also, is that of Our Lady.
The drawing for these two figures by the hand of Granacci is in our
book, together with others likewise by him. On either side of this
picture are figures of S. Paul, S. Laurence, S. James, and S. John,
which are all so beautiful that the work is held to be the best that
Francesco ever painted; and in truth this work alone, even if he had
never executed another, would ensure his being considered to be, as
indeed he was, an excellent painter.
For the Church of S. Gallo, without the Gate of the same name, and
formerly a seat of the Eremite Friars of S. Augustine, he painted an
altar-piece with the Madonna and two children, S. Zanobi, Bishop of
Florence, and S. Francis. This altar-piece, which was in the Chapel of
the Girolami, to which family that S. Zanobi belonged, is now in S.
Jacopo tra Fossi at Florence.
Michelagnolo Buonarroti, having a niece who was a nun in S. Apollonia at
Florence, had therefore executed an ornament for the high-altar of that
church, and a design for the altar-piece; and Granacci painted there
some scenes in oils with figures large and small, which gave much
satisfaction to the nuns at that time, and also to the other painters.
For the same place he painted another altar-piece, which stood lower
down, but this was burned one night, together with some draperies of
great value, through some lights being inadvertently left on the altar;
which was certainly a great loss, seeing that the work was much extolled
by craftsmen. And for the Nuns of S. Giorgio in sulla Costa he executed
the altar-piece of their high-altar, painting in it the Madonna, S.
Catharine, S. Giovanni Gualberto, S. Bernardo Uberti the Cardinal, and
S. Fedele.
Granacci also executed many pictures, both square and round, which are
dispersed among the houses of gentlemen in the city; and he made many
cartoons for glass-windows, which were afterwards put into execution by
the Frati Ingiesuati of Florence. He delighted much in painting on
cloth, either alone or in company with others; wherefore, in addition to
the works mentioned above, he painted many church-banners. And since he
practised art more to pass the time than from necessity, he worked at
his ease, always consulting his own convenience, and avoiding
discomforts as much as he was able, more than any other man; and yet,
without being covetous of the goods of others, he always preserved his
own. Allowing but few cares to oppress him, he was a merry fellow, and
took his pleasures with a glad heart. He lived sixty-seven years, at the
end of which he finished the course of his life after an ordinary
malady, a kind of fever; and he was buried in the Church of S. Ambrogio
at Florence, on the day of S. Andrew the Apostle, in 1544.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA GIVING THE GIRDLE TO S. THOMAS
(_After the panel by =Francesco Granacci=. Florence: Uffizi, 1280_)
_Alinari_]
FOOTNOTE:
[10] From the "canti," or "songs," that were sung in them.
[11] The "Potenze" were merry companies composed of the men of
the various quarters in costume. Each quarter had its own, representing
an Emperor, King, or Prince, and his Court.
BACCIO D' AGNOLO
LIFE OF BACCIO D' AGNOLO
ARCHITECT OF FLORENCE
Great is the pleasure that I take in studying at times the beginnings of
our craftsmen, for one sees some rising from the lowest depth to the
greatest height, and especially in architecture, a science which has not
been practised for several years past save by carvers and cunning
impostors who profess to understand perspective without knowing even its
terms or its first principles. The truth, indeed, is that architecture
can never be practised to perfection save by those who have an excellent
judgment and a good mastery of design, or have laboured much in
painting, sculpture, or works in wood, for the reason that in it have to
be executed with true measurements the dimensions of their figures,
which are columns, cornices, and bases, and all the ornaments, which are
made for the adornment of the figures, and for no other reason. And thus
the workers in wood, by continually handling such things, in course of
time become architects; and sculptors likewise, by having to find
positions for their statues and by making ornaments for tombs and other
works in the round, come in time to a knowledge of architecture; and
painters, on account of their perspectives, the variety of their
inventions, and the buildings that they draw, are compelled to take the
ground-plans of edifices, seeing that they cannot plant houses or
flights of steps on the planes where their figures stand, without in the
first place grasping the order of the architecture.
Working in his youth excellently well at wood-inlaying, Baccio executed
the backs of the stalls in the choir of S. Maria Novella, in the
principal chapel, wherein are most beautiful figures of S. John the
Baptist and S. Laurence. In carving, he executed the ornaments of that
same chapel, those of the high-altar in the Nunziata, the decorations of
the organ in S. Maria Novella, and a vast number of other works, both
public and private, in his native city of Florence. Departing from that
city, he went to Rome, where he applied himself with great zeal to the
study of architecture; and on his return he made triumphal arches of
wood in various places for the visit of Pope Leo X. But for all this he
never gave up his workshop, where there were often gathered round him,
in addition to many citizens, the best and most eminent masters of our
arts, so that most beautiful conversations and discussions of importance
took place there, particularly in winter. The first of these masters was
Raffaello da Urbino, then a young man, and next came Andrea Sansovino,
Filippino, Maiano, Cronaca, Antonio da San Gallo and Giuliano da San
Gallo, Granaccio, and sometimes, but not often, Michelagnolo, with many
young Florentines and strangers.
Having thus given his attention to architecture in so thorough a manner,
and having made some trial of his powers, Baccio began to be held in
such credit in Florence, that the most magnificent buildings that were
erected in his time were entrusted to him and were put under his
direction. When Piero Soderini was Gonfalonier, Baccio took part, with
Cronaca and others, as has been related above, in the deliberations that
were held with regard to the great Hall of the Palace; and with his own
hand he executed in wood the ornament for the large panel-picture which
was begun by Fra Bartolommeo, after the design by Filippino. In company
with the same masters he made the staircase that leads to that Hall,
with a very beautiful ornamentation of stone, and also the columns of
variegated marble and the doors of marble in the hall that is now called
the Sala de' Dugento.
He built a palace for Giovanni Bartolini, which is very ornate within,
on the Piazza di S. Trinità; and he made many designs for the garden of
the same man in Gualfonda. And since that palace was the first edifice
that was built with ornaments in the form of square windows with
pediments, and a portal with columns supporting architrave, frieze, and
cornice, these things were much censured by the Florentines with spoken
words and sonnets, and festoons of boughs were hung upon them, as is
done in churches for festivals, men saying that the façade was more like
that of a temple than of a palace; so that Baccio was like to go out of
his mind. However, knowing that he had imitated good examples, and that
his work was sound, he regained his peace of mind. It is true that the
cornice of the whole palace proved, as has been said in another place,
to be too large; but in every other respect the work has always been
much extolled.
For Lanfredino Lanfredini he erected a house on the bank of the Arno,
between the Ponte a S. Trinità and the Ponte alla Carraja; and on the
Piazza de' Mozzi he began the house of the Nasi, which looks out upon
the sandy shore of the Arno, but did not finish it. For Taddeo, of the
Taddei family, he built a house that was held to be very beautiful and
commodious. For Pier Francesco Borgherini he made the designs of the
house that he built in Borgo S. Apostolo, in which he caused ornaments
for the doors and most beautiful chimney-pieces to be executed at great
expense, and made for the adornment of one chamber, in particular,
coffers of walnut-wood covered with little boys carved with supreme
diligence. Such a work it would now be impossible to execute with such
perfection as he gave to it. He also prepared the design for the villa
that Borgherini caused to be built on the hill of Bellosguardo, which
was very beautiful and commodious, and erected at vast expense. For
Giovan Maria Benintendi he executed an antechamber, with an ornamental
frame for some scenes painted by excellent masters, which was a rare
thing. The same Baccio made the model of the Church of S. Giuseppe near
S. Nofri, and directed the construction of the door, which was his last
work. He also caused to be built of masonry the campanile of S. Spirito
in Florence, which was left unfinished, and is now being completed by
order of Duke Cosimo after the original design of Baccio; and he
likewise erected the campanile of S. Miniato sul Monte, which was
battered by the artillery of the camp, but never destroyed, on which
account it gained no less fame for the affront that it offered to the
enemy than for the beauty and excellence with which Baccio had caused it
to be built and carried to completion.
Next, having been appointed on account of his abilities, and because he
was much beloved by the citizens, as architect to S. Maria del Fiore,
Baccio gave the design for constructing the gallery that encircles the
cupola. This part of the work Filippo Brunelleschi, being overtaken by
death, had not been able to execute; and although he had made designs
even for this, they had been lost or destroyed through the negligence of
those in charge of the building. Baccio, then, having made the design
and model for this gallery, carried into execution all the part that is
to be seen facing the Canto de' Bischeri. But Michelagnolo Buonarroti,
on his return from Rome, perceiving that in carrying out this work they
were cutting away the toothings that Filippo Brunelleschi, not without a
purpose, had left projecting, made such a clamour that the work was
stopped; saying that it seemed to him that Baccio had made a cage for
crickets, that a pile so vast required something grander and executed
with more design, art, and grace than appeared to him to be displayed by
Baccio's design, and that he himself would show how it should be done.
Michelagnolo having therefore made a model, the matter was disputed at
great length before Cardinal Giulio de' Medici by many craftsmen and
competent citizens; and in the end neither the one model nor the other
was carried into execution. Baccio's design was censured in many
respects, not that it was not a well-proportioned work of its kind, but
because it was too insignificant in comparison with the size of the
structure; and for these reasons that gallery has never been brought to
completion.
Baccio afterwards gave his attention to executing the pavement of S.
Maria del Fiore, and to his other buildings, which were not a few, for
he had under his particular charge all the principal monasteries and
convents of Florence, and many houses of citizens, both within and
without the city. Finally, when near the age of eighty-three, but still
of good and sound judgment, he passed to a better life in 1543, leaving
three sons, Giuliano, Filippo, and Domenico, who had him buried in S.
Lorenzo.
Of these sons, who all gave their attention after the death of Baccio to
the art of carving and working in wood, Giuliano, who was the second,
was the one who applied himself with the greatest zeal to architecture
both during his father's lifetime and afterwards; wherefore, by favour
of Duke Cosimo, he succeeded to his father's place as architect to S.
Maria del Fiore, and continued not only all that Baccio had begun in
that temple, but also all the other buildings that had remained
unfinished at his death. At that time Messer Baldassarre Turini da
Pescia was intending to place a panel-picture by the hand of Raffaello
da Urbino in the principal church of Pescia, of which he was Provost,
and to erect an ornament of stone, or rather, an entire chapel, around
it, and also a tomb; and Giuliano executed all this after his own
designs and models, and also restored for the same patron his house at
Pescia, making in it many beautiful and useful improvements. For Messer
Francesco Campana, formerly First Secretary to Duke Alessandro, and
afterwards to Duke Cosimo de' Medici, the same Giuliano built at
Montughi, without Florence, beside the church, a house which is small
but very ornate, and so well situated, that it commands from its slight
elevation a view of the whole city of Florence and the surrounding
plain. And a most beautiful and commodious house was built at Colle, the
native place of that same Campana, from the design of Giuliano, who
shortly afterwards began for Messer Ugolino Grifoni, Lord of Altopascio,
a palace at San Miniato al Tedesco, which was a magnificent work.