Raffaello, was celebrated as the best craftsman in Italy. And Count
Baldassarre Castiglioni, who was then in Rome as ambassador from
Federigo Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and was much the friend, as has
been related, of Giulio, having been commanded by his master the Marquis
to send him an architect of whom he might avail himself for the
necessities of his palace and of the city, the Marquis adding that he
would particularly like to have Giulio--the Count, I say, so wrought
upon him with entreaties and promises, that Giulio said that he would
go, provided that he could do this with the leave of Pope Clement; which
leave having been obtained, the Count, setting out for Mantua, from
which he was then to go on behalf of the Pope to the Emperor, took
Giulio with him; and having arrived there, he presented him to the
Marquis, who, after welcoming him warmly, caused an honourably
appointed house to be given to him, together with a salary and also a
good table for himself, for his disciple Benedetto Pagni, and for
another young man who was in his service; and, what is more, the Marquis
sent him several canne of velvet, satin, and other kinds of silk and
cloth wherewith to clothe himself. Then, hearing that he had no horse to
ride, he sent for a favourite horse of his own, called Luggieri, and
presented it to him; and when Giulio had mounted upon it, they rode to a
spot a bow-shot beyond the Porta di S. Bastiano, where His Excellency
had a place with some stables, called the Tè, standing in the middle of
a meadow, in which he kept his stud of horses and mares. Arriving there,
the Marquis said that he would like, without destroying the old walls,
to have some sort of place arranged to which he might resort at times
for dinner or supper, as a recreation.
Giulio, having heard the will of the Marquis, and having examined the
whole place, took a ground-plan of that site and set his hand to the
work. Availing himself of the old walls, he made in the principal part
the first hall that is to be seen at the present day as one enters, with
the suite of rooms that are about it. And since the place has no living
rock, and no quarries from which to excavate material for hewn and
carved stone, such as are used in building by those who can obtain them,
he made use of brick and baked stone, which he afterwards worked over
with stucco; and with this material he made columns, bases, capitals,
cornices, doors, windows, and other things, all with most beautiful
proportions. And he executed the decorations of the vaults in a new and
fantastic manner, with very handsome compartments, and with richly
adorned recesses, which was the reason that the Marquis, after a
beginning so humble, then resolved to have the whole of that building
reconstructed in the form of a great palace.
[Illustration: THE MARRIAGE BANQUET OF CUPID AND PSYCHE
(_After the fresco by =Giulio Romano=. Mantua: Palazzo del Tè_)
_Alinari_]
Thereupon Giulio made a very beautiful model, all of rustic work both
without and within the courtyard, which pleased that lord so much, that
he assigned a good sum of money for the building; and after Giulio had
engaged many masters, the work was quickly carried to completion. The
form of the palace is as follows: The building is quadrangular, and has
in the centre an open courtyard after the manner of a meadow, or rather,
of a piazza, into which open four entrances in the form of a cross.
The first of these traverses straightway, or rather, passes, into a very
large loggia, which opens by another into the garden, and two others
lead into various apartments; and these are all adorned with stucco-work
and paintings. In the hall to which the first entrance gives access the
vaulting is wrought in various compartments and painted in fresco, and
on the walls are portraits from life of all the favourite and most
beautiful horses from the stud of the Marquis, together with the dogs of
the same coat or marking as the horses, with their names; which were all
designed by Giulio, and painted in fresco on the plaster by the painters
Benedetto Pagni and Rinaldo Mantovano, his disciples, and so well, in
truth, that they seem to be alive.
From this hall one passes into a room which is at one corner of the
palace, and has the vaulting most beautifully wrought with compartments
in stucco-work and varied mouldings, touched in certain places with
gold. These mouldings divide the surface into four octagons, which
enclose a picture in the highest part of the vaulting, in which is Cupid
marrying Psyche in the sight of Jove, who is on high, illumined by a
dazzling celestial light, and in the presence of all the Gods. It would
not be possible to find anything executed with more grace or better
draughtsmanship than this scene, for Giulio foreshortened the figures so
well, with a view to their being seen from below, that some of them,
although they are scarcely one braccio in length, appear when seen from
the ground to be three braccia high; and, in truth, they are wrought
with marvellous art and ingenuity, Giulio having succeeded in so
contriving them, that, besides seeming to be alive (so strong is the
relief), they deceive the human eye with a most pleasing illusion. In
the octagons are all the earlier stories of Psyche, showing the
adversities that came upon her through the wrath of Venus, and all
executed with the same beauty and perfection; in other angles are many
Loves, as likewise in the windows, producing various effects in
accordance with the spaces where they are; and the whole of the vaulting
is painted in oils by the hands of the above-mentioned Benedetto and
Rinaldo. The rest of the stories of Psyche are on the walls below, and
these are the largest. In one in fresco is Psyche in the bath; and the
Loves are bathing her, and then wiping her dry with most beautiful
gestures. In another part is Mercury preparing the banquet, while Psyche
is bathing, with the Bacchantes sounding instruments; and there are the
Graces adorning the table with flowers in a beautiful manner. There is
also Silenus supported by Satyrs, with his ass, and a goat lying down,
which has two children sucking at its udder; and in that company is
Bacchus, who has two tigers at his feet, and stands leaning with one arm
on the credence, on one side of which is a camel, and on the other an
elephant. This credence, which is barrel-shaped, is adorned with
festoons of verdure and flowers, and all covered with vines laden with
bunches of grapes and leaves, under which are three rows of bizarre
vases, basins, drinking-cups, tazze, goblets, and other things of that
kind in various forms and fantastic shapes, and so lustrous, that they
seem to be of real silver and gold, being counterfeited with a simple
yellow and other colours, and that so well, that they bear witness to
the extraordinary genius and art of Giulio, who proved in this part of
the work that he was rich, versatile, and abundant in invention and
craftsmanship. Not far away may be seen Psyche, who, surrounded by many
women who are serving and attiring her, sees Phoebus appearing in the
distance among the hills in the chariot of the sun, which is drawn by
four horses; while Zephyr is lying nude upon some clouds, and is blowing
gentle breezes through a horn that he has in his mouth, which make the
air round Psyche balmy and soft. These stories were engraved not many
years since after the designs of Battista Franco of Venice, who copied
them exactly as they were painted from the great cartoons of Giulio by
Benedetto of Pescia and Rinaldo Mantovano, who carried into execution
all the stories except the Bacchus, the Silenus, and the two children
suckled by the goat; although it is true that the work was afterwards
retouched almost all over by Giulio, so that it is very much as if it
had been all painted by him. This method, which he learned from
Raffaello, his instructor, is very useful to young men, who in this way
obtain practice and thereby generally become excellent masters. And
although some persuade themselves that they are greater than those who
keep them at work, such fellows, if their guide fails them before they
are at the end, or if they are deprived of the design and directions for
the work, learn that through having lost or abandoned that guidance too
early they are wandering like blind men in an infinite sea of errors.
But to return to the apartments of the Tè; from that room of Psyche one
passes into another full of double friezes with figures in low-relief,
executed in stucco after the designs of Giulio by Francesco Primaticcio
of Bologna, then a young man, and by Giovan Battista Mantovano, in which
friezes are all the soldiers that are on Trajan's Column at Rome,
wrought in a beautiful manner. And on the ceiling, or rather soffit, of
an antechamber is painted in oils the scene when Icarus, having been
taught by his father Dædalus, seeks to rise too high in his flight, and,
after seeing the Sign of Cancer and the chariot of the sun, which is
drawn by four horses in foreshortening, near the Sign of Leo, is left
without his wings, the wax being consumed by the heat of the sun; and
near this the same Icarus may be seen hurtling through the air, and
almost falling upon those who gaze at him, his face dark with the shadow
of death. This invention was so well conceived and imagined by Giulio,
that it seems to be real and true, for in it one sees the fierce heat of
the sun burning the wretched youth's wings, the flaming fire gives out
smoke, and one almost hears the crackling of the burning plumes, while
death may be seen carved in the face of Icarus, and in that of Dædalus
the most bitter sorrow and agony. In our book of drawings by various
painters is the original design of this very beautiful scene, by the
hand of Giulio himself, who executed in the same place the stories of
the twelve months of the year, showing all that is done in each of them
in the arts most practised by mankind--paintings which are notable no
less for their fantastic and delightful character and their beauty of
invention than for the judgment and diligence with which they were
executed.
After passing the great loggia, which is adorned with stucco-work and
with many arms and various other bizarre ornaments, one comes to some
rooms filled with such a variety of fantasies, that the brain reels at
the thought of them. For Giulio, who was very fanciful and ingenious,
wishing to demonstrate his worth, resolved to make, at an angle of the
palace which formed a corner similar to that of the room of Psyche
described above, an apartment the masonry of which should be in keeping
with the painting, in order to deceive as much as possible all who might
see it. He therefore had double foundations of great depth sunk at that
corner, which was in a marshy place, and over that angle he constructed
a large round room, with very thick walls, to the end that the four
external angles of the masonry might be strong enough to be able to
support a double vault, round after the manner of an oven. This done, he
caused to be built at the corners right round the room, in the proper
places, the doors, windows, and fireplace, all of rustic stones
rough-hewn as if by chance, and, as it were, disjointed and awry,
insomuch that they appeared to be really hanging over to one side and
falling down. Having built this room in such strange fashion, he set
himself to paint in it the most fantastic composition that he was able
to invent--namely, Jove hurling his thunderbolts against the Giants. And
so, depicting Heaven on the highest part of the vaulting, he placed
there the throne of Jove, representing it as seen in foreshortening from
below and from the front, within a round temple, supported by open
columns of the Ionic Order, with his canopy over the centre of the
throne, and with his eagle; and all was poised upon the clouds. Lower
down he painted Jove in anger, slaying the proud Giants with his
thunderbolts, and below him is Juno, assisting him; and around them are
the Winds, with strange countenances, blowing towards the earth, while
the Goddess Ops turns with her lions at the terrible noise of the
thunder, as also do the other Gods and Goddesses, and Venus in
particular, who is at the side of Mars; and Momus, with his arms
outstretched, appears to fear that Heaven may be falling headlong down,
and yet he stands motionless. The Graces, likewise, are standing filled
with dread, and beside them, in like manner, the Hours. All the Deities,
in short, are taking to flight with their chariots. The Moon, Saturn,
and Janus are going towards the lightest of the clouds, in order to
withdraw from that terrible uproar and turmoil, and the same does
Neptune, who, with his dolphins, appears to be seeking to support
himself on his trident. Pallas, with the nine Muses, stands wondering
what horrible thing this may be, and Pan, embracing a Nymph who is
trembling with fear, seems to wish to save her from the glowing fires
and the lightning-flashes with which the heavens are filled. Apollo
stands in the chariot of the sun, and some of the Hours seem to be
seeking to restrain the course of his horses. Bacchus and Silenus, with
Satyrs and Nymphs, betray the greatest terror, and Vulcan, with his
ponderous hammer on one shoulder, gazes towards Hercules, who is
speaking of this event with Mercury, beside whom is Pomona all in
dismay, as are also Vertumnus and all the other Gods dispersed
throughout that Heaven, in which all the effects of fear are so well
expressed, both in those who are standing and in those who are flying,
that it is not possible, I do not say to see, but even to imagine a more
beautiful fantasy in painting than this one.
In the parts below, that is, on the walls that stand upright, underneath
the end of the curve of the vaulting, are the Giants, some of whom,
those below Jove, have upon their backs mountains and immense rocks
which they support with their stout shoulders, in order to pile them up
and thus ascend to Heaven, while their ruin is preparing, for Jove is
thundering and the whole Heaven burning with anger against them; and it
appears not only that the Gods are dismayed by the presumptuous boldness
of the Giants, upon whom they are hurling mountains, but that the whole
world is upside down and, as it were, come to its last day. In this part
Giulio painted Briareus in a dark cavern, almost covered with vast
fragments of mountains, and the other Giants all crushed and some dead
beneath the ruins of the mountains. Besides this, through an opening in
the darkness of a grotto, which reveals a distant landscape painted with
beautiful judgment, may be seen many Giants flying, all smitten by the
thunderbolts of Jove, and, as it were, on the point of being overwhelmed
at that moment by the fragments of the mountains, like the others. In
another part Giulio depicted other Giants, upon whom are falling
temples, columns, and other pieces of buildings, making a vast slaughter
and havoc of those proud beings. And in this part, among those falling
fragments of buildings, stands the fireplace of the room, which, when
there is a fire in it, makes it appear as if the Giants are burning, for
Pluto is painted there, flying towards the centre with his chariot
drawn by lean horses, and accompanied by the Furies of Hell; and thus
Giulio, not departing from the subject of the story with this invention
of the fire, made a most beautiful adornment for the fireplace.
In this work, moreover, in order to render it the more fearsome and
terrible, Giulio represented the Giants, huge and fantastic in aspect,
falling to the earth, smitten in various ways by the lightnings and
thunderbolts; some in the foreground and others in the background, some
dead, others wounded, and others again covered by mountains and the
ruins of buildings. Wherefore let no one ever think to see any work of
the brush more horrible and terrifying, or more natural than this one;
and whoever enters that room and sees the windows, doors, and other
suchlike things all awry and, as it were, on the point of falling, and
the mountains and buildings hurtling down, cannot but fear that
everything will fall upon him, and, above all, as he sees the Gods in
the Heaven rushing, some here, some there, and all in flight. And what
is most marvellous in the work is to see that the whole of the painting
has neither beginning nor end, but is so well joined and connected
together, without any divisions or ornamental partitions, that the
things which are near the buildings appear very large, and those in the
distance, where the landscapes are, go on receding into infinity; whence
that room, which is not more than fifteen braccia in length, has the
appearance of open country. Moreover, the pavement being of small round
stones set on edge, and the lower part of the upright walls being
painted with similar stones, there is no sharp angle to be seen, and
that level surface has the effect of a vast expanse, which was executed
with much judgment and beautiful art by Giulio, to whom our craftsmen
are much indebted for such inventions.
In this work the above-mentioned Rinaldo Mantovano became a perfect
colourist, for he carried the whole of it into execution after the
cartoons of Giulio, as well as the other rooms. And if this painter had
not been snatched from the world so young, even as he did honour to
Giulio during his lifetime, so he would have done honour (to himself)
after Giulio's death.
[Illustration: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GIANTS BY THE THUNDERBOLTS OF JOVE
(_After the fresco by =Giulio Romano=. Mantua: Palazzo del Tè, Sala dei
Giganti_)
_Alinari_]
In addition to this palace, in which Giulio executed many other works
worthy to be praised, of which, in order to avoid prolixity, I shall say
nothing, he reconstructed with masonry many rooms in the castle where
the Duke lives at Mantua, and made two very large spiral staircases,
with very rich apartments adorned all over with stucco. In one hall he
caused the whole of the story of Troy and the Trojan War to be painted,
and likewise twelve scenes in oils in an antechamber, below the heads of
the twelve Emperors previously painted there by Tiziano Vecelli, which
are all held to be excellent. In like manner, at Marmirolo, a place five
miles distant from Mantua, a most commodious building was erected after
the design of Giulio and under his direction, with large paintings no
less beautiful than those of the castle and of the palace of the Tè. The
same master painted an altar-piece in oils for the Chapel of Signora
Isabella Buschetta in S. Andrea at Mantua, of Our Lady in the act of
adoring the Infant Jesus, who is lying on the ground, with S. Joseph,
the ass and the ox near a manger, and on one side S. John the
Evangelist, and S. Longinus on the other, figures of the size of life.
Next, on the walls of the same chapel, he caused Rinaldo to paint two
very beautiful scenes after his own designs; on one, the Crucifixion of
Jesus Christ, with the Thieves, some Angels in the air, and on the
ground the ministers of the Crucifixion and the Maries, with many
horses, in which he always delighted, making them beautiful to a marvel,
and many soldiers in various attitudes; and, on the other, the scene
when the Blood of Christ was discovered in the time of the Countess
Matilda, which was a most beautiful work.
Giulio then painted with his own hand for Duke Federigo a picture of Our
Lady washing the little Jesus Christ, who is standing in a basin, while
a little S. John is pouring out the water from a vase. Both of these
figures, which are of the size of life, are very beautiful; and in the
distance are small figures, from the waist upwards, of some ladies who
are coming to visit the Madonna. This picture was afterwards presented
by the Duke to Signora Isabella Buschetta, of which lady Giulio
subsequently made a most beautiful portrait in a little picture of the
Nativity of Christ, one braccio in height, which is now in the
possession of Signor Vespasiano Gonzaga, together with another picture
presented to him by Duke Federigo, and likewise by the hand of Giulio,
in which are a young man and a young woman embracing each other on a
bed, in the act of caressing one another, while an old woman peeps at
them secretly from behind a door--figures which are little less than
life-size, and very graceful. In the house of the same person is another
very excellent picture of a most beautiful S. Jerome, also by the hand
of Giulio. And in the possession of Count Niccola Maffei is a picture of
Alexander the Great, of the size of life, with a Victory in his hand,
copied from an ancient medal, which is a work of great beauty.
After these works, Giulio painted in fresco over a chimney-piece, for M.
Girolamo, the organist of the Duomo at Mantua, who was very much his
friend, a Vulcan who is working his bellows with one hand and holding
with the other, with a pair of tongs, the iron head of an arrow that he
is forging, while Venus is tempering in a vase some already made and
placing them in Cupid's quiver. This is one of the most beautiful works
that Giulio ever executed; and there is little else in fresco by his
hand to be seen. For S. Domenico, at the commission of M. Lodovico da
Fermo, he painted an altar-piece of the Dead Christ, whom Joseph and
Nicodemus are preparing to lay in the sepulchre, and near them are His
Mother, the other Maries, and S. John the Evangelist. And a little
picture, in which he also painted a Dead Christ, is in the house of the
Florentine Tommaso da Empoli at Venice.
At the same time when he was executing these and other pictures, it
happened that Signor Giovanni de' Medici, having been wounded by a
musket-ball, was carried to Mantua, where he died. Whereupon M. Pietro
Aretino, who was the devoted servant of that lord, and very much the
friend of Giulio, desired that Giulio should mould a likeness of him
with his own hand as he lay dead; and he, therefore, having taken a cast
from the face of the dead man, executed a portrait from it, which
remained for many years afterwards in the possession of the same
Aretino.
For the entry of the Emperor Charles V into Mantua, Giulio, by order of
the Duke, made many most beautiful festive preparations in the form of
arches, scenery for dramas, and a number of other things; in which
inventions Giulio had no equal, nor was there ever any man more fanciful
in preparing masquerades and in designing extravagant costumes for
jousts, festivals, and tournaments, as was seen at that time with
amazement and marvel by the Emperor Charles and by all who were present.
Besides this, at different times he gave so many designs for chapels,
houses, gardens, and façades throughout the whole of Mantua, and he so
delighted to embellish and adorn the city, that, whereas it was formerly
buried in mud and at times full of stinking water and almost
uninhabitable, he brought it to such a condition that at the present
day, thanks to his industry, it is dry, healthy, and altogether pleasing
and delightful.
While Giulio was in the service of that Duke, one year the Po, bursting
its banks, inundated Mantua in such a manner, that in certain low-lying
parts of the city the water rose to the height of nearly four braccia,
insomuch that for a long time frogs lived in them almost all the year
round. Giulio, therefore, after pondering in what way he might put this
right, so went to work that for the time being the city was restored to
its former condition; and to the end that the same might not happen
another time, he contrived to have the streets on that side raised so
much, by command of the Duke, that they came above the level of the
water, and the buildings stood in safety. In that part of the city the
houses were small, slightly built, and of no great importance, and he
gave orders that they should be pulled down, in order to raise the
streets and bring that quarter to a better state, and that new houses,
larger and more beautiful, should be built there, to the advantage and
improvement of the city. To this measure many opposed themselves, saying
to the Duke that Giulio was doing too much havoc; but he would not hear
any of them--nay, he made Giulio superintendent of the streets at that
very time, and decreed that no one should build in that city save under
Giulio's direction. On which account many complaining and some even
threatening Giulio, this came to the ears of the Duke, who used such
words in his favour as made it known that if they did anything to the
despite or injury of Giulio, he would count it as done to himself, and
would make an example of them.