live without him; and Giulio, on his part, bore to that lord the
greatest reverence that it is possible to imagine. Wherefore he never
asked a favour for himself or for others without obtaining it, and when
he died it was found that with all that he had received from the Duke he
had an income of more than a thousand ducats.
Giulio built a house for himself in Mantua, opposite to S. Barnaba, on
the outer side of which he made a fantastic façade, all wrought with
coloured stucco, and the interior he caused to be all painted and
wrought likewise with stucco; and he found place in it for many
antiquities brought from Rome and others received from the Duke, to whom
he gave many of his own. He made so many designs both for Mantua and for
places in its neighbourhood, that it was a thing incredible; for, as has
been told, no palaces or other buildings of importance could be erected,
particularly in the city, save after his design. He rebuilt upon the old
walls the Church of S. Benedetto, a rich and vast seat of Black Friars
at Mantua, near the Po; and the whole church was embellished with most
beautiful paintings and altar-pieces from designs by his hand. And since
his works were very highly prized throughout Lombardy, it pleased Gian
Matteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona, to have the tribune of the Duomo of
that city all painted, as has been related in another place, by Il Moro
the Veronese, after designs by Giulio. For the Duke of Ferrara, also, he
executed many designs for tapestries, which were afterwards woven in
silk and gold by Maestro Niccolò and Giovan Battista Rosso, both
Flemings; and of these there are engravings to be seen, executed by
Giovan Battista Mantovano, who engraved a vast number of things drawn by
Giulio, and in particular, besides three drawings of battles engraved by
others, a physician who is applying cupping-glasses to the shoulders of
a woman, and the Flight of Our Lady into Egypt, with Joseph holding the
ass by the halter, and some Angels bending down a date-palm in order
that Christ may pluck the fruit. The same master engraved, also after
the designs of Giulio, the Wolf on the Tiber suckling Romulus and Remus,
and four stories of Pluto, Jove and Neptune, who are dividing the
heavens, the earth, and the sea among them by lot; and likewise the
goat Amaltheia, which, held by Melissa, is giving suck to Jove, and a
large plate of many men in a prison, tortured in various ways. There
were also printed, after the inventions of Giulio, Scipio and Hannibal
holding a parley with their armies on the banks of the river; the
Nativity of S. John the Baptist, which was engraved by Sebastiano da
Reggio, and many other works engraved and printed in Italy. In Flanders
and in France, likewise, have been printed innumerable sheets from
designs by Giulio, of which, although they are very beautiful, there is
no need to make mention, nor of all his drawings, seeing that he made
them, so to speak, in loads. Let it be enough to say that he was so
facile in every field of art, and particularly in drawing, that we have
no record of any one who has produced more than he did.
Giulio, who was very versatile, was able to discourse on every subject,
but above all on medals, upon which he spent large sums of money and
much time, in order to gain knowledge of them. And although he was
employed almost always in great works, this did not mean that he would
not set his hand at times to the most trifling matters in order to
oblige his patron and his friends; and no sooner had one opened his
mouth to explain to him his conception than he had understood it and
drawn it. Among the many rare things that he had in his house was the
portrait from life of Albrecht Dürer on a piece of fine Rheims cloth, by
the hand of Albrecht himself, who sent it, as has been related in
another place, as a present to Raffaello da Urbino. This portrait was an
exquisite thing, for it had been coloured in gouache with much diligence
with water-colours, and Albrecht had executed it without using
lead-white, availing himself in its stead of the white of the cloth,
with the delicate threads of which he had so well rendered the hairs of
the beard, that it was a thing scarcely possible to imagine, much less
to do; and when held up to the light it showed through on either side.
This portrait, which was very dear to Giulio, he showed to me himself as
a miracle, when I went during his lifetime to Mantua on some affairs of
my own.
At the death of Duke Federigo, by whom Giulio had been beloved beyond
belief, he was so overcome with sorrow, that he would have left Mantua,
if the Cardinal, the brother of the Duke, on whom the government of the
State had descended because the sons of Federigo were very young, had
not detained him in that city, where he had a wife and children, houses,
villas, and all the other possessions that are proper to a gentleman of
means. And this the Cardinal did (aided by those reasons) from a wish to
avail himself of the advice and assistance of Giulio in renovating, or
rather building almost entirely anew, the Duomo of that city; to which
work Giulio set his hand, and carried it well on in a very beautiful
form.
At this time Giorgio Vasari, who was much the friend of Giulio, although
they did not know one another save only by reputation and by letters, in
going to Venice, took the road by Mantua, in order to see Giulio and his
works. And so, having arrived in that city, and going to find his
friend, when they met, although they had never seen each other, they
knew one another no less surely than if they had been together in person
a thousand times. At which Giulio was so filled with joy and
contentment, that for four days he never left him, showing him all his
works, and in particular all the ground-plans of the ancient edifices in
Rome, Naples, Pozzuolo, and Campania, and of all the other fine
antiquities of which anything is known, drawn partly by him and partly
by others. Then, opening a very large press, he showed to Giorgio the
ground-plans of all the buildings that had been erected after his
designs and under his direction, not only in Mantua and in Rome, but
throughout all Lombardy, which were so beautiful, that I, for my part,
do not believe that there are to be seen any architectural inventions
more original, more lovely, or better composed. After this, the Cardinal
asking Giorgio what he thought of the works of Giulio, Giorgio answered
in the presence of Giulio that they were such that he deserved to have a
statue of himself placed at every corner of the city, and that, since he
had given that city a new life, the half of the State would not be a
sufficient reward for the labours and abilities of Giulio; to which the
Cardinal answered that Giulio was more the master of that State than he
was himself. And since Giulio was very loving, especially towards his
friends, there was no mark of love and affection that Giorgio did not
receive from him. The same Vasari, having left Mantua and gone to
Venice, returned to Rome at the very time when Michelagnolo had just
uncovered his Last Judgment in the Chapel; and he sent to Giulio by M.
Nino Nini of Cortona, the secretary of the aforesaid Cardinal of Mantua,
three sheets containing the Seven Mortal Sins, copied from that Last
Judgment of Michelagnolo, which were welcome in no ordinary manner to
Giulio, both as being what they were, and because he had at that time to
paint a chapel in the palace for the Cardinal, and they served to
inspire him to greater things than those that he had in mind. Putting
forward all possible effort, therefore, to make a most beautiful
cartoon, he drew in it with fine fancy the scene of Peter and Andrew
leaving their nets at the call of Christ, in order to follow Him, and to
be thenceforward, not fishers of fishes, but fishers of men. And this
cartoon, which proved to be the most beautiful that Giulio had ever
made, was afterwards carried into execution by the painter Fermo
Ghisoni, a pupil of Giulio, and now an excellent master.
Not long afterwards the superintendents of the building of S. Petronio
at Bologna, being desirous to make a beginning with the façade of that
church, succeeded after great difficulty in inducing Giulio to go there,
in company with a Milanese architect called Tofano Lombardino, a man in
great repute at that time in Lombardy for the many buildings by his hand
that were to be seen in that country. These masters, then, made many
designs, those of Baldassarre Peruzzi of Siena having been lost; and one
that Giulio made, among others, was so beautiful and so well ordered,
that he rightly received very great praise for it from that people, and
was rewarded with most liberal gifts on his return to Mantua.
Meanwhile, Antonio da San Gallo having died at Rome about that time, the
superintendents of the building of S. Pietro had been thereby left in no
little embarrassment, not knowing to whom to turn or on whom to lay the
charge of carrying that great fabric to completion after the plan
already begun; but they thought that no one could be more fitted for
this than Giulio Romano, for they all knew how great were his worth and
excellence. And so, surmising that he would accept such a charge more
than willingly in order to repatriate himself in an honourable manner
and with a good salary, they caused some of his friends to approach him,
but in vain, for the reason that, although he would have gone with the
greatest willingness, two things prevented him--the Cardinal would in no
way consent to his departure, and his wife, with her relatives and
friends, used every possible means to dissuade him. Neither of these two
reasons, perchance, would have prevailed with him, if he had not
happened to be in somewhat feeble health at that time; for, having
considered how much honour and profit he might secure for himself and
his children by accepting so handsome a proposal, he was already fully
disposed to make every effort not to be hindered in the matter by the
Cardinal, when his malady began to grow worse. However, since it had
been ordained on high that he should go no more to Rome, and that this
should be the end and conclusion of his life, in a few days, what with
his vexation and his malady, he died at Mantua, which city might well
have allowed him, even as he had embellished her, so also to honour and
adorn his native city of Rome.
Giulio died at the age of fifty-four, leaving only one male child, to
whom he had given the name of Raffaello out of regard for the memory of
his master. This young Raffaello had scarcely learned the first
rudiments of art, showing signs of being destined to become an able
master, when he also died, not many years after, together with his
mother, Giulio's wife; wherefore there remained no descendant of Giulio
save a daughter called Virginia, who still lives in Mantua, married to
Ercole Malatesta. Giulio, whose death was an infinite grief to all who
knew him, was given burial in S. Barnaba, where it was proposed that
some honourable memorial should be erected to him; but his wife and
children, postponing the matter from one day to another, themselves died
for the most part without doing anything. It is indeed a sad thing that
there has been no one who has treasured in any way the memory of a man
who did so much to adorn that city, save only those who availed
themselves of his services, who have often remembered him in their
necessities. But his own talent, which did him so much honour in his
lifetime, has secured for him after death, in the form of his own works,
an everlasting monument which time, with all its years, can never
destroy.
Giulio was neither tall nor short of stature, and rather stout than
slight in build. He had black hair, beautiful features, and eyes dark
and merry, and he was very loving, regular in all his actions, and
frugal in eating, but fond of dressing and living in honourable fashion.
He had disciples in plenty, but the best were Giovanni da Lione,
Raffaello dal Colle of Borgo, Benedetto Pagni of Pescia, Figurino da
Faenza, Rinaldo Mantovano, Giovan Battista Mantovano, and Fermo Ghisoni,
who still lives in Mantua and does him honour, being an excellent
painter. And the same may be said for Benedetto, who has executed many
works in his native city of Pescia, and an altar-piece for the Duomo of
Pisa, which is in the Office of Works, and also a picture of Our Lady in
which, with a poetical invention full of grace and beauty, he painted a
figure of Florence presenting to her the dignities of the House of
Medici; which picture is now in the possession of Signor Mondragone, a
Spaniard much in favour with that most illustrious lord the Prince of
Florence.
Giulio died on the day of All Saints in the year 1546, and over his tomb
was placed the following epitaph:
ROMANUS MORIENS SECUM TRES JULIUS ARTES
ABSTULIT, HAUD MIRUM, QUATUOR UNUS ERAT.
FOOTNOTE:
[26] Giuliano Leno.
FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO
LIFE OF FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO
PAINTER
The first profession of Sebastiano, so many declare, was not painting,
but music, since, besides being a singer, he much delighted to play
various kinds of instruments, and particularly the lute, because on that
instrument all the parts can be played, without any accompaniment. This
art made him for a time very dear to the gentlemen of Venice, with whom,
as a man of talent, he always associated on intimate terms. Then, having
been seized while still young with a desire to give his attention to
painting, he learned the first rudiments from Giovanni Bellini, at that
time an old man. And afterwards, when Giorgione da Castelfranco had
established in that city the methods of the modern manner, with its
superior harmony and its brilliancy of colouring, Sebastiano left
Giovanni and placed himself under Giorgione, with whom he stayed so long
that in great measure he acquired his manner. He thus executed in Venice
some portraits from life that were very like; among others, that of the
Frenchman Verdelotto, a most excellent musician, who was then
chapel-master in S. Marco, and in the same picture that of his companion
Uberto, a singer, which picture Verdelotto took with him to Florence
when he became chapel-master in S. Giovanni; and at the present day the
sculptor Francesco da San Gallo has it in his house. About that time he
also painted for S. Giovanni Grisostomo at Venice an altar-piece with
some figures which incline so much to the manner of Giorgione, that they
have been sometimes held by people without much knowledge of the matters
of art to be by the hand of Giorgione himself. This altar-piece is very
beautiful, and executed with such a manner of colouring that it has
great relief.
The fame of the abilities of Sebastiano thus spreading abroad, Agostino
Chigi of Siena, a very rich merchant, who had many affairs in Venice,
hearing him much praised in Rome, sought to draw him to that city, being
attracted towards him because, besides his painting, he knew so well how
to play on the lute, and was sweet and pleasant in his conversation. Nor
was it very difficult to draw Sebastiano to Rome, since he knew how much
that place had always been the benefactress and common mother-city of
all beautiful intellects, and he went thither with no ordinary
willingness. Having therefore gone to Rome, Agostino set him to work,
and the first thing that he caused him to do was to paint the little
arches that are over the loggia which looks into the garden of
Agostino's palace in the Trastevere, where Baldassarre of Siena had
painted all the vaulting, on which little arches Sebastiano painted some
poetical compositions in the manner that he had brought from Venice,
which was very different from that which was followed in Rome by the
able painters of that day. After this work, Raffaello having executed a
story of Galatea in the same place, Sebastiano, at the desire of
Agostino, painted beside it a Polyphemus in fresco, in which, spurred by
rivalry with Baldassarre of Siena and then with Raffaello, he strove his
utmost to surpass himself, whatever may have been the result. He
likewise painted some works in oils, for which, from his having learned
from Giorgione a method of colouring of no little softness, he was held
in vast account at Rome.
[Illustration: FRA SEBASTIANO VINIZIANO DEL PIOMBO: PORTRAIT OF A LADY
(_Florence; Uffizi, 1123. Canvas_)]
While Sebastiano was executing these works in Rome, Raffaello da Urbino
had risen into such credit as a painter, that his friends and adherents
said that his pictures were more in accord with the rules of painting
than those of Michelagnolo, being pleasing in colour, beautiful in
invention, and charming in the expressions, with design in keeping with
the rest; and that those of Buonarroti had none of those qualities, with
the exception of the design. And for such reasons these admirers judged
that in the whole field of painting Raffaello was, if not more excellent
than Michelagnolo, at least his equal; but in colouring they would have
it that he surpassed Buonarroti without a doubt. These humours, having
spread among a number of craftsmen who preferred the grace of
Raffaello to the profundity of Michelagnolo, had so increased that many,
for various reasons of interest, were more favourable in their judgments
to Raffaello than to Michelagnolo. But Sebastiano was in no way a
follower of that faction, since, being a man of exquisite judgment, he
knew the value of each of the two to perfection. The mind of
Michelagnolo, therefore, drew towards Sebastiano, whose colouring and
grace pleased him much, and he took him under his protection, thinking
that, if he were to assist Sebastiano in design, he would be able by
this means, without working himself, to confound those who held such an
opinion, remaining under cover of a third person as judge to decide
which of them was the best.
While the matter stood thus, and some works that Sebastiano had executed
were being much extolled, and even exalted to infinite heights on
account of the praise that Michelagnolo bestowed on them, besides the
fact that they were in themselves beautiful and worthy of praise, a
certain person from Viterbo, I know not who, much in favour with the
Pope, commissioned Sebastiano to paint a Dead Christ, with a Madonna who
is weeping over Him, for a chapel that he had caused to be built in S.
Francesco at Viterbo. That work was held by all who saw it to be truly
most beautiful, for the invention and the cartoon were by Michelagnolo,
although it was finished with great diligence by Sebastiano, who painted
in it a dark landscape that was much extolled, and thereby Sebastiano
acquired very great credit, and confirmed the opinions of those who
favoured him. Wherefore Pier Francesco Borgherini, a Florentine
merchant, who had taken over a chapel in S. Pietro in Montorio, which is
on the right as one enters the church, allotted it at the suggestion of
Michelagnolo to Sebastiano, because Borgherini thought that Michelagnolo
would execute the design of the whole work, as indeed he did.
Sebastiano, therefore, having set to work, executed it with such zeal
and diligence, that it was held to be, as it is, a very beautiful piece
of painting. From the small design by Michelagnolo he made some larger
ones for his own convenience, and one of these, a very beautiful thing,
which he drew with his own hand, is in our book. Thinking that he had
discovered the true method of painting in oils on walls, Sebastiano
covered the rough-cast of that chapel with an incrustation which seemed
to him likely to be suitable for this purpose; and the whole of that
part in which is Christ being scourged at the Column he executed in oils
on the wall. Nor must I omit to tell that many believe not only that
Michelagnolo made the small design for this work, but also that the
above-mentioned Christ who is being scourged at the Column was outlined
by him, for there is a vast difference between the excellence of this
figure and that of the others. Even if Sebastiano had executed no other
work but this, for it alone he would deserve to be praised to all
eternity, seeing that, in addition to the heads, which are very well
painted, there are in the work some hands and feet of great beauty; and
although his manner was a little hard, on account of the labour that he
endured in the things that he counterfeited, nevertheless he can be
numbered among the good and praiseworthy craftsmen. Above this scene he
painted two Prophets in fresco, and on the vaulting the Transfiguration;
and the two Saints, S. Peter and S. Francis, who are on either side of
the scene below, are very bold and animated figures. It is true that he
laboured for six years over this little work, but when works are
executed to perfection, one should not consider whether they have been
finished quickly or slowly, although more praise is due to him who
carries his labours to completion both quickly and well; and he who
pleads haste as an excuse when his works do not give satisfaction,
unless he has been forced to it, is accusing rather than excusing
himself. When this work was uncovered, it was seen that Sebastiano had
done well, although he had toiled much over painting it, so that the
evil tongues were silenced and there were few who found fault with him.
[Illustration: THE FLAGELLATION
(_After the oil fresco by =Fra Sebastiano Viniziano del Piombo=. Rome:
S. Pietro in Montorio_)
_Anderson_]
After this, when Raffaello painted for Cardinal de' Medici, for sending
to France, that altar-piece containing the Transfiguration of Christ
which was placed after his death on the principal altar of S. Pietro a
Montorio, Sebastiano also executed at the same time another altar-piece
of the same size, as it were in competition with Raffaello, of Lazarus
being raised from the dead four days after death, which was
counterfeited and painted with supreme diligence under the direction of
Michelagnolo, and in some parts from his design. These altar-pieces,
when finished, were publicly exhibited together in the Consistory,
and were vastly extolled, both the one and the other; and although the
works of Raffaello had no equals in their perfect grace and beauty,
nevertheless the labours of Sebastiano were also praised by all without
exception. One of these pictures was sent by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici
to his episcopal palace at Narbonne in France, and the other was placed
in the Cancelleria, where it remained until it was taken to S. Pietro a
Montorio, together with the ornamental frame that Giovan Barile executed
for it. By means of this work Sebastiano became closely connected with
the Cardinal, and was therefore honourably rewarded during his
pontificate.