the art of painting was unanimously granted by all, thanks to the favour
of Michelagnolo, to Sebastiano, and Giulio Romano, Giovan Francesco of
Florence, Perino del Vaga, Polidoro, Maturino, Baldassarre of Siena, and
all the others had to give way. Wherefore Agostino Chigi, who had been
having a chapel and tomb built for himself under the direction of
Raffaello in S. Maria del Popolo, came to an agreement with Sebastiano
that he should paint it all; whereupon the screen was made, but the
chapel remained covered, without ever being seen by anyone, until the
year 1554, at which time Luigi, the son of Agostino, resolved that,
although his father had not been able to see it finished, he at least
would do so. And so, the chapel and the altar-piece being entrusted to
Francesco Salviati, he carried the work in a short time to that
perfection which it had not received from the dilatory and irresolute
Sebastiano, who, so far as one can see, did little work there, although
we find that he obtained from the liberality of Agostino and his heirs
much more than would have been due to him even if he had finished it
completely, which he did not do, either because he was weary of the
labours of art, or because he was too much wrapped up in comforts and
pleasures. And he did the same to M. Filippo da Siena, Clerk of the
Chamber, for whom he began a scene in oils on the wall above the
high-altar of the Pace at Rome, and never finished it; wherefore the
friars, in despair about it, were obliged to take away the staging,
which obstructed their church, to cover the work with a cloth, and to
have patience for as long as the life of Sebastiano lasted. After his
death, the friars uncovered the work, and it was found that what he had
done was most beautiful painting, for the reason that in the part where
he represented Our Lady visiting S. Elizabeth, there are many women
portrayed from life that are very beautiful, and painted with consummate
grace. But it may be seen here that this man endured extraordinary
labour in all the works that he produced, and that he was not able to
execute them with that facility which nature and study are wont at times
to give to him who delights in working and exercises his hand
continually. And of the truth of this there is also a proof in the same
Pace, in the Chapel of Agostino Chigi, where Raffaello had executed the
Sibyls and Prophets; for Sebastiano, wishing to paint some things on the
stone in the niche that remained to be painted below, in order to
surpass Raffaello, caused it to be incrusted with peperino-stone, the
joinings being filled in with fired stucco; but he spent so much time on
cogitations that he left the wall bare, for, after it had remained thus
for ten years, he died.
It is true that a few portraits from life could be obtained with ease
from Sebastiano, because he could finish these with more facility and
promptitude; but it was quite otherwise with stories and other figures.
To tell the truth, the painting of portraits from life was his proper
vocation, as may be seen from the portrait of Marc' Antonio Colonna,
which is so well executed that it seems to be alive, and also from those
of Ferdinando, Marquis of Pescara, and of Signora Vittoria Colonna,
which are very beautiful. He likewise made a portrait of Adrian VI when
he first arrived in Rome, and one of Cardinal Hincfort. That Cardinal
desired that Sebastiano should paint for him a chapel in S. Maria de
Anima at Rome; but he kept putting him off from one day to another, and
the Cardinal finally had it painted by the Fleming Michael, his
compatriot, who painted there in fresco stories from the life of S.
Barbara, imitating our Italian manner very well; and in the altar-piece
he made a portrait of the same Cardinal.
But returning to Sebastiano: he also took a portrait of Signor Federigo
da Bozzolo, and one of a captain in armour, I know not who, which is in
the possession of Giulio de' Nobili at Florence. He painted a woman in
Roman dress, which is in the house of Luca Torrigiani; and Giovan
Battista Cavalcanti has a head by the same master's hand, which is not
completely finished. He executed a picture of Our Lady covering the
Child with a piece of drapery, which was a rare work; and Cardinal
Farnese now has it in his guardaroba. And he sketched, but did not carry
to completion, a very beautiful altar-piece of S. Michael standing over
a large figure of the Devil, which was to be sent to the King of France,
who had previously received a picture by the hand of the same master.
Then, after Cardinal Giulio de' Medici had been elected Supreme Pontiff
and had taken the name of Clement VII, he gave Sebastiano to understand
through the Bishop of Vasona that the time to show him favour had come,
and that he would become aware of this when the occasion arose. And in
the meantime, while living in these high hopes, Sebastiano, who had no
equal in portrait-painting, executed many from life, and among others
one of Pope Clement, who was not then wearing a beard, or rather, two of
him, one of which came into the possession of the Bishop of Vasona, and
the other, which is much larger, showing a seated figure from the knees
upwards, is in the house of Sebastiano at Rome. He also painted a
portrait of the Florentine Anton Francesco degli Albizzi, who happened
to be then in Rome on some business, and he made it such that it
appeared to be not painted but really alive; wherefore Anton Francesco
sent it to Florence as a pearl of great price. The head and hands of
this portrait were things truly marvellous, to say nothing of the
beautiful execution of the velvets, the linings, the satins, and all the
other parts of the picture; and since Sebastiano was indeed superior to
all other men in the perfect delicacy and excellence of his
portrait-painting, all Florence was amazed at this portrait of Anton
Francesco.
At this same time he also executed a portrait of Messer Pietro Aretino,
and made it such that, besides being a good likeness, it is an
astounding piece of painting, for there may be seen in it five or six
different kinds of black in the clothes that he is wearing--velvet,
satin, ormuzine, damask, and cloth--and, over and above those blacks, a
beard of the deepest black, painted in such beautiful detail, that the
real beard could not be more natural. This figure holds in the hand a
branch of laurel and a scroll, on which is written the name of Clement
VII; and in front are two masks, one of Virtue, which is beautiful, and
another of Vice, which is hideous. This picture M. Pietro presented to
his native city, and the people of Arezzo have placed it in their public
Council Chamber, thus doing honour to the memory of their talented
fellow-citizen, and also receiving no less from him. After this,
Sebastiano made a portrait of Andrea Doria, which was in like manner an
admirable work, and a head of the Florentine Baccio Valori, which was
also beautiful beyond belief.
In the meantime Fra Mariano Fetti, Friar of the Piombo, died, and
Sebastiano, remembering the promises made to him by the above-mentioned
Bishop of Vasona, master of the household to His Holiness, asked for the
office of the Piombo; whereupon, although Giovanni da Udine, who had
also done much in the service of His Holiness "in minoribus," and still
continued to serve him, asked for the same office, the Pope, moved by
the prayers of the Bishop, and also thinking that the talents of
Sebastiano deserved it, ordained that Sebastiano should have the office,
but should pay out of it to Giovanni da Udine an allowance of three
hundred crowns. Thus Sebastiano assumed the friar's habit, and
straightway felt his soul changed thereby, for, perceiving that he now
had the means to satisfy his desires, he spent his time in repose
without touching a brush, and recompensed himself with his comforts and
his revenues for many misspent nights and laborious days; and whenever
he happened to have something to do, he would drag himself to the work
with such reluctance, that he might have been going to his death. From
which one may learn how much our reason and the little wisdom of men are
deceived, in that very often, nay, almost always, we covet the very
opposite to that which we really need, and, as the Tuscan proverb has
it, in thinking to cross ourselves with a finger, poke it into our own
eyes. It is the common opinion of men that rewards and honours spur the
minds of mortals to the studies of those arts which they see to be the
best remunerated, and that, on the contrary, to see that those who
labour at these arts are not recompensed by such men as have the means,
causes the same students to grow negligent and to abandon them. And for
this reason both ancients and moderns censure as strongly as they are
able those Princes who do not support every kind of man of talent, and
who do not give due honour and reward to all who labour valiantly in the
arts. But, although this rule is for the most part a good one, it may be
seen, nevertheless, that at times the liberality of just and magnanimous
Princes produces the contrary effect, for the reason that many are more
useful and helpful to the world in a low or mediocre condition than they
are when raised to greatness and to an abundance of all good things. And
here we have an example, for the magnificent liberality of Clement VII,
bestowing too rich a reward on Sebastiano Viniziano, who had done
excellent work as a painter in his service, was the reason that he
changed from a zealous and industrious craftsman into one most idle and
negligent, and that, whereas he laboured continually while he was living
in poor circumstances and the rivalry between him and Raffaello da
Urbino lasted, he did quite the opposite when he had enough for his
contentment.
Be this as it may, let us leave it to the judgment of wise Princes to
consider how, when, towards whom, in what manner, and by what rule, they
should exercise their liberality in the case of craftsmen and men of
talent, and let us return to Sebastiano. After he had been made Friar of
the Piombo, he executed for the Patriarch of Aquileia, with great
labour, Christ bearing the Cross, a half-length figure painted on
stone--a work which was much extolled, particularly for the head and the
hands, parts in which Sebastiano was truly most excellent. Not long
afterwards the niece of the Pope, who in time became Queen of France, as
she still is, having arrived in Rome, Fra Sebastiano began a portrait of
her; but this remained unfinished in the guardaroba of the Pope. And a
short time after this, Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici having become
enamoured of Signora Giulia Gonzaga, who was then living at Fondi, that
Cardinal sent Sebastiano to that place, accompanied by four light
horsemen, to take her portrait; and within a month he finished that
portrait, which, being taken from the celestial beauty of that lady by
a hand so masterly, proved to be a divine picture. Wherefore, after it
had been carried to Rome, the labours of that craftsman were richly
rewarded by the Cardinal, who declared that this portrait surpassed by a
great measure all those that Sebastiano had ever executed up to that
day, as indeed it did; and the work was afterwards sent to King Francis
of France, who had it placed in his Palace of Fontainebleau.
[Illustration: ANDREA DORIA
(_After the painting by =Fra Sebastiano del Piombo=. Rome: Palazzo
Doria_)
_Anderson_]
This painter then introduced a new method of painting on stone, which
pleased people greatly, for it appeared that by this means pictures
could be made eternal, and such that neither fire nor worms could harm
them. Wherefore he began to paint many pictures on stone in this manner,
surrounding them with ornaments of variegated kinds of stone, which,
being polished, formed a very beautiful setting; although it is true
that these pictures, with their ornaments, when finished, could not be
transported or even moved, on account of their great weight, save with
the greatest difficulty. Many persons, then, attracted by the novelty of
the work and by the beauty of his art, gave him earnest-money, in order
that he might execute some for them; but he, delighting more to talk
about such pictures than to work at them, always kept delaying
everything. Nevertheless he executed on stone a Dead Christ with the
Madonna, with an ornament also of stone, for Don Ferrante Gonzaga, who
sent it to Spain. The whole work together was held to be very beautiful,
and Sebastiano was paid five hundred crowns for the painting by Messer
Niccolò da Cortona, agent in Rome for the Cardinal of Mantua. In this
kind of painting Sebastiano was truly worthy of praise, for the reason
that whereas Domenico, his compatriot, who was the first to paint in
oils on walls, and after him Andrea dal Castagno, Antonio Pollaiuolo, and
Piero Pollaiuolo, failed to find the means of preventing the figures
executed by them in this manner from becoming black and fading away very
quickly, Sebastiano did find it; wherefore the Christ at the Column,
which he painted in S. Pietro in Montorio, has never changed down to our
own time, and has the same freshness of colouring as on the first day.
For he went about the work with such diligence that he used to make the
coarse rough-cast of lime with a mixture of mastic and colophony,
which, after melting it all together over the fire and applying it to
the wall, he would then cause to be smoothed over with a mason's trowel
made red-hot, or rather white-hot, in the fire; and his works have
therefore been able to resist the damp and to preserve their colour very
well without suffering any change. With the same mixture he worked on
peperino-stone, white and variegated marble, porphyry, and slabs of
other very hard kinds of stone, materials on which paintings can last a
very long time; not to mention that this has shown how one may paint on
silver, copper, tin, and other metals.
This man found so much pleasure in cogitating and discoursing, that he
would spend whole days without working; and when he did force himself to
work, it was evident that he was suffering greatly in his mind, which
was the chief reason that he was of the opinion that no price was large
enough to pay for his works. For Cardinal Rangoni he painted a picture
of a nude and very beautiful S. Agatha being tortured in the breasts,
which was an exquisite work, and this picture is now in the guardaroba
of Signor Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, and is in no way inferior to the
many other most beautiful pictures that are there, by the hands of
Raffaello da Urbino, Tiziano, and others. He also made a portrait from
life of Signor Piero Gonzaga, painted in oils on stone, which was a very
fine work; but he toiled for three years over finishing it.
Now, when Michelagnolo was in Florence in the time of Pope Clement,
engaged in the work of the new Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, Giuliano
Bugiardini wished to paint for Baccio Valori a picture with the head of
Pope Clement and that of Baccio himself, and another for Messer
Ottaviano de' Medici of the same Pontiff and the Archbishop of Capua.
Michelagnolo therefore sent to Sebastiano to ask him to despatch from
Rome a head of the Pope painted in oils with his own hand; and
Sebastiano painted one, which proved to be very beautiful, and sent it
to him. After Giuliano had made use of the head and had finished his
pictures, Michelagnolo, who was a close companion of the said Messer
Ottaviano, made him a present of it; and of a truth, among the many
heads that Fra Sebastiano executed, this is the most beautiful of all
and the best likeness, as may be seen in the house of the heirs of
Messer Ottaviano. The same master also took the portrait of Pope Paul
Farnese, as soon as he was elected Supreme Pontiff; and he began one of
the Duke of Castro, his son, but left it unfinished, as he did with many
other works with which he had made a beginning.
Fra Sebastiano had a passing good house which he had built for himself
near the Popolo, and there he lived in the greatest contentment, without
troubling to paint or work any more. He used often to say that it was a
great fatigue to have to restrain in old age those ardours which in
youth craftsmen are wont to welcome out of emulation and a desire for
profit and honour, and that it was no less wise for a man to live in
peace than to spend his days in restless labour in order to leave a name
behind him after death, for all his works and labours had also in the
end, sooner or later, to die. And even as he said these things, so he
carried them into practice as well as he was able, for he always sought
to have for his table all the best wines and the rarest luxuries that
could be found, holding life in more account than art. Being much the
friend of all men of talent, he often had Molza and Messer Gandolfo to
supper, making right good cheer. He was also the intimate friend of
Messer Francesco Berni, the Florentine, who wrote a poem to him; to
which Fra Sebastiano answered with another, passing well, for, being
very versatile, he was even able to set his hand to writing humorous
Tuscan verse.
Having been reproached by certain persons, who said that it was shameful
that he would no longer work now that he had the means to live, Fra
Sebastiano replied in this manner: "Why will I not work now that I have
the means to live? Because there are now in the world men of genius who
do in two months what I used to do in two years; and I believe that if I
live long enough, and not so long, either, I shall find that everything
has been painted. And since these stalwarts can do so much, it is well
that there should also be one who does nothing, to the end that they may
have the more to do." With these and similar pleasantries Fra Sebastiano
was always diverting himself, being a man who was never anything but
humorous and amusing; and, in truth, a better companion never lived.
Sebastiano, as has been related, was much beloved by Michelagnolo. But
it is also true that when the front wall of the Papal Chapel, where
there is now the Last Judgment by the same Buonarroti, was to be
painted, there did arise some disdain between them, for Fra Sebastiano
had persuaded the Pope that he should make Michelagnolo paint it in
oils, whereas the latter would only do it in fresco. Now, Michelagnolo
saying neither yea nor nay, the wall was prepared after the fashion of
Fra Sebastiano, and Michelagnolo stood thus for some months without
setting his hand to the work. But at last, after being pressed, he said
that he would only do it in fresco, and that painting in oils was an art
for women and for leisurely and idle people like Fra Sebastiano. And so,
after the incrustation laid on by order of the friar had been stripped
off, and the whole surface had been covered with rough-cast in a manner
suitable for working in fresco, Michelagnolo set his hand to the work;
but he never forgot the affront that he considered himself to have
received from Fra Sebastiano, against whom he felt hatred almost to the
day of the friar's death.
Finally, after Fra Sebastiano had come to such a state that he would not
work or do any other thing but attend to the duties of his office as
Friar of the Piombo, and enjoy the pleasures of life, at the age of
sixty-two he fell sick of a most acute fever, which, being a ruddy
person and of a full habit of body, threw him into such a heat that he
rendered up his soul to God in a few days, after making a will and
directing that his body should be carried to the tomb without any
ceremony of priests or friars, or expenditure on lights, and that all
that would have been spent thus should be distributed to poor persons,
for the love of God; and so it was done. He was buried in the Church of
the Popolo, in the month of June of the year 1547. Art suffered no great
loss in his death, seeing that, as soon as he assumed the habit of Friar
of the Piombo, he might have been numbered among those lost to her;
although it is true that he was regretted for his pleasant conversation
by many friends as well as craftsmen.
Many young men worked under Sebastiano at various times in order to
learn art, but they made little proficience, for from his example they
learned little but the art of good living, excepting only Tommaso
Laureti, a Sicilian, who, besides many other works, has executed a
picture full of grace at Bologna, of a very beautiful Venus, with Love
embracing and kissing her, which picture is in the house of M. Francesco
Bolognetti. He has also painted a portrait of Signor Bernardino Savelli,
which is much extolled, and some other works of which there is no need
to make mention.
PERINO DEL VAGA
LIFE OF PERINO DEL VAGA
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
A truly great gift is art, who, paying no regard to abundance of riches,
to high estate, or to nobility of blood, embraces, protects, and uplifts
from the ground a child of poverty much more often than one wrapped in
the ease of wealth. And this Heaven does in order to show how much power
the influences of its stars and constellations have over us,
distributing more of its favours to one, and to another less; which
influences are for the most part the reason that we mortals come to be
born with dispositions more or less fiery or sluggish, weak or strong,
fierce or gentle, fortunate or unfortunate, and richer or poorer in
talent. And whoever has any doubt of this, will be enlightened in this
present Life of Perino del Vaga, a painter of great excellence and
genius.
This Perino, the son of a poor father, having been left an orphan as a
little child and abandoned by his relatives, was guided and governed by
art, whom he always acknowledged as his true mother and honoured without
ceasing. And the studies of the art of painting were pursued by him with
such zeal and diligence, that he was enabled in due time to execute
those noble and famous decorations which have brought so much glory to
Genoa and to Prince Doria. Wherefore we may believe without a doubt that
it is Heaven that raises men from those infinite depths in which they
were born, to that summit of greatness to which they ascend, when they
prove by labouring valiantly at their works that they are true followers
of the sciences that they have chosen to learn; even as Perino chose and
pursued as his vocation the art of design, in which he proved himself
full of grace and most excellent, or rather, absolutely perfect. And he
not only equalled the ancients in stucco-work, but also equalled the
best modern craftsmen in the whole field of painting, displaying all the
excellence that could possibly be desired in a human intellect that
seeks, in solving the difficulties of that art, to achieve beauty,
grace, charm, and delicacy with colouring and with every other kind of
ornament.
But let us speak more particularly of his origin. There lived in the
city of Florence one Giovanni Buonaccorsi, who entered the service of
Charles VIII, King of France, and fought in his wars, and, being a
spirited and open-handed young man, spent all that he possessed in that
service and in gaming, and finally lost his life therein. To him was
born a son, who received the name of Piero; and this son, after being
left as an infant of two months old without his mother, who died of
plague, was reared in the greatest misery at a farm, being suckled by a
goat, until his father, having gone to Bologna, took as his second wife
a woman whose husband and children had died of plague; and she, with her
plague-infected milk, finished nursing Piero, who was now called
Pierino[27] (a pet name such as it is a general custom to give to little
children), and retained that name ever afterwards. He was then taken to
Florence by his father, who, on returning to France, left him with some
relatives; and they, either because they had not the means, or because
they would not accept the burdensome charge of maintaining him and
having him taught some ingenious vocation, placed him with the
apothecary of the Pinadoro, to the end that he might learn that calling.
But, not liking that profession, he was taken as shop-boy by the painter
Andrea de' Ceri, who was pleased with the air and the ways of Perino,
and thought that he saw in him a certain lively spirit of intelligence
from which it might be hoped that in time some good fruits would issue
from him. Andrea was no great painter; quite commonplace, indeed, and
one of those who stand openly and publicly in their workshops, executing
any kind of work, however mean; and he was wont to paint every year for
the festival of S. John certain wax tapers which were carried as
offerings, as they still are, together with the other tributes of the
city; for which reason he was called Andrea de' Ceri, and from that
name Perino was afterwards called for some time Perino de' Ceri.