ignoble family in Arezzo, who, making his way to Rome, and placing
himself under Don Giulio Clovio, a most excellent miniaturist, devoted
himself in so thorough a manner to design and to the study of the nude,
but most of all to anatomy, that he became an able master, and was held
to be the best draughtsman in Rome. And it is not long since Don Silvano
Razzi related to me that Don Giulio Clovio had told him in Rome, after
having praised this young man highly, the very thing that he has often
declared to me--namely, that he had turned him out of his house for no
other reason but his filthy anatomy, for he kept so many limbs and
pieces of men under his bed and all over his rooms, that they poisoned
the whole house. Besides this, by neglecting himself and thinking that
living like an unwashed philosopher, accepting no rule of life, and
avoiding the society of other men, was the way to become great and
immortal, he ruined himself completely; for nature will not tolerate the
unreasonable outrages that some men at times do to her. Having therefore
fallen ill at the age of twenty-five, Bartolommeo returned to Arezzo, in
order to regain his health and to seek to build himself up again; but he
did not succeed, for he continued his usual studies and the same
irregularities, and in four months, a little after the death of Giovanni
Antonio, he died and went to join him.
The loss of this young man was an infinite grief to the whole city, for
if he had lived, to judge from the great promise of his works, he was
like to do extraordinary honour to his native place and to all Tuscany;
and whoever sees any of the drawings that he made when still a mere lad,
stands marvelling at them and full of compassion for his untimely
death.
FOOTNOTE:
[31] Don Bartolommeo della Gatta, Abbot of S. Clemente.
NICCOLÒ SOGGI
LIFE OF NICCOLÒ SOGGI
PAINTER
Among the many who were disciples of Pietro Perugino, there was not one,
after Raffaello da Urbino, who was more studious or more diligent than
Niccolò Soggi, whose Life we are now about to write. This master was
born in Florence, the son of Jacopo Soggi, a worthy person, but not very
rich; and in time he entered the service of M. Antonio dal Monte in
Rome, because Jacopo had a farm at Marciano in Valdichiana, and, passing
most of his time there, associated not a little with that same M.
Antonio dal Monte, their properties being near together.
Jacopo, then, perceiving that this son of his was much inclined to
painting, placed him with Pietro Perugino; and in a short time, by means
of continual study, he learned so much that it was not long before
Pietro began to make use of him in his works, to the great advantage of
Niccolò, who devoted himself in such a manner to drawing in perspective
and copying from nature, that he afterwards became very excellent in
both the one field and the other. Niccolò also gave much attention to
making models of clay and wax, over which he laid draperies and soaked
parchment: which was the reason that he rendered his manner so dry, that
he always held to the same as long as he lived, nor could he ever get
rid of it for all the pains that he took.
The first work that this Niccolò executed after the death of his master
Pietro was an altar-piece in oils in the Hospital for Women, founded by
Bonifazio Lupi, in the Via San Gallo at Florence--that is, the side
behind the altar, wherein is the Angel saluting Our Lady, with a
building drawn in perspective, in which there are arches and a groined
vaulting rising above pilasters after the manner of Pietro. Then, in the
year 1512, after having executed many pictures of Our Lady for the
houses of citizens, and other little works such as are painted every
day, hearing that great things were being done in Rome, he departed from
Florence, thinking to make proficience in art and also to save some
money, and went off to Rome. There, having paid a visit to the aforesaid
M. Antonio dal Monte, who was then a Cardinal, he was not only welcomed
warmly, but also straightway set to work to paint, in those early days
of the pontificate of Leo, on the façade of the palace where there is
the statue of Maestro Pasquino, a great escutcheon of Pope Leo in
fresco, between that of the Roman People and that of the Cardinal. In
that work Niccolò did not acquit himself very well, for in painting some
nude figures and others clothed that he placed there as ornaments for
those escutcheons, he recognized that the study of models is bad for him
who wishes to acquire a good manner. Thereupon, after the uncovering of
that work, which did not prove to be of that excellence which many
expected, Niccolò set himself to execute a picture in oils, in which he
painted the Martyr S. Prassedia squeezing a sponge full of blood into a
vessel; and he finished it with such diligence that he recovered in part
the honour that he considered himself to have lost in painting the
escutcheons described above. This picture, which was executed for the
above-mentioned Cardinal dal Monte, who was titular of S. Prassedia, was
placed in the centre of that church, over an altar beneath which is a
well of the blood of Holy Martyrs--a beautiful idea, the picture
alluding to the place where there was the blood of those Martyrs. After
this Niccolò painted for his patron the Cardinal another picture in
oils, three-quarters of a braccio in height, of Our Lady with the Child
in her arms, S. John as a little boy, and some landscapes, all executed
so well and with such diligence, that the whole work appears to be done
in miniature, and not painted; which picture, one of the best works that
Niccolò ever produced, was for many years in the apartment of that
prelate. Afterwards, when the Cardinal arrived in Arezzo and lodged in
the Abbey of S. Fiore, a seat of the Black Friars of S. Benedict, in
return for the many courtesies that were shown to him, he presented that
picture to the sacristy of that place, in which it has been treasured
ever since, both as a good painting and in memory of the Cardinal.
Niccolò himself went with the Cardinal to Arezzo, where he lived almost
ever afterwards. At the time he formed a friendship with the painter
Domenico Pecori, who was then painting an altar-piece with the
Circumcision of Christ for the Company of the Trinità; and such was the
intimacy between them that Niccolò painted for Domenico in that
altar-piece a building in perspective with columns and arches supporting
a ceiling full of rosettes, according to the custom of those days, which
was held at that time to be very beautiful. Niccolò also painted for the
same Domenico a round picture of the Madonna with a multitude below, in
oils and on cloth, for the baldachin of the Confraternity of Arezzo,
which was burned, as has been related in the Life of Domenico
Pecori,[32] during a festival that was held in S. Francesco. Then,
having received the commission for a chapel in that same S. Francesco,
the second on the right hand as one enters the church, he painted there
in distemper Our Lady, S. John the Baptist, S. Bernard, S. Anthony, S.
Francis, and three Angels in the air who are singing, with God the
Father in a pediment; which were executed by Niccolò almost entirely in
distemper, with the point of the brush. But since the work has almost
all peeled off on account of the strength of the distemper, it was
labour thrown away. Niccolò did this in order to try new methods; and
when he had recognized that the true method was working in fresco, he
seized the first opportunity, and undertook to paint in fresco a chapel
in S. Agostino in that city, beside the door on the left hand as one
enters the church. In this chapel, which was allotted to him by one
Scamarra, a master of furnaces, he painted a Madonna in the sky with a
multitude beneath, and S. Donatus and S. Francis kneeling; but the best
thing that he did in this work was a S. Rocco at the head of the chapel.
This work giving great pleasure to Domenico Ricciardi of Arezzo, who had
a chapel in the Church of the Madonna delle Lagrime, he entrusted the
painting of the altar-piece of that chapel to Niccolò, who, setting his
hand to the work, painted in it with much care and diligence the
Nativity of Jesus Christ. And although he toiled a long time over
finishing it, he executed it so well that he deserves to be excused for
this, or rather, merits infinite praise, for the reason that it is a
most beautiful work; nor would anyone believe with what extraordinary
consideration he painted every least thing in it, and a ruined building,
near the hut wherein are the Infant Christ and the Virgin, is drawn very
well in perspective. In the S. Joseph and some Shepherds are many heads
portrayed from life, such as Stagio Sassoli, a painter and the friend of
Niccolò, and Papino della Pieve, his disciple, who, if he had not died
when still young, would have done very great honour both to himself and
to his country; and three Angels in the air who are singing are so well
executed that they would be enough by themselves to demonstrate the
talent of Niccolò and the patience with which he laboured at this work
up to the very last. And no sooner had he finished it than he was
requested by the men of the Company of S. Maria della Neve, at Monte
Sansovino, to paint for that Company an altar-piece wherein was to be
the story of the Snow, which, falling on the site of S. Maria Maggiore
at Rome on the 5th of August, was the reason of the building of that
temple. Niccolò, then, executed that altar-piece for the above-mentioned
Company with much diligence; and afterwards he executed at Marciano a
work in fresco that won no little praise.
Now in the year 1524, after M. Baldo Magini had caused Antonio, the
brother of Giuliano da San Gallo, to build in the Madonna delle Carceri,
in the town of Prato, a tabernacle of marble with two columns,
architrave, cornice, and a quarter-round arch, Antonio resolved to bring
it about that M. Baldo should give the commission for the picture which
was to adorn that tabernacle to Niccolò, with whom he had formed a
friendship when he was working in the Palace of the above-mentioned
Cardinal dal Monte at Monte Sansovino. He presented him, therefore, to
M. Baldo, who, although he had been minded to have it painted by Andrea
del Sarto, as has been related in another place, resolved, at the
entreaties and advice of Antonio, to allot it to Niccolò. And he, having
set his hand to it, strove with all his power to make a beautiful work,
but he did not succeed; for, apart from diligence, there is no
excellence of design to be seen in it, nor any other quality worthy of
much praise, because his hard manner, with his labours over his models
of clay and wax, almost always gave a laborious and displeasing effect
to his work. And yet, with regard to the labours of art, that man could
not have done more than he did or shown more lovingness; and since he
knew that none ...[33] for many years he could never bring himself to
believe that others surpassed him in excellence. In this work, then,
there is a God the Father who is sending down the crown of virginity and
humility upon the Madonna by the hands of some Angels who are round her,
some of whom are playing various instruments. Niccolò made in the
picture a portrait from life of M. Baldo, kneeling at the feet of S.
Ubaldo the Bishop, and on the other side he painted S. Joseph; and those
two figures are one on either side of the image of the Madonna, which
worked miracles in that place. Niccolò afterwards painted a picture
three braccia in height of the same M. Baldo Magini from life, standing
with the Church of S. Fabiano di Prato in his hand, which he presented
to the Chapter of the Canons of the Pieve; and this Niccolò executed for
that Chapter, which, in memory of the benefit received, caused the
picture to be placed in the sacristy, an honour well deserved by that
remarkable man, who with excellent judgment conferred benefits on that
church, the principal church of his native city, and so renowned for the
Girdle of the Madonna, which is preserved there. This portrait was one
of the best works that Niccolò ever executed in painting. It is also the
belief of some that a little altar-piece that is in the Company of S.
Pier Martire on the Piazza di S. Domenico, at Prato, in which are many
portraits from life, is by the hand of the same Niccolò; but in my
opinion, even if this be true, it was painted by him before any of the
other pictures mentioned above.
After these works, Niccolò--under whose discipline Domenico Giuntalodi,
a young man of excellent ability belonging to Prato, had learned the
rudiments of the art of painting, although, in consequence of having
acquired the manner of Niccolò, he never became a great master in
painting, as will be related--departed from Prato and came to work in
Florence; but, having seen that the most important works in art were
given to better and more eminent men than himself, and that his manner
was not up to the standard of Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso, and the
others, he made up his mind to return to Arezzo, in which city he had
more friends, greater credit, and less competition. Which having done,
no sooner had he arrived than he made known to M. Giuliano Bacci, one of
the chief citizens of that place, a desire that he had in his heart,
which was this, that he wished that Arezzo should become his country,
and that therefore he would gladly undertake to execute some work which
might maintain him for a time in the practice of his art, whereby he
hoped to demonstrate to that city the nature of his talents. Whereupon
Messer Giuliano, an ingenious man who desired that his native city
should be embellished and should contain persons engaged in the arts, so
went to work with the men then governing the Company of the Nunziata,
who in those days had caused a great vaulting to be built in their
church, with the intention of having it painted, that one arch of the
wall-surface of that vaulting was allotted to Niccolò; and it was
proposed that he should be commissioned to paint the rest, if the first
part, which he had to do then, should please the men of the aforesaid
Company. Having therefore set his hand to this work with great
diligence, in two years Niccolò finished the half, but not more, of one
arch, on which he painted in fresco the Tiburtine Sibyl showing to the
Emperor Octavian the Virgin in Heaven with the Infant Jesus Christ in
her arms, and Octavian in reverent adoration. In the figure of Octavian
he portrayed the above-mentioned M. Giuliano Bacci, and his pupil
Domenico in a tall young man draped in red, and others of his friends in
other heads; and, in a word, he acquitted himself in this work in such a
manner that it did not displease the men of that Company and the other
men of that city. It is true, indeed, that everyone grew weary of seeing
him take so long and toil so much over executing his works; but
notwithstanding all this the rest would have been given to him to
finish, if that had not been prevented by the arrival in Arezzo of the
Florentine Rosso, a rare painter, to whom, after he had been put forward
by the Aretine painter Giovanni Antonio Lappoli and M. Giovanni
Pollastra, as has been related in another place, much favour was shown
and the rest of that work allotted. At which Niccolò felt such disdain,
that, if he had not taken a wife the year before and had a son by her,
so that he was settled in Arezzo, he would have departed straightway.
However, having finally become pacified, he executed an altar-piece for
the Church of Sargiano, a place two miles distant from Arezzo, where
there are Frati Zoccolanti; in which he painted the Assumption of Our
Lady into Heaven, with many little Angels supporting her, and S. Thomas
below receiving the Girdle, while all around are S. Francis, S. Louis,
S. John the Baptist, and S. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary. In some of
these figures, and particularly in some of the little Angels, he
acquitted himself very well; and so also in the predella he painted some
scenes with little figures, which are passing good. He executed,
likewise, in the Convent of the Nuns of the Murate, who belong to the
same Order, in that city, a Dead Christ with the Maries, which is
wrought with a high finish for a picture in fresco. In the Abbey of S.
Fiore, a seat of Black Friars, behind the Crucifix that is placed on the
high-altar, he painted in oils, on a canvas, Christ praying in the
Garden and the Angel showing to Him the Chalice of the Passion and
comforting Him, which was certainly a work of no little beauty and
excellence. And for the Nuns of S. Benedetto, of the Order of Camaldoli,
at Arezzo, on an arch above a door by which one enters the convent, he
painted the Madonna, S. Benedict, and S. Catharine, a work which was
afterwards thrown to the ground in order to enlarge the church.
In the township of Marciano in Valdichiana, where he passed much of his
time, living partly on the revenues that he had in that place and partly
on what he could earn there, Niccolò began an altar-piece of the Dead
Christ and many other works, with which he occupied himself for a time.
And meanwhile, having with him the above-mentioned Domenico Giuntalodi
of Prato, whom he loved as a son and kept in his house, he strove to
make him excellent in the matters of art, teaching him so well how to
draw in perspective, to copy from nature, and to make designs, that he
was already becoming very able in all these respects, showing a good and
beautiful genius. And this Niccolò did, besides being moved by the love
and affection that he bore to that young man, in the hope of having one
who might help him now that he was nearing old age, and might give him
some return in his last years for so much labour and lovingness. Niccolò
was in truth most loving with every man, true by nature, and much the
friend of those who laboured in order to attain to something in the
world of art; and what he knew he taught to them with extraordinary
willingness.
No long time after this, when Niccolò had returned from Marciano to
Arezzo and Domenico had left him, the men of the Company of the Corpo di
Cristo, in that city, had a commission to give for the painting of an
altar-piece for the high-altar of the Church of S. Domenico. Now,
Niccolò desiring to paint it, and likewise Giorgio Vasari, then a mere
lad, the former did something which probably not many of the men of our
art would do at the present day, which was as follows: Niccolò, who was
one of the members of the above-mentioned Company, perceiving that many
were disposed to have it painted by Giorgio, in order to bring him
forward, and that the young man had a very great desire for it,
resolved, after remarking Giorgio's zeal, to lay aside his own desire
and need and to have the picture allotted by his companions to Giorgio,
thinking more of the advantage that the young man might gain from the
work than of his own profit and interest; and even as he wished, so
exactly did the men of that Company decide.
In the meantime Domenico Giuntalodi, having gone to Rome, found Fortune
so propitious that he became known to Don Martino, the Ambassador of the
King of Portugal, and went to live with him; and he painted for him a
canvas with some twenty portraits from life, all of his followers and
friends, with himself in the midst of them, engaged in conversation;
which work so pleased Don Martino, that he looked upon Domenico as the
first painter in the world. Afterwards Don Ferrante Gonzaga, having been
made Viceroy of Sicily, and desiring to fortify the towns of that
kingdom, wished to have about his person a man who might draw and put
down on paper for him all that he thought of from day to day; and he
wrote to Don Martino that he should find for him a young man who might
be both able and willing to serve him in this way, and should send him
off as soon as possible. Don Martino, therefore, first sent to Don
Ferrante some designs by the hand of Domenico, among which was a
Colosseum, engraved on copper by Girolamo Fagiuoli of Bologna for
Antonio Salamanca, but drawn in perspective by Domenico; an old man in
a child's go-cart, drawn by the same hand and published in engraving,
with letters that ran thus, "Ancora imparo"; and a little picture with
the portrait of Don Martino himself. And shortly afterwards he sent
Domenico, at the wish of the aforesaid lord, Don Ferrante, who had been
much pleased with that young man's works. Having then arrived in Sicily,
there were assigned to Domenico an honourable salary, a horse, and a
servant, all at the expense of Don Ferrante; and not long afterwards he
was set to work on the walls and fortresses of Sicily. Whereupon,
abandoning his painting little by little, he devoted himself to
something else which for a time was more profitable to him; for, being
an ingenious person, he made use of men who were well adapted to heavy
labour, kept beasts of burden in the charge of others, and caused sand
and lime to be collected and furnaces to be set up; and no long time had
passed before he found that he had saved so much that he was able to buy
offices in Rome to the extent of two thousand crowns, and shortly
afterwards some others. Then, after he had been made keeper of the
wardrobe to Don Ferrante, it happened that his master was removed from
the government of Sicily and sent to that of Milan; whereupon Domenico
went with him, and, working on the fortifications of that State,
contrived, what with being industrious and with being something of a
miser, to become very rich; and what is more, he came into such credit
that he managed almost everything in that government.
Hearing of this, Niccolò, who was at Arezzo, now an old man, needy, and
without any work to do, went to find Domenico in Milan, thinking that
even as he had not failed Domenico when he was a young man, so Domenico
should not fail him now, but should avail himself of his services, since
he had many in his employ, and should be both able and willing to assist
him in his poverty-stricken old age. But he found to his cost that the
judgments of men, in expecting too much from others, are often deceived,
and that the men who change their condition also change more often than
not their nature and their will. For after arriving in Milan, where he
found Domenico raised to such greatness that he had no little difficulty
in getting speech of him, Niccolò related to him all his troubles, and
then besought him that he should help him by making use of his
services; but Domenico, not remembering or not choosing to remember
with what lovingness he had been brought up by Niccolò as if he had been
his own son, gave him a miserably small sum of money and got rid of him
as soon as he was able. And so Niccolò returned to Arezzo very sore at
heart, having recognized that with the labour and expense with which, as
he thought, he had reared a son, he had formed one who was little less
than an enemy.
In order to earn his bread, therefore, he went about executing all the
work that came to his hand, as he had done many years before, and he
painted among other things a canvas for the Commune of Monte Sansovino,
containing the said town of Monte Sansovino and a Madonna in the sky,
with two Saints at the sides; which picture was set up on an altar in
the Madonna di Vertigli, a church belonging to the Monks of the Order of
Camaldoli, not far distant from the Monte, where it has pleased and
still pleases Our Lord daily to perform many miracles and to grant
favours to those who recommend themselves to the Queen of Heaven.
Afterwards, Julius III having been created Supreme Pontiff, Niccolò, who
had been much connected with the house of Monte, made his way to Rome,
although he was an old man of eighty, and, having kissed the foot of His
Holiness, besought him that he should deign to make use of him in the
buildings which were to be erected, so men said, at the Monte, a place
which the Lord Duke of Florence had given in fief to the Pontiff. The
Pope, then, having received him warmly, ordained that the means to live
in Rome should be given to him without exacting any sort of exertion
from him; and in this manner Niccolò spent several months in Rome,
drawing many antiquities to pass the time.
Meanwhile the Pope resolved to increase his native town of Monte
Sansovino, and to make there, besides many ornamental works, an
aqueduct, because that place suffered much from want of water; and
Giorgio Vasari, who had orders from the Pope to cause those buildings to
be begun, recommended Niccolò Soggi strongly to His Holiness, entreating
him that Niccolò should be given the office of superintendent over those
works. Whereupon Niccolò went to Arezzo filled with these hopes, but he
had not been there many days when, worn out by the fatigues and
hardships of this world and by the knowledge that he had been abandoned
by him who should have been the last to forsake him, he finished the
course of his life and was buried in S. Domenico in that city.