Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Andrea Pisano

by Giorgio Vasari

 

ANDREA PISANO, SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT.

The art of painting has at no time been flourishing, without the sculptors also making admirable progress in their art at the same moment; and whoever will observe closely, shall find the works of all ages bearing testimony to the truth of this remark. And of a surety these two arts are sisters, born at the same period, nourished and guided by the same spirit. A proof of this is presented by Andrea Pisano, who, devoting himself to sculpture as Giotto did to painting, effected so important an amelioration in the art, both as to practice and theory, that he was esteemed the best master that the Tuscans had ever possessed. Andrea was most especially celebrated for his castings in bronze, and was, on this account, highly honoured by all, but more particularly by the Florentines, by whom his works were so largely remunerated, that he did not scruple to change his country, his connexions, his property, and his friends. The difficulties encountered by the masters in sculpture who had preceded him, were of infinite advantage to Andrea, since the works of those artists were so rude and common-place, that those of the Pisan were esteemed a miracle. And that these earlier sculptures were indeed coarse, is clearly shown, as we have said elsewhere; by those over the principal door of San Paolo, in Florence, as well as by some in. stone, which are in the church of Ognissanti; and are better calculated to excite ridicule, than admiration or pleasure,^[1] in those who examine them. It is, however, certain, that if the art of sculpture incur the danger of losing its vitality, there is always less difficulty in its restoration than in that of painting, the former having ever the living and natural model, in the rounded forms which are such as she requires, while the latter cannot so lightly recover the pure outlines and correct manner demanded for her works, and from which alone the labours of the painter derive majesty, beauty, and grace. Fortune was in other respects favourable to Andrea, many relics of antiquity having been collected in Pisa by the fleets of that city, as results of their frequent victories; and from these, which still remain, as we have said, about the cathedral and Campo Santo, the sculptor Andrea obtained such instruction, and derived such light, as could by no means be obtained by the painter Giotto, since the ancient paintings had not been preserved as the sculptures had been. And although statues are often destroyed by fires, ruined by the furies of war, buried, or transported to distant lands, yet, whoever understands the subject thoroughly can readily distinguish the difference which exists in the manner of different countries; as, for example, that of the Egyptians—marked by the length and attenuation of the figures—from the Greek, displaying knowledge and deep study of the nude form, but with heads which have almost all the same expression; from the ancient Tuscan, somewhat rude, but careful in the arrangement of the hair; and, finally, from that of the Romans (I call those Romans, who, after the subjugation of Greece, repaired to Rome, whither all that was good and beautiful in the whole world was then transported), which last is so admirable, whether as regards the expression, the attitudes, or the movements of the figures, draped or nude, that the Romans may truly be said to have gathered the best qualities of all other methods and united them in their own, to the end that this might be superior to all, nay, absolutely divine, as it is.^[2]

But all of good and pure in art being extinct in the time of Andrea, that manner only was in use which had been brought into Tuscany by the Goths and uncultivated modern Greeks. It was on this then, that Andrea brought his more accurate taste and finer judgment to bear: studying the few antiquities known to him, carefully profiting by Giotto’s new method in design, and ultimately diminishing to a great extent the coarseness of the infelicitous manner then prevalent, he began to work in a much improved style, and to give greater beauty to his productions than had been attained by any other sculptor previous to that time. The talent possessed by Andrea becoming known, his compatriots readily gave him encouragement, and he was employed, while still very young, to execute certain small figures in marble, for Santa Maria a Ponte. By these he obtained so high a reputation, that he received a pressing invitation to Florence, there to co-operate in the labours then in progress for the construction of Santa Maria del Fiore. The principal fagade of this building, with its three doors, had been commenced, but there was a dearth of masters to execute the sculptures which Giotto had designed when the church was founded. The Florentines therefore engaged Andrea Pisano for this wrork; and as they were at that time anxious to render themselves acceptable to Pope Boniface VIII, who was then head of the Christian Church, they determined that before any thing else was done, the portrait of his holiness should be drawn from nature, and sculptured in marble by Andrea. Thereupon he put his hand to the work, and did not rest until lie had completed the statue of the pope, with St. Peter on one side of him and St. Paul on the other, when these three figures were placed on the fa9ade of Santa Maria del Fiore, where they still remain.^[3] Andrea next prepared certain small figures of the prophets, in tabernacles or niches, for the central door, when it became obvious that he had effected important ameliorations in the art, and was greatly in advance of all who had laboured for that fabric before him. It was therefore determined that all works of importance should be confided to him, and to no other. He was, accordingly, soon afterwards appointed to execute the four statues of the principal doctors of the Church—St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory; and these figures, being finished, acquired great favour and high reputation for the artist, not only from the superintendents of the work, but from the whole city; and two other statues in marble, of the same size, were entrusted to his care: these were St. Stephen and St. Lawrence, which were also placed on the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore, and stood on the outer angles.^[4] The Madonna, of marble, three braccia and a half high, with the Child in her arms, which stands on the altar of the little church belonging to the company of the Misericordia, on the piazza of San Giovanni in Florence, is also by Andrea. This work was highly commended in that day, and more particularly for the two angels, two braccia and a half in height, which stand on each side of the Virgin.^[5] The whole has been surrounded in our own days by some very well-executed carvings in wood, from the hand of Maestro Antonio, called II Carota; while the predella beneath is covered with admirable figures, painted in oil, by Ridolfo, son of Domenico Ghirlandajo. The Virgin, in marble (halflength), which is over the lateral door of the Misericordia, in the facade of the Cialdonai, is also bv Andrea, who was highly commended for this work, in which, contrary to his custom, he imitated the pure manner of the antique, from which he generally differed widely; a fact rendered manifest by some drawings in my own book, wherein he has depicted the whole history of the Apocalypse.

Andrea Pisano had given some attention to architecture in his youth; and the commune of Florence found occasion to employ him in that art, when, Arnolfo being dead, and Giotto absent, they selected him to prepare designs for the castle of Scarperia, situate in the Mugello, at the foot of the Alps. Some affirm, but I will not vouch for the truth of the assertion, that Andrea passed a year in Venice, "where he executed, in sculpture, certain small marble figures, which are to be seen on the fagade of St. Mark. They further declare, that in the time of Messer Pietro Gradenigo, doge of that republic, Andrea prepared the designs for the arsenal, but as I have no high authority to offer on this subject, I leave each one to form his own opinion respecting it.^[6] When Andrea returned from Venice to Florence, the latter city wras in great fear of the emperor, whose arrival was daily expected: the citizens therefore employed Andrea in great haste to raise their walls eight braccia higher in that portion of them which lies between St. Gallo and the gate of the Prato. He was also commanded to construct bastions, stockades, and other strong defences, both in wood and earth-work. Three years previous to this, Andrea had acquired great honour by the execution of a cross in bronze, which he had sent to the pope in Avignon, by his intimate friend Giotto, who was then at that court. He was, consequently, now appointed to execute one of the doors for the church of San Giovanni of Florence, for which Giotto had given a most beautiful design. This he was employed to complete, I say, as being considered—among all the many who had hitherto laboured at that fabric—the most able, practised, and judicious master, not of Tuscany only, but of all Italy. Hereupon he set himself to work with the firm resolve to spare neither time, labour, nor care, that this important undertaking might be successfully completed; and fortune was so propitious to his efforts, that, although in those times they possessed none of the secrets in the art of casting with which we are now acquainted, yet in twenty-two years the work was brought to that perfection in which we see it. Nay, more, wdthin this same period the master not only executed the tabernacle of the high altar of St. John, with the angels standing one on each side of it, which arc considered extremely beautiful,^[7] but also completed, after the designs of Giotto, those small figures in marble which adorn the door of the campanile of Santa Maria del Fiore; while around the tower he placed the seven planets, the seven virtues, and the seven wrorks of mercy, in oval compartments, and represented by small figures in mezzo-rilievo, which were then very much praised.^[8] Andrea further executed, within the above-named period, the three figures, each four braccia high, which were placed in the recesses beneath the windows of the same campanile, looking towards the orphan-house,^[9] on the southern side that is to say, and which wrere at that time considered to be very wrell done. But to return to the point whence I departed. In the bronze door which I wras describing, are represented stories from the life of St. John the Baptist in basso-rilievo: they extend from his birth to his death, and are very happily and carefully executed. And although many are of opinion that this work does not exhibit the beauty of design and perfection of art required for such figures, yet is Andrea deserving of the highest praise for having been the first to attempt and bring to completion an undertaking which rendered it possible to those who came after him to produce the beautiful and arduous wrorks which we admire in the remaining two doors, and in the other exterior ornaments of the building. The work of Andrea was placed in the central door of the church, where it remained until Lorenzo Ghiberti executed that which is now in its place, when it was removed and fixed opposite to the Misericordia, where it is still to be seen. I will not omit to mention, that Andrea was assisted in the construction of this door by his son Nino, who afterwards became a much better master than his father. The final completion of this work took place in 1339,^[10] when it was not only furbished and polished, but also gilded in fire, the casting of the metal being accomplished, as is reported, by certain Venetian masters, who were very expert in the founding of metals. Records on this subject are to be found in the books belonging to the guild of the merchants of the Calimara, who were wardens of the works for the church of San Giovanni. While this door was in progress, Andrea not only completed the works which we have named above, but many others also, more particularly the model for the church of San Giovanni at Pistoja, which was founded in the year 1337. It was in the same year, and on the twenty-fifth day of January, that the relics of the Beato Atto, formerly bishop of the city, were discovered while digging the foundations of the church. This prelate had been entombed in that place one hundred and thirty-seven years previously. The architecture of the church is round,^[11] and was tolerably good for those times. There is a marble tomb in the principal church of Pistoja, which is also by Andrea. The sarcophagus is covered with small figures, with others of larger size above it: the body reposing in it is that of Messer Cino d’Angibolgi, doctor of laws,^[12] and one of the famous literati of his time, as we find proved by Messer Francesco Petrarca, in his sonnet beginning—

“ Weep, ladies fair, and love may with you weep.”

and also in the fourth chapter of the “ Triumph of Love”,

where he says—

“See Cino ofPistoja—who, from Guy,
  Of fair Arezzo, claims the foremost place”, etc.

The portrait of this Messer Cino, from the hand of Andrea Pisano, is placed on the tomb, where he is depicted teaching a number of his scholars, who stand around him in attitudes of so much grace and beauty, that in his day they must have been thought something wonderful, even though they should not be greatly admired in ours.

Gualtieri, duke of Athens, and tyrant of Florence, also profited by the services of Andrea for his architectural undertakings, causing him to enlarge the piazza; and, desiring to render himself more secure in his palace, he had a very strong grating of iron bars placed on all the windows of the first floor (where the hall of the Two Hundred now is). The same duke erected the walls in rustic masonry which were added to the palace, on the side opposite to San Scheraggio; and in the thickness of the wall he made a secret stair, by which he could ascend or descend without being observed. In this wall he also placed a large door, which now serves as the entrance to the custom-house, and over the door he carved his arms, all which was completed after the designs and by the advice of Andrea. These arms were subsequently effaced by the Council of Twelve, those magistrates desiring to destroy all remembrance of the duke. The form of a lion rampant, with double tail, may nevertheless be still discerned by whomsoever will examine the shield carefully. Andrea Pisano erected many towers around the circuit of the city walls for the same duke, and not only commenced the magnificent church of San Friano, which he brought to the state in which we now see it, but also raised the walls for the vestibule of all the gates of the city, with the smaller gates which were opened for the convenience of the people.^[13] The duke further desired to construct a fortress on the side of San Giorgio, and Andrea prepared the model for it; but this was not used, the work never having been commenced, because the duke was driven from the city in the year 1343. The design of the Duke Gualtieri to give the palace the form of a strong fortress, was nevertheless effected in great part, since he made such important additions to the buildings previously constructed, that the edifice then received its present form; the houses of the Filipetri, with the towers and houses of the Amidei and the Mancini, and those of the Bellalberti, being comprised within the circuit of the palace walls. Gualtieri, moreover, not having all the materials required for the vast fabric which he had thus commenced, with its immense walls and barbicans, at hand, delayed the progress of the Ponte Vecchio, which the city was constructing with all possible speed, as a work of necessity, by taking possession of the hewn stones and wood-work prepared for the bridge, without any consideration for the public convenience. In none of his undertakings, would the duke employ Taddeo Gaddi, because that master was a Florentine, although he was not inferior as an architect, perhaps, to Andrea the Pisan, whose services Gualtieri constantly preferred. The duke had also formed the design of demolishing the church of Santa Cecilia, to the end that he might be able to see the Strada Romana and the Mercato Nuovo from his palace. Pie meant to destroy San Scheraggio likewise for his own purposes, but had not obtained permission from the pope to do so, when he was expelled, as we have said, by the fury of the people.

By his honourable labours of many years, Andrea Pisano acquired not only rich rewards, but the right of citizenship, which was awarded to him by the Signoria of Florence, who further conferred on him magisterial and other offices in their city.^[14] His works, also, were held in honour, both while he lived and after his death, none being found to surpass him in ability until the times of Psiccolo of Arezzo, Jacopo della Quercia of Siena, Donatello, Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, and Lorenzo Ghiberti, by whom sculpture and other works of art were executed in a manner that taught the nations the extent of the errors in which they had lived until those masters appeared. For by these the art which had for long years been bidden, or but imperfectly comprehended, was fully recovered and restored. The period of Andrea’s labours was about the year of our salvation 1340.

This master left many disciples: among others the Pisan Tomrnaso, who was an architect and sculptor. He finished the Campo Santo, and completed the building of the campanile, —of the upper part that is, wherein are the bells. Tomrnaso is believed to have been a son of Andrea,^[15] being so inscribed on the picture of the high altar in the church of San Francesco di Pisa, where are a Virgin and other saints, carved by him in mezzo-rilievo, while he has placed his name and that of his father beneath these figures.

Andrea also left a son, called Nino, who devoted himself to sculpture. His first work was executed in Santa Maria Novella at Florence, where he finished a Madonna in marble, commenced by his father,^[16] and which is now within the side door, near the chapel of the Minerbetti.^[17] From Florence Nino proceeded to Pisa, where he executed a half-figure of the Virgin in marble, at the Spina: she is suckling the Child, who is wrapped in fine linen.^[18] This Madonna, Messer Jacopo Corbini caused to be surrounded, in 1522, with marble ornaments, and had still finer and more magnificent embellishments made for a whole-length figure of the Virgin, also in marble, and by this same Nino. The mother is here seen to offer a rose to her son, in an attitude of much grace, while the child takes it with infantine sweetness; and the whole work is so beautiful, that one may truly affirm Nino to have here deprived the stone of its hardness, and imparted to it the lustre, polish, and vitality of flesh. This figure stands between a San Giovanni and a San Pietro, both in marble, the latter a portrait of Andrea, taken from the life. Nino also executed two marble statues for one of the altars of St. Catherine at Pisa. They represent the Virgin, with the Angel of the Annunciation, and, like his other works, are so carefully done, that they may justly be described as the best that those times had produced. On the pedestal of this Madonna, Nino carved the following words:—“ The first day of February 1370”; and beneath the angel he inscribed as follows:— “ Nino, the son of Andrea of Pisa, made this figure”. He executed other works, in Naples as well as in Pisa, but of these it is not needful to speak here.^[19]

Andrea died in the year 1345, aged seventy-five years, and was buried by Nino in Santa Maria del Fiore, with the following epitaph:—

“ Ingenti Andreas jacit hie Pisanus in urna
  Marmore qui potuit spirantes ducere vultus
  Et simulacra Deum mediis imponere templis
  Ex aere, ex auro candenti, et pulcro elephanto.”^[20]

---

1. The sculptures of St. Paul and of Ognissanti are destroyed; but the lateral doors of the Pisan cathedral suffice to prove the rudeness of Cimabue’s sculptures. The pulpits of Niccola and Giovanni, of Pisa, however, so greatly lauded by Vasari in his life of those artists, stand in flagrant contradiction to his present remarks.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
2. Few will agree with Vasari in preferringthe manner of the Romans, even of the best period, to that of the Greeks—also at its best period— that from Pericles to Alexander, for example.
3. These figures are now in the Strozzi Garden, formerly Eiceiardi, at Valfonda, whither they were removed in the year 1586.—See Manni, Istoria del Decamerone, p. 2, cap. 55.
4. These statues, with all the other embellishments designed by Giotto, have been removed; some are within the church, others, as, for example, the Doctors, are placed at the commencement of the road to the Poggio Imperiale, where they are transformed into poets.—Schorn.
5. Cicognara has shown from authentic documents, that this Madonna is the work of Alberto Arnoldi, a Florentine. See further, Kuraohr, Part 2, No. 12.
6. What Vasari here hesitates to vouch for, is nevertheless confirmed by a manuscript which Orlandi cites in the Abbecedario Pittorico. Cicoi>nara also considers Andrea to have been employed as here intimated, an opinion he has formed on the testimony of old Venetian chronicles,— in which, however, Andrea is not named.—Masselli.
7. This altar was exchanged in 1732 for one made of vari-coloured marble, in the wretched taste of that day. The fate of Andrea’s work is uncertain; see, respecting it, an Epistolary Dissertation (Diss. Epist.), by L. Tramontani, addressed to Bandini, and printed at Venice in the year 1798. See also Cicognara, Storia della Scultura.
8. They are still more highly praised in the present day. Cicognara has had two of them engraved for his Storia della Scultura, and declares them to be the ne plus ultra of the art.—Montani.
9. This building now belongs to the confraternity of the Misericordia.
10. According to Baldinucci (Sec. 2, Dec. 3, page 32), this door was commenced in the year 1331, and completed in eight, instead of twentytwo, years, as the text, either in error or by a misprint, has made it.— See Cinelli, Bellezze di Firenze, p. 31,—Del Migliore, Firenze Illustrata, p. 91; and Villani, lib. 10, cap. 176.
11. Or rather octagonal.
12. Ciampi maintains that the beautiful monument of Cino da Pistoja was executed by a Maestro Cinello, after the designs of certain artists of Siena.—Memorie Storiche, vol. ii, p. 208. Cicognara, on the contrary, attributes it to Goro di Gregorio, of Siena; both agree to refuse the honour of the work to Andrea Pisano.
13. For various documents relating to these three works, see Gaye, Carteggio Inedito, i, 477, 491, 493, et seq.
14. It would seem that Andrea Pisano added prudence in conduct to his excellence in art, since he retained the confidence of the people notwithstanding his favour with the duke; nay, was even appointed to magisterial offices after Gualtieri had been driven from the city, according to the narrative of Vasari.—G. Montani.
15. Documents lately discovered by Professor Bonaini confirm the supposition, that Tomrnaso was the son of Andrea. — Ed. Flor. 1846.
16. This work is preserved in the Campo Santo of Pisa; the inscription here alluded to is as follows:—“Tomaso figliolo di..........stro Andrea F...........esto lavoro et fu Pisano.” Thomas, the son of Maestro Andrea, executed this work, and was a Pisan.—Ibid.
17. Cicognara remarks that even in this his first work, Nino surpassed all the sculptors of his age, in the softness which he imparted to the flesh of his figures. —Montani.
18. Morrona doubts whether this Madonna should not rather be attributed to Niccola or his son; but Cicognara proves that it cannot be ascribed to any other than Nino, the son of Andrea.—Ibid.
19. Alberto Aimoldi was also a disciple of Andrea.
20. This epitaph is believed to have been composed at least a century
    after Andrea’s death; it has value, as informing us that this master
    worked also in gold and ivory; it is not now to be found. —Masselli.