Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Giuliano Bugiardini
THE FLORENTINE PAINTER, GIULIANO BUGIARDINI.
[born 1481—died 1556.]
At a period long prior to the siege of Florence, the inhabitants of that city had increased to so great a degree, that the extensive suburbs stretching from every gate, with their churches, monasteries, and hospitals, were almost, as it were, another city, inhabited by many persons of good condition, as well as by able artificers of all kinds; although they were for the most part less opulent than those of the city, and dwelt in the suburbs at less expense of taxes, &c.
In one of these suburbs then, that which leads from the gate opening on the road to Faenza namely, was born Giuliano Bugiardini, and there he dwelt, as his forefathers had done, until the year 1529, when all the suburbs were ruined. But at an earlier period, and while Giuliano was yet a boy, the commencement of his studies was made in the garden of the Medici, on the piazza of San Marco; where he pursued the labours of his vocation, and acquired the art of design, under the sculptor Bertoldo. Here he formed a strict intimacy with Michelagnolo Buonarroti, and this grew to so perfect a friendship, that Giuliano was ever after much beloved by Michelagnolo, who distinguished him, not so much because of any depth of manner which he perceived in the drawing of Giuliano, as on account of the great diligence and love with which he devoted himself to his art.
There was besides a certain natural goodness and a kind of simplicity in the manners and mode of life of Giuliano who was wholly devoid of all malice or envy, and these qualities infinitely pleased Michelagnolo; Giuliano had indeed no one remarkable defect in his character, unless we may call the love which he bore to the works of his own hands a fault. It is true that this is a point in which all men are given to err, but in Giuliano the propensity passed all bounds, either because the great pains and diligence which he bestowed in the execution of his labours caused him to set a high value on the result, or for some other reason. But however this may have been, Michelagnolo used to designate Giuliano “the blessed,” because he ever appeared to be so heartily content with what he produced, while he called himself “the unhappy,” because he could never fully satisfy himself with any of his works.
When Giuliano had studied drawing for a certain time in the above-named garden, he attached himself, still in company with Michelagnolo Buonarroti, and with Granacci also, to Domenico Ghirlandajo, under whom he worked when the latter was painting the chapel of Santa Maria Novella. Increasing in stature and having ultimately rendered himself a tolerably good artist, he settled down to work in company with Mariotto Albertinelli in the Gualfonda, where he executed a picture which is now in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Florence, and near the door of entrance; the subject is Sant’ Alberto, a Carmelite monk, who has the devil under his feet in the form of a woman, a work that was very highly commended.[1]
Previous to the siege of Florence in 1530, it was the custom in that city to carry before the bier, at the burial of the nobles or of those connected with them, a range of small banners affixed to, or hung around some picture, and borne on the head of a porter; these banners it was then usual to leave in the church as a present, and in perpetuation of the memory of the deceased and the family. When Cosimo Bucellai the elder expired therefore, his sons Bernardo and Palla, thinking to do something new, resolved to have no banners, but a large picture forming a standard in their stead: this they determined to have made of four braccia wide, 'and five high, with certain pendants, bearing the arms of the Rucellai family, affixed to the lower edge thereof. Having committed the work to Giuliano accordingly, he painted four large figures, admirably well executed in the body of the standard; S.S. Cosimo and Damian o namely, with San Pietro and San Paolo, all works of great beauty and finished with more care than had ever before been bestowed on the painting of a banner.
These and other works of Giuliano having been seen by Mariotti Albertinelli, the latter having remembered the extraordinary care with which Bugiardini studied the drawings laid before him, and from which he did not permit himself to depart by a hair’s breadth, resolved, as he was in those days preparing to abandon the study of art, that a picture which had been formerly left merely sketched on the gypsum of the panel and shadowed, after his manner, with water-colours by Fra Bartolommeo, the companion and friend of Mariotto, should be confided for its completion to Giuliano Bugiardini.
The latter therefore set hand to the painting, which he finished with great labour and pains, and the picture was placed in the church of San Gallo; but that church, with the convent attached to it, having been destroyed at the siege, the painting was then carried to the Hospital of the Priests, in the Yia San Gallo, and there fixed within the building. It was afterwards taken thence to the convent of San Marco, and was finally deposited in San Jacopo-tra-Fossi, at the corner of the Alberti, where it may still be seen on the high altar.[2] The subject of the work is Our Saviour dead, with the Magdalen embracing his feet, and San Giovanni Evangelista supporting the head, which he sustains on one knee. San Pietro weeping in great sorrow, is also in this picture, with San Paolo, whose arms are cast wide apart, and who mournfully contemplates the body of his departed Lord.[3] And of a truth, Giuliano completed this picture with so much love, consideration, and judgment, that as it was then highly commended, so will it ever continue to be so, and with good reason.
At a later period Giuliano painted the Abduction of Dina, for Cristofano Ranieri, and this too was a picture which had in like manner been left unfinished by the above-named Fra Bartolommeo. A work similar to this, and also by Giuliano Bugiardini, was sent into France.[4]
No long time afterwards, having been induced to visit Bologna by certain friends of his, Giuliano executed some portraits from the life, with a picture in oil for a chapel in the new choir of San Francesco. The subject of the latter was Our Lady with certain Saints; and in Bologna, as there were not many masters there, it was held to be a good and praiseworthy performance.[5]
Returning to Florence, Giuliano painted five pictures from the life of Our Lady, for a person whose name I do not know, but the works are now in the possession of Maestro Andrea Pasquali, Physician to his Excellency, and a highly distinguished man. Messer Palla Rucellai likewise gave him a picture, which he desired to have placed on the altar belonging to his family, in the church of Santa Maria Novella: in this Giuliano began to depict the Martyrdom of the Virgin St. Catherine— but what did he make of it? Twelve years did he keep the work in hand, nor in all that time could he once bring it to a conclusion; and all this for lack of invention, he not knowing how to represent the many and varied circumstances that must be delineated by him who would describe that martyrdom, although he was perpetually cogitating on the different ways in which those wheels might be accomplished, and how the lightnings and fires by which they were consumed should be represented; but, changing one day what he had done the day before, he could thus never come to an end in all the time thus consumed, as we have said, over that work.
It is true that in the meantime Giuliano accomplished many other works, and among these may be mentioned, the portrait of Messer Francesco Guicciardini, who, having returned from Bologna, was then writing his history at his villa of Montici. This was a tolerably good resemblance, and gave considerable satisfaction. He also painted the portrait of the Signora Angiola de’ Rossi, sister of the Count of Sansecondo, which he did for the Signor Alessandro Vitelli, the husband of the lady, who was then engaged in the defence of Florence.
For Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici, moreover, Giuliano executed a picture wherein he delineated two whole length figures, the one of Pope Clement seated, and the other of Fra Niccolò della Magna, standing upright. This he copied from a work by Fra Sebastiano del Piombo. In another picture he also painted a seated figure of Pope Clement, with Bartolommeo Yalori kneeling before the Pontiff, to whom he is speaking. This he executed with incredible care and patience.
Now the before-mentioned Messer Ottaviano had secretly begged Giuliano to make him a likeness of Michelagnolo Buonarroti, and the painter’ commenced his work accordingly. Having kept Michelagnolo, who took much pleasure in his conversation, fixed for some two hours in one position therefore, Bugiardini then exclaimed, “Michelagnolo, if you have any mind to see your very self, get up and look at this, for I have now caught the exact expression of the countenance.” Michelagnolo having risen accordingly, and glanced at the portrait, cried out, laughing, to Giuliano, “What the devil have you been about here? you have painted me with one eye up in the temple; give heed a little to what you are doing.”
Hearing this, Giuliano, who had been mightily elated, looked first at the portrait and then at the living original many times, after which he replied very seriously, “I do not perceive it, and it does not appear to me to be so; but sit down again, and I will examine a bit, and comparing my work with the life, shall be able to see if it be so.” Buonarroto, who saw whence the defect proceeded and knew the want of judgment of Giuliano, instantly sat down again laughing, and Bugiardini, having looked many times, now at Michelagnolo and now at the portrait, finally rose to his feet and exclaimed, “To me it appears that the thing is as I have drawn it, and that what I have done is true to the life.” “In that case it must be a defect of nature,” replied Michelagnolo, “go on, and do not spare either pencils or art.” Giuliano finished the picture accordingly, and having done so, he gave it to Messer Ottaviano, with the portrait of Pope Clement from the hand of Fra Sebastiano; as Michelagnolo, who had caused the latter to be brought from Rome, had desired.
For Innocenzio, Cardinal Cibo, Giuliano made a copy of the picture, wherein Raffaello da Urbino had delineated Pope Leo, with Giulio, Cardinal de’ Medici, and the Cardinal de’ Rossi; but in place of Cardinal de’ Rossi, Giuliano here painted the head of Cardinal Cibo himself. In this work the artist acquitted himself extremely well, and executed the whole picture with much care and pains.[6] At the same time Giuliano took the likeness of Cencio Guasconi, who was at that period an exceedingly beautiful youth; and subsequently he painted in fresco a Tabernacle at the villa of Baccio Pedoni, which is situate near Olmo-a -Castello. In this work there is not much design, but it is well and very carefully executed.
Meanwhile Palla Rucellai was urging Giuliano to finish the picture of which we have made mention above; the painter, therefore, determined to request Michelagnolo to look at the work, and having conducted him to the place where he had it, he plainly asked Buonarroti, after he had related to him with what trouble he had executed the lightnings, which, descending from heaven destroy those wheels, and kill the men who are turning them, as also the pains with which he had produced a figure of the Sun, that bursting through the clouds effects the liberation of Santa Caterina from death: having related all this I say to Michelagnolo, who could with difficulty restrain his laughter on hearing the troubles of the poor Giuliano, the latter begged that Buonarroti would tell him how to make eight or ten figures in the foreground of his picture, soldiers standing in a line, in the manner of a guard namely, but being, some in the act of flight, some fallen down, some wounded, and others dead, respecting all which Giuliano was at a loss, not knowing how to manage the foreshortening, nor being able to comprehend in what manner they could all find room in so small a space, if placed in the manner he desired, in a line that is to say.
Buonarroti, who had compassion on the poor man, agreed to help him; he approached the picture, therefore, with a piece of charcoal, and by a few strokes, sketched the outline of a range of admirable nude figures, which were foreshortened in various attitudes, and fell in divers manners, some backwards, others forwards, with dead and wounded, all represented in the judicious and excellent manner peculiar to Michelagnolo. Having done this, the latter departed much thanked by Giuliano, who, no long time afterwards, took his intimate friend Tribolo to see what Buonarroti had done, relating the whole affair to him at the same time. But, as Buonarroti had merely sketched the figures in outline, as we have said, Giuliano could not execute them, because there was neither shadow nor anything more than the mere outline; wherefore Tribolo, in his turn, resolved to assist him, and made sketches of several beautifully-executed models in clay, to which, by means of the gradina, which is a curved instrument, he imparted all the boldness that Michelagnolo had given to the drawing, and having worked them with tills, to the end that they might have more firmness and force, he then gave them to Giuliano.
But this manner did not please the fancy of Bugiardini, with whose love of smoothness it was not in accord; wherefore, when Tribolo had departed, he took a brush, and, gradually passing over them with water, rendered the models so smooth as to efface entirely all the effect produced by the gradina, and polished them in such sort that whereas the lights should have appeared and given depth to the shadows, he ended by taking all that was good away, and destroying that which formed the perfection of the work. These doings being afterwards declared to Tribolo by Giuliano himself, the former could not but laugh at the excessive simplicity of that poor good man, who afterwards delivered his work, completed in such a fashion that none would suppose Michelagnolo had ever cast eyes upon it.[7]
Finally, having become old and being poor, with but few works to employ his time, Bugiardini put himself to incredible pains and labour in the execution of a Pieta, which he painted in a tabernacle destined to be sent into Spain; the figures were not very large and were completed by the painter with so much care, that one cannot but wonder to see a man of advanced age have the patience to perform such a work for the love which he bore to art. To express the darkness which fell upon the earth at the death of the Saviour, Giuliano painted on the doors of that tabernacle a figure of Night on a ground of black, and this figure he copied from the Night which stands in the Sacristy of San Lorenzo, and is by the hand of Michelagnolo. But the statue of Buonarroto having no other sign or indication than a night-owl, Giuliano gave the reins to his fancy in his picture of the Night, and added thereto various inventions of his own, a net with a lanthorn for catching thrushes in the night, and a little vessel holding an end of candle, such as people use to go about with through the darkness, to say nothing of many other matters, all having relation to twilight or darkness, such as night-caps for men and women, pillows, hats, and I know not what; insomuch that Buonarroto had like to choke with laughing when he saw this work, and beheld in what fashion Bugiardini had enriched his Night.
At length and after having always remained such a person as we have described, Giuliano died at the age of seventyfive years, and was buried in the church of San Marco at Florence in the year 1556.[8] Giuliano was once relating to Bronzino the circumstance of his having seen a most beautiful woman, and after Bugiardini had extolled this lady to the skies, Bronzino inquired if he knew who she was; “No,” replied Giuliano, “but she is exquisitely beautiful; figure to yourself, in short, that she is a picture executed by my hand, and then you will have the truth, that will be enough.”
- ↑ The work of Bugiardini is no longer in the place described, which is occupied by one by Cigoli, also from the life of Sant’ Alberto. —Masselli.
- ↑ This work is now “admired among those adorning the regal Palace of the Pitti.” —Masselli.
- ↑ The figures of S.S. Peter and Paul are no longer to be distinguished, having been covered over with whitewash, but at what time this barbarous operation was performed we cannot say.— Masselli.
- ↑ St. Anthony of Padua namely, and St. Catherine of the Wheels, with San Giovannino. The work is now in the Gallery of Bologna.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ Not because there were no masters in Bologna, but because the greater part of them were then absent. —Ibid.
- ↑ Bottari tells us that the last Cardinal Cibo sold this picture to Cardinal Valenti Gonzaga, on whose death it passed to the heirs of that prelate.
- ↑ Still in fair preservation, and, according to Lanzi, exhibiting many good points: it may be seen in the Rucellai Chapel of the Church oi Santa Maria Novella, and there is an engraving of the work in the Etruria Pittrice of Malvasia. The artist is said not to have confined himself to one style, but to have sometimes imitated that of Leonardo da Vinci, and at other times to have rather affected the manner of Fra Bartolommeo della Porta.
- ↑ Piacenza, in his additions to Baldinucci, cites a MS. which he found in the Magliabecchiana, and according to which Giuliano Bugiardini died at the age of sixty-five, and in the year 1566.