Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Giuliano da Maiano

by Giorgio Vasari

 

GIULIANO DA MAIANO, SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT OF FLORENCE.

[born 1432—died 1490.]

No unimportant error is that committed by fathers of families who refuse to permit the genius of their children to take its free course in their childhood, and will not suffer them to pursue the calling which is most in harmony with their inclinations. To compel the attention of the young towards a study for which they have no inclination, is manifestly to prevent them from ever attaining perfection in any thing; since we almost always find that those who do not take pleasure in their occupation, rarely make great progress in whatever may be the work they undertake. On the other hand, those who follow the bent of their nature, most commonly become excellent in their vocation, and render themselves eminent in the arts to which they devote themselves: a truth which was made clearly manifest in Giuliano Maiano. His father lived for a long time on that part of the heights of Fiesole, which is called Maiano, and there worked at the trade of a stone-cutter; but proceeded eventually to Florence, where he established a shop for the sale of hewn stones, keeping it furnished with such articles as are most frequently liable to be called for suddenly by those who are employed in the fabrication of buildings. While thus dwelling in Florence, there was born to him a son^[1] Giuliano namely; and as in the course of time it appeared to the father that he gave evidence of good ability, the former resolved that he should be made a notary, his own trade of stonecutting being, as he thought, too laborious and not sufficiently profitable.

But this purpose was not carried out, for, although Giuliano went for some time to the grammar-school, his thoughts were never there, and the consequence was that he made no progress whatever; on the contrary, he ran away several times, and showed that his whole heart was given to sculpture; yet he commenced life by working as a joiner, but acquired practice in drawing at the same time. It is said that Giuliano took part in the works of the sacristy of the Kunziata, where, in company with Giusto and Minore, two masters of Tarsia,^[2] he executed the seats of the sacristy, as also those of the choir beside the chapel^[3] with many things in the Abbey of Fiesole and in San Marco, Having acquired a name by these works, it is further said that he was summoned to Pisa, Avhere he executed in the cathedral the seat which stands beside the high altar, whereon the priest, the deacon, and the sub-deacon are seated while the mass is sung. The back of this seat he decorated in tarsia-work, executing figures of the three prophets which are still to be seen there,^[4] in tinted and shadowed woods; and while employed on this undertaking, he availed himself of the assistance of Guido del Servellino and Maestro Domenico di Mariotto, joiners of Pisa, whom he so effectually instructed in the art that they afterwards finished the greater part of the choir, executing the carving as well as the Tarsia; but the works of this choir have been completed in our own times, after a much better manner, by the Pisan, Battista del Cervelliera, a truly inventive and ingenious man. But to return to Giuliano, it was by him that the presses of the sacristy of San Marco were made, and these presses were at that time considered most admirable, for the Tarsia and inlaid-work by which they are enriched.

While Giuliano was thus devoting his attention to the labours of Tarsia, Sculpture, and Architecture, the death of Filippo di Ser Brunellesco took place, when the wardens of the works appointed Giuliano to succeed him.^[5] He thereupon encrusted the frieze beneath the vault of the cupola and the frames around the windows with black and white marble. He likewise placed the marble columns in the angles, and to these, Baccio D’Agnolo afterwards added the architrave, frieze, and cornice, as will be related hereafter. It is true that Giuliano designed to erect- a different kind of frieze, cornice, and gallery, with a pediment on each of the eight sides of the cupola, as appears from certain designs by his hand, which are preserved in our book; but, pressed by the various labours which occupied him from day to day, he had not time to carry this purpose into effect, and died before it could be executed.

Before this occurred, however, Giuliano had proceeded to Naples, Avhere he constructed the magnificent palace of the Poggio Reale^[6] for king Alfonso, Avith the beautiful fountains and fine aqueducts which are in the court. In the city itself, likewise, Giuliano designed many splendid fountains, some of Avhich were constructed on the public squares, and others in private houses, but all are of beautiful and fanciful invention. The palace of Poggio Beale Avas extensively decorated under his care with paintings by Piero del Donzello, and Polito his brother;^[7] and for the same king Alfonso, who was then Duke of Calabria, Giuliano da Maiano executed works in sculpture; among Avhich were stories in bassorilievo for a door in the great hall of the castle of Naples, which was richly adorned by him, both Avithin and Avithout. Giuliano likewise constructed the gate of the castle; this was of marble in the Corinthian order, with an immense number of figures, and to this work he gave the form of a triumphal arch, whereon are represented certain Auctories gained by that king, with other events of his life, all sculptured in marble.^[8] The decorations of the Capuan gate^[9] are also the work of Giuliano da Maiano, and here he executed many trophies of war, which are admirably varied and extremely beautiful, insomuch that the master w^ell merited that the king should treat him with great regard, while the liberal manner in which his labours were remunerated by that monarch, enriched both himself and his descendants. Giuliano had instructed his nephew^[10] Benedetto in the arts of tarsia and architecture; he had also taught him to produce certain works in sculpture, but Benedetto remained in Florence devoting his attention to productions in tarsia, because he thereby made larger gains than could be secured by the other arts; he therefore remained in Florence, as we have said, when Giuliano was invited to Borne by Messer Antonio Rosello, secretary to Paul the Second, whither he instantly repaired, and entered the service of that pontiff. He was then commanded to construct the Colonnade of travertine in the first court of San Pietro; three ranges of columns form this structure; the first is on the ground-floor where are now the signet-office and other chambers appropriated to the public service; the second is over this, where the apartments of the Datary and other prelates are situated, and the third, which is the last, is that wherein are those rooms of the palace which look on the court of San Pietro, the floors and other parts of which Giuliano decorated with gilding and other ornaments. The marble Loggia, from which the pope gives his benediction, was in like manner constructed after the designs of this architect—a very great work, as may be seen even to the present day; but the most admirable and extraordinary of all his works was the palace which he built for pope Paul II., together with the church of San Marco of Borne. In these erections he consumed enormous quantities of travertine, which was excavated, as is said, from certain vine-grounds situated near the arch of Constantine, and had been laid to form buttresses and counterpoises to that part of the Colosseum which is now in ruins, perhaps because the whole building gave way.^[11]

Giuliano was sent by the same pontiff to the shrine of our Lady of Loretto, where he repaired the foundations, and greatly enlarged the nave of the church, which had previously been very small, and was constructed on rustic pillars of the rudest workmanship. But he did not carry the structure above the point to which the plinth of the earlier building had been raised; having then summoned his nephew Benedetto to his assistance, the latter afterwards erected the cupola, as will be related in due time.^[12] After these things, Giuliano being compelled to return to Naples, there to complete the works already commenced in that city, was employed by the king Alfonso to construct a gate near the castle, and for this there were to be executed more than eighty figures, which Benedetto had to prepare in Florence, but the whole being brought to a stand by the death of the king, that work remained incomplete. Some relics of the figures may still be seen at Florence in the Misericordia, and others were lying, within my own remembrance, near the mill, but I know not where they are now to be found. Before the death of the king, however, Giuliano himself had died in Naples, at the age of seventy, and was honoured with a very sumptuous funeral, the king having caused fifty men to be clothed in mourning, and accompany the artist to his grave. He afterwards ordered a marble monument to be erected to his memory. Polito^[13] continued to pursue the plans marked out by Giuliano, and it was by him that the conduits for the waters of Poggio Reale were completed. Benedetto devoted himself to sculpture; he surpassed his uncle^[14] Giuliano in excellence, as will be related hereafter, and in his youth was the rival of a sculptor of Modena, who worked in terra-cotta, and was called Modanino.^[15] This last-named artist executed a Pietà,^[16] for the above-mentioned king Alfonso; it comprised a large number of figures in full relief, formed of terra-cotta coloured; they have extraordinary animation, and the work was placed by the king in the church of Monte Oliveto at Naples, a monastery very highly honoured in that city.^[17] Among these figures is the portrait of king Alfonso in a kneeling position, and this appears to be really alive, wherefore Modanino was very richly rewarded by the monarch. But when the king had died, as we have said, Polito and Benedetto returned to Florence, where, no long time after, Polito followed Giuliano to another life. The works of these masters were executed about^[18] the year 1447.

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1. In the year 1432.
2. Wood in various colours inlaid was called Tarsia, or Intarsia.
3. These Intarsiatura were removed when the choir and chapel were adorned with works in Pietra dura, as has been related in the life of Michelozzi. — See vol. i
4. This seat still remains.
5. Here Vasari appears to be in error. Filippo dying in 1446 could scarcely have been succeeded by Giuliano, who was then but a youth.
6. Of the palace of Poggio Beale but few traces now remain: the fountains and aqueducts are also destroyed.—Masselli.
7. For a short notice of these brothers, Pietro and Pdlito (Ippolito) del Donzello, see Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. ii. p. 13, who calls them the relations of Giuliano da Maiano. See further, Dominici, Vite de Pittori Napolitani.
8. Here also Vasari is in error, this arch of triumph having been constructed in 1443, to celebrate the triumphal entry of Alfonso I. into the city. Dominici attributes it to Pietro di Martino of Milan, and the later Florentine editors agree with him in that opinion.
9. The gate itself may have been erected by Giuliano,” remark the Florentine commentators, “but the decorations are the work of other hands.”
10. Benedetto was the brother and not the nephew of Giuliano.
11. Bottari remarks that this circumstance gave rise to the tradition that the western end of the Colosseum was demolished in order to construct the Palace of St. Mark with the spoils. But the destruction of the building at this part occurred much earlier, if we are to believe the writers who treat of the amphitheatre. See, among others, Marangoni, Anfiteatro Flavio. Similar reports have obtained currency in respect to the Farnese palace, for the construction of which Paul III. is also accused of despoiling the Colosseum.
12. Vasari makes no further mention of this circumstance in his life of Benedetto. A work by the three brothers Maiano—Giovanni, Giuliano, and Benedetto—unknown to Vasari, and rarely named by writers, is the Tabernacle of the Madonna, called dell’ Ulivo; it belongs to the nuns of San Vincenzo di Prato, and is near that city. The altar is of marble, and the Virgin who holds the infant in her arms is of unglazed terra-cotta. The reader will find this work fully described in a pamphlet by the Canon Baldanzi, published at Prato in the year 1838, and entitled La Madonna dell'Ulivo disegnata e descritta.
13. Ippolito del Donzello.
14. His brother.
15. This is Guido Mazzoni, whom Pomponius Gauricus calls Guidus Mazon Mutinensis, and who w’as called Modanino by his countrymen, from the place of his birth.
16. The dead Christ in the lap of the Virgin, is so called in Italian art.
17. This work is still at the Monte Oliveto; it is described by Cicognara, who gives a plate containing two of the figures.
18. Neither the works of Maiano, nor those of the brothers Pietro and Ippolito del Donzello should be assigned to a date about 1447. The Neapolitan painters were working after 1481.—Ed. Flor. 1849.