Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Lazzaro Vasari

by Giorgio Vasari

 

LAZZARO VASARI, PAINTER OF AREZZO.

[born 1380—died 1452.]

Very great, without doubt, is the happiness of those who among their forerunners, the men of their own family, find some that have been distinguished and renowned in a liberal profession, Avhether of arms, of letters, of painting, or any other noble calling. Men who find honourable mention of their ancestors in history have that incitement to virtue, if no other, and may find therein a bridle to restrain them from the commission of any act unworthy of a family which has had honoured and illustrious men among its members. How great a pleasure is to be derived from such a circumstance, as I said in the beginning, I have myself experienced, having found among my ancestors a man who in his day was a famous painter; one renowned, not only in his own native place, but through all Tuscany, namely, Lazzaro Vasari. Nor ^id he attain his fame without good right to it, as I could show clearly, if it were permitted to me to speak freely of him as I have done of others. But because, as I was born of his blood, it might be easily supposed that in praising liim I was over-passing the limits of discretion, I propose to be silent concerning his merits, and those of the family, and will merely relate what I cannot and ought not in any manner to conceal, if I would not depart from the truth, on which all history depends.

Lazzaro Vasari then, the Aretine painter, was the most intimate friend of Piero della Francesca, of Borgo-a-San Sepolcro, and had constant intercourse with that master, while the latter laboured, as has been related, in Arezzo. And, as frequently happens, this friendship was the source of considerable advantage to Lazzaro; for whereas the latter had previously given his attention to small figures only, for the decoration of such things as were at that time in demand, he was induced by Piero della Francesco to attempt works of more importance. His first work in fresco was executed for the church of San Domenico of Arezzo, in the second chapel on the right as you enter the church; it represented San Vincenzio, at the feet of whom Lazzaro depicted himself and his son Giorgio, a child, kneeling, in vestments of honourable character, in the fashion of those times; they are recommending themselves to the consideration of the saints, the child having inadvertently wounded himself in the face with a knife^[1]* It is true that there is no inscription to this effect on the work, but the recollection of facts still in the memory of old persons belonging to our family, with the arms of Vasari seen in the picture, leave no doubt on the subject: and there would, doubtless, be some memorial of this matter in the convent, but for the disorders committed by the soldiery at various times, in consequence of which the documents and other property of the house have been dispersed, so that I am not surprised at the absence of such memorial. The manner of Lazzaro Vasari was so exactly similar to that of Piero della Francesca, that only a very slight difference could be perceived between them. It was at that time very much the custom to paint various devices, and more particularly the arms of the owner, on the caparisons of horses, according to the bearings of those who commanded these decorations; in this work Lazzaro Vasari was a most excellent master, more particularly in minute figures, which he executed with much grace, and in a manner peculiar to himself, such things being perpetually in demand for the caparisons just alluded to. Lazzaro worked much for Niccolò Piccinini,^[2] as well as for his soldiers and captains; historical pieces, decorated with the respective arms and devices of those who commanded them, which were held in great esteem, and brought him gains so considerable, that these profits enabled him to establish many of his brothers in Arezzo, they having previously dwelt in Cortona, where they occupied themselves in the manufacture of vessels in terra-cotta. Lazzaro also took into his house his nephew, Luca Signorelli, of Cortona, the son of one of his sisters; and finding good dispositions in this youth, he afterwards placed him with Pietro Borghese (Piero della Francesca), to the end that he might learn the art of painting, wherein Luca succeeded extremely well, as will be related in its proper place. For Lazzaro himself, devoting his days to the continual study of art, he daily became more excellent in his calling, as may be seen from certain designs by his hand in our book, and which are very well done. He found great pleasure in the delineation of the natural affections, fear, joy, sorrow, weeping, trembling, laughing, and the like; he expressed these passions admirably well, and his works, for the most part, abound with instances of this quality. An example may be seen in a small chapel painted by his hand in the church of San Gimignano at Arezzo,^[3] where there is a Crucifix, with our Lady, St. John, and the Magdalen at the foot of the cross; all of whom, depicted in various attitudes, express the grief they suffer with so much animation, that the work acquired great credit and renown for its author among his fellow citizens. For the Brotherhood of Sant’ Antonio, in the same city, Lazzaro painted a gonfalon, or standard, on cloth, which is carried in the processions; on this he depicted the figure of Christ at the column naked and bound; presenting the scene with so life-like an effect, that the figure seems really to tremble, the shoulders are drawn together, and the sufferer appears to be enduring with indescribable humility and patience the stripes inflicted on him by two Jews. One of the executioners, standing firmly on both feet, wields the scourge with his two hands, his back is partially turned towards the Saviour, and the expression of his countenance is that of extreme cruelty; the second is seen in profile, he has raised himself on the points of the feet, and grasping the scourge with both hands, he grinds his teeth and performs his office with a rancorous rage, beyond the power of words to describe. These two figures Lazzaro has clothed in torn garments, the better to display their naked forms; he has indeed left them very little covering. This work, although painted on cloth, having maintained its beauty for many years, and in fact down to our own day, at which I am greatly surprised,^[4] the men of that brotherhood, in consideration of its beauty and excellence, carried it to be copied by the French Prior,^[5] as we shall relate in the proper place.^[6] Lazzaro Vasari also laboured in the church of the Servites at Perugia, where he executed certain stories from the life of the Virgin, and also a Crucifix, in a chapel near the sacristy. In the deanery of Montepulciano, he painted the predella of an altar in small figures; and at Castiglione, near Arezzo, is a picture in distemper by his hand; this is in the church of San Francesco.^[7] Many other works he also executed which I will not take space to enumerate, more particularly coffers, or caskets, which he decorated with small figures: many of these are now to be seen in the dwellings of different citizens. In the Guelphic Council of Florence,^[8] among the old arms collected there, are to be found various caparisons for horses extremely well painted by Lazzaro Vasari.^[9] For the brotherhood of San Sebastian, he painted their patron-saint on a gonfalon, or banner. St. Sebastian is represented bound to the column, and surrounded by angels, who place on his head the crown of martyrdom; but this work is much injured and corroded by time.

At the period when Lazzaro Vasari flourished, many glass windows were painted an Arezzo by Fabiano Sassoli,^[10] a youth of great excellence in that branch of art, as we find proved in certain works of his which are in the Episcopal Church, the Abbey, the Deanery, and other buildings of that city; but Fabiano not being well acquainted with design, his works were far from attaining to the perfection of those performed by Parri Spinelli. He resolved, therefore, seeing that he so well knew how to prepare, to burn, to conjoin, and to mount the glass, to produce some work which should also be meritorious in respect of the painting, and therefore applied to Lazzaro for two cartoons of his invention, wherewith he proposed to make two windows for the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.^[11] Having obtained what he wished from Lazzaro, who was his friend and a very obliging person, Fabiano completed the windows, which are so beautiful and well done that there are few masters who Vfould have the right to be ashamed of owning them. In one of these is a figure of Our Lady very finely executed; and in the other, which is even better by very much than the first, is the Resurrection of Christ. Before the tomb there lies the figure of an armed man foreshortened; the window, and consequently the picture, is very small, insomuch that it is a wonder how he has contrived to make the figures look so large as they do in that narrow space. I could say many other things of Lazzaro Vasari, who was an exceedingly good designer, as may be seen by the drawings in our book, but I remain silent respecting them, because I think it better So to do.

Lazzaro Vasari was a person of pleasing manners, and very facetious in conversation; but although much addicted to the pleasures of life, he was nevertheless careful to keep always within the path of right. He lived to the age of seventy-two, and left a son named Giorgio,^[12] who occupied himself continually with the old Aretine vases of terra-cotta, and at the time when Messer Gentile of Urbino, bishop of Arezzo, was dwelling in that city, this Giorgio discovered again the lost process of colouring vases in terra-cotta, red and black, which method had been practised by the ancient inhabitants of Arezzo from the time of King Porsenna. Being a person of much enterprize and industry, Giorgio made large vases by means of the potter’s wheel, some being a braccio and a half high, specimens of which may still be seen in his house.^[13] It is said that while seeking for vases in a place where he believed the ancient makers to have worked, Giorgio Vasari discovered three arches of an old oven, buried three braccia deep beneath the surface, in a field of clay near the bridge of Calciarella, a village so called.^[14] Around these arches he likewise found portions of the proper mixtures peculiar to that manufacture, with many broken vases, and four still remaining entire. These last were presented by Giorgio, through the intervention of the bishop Gentile, of Urbino,^[15] to the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici, when the latter visited Arezzo: a circumstance which gave rise to, and was the commencement of that attachment to the service of the illustrious house of Medici, in which he ever afterwards passed his life. Giorgio worked extremely well in basso-rilievo, as may be seen from certain heads by his hand still remaining in his house.^[16] He had five sons, who all pursued the same occupation; among them were two, Lazzaro and Bernardo, who were good artists; the latter died at Rome while still young, and it is certain, from the talent early displayed by him, that he would have done honour to his native land had not death so prematurely overtaken him.

Lazzaro, the elder, died in 1452; as did Giorgio his son, who attained to the age of sixty-eight years, in 1484. They were both interred in the capitular-church of Arezzo, at the lower end of their own chapel of San Giorgio, where, in process of time, the following verses were appended in honour of Lazzaro

“Aretii exultet tellus clarissima: namque est
 Rebus in angustis, in tenuique labor.
Vix operum istius partes cognoscere possis:
 Myrmecides taceat: Callicrates sileat."

Finally, the last Giorgio Vasari,^[17] the narrator of these events, grateful for the benefits which he acknowledges himself to have derived in great part from the excellences of his ancestors, having received the principal chapel of the capitular-church as a gift from the canons, the founders of the building, and his fellow citizens generally, as has been related in the life of Pietro Laurati;^[18] and having restored the same in the manner already described, has caused a new sepulchre to be constructed in the centre of the choir, which is behind the altar, wherein he has deposited the remains of the above-named Lazzaro, and of Giorgio the elder, having removed them from the place where they previously lay, together with those of all the members of his family, male and female, and thus established a new burial place^[19] for all the descendants of the house of Vasari. The body of the present writer’s mother, who died at Florence in the year 1557, after having been deposited for some years in the church of Santa Croce, has in like manner been placed within this tomb, according to her own desire, with the remains of Antonio her husband, and the father of Giorgio, who died of the plague in the year 1527. In the predella, which is beneath the picture of the altar above -named, are portraits of Lazzaro, and the elder Giorgio his son, and grandfather of the author, taken from life by the present writer, with those of Antonio, father of the latter, and of Madonna Maddalena de’ Tacci his mother.^[20] And here shall end the life of the Aretine painter, Lazzaro Vasari.

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1. These works are not now to be found in the church of San Domenico. —Masselli.
2. Niccolo Fortehraccio, called Piccinino, a celebrated military leader of the fifteenth century—Ibid.
3. This painting also has been destroyed.
4. The Florentine commentators remark on this passage, that Guido Reni desired to paint the Angel of the Cappuccini in Rome, on cloth, considering it to be most durable, and would have executed others of his works on the same material. See Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, Part vi. p. 56.
5. Guglielmo de Marcillat (William of Marseilles). The Gonfalon, painted by Lazzaro Vasari, is lost; the copy here alluded to was executed in two pictures which are now in a chapel belonging to the chapter-house of the cathedral, and situate in that part called the Duomo Vecchio.
6. In the life of Guglielmo de Marcillat, or da Marsiglia, which follows.
7. “From the best information that we can obtain,” observe the latest Florentine commentators (1849), “it is to be feared that this work is lost.”
8. La Parte Guelfa. This was a magistracy invested with unlimited powers of control over the political opinions of the Florentines, and all within the Florentine dominion. A sort of political inquisition, whose business it was to see that the liege people of the pope-devoted city remained good Guelphs. — German Edition of Vasari, vol. ii. p. 359.
9. These things are now lost.
10. In Bottari’s time many of Sassoli’s works remained, as he assures us in Arezzo.
11. These windows were removed under the frivolous pretext of giving light to the church, and others of clear glass now stand in their place. — Masselli.
12. Grandfather of the author.
13. These are now lost, or perhaps destroyed.
14. Situate without the gate of San Lorentino.
15. Gentile da Urbino, Bishop of Arezzo, had previously been preceptor to Lorenzo the Magnificent.
16. These heads are also lost.
17. Giorgio, the biographer, was not the last Vasari of that name. The son of his brother, Ser Piero, was also called Giorgi. He was a knight of the order of St. Stephen, and in 1590 he wrote the Priorista Fiorentino.
18. See ante, vol. i.
19. This still exists, but our author is not buried in it, having been interred in a distinguished position before the high altar.
20. These portraits still remain, and are in excellent preservation.