Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Lorenzetto and Boccaccino

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT, LORENZETTO;
AND THE PAINTER, BOCCACCINO, OF CREMONA.

[born 1494—died 1541.] [born 1466—died 1518.]

It sometimes happens, that when fortune has for a certain time pressed down the talent' of some fine genius by poverty, she appears suddenly to reconsider the matter; at a moment' when her favours are least expected, conferring benefits of various kinds on him towards whom she had before been adverse, and that in such sort as to make up in one year for the sufferings of many. An example of what we have here intimated was seen in the case of Lorenzo, the son of Ludovico, a Florentine bell-founder, who distinguished himself greatly in architecture and sculpture, and was so much beloved by Rafiaello da Urbino, that not only did the latter assist and employ him on many occasions, but also gave him the sister of his disciple, Giulio Romano, to wife. Lorenzetto (for so was he always called^[1]) completed in his youth the sepulchral monument of Cardinal Forteguerri, which had been commenced by Andrea del Verrocchio, and was erected in the Church of San Jacopo at Pistoja;^[2] in this work there is a figure of Charity among other parts, which is by the hand of Lorenzetto himself, and which cannot be considered unworthy of praise. No long time after this period, he likewise executed a statue for Giovanni Bartolini, which the latter required for his garden; having finished this figure, he repaired to Rome, where he executed many things in the first years of his abode there, of which we need make no further mention.

At a later period Lorenzetto received a commission from Agostino Chigi, by the intervention of Rafiaello, for the construction of his tomb in Santa Maria del Popolo, where Agostino had built a chapel. To this work our artist devoted himself, with all the forethought, assiduity, and diligence that he could possibly command, in the hope of acquitting himself with credit, more particularly in the eyes of Raphael, from whom he had reason to hope much assistance and many favours: he expected also to be largely remunerated by Agostino. Nor did these labours fail to secure many of the hoped-for results; assisted by the judgment of Rafiaello, Lorenzetto conducted his work to the utmost perfection: the monument consisted principally of the nude figure of Jonas^[3] proceeding from the mouth of the whale, as a type of the resurrection, and of another figure, representing Elias;^[4] who, by the grace of God, is supported beneath the juniper tree, by means of bread baked in the ashes, and the cruse of water. These figures, I say then, were completed by Lorenzo with all the resources of his art, and all the care that could possibly bo bestowed on them; they exhibit accordingly a very high degree of beauty; but he did not obtain for them the reward which the necessities of his family required, and which the vast amount of labour that he had bestowed on his work well merited. This happened from the fact that death having closed the eyes of Agostino and of Raphael likewise, almost at the same time, the carelessness of Agostino’s heirs permitted these statues to remain in the workshops of the artist, where they continued to stand during many years. It is true that they are now being fixed in their place on the tomb of Agostino in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo; but Lorenzo, deprived of all hope by the negligence of the heirs and the death of his protector Raphael, as we have said above, perceived, for that time at least, that his labours and the days expended on those statues had been thrown away.

The dispositions made by the will of Raphael having then to be put into execution, Lorenzo was appointed to prepare a figure in bronze of Our Lady, four braccia high,^[5] to be placed on the sepulchre of Rafiaello in the Church of Santa Maria Ritonda, and where the tabernacle was restored, as had been commanded by the departed master. At the Church of the Trinita in. Rome, Lorenzo also constructed a tomb for a merchant of the Perini family, adorning the same with two Children in mezzo-rilievo. In architecture he gave the designs of several houses, but more particularly that for the palace of Messer Bernardino Caffarelli. In the Valle also, he executed one of the interior façades, preparing the design moreover for the stables and upper garden, built by Andrea, Cardinal della Valle. In this work the divisions are formed by columns, with bases and capitals after the antique; and around the whole, by wayj of basement, Lorenzo arranged antique piers covered with sculptures: above these, but beneath certain large niches, to be further noticed hereafter, the artist constructed another frieze, consisting of fragments from the antique, and within the niches he placed marble statues, also spoils from the antique. Now these last were by no means entire, some being without heads, others without arms, and some had no legs; every one, in short, was mutilated in some respect, but Lorenzo arranged the whole work extremely well nevertheless, having caused all that was wanting to be supplied by good sculptors. This work gave occasion to the same thing being done by many nobles, who also caused fragments of antiquity to be restored; the Cardinals Cesis, Ferrara, and Farnese, for example, or, to say the whole in one word, all Rome. And of a truth, these antiquities thus restored, have certainly a much more graceful effect than have those mutilated trunks, those members without a head, or other figures, defective and maimed in their different parts.

But to return to the garden above-named. Over the before mentioned niches was placed as we now see it, the frieze of antique sculptures in mezzo-rilievo, of most rare and exquisite beauty, and this mode of proceeding, which was an invention of Lorenzo^s, became a source of great advantage to that artist; for when the troubles of Clement VII. had somewhat passed by, he was much employed by that pontiff, to his great honour as well as profit. And that happened on this wise: when the Castello Sant’ Angelo had been attacked. Pope Clement had remarked that two small marble chapels near the entrance to the bridge had caused him great loss, seeing that certain musketeers who had taken possession of them, had found means, thus sheltered^ to shoot down all who permitted themselves to be seen on the walls of Sant’ Angelo; they thus destroyed the defences of the Castello, while they remained themselves secure from all injury. His Holiness therefore determined to> remove those chapels, and to place two figures, with their pedestals, on the site which thej had occupied. He caused the San Paolo, of which we have before spoken as a work of Paolo Romano,^[6] to be.erected on one side accordingly, and commanded that another, representing San Pietro, should be prepared by Lorenzetto; this artist acquitted himself tolerably well in that work, but did not surpass Paolo Romano: the two statues were in due time erected in the positions assigned to them at the entrance to the bridge of Sant’ Angelo, where they may still be seen.^[7]

When Pope Clement VII, died, his sepulchral monument, and that for Pope Leo X., were confided to Baccio Bandinelli; Lorenzo also receiving the charge of certain portions of the same work, to be executed in marble, and over these he employed a considerable amount of time. Finally, Paul III. w^as elected Pope, and this happened at a moment when Lorenzo was in very evil plight, burdened with five children, and exhausted by difierent expenses; he had indeed come to a very low ebb, and possessed nothing but a house w'hich he had built for himself at the Macello de’ Corbi. But fortune now changed, resolving effectually to raise him up and enrich him; Pope Paul, therefore, having determined that the fabric of San Pietro should be continued, and neither Baldassare of Siena,^[8] nor any of the other architects who had contributed to that work, being in life at that time, Antonio da San Gallo caused Lorenzo to be appointed architect; the erection of the walls being then in progress at a fixed price of so much the yard. By this appointment the merits of Lorenzo became more widely known, and in a few years, his affairs, without any pains on his own part, took a more prosperous turn than he had found them to do in many previous years, with all the labours and toils to which he had subjected himself; for at that precise point of time, God, men, and fortune were alike propitious to his endeavours; nay, had he lived some time longer, he would have found himself still more completely raised above those trials which a cruel fate, while he was labouring worthily, had unjustly imposed on him. But having attained the age of forty-seven years, he died of fever, in the year 1541. The death of Lorenzetto caused much grief to his friends, who had ever found him kindly to others and diffident of himself. He had, moreover, always lived the life of an upright and good man; wherefore, at his death, the Deputati of San Pietro gave him honourable sepulture in one of their vaults, and inscribed on his place of rest the following words:—

sculptori laurentio florentino.
Roma mihi tribuit tumulum, Florentia vitam;
Nemo alio vellet nasci et obire loco.

mdxli.

Vix Ann. xlvii. Men. ii. d.xv.

Boccaccino of Cremona lived at about the same time with Lorenzo, and had acquired the reputation of being an excellent painter, not in his native city only, but through all Lombardy, where his pictures were highly extolled. Proceeding to Rome, for the purpose of beholding the works so much renowned of Michelagnolo, Boccaccino had no sooner cast eyes on them, than he began to do his utmost to depreciate their value, considering that he exalted himself in •proportion to the censure which he thus bestowed on a man who was most excellent, not only in design, but in almost every other department of art. But when Boccaccino himself, being commissioned to paint the chapel of Santa Maria Traspontina, had completed his work, and presented it to view, he opened the eyes of all who, having expected to see him soar above the heavens, found that he was not able to attain even to the last floor of the houses. He had represented the Coronation of Our Lady, whom he had depicted with Children flying around her; but when the painters of Rome saw what he had accomplished in this work, their anticipated admiration was changed into derision.^[9]

From this we may perceive, that when the popular voice exalts a man who is more excellent in name than in deed, it is a difficult thing to reduce such a person to his true place by mere words, however just and reasonable; nor until his vorks themselves are found to prove him wholly different from what has been supposed, is it possible to make the world understand what the artist, so highly but unjustly celebrated, really is. It is certain that the greatest injury a man can receive, is to be too early and too highly extolled, for such talent as he may display, in whatever may be his vocation, since these injudicious praises, inflating those who are the subject of them, serve as an impediment to their subsequent progress. And furthermore, it may be observed, that men thus extolled, when their works are found to fall short of the excellence expected from them, are apt to become discouraged by the first breath of censure, and, falling into another extreme, are sometimes led to despair of ever accomplishing anything of value. He, then, who is wise, will dread praise more than censure, for the first deceives while it gratifies; but the second, unveiling truth, serves to instruct him who can learn.

Boccaccino left Rome, where he felt himself wounded and mortified at all points, and returned to Cremona; there he continued to exercise the art of painting as he best might. In the Cathedral, for example, he depicted the entire life of the Madonna on the central arches; and this is a work which has been much commended in that city; other works, also, were performed by this artist, both in Cremona and the neighbourhood, but they do not require further mention.^[10]

Boccaccino taught the art of painting to his son, Camillo, who gave himself to the study of the same with a more zealous care, and took pains to avoid the faults into which the vain-glory of his father had been betrayed.^[11] By his hand are certain works at San Gismondo which is at the distance of about a mile from Cremona, and these are considered by the Cremonese to be the best paintings in their possession.^[12] On the façade of a house in the Piazza of his native city, this artist executed certain pictures, and painted the compartments of the ceiling in the church of Sant’ Agata; the front of the church of Sant’ Antonio, with some pictures in the church, and other paintings executed by his hand, made him known as a good and experienced master. If death had not taken this artist from the world before the time,^[13] he would, without doubt, have produced most honourable works, seeing that he had commenced in the right manner: and even those which he has been permitted to leave us render him well worthy of a memorial.

Returning to Boccaccino, it is to be remarked that he passed from this life in the fifty-eighth year of his age, without having effected any amelioration in the art. Contemporary with him, was a tolerably competent miniature painter, called Girolamo, of Milan, in which city, and in other places, many of his works may be seen. About the same time, lived Bernardino del Lupino, who was also a Milanese; this artist was an exceedingly delicate and very pleasing painter^[14]! as may be seen by many works from his hand, which are still in that city. At Sarone,^[15] also, a place about twelve miles from Milan, there is a Marriage of Our Lady by this master, which is admirably executed, as are certain historical pictures in the church of Santa Maria, which are most perfectly painted in fresco.

Bernardino worked extremely well in oil also; he was a most obliging person, friendly and liberal in all his actions. To him, therefore, is deservedly due all the praise which belongs of right to those artists who do themselves no less honour by the courtesy of their manners, and the excellence of their lives, than by the distinction to which they attain in art.^[16]

1. Little Lorenzo, or Lawrence, that is to say, Lorenzetto being the diminutive of Lorenzo; a remark not uncalled-for perhaps, in explanation of this passage, to the reader who may chance not to be familiar with the colloquialisms of the Italian.
2. This figure is still to be seen at the tomb of the Forteguerri family: Lorenzetto also commenced the statue of the Cardinal, but did not complete' that work, and the figure is still to be seen in its unfinished state, in one of the Halls of the Sapienza.— Tolomei, Guida di Pistoja.
3. It is believed that Raphael not only gave the design, but also prepared the model for this admirable statue, the excellence of which has indeed caused some to declare it a work of his own hand.
4. The figure of this prophet, though much inferior to the Jonas, yet betrays the influence of Raphael. A third work of Lorenzetto, representing a Dolphin bearing a dead child, was also executed after a model by Raphael. The marble group has disappeared, but a cast of it may be seen at Dresden. See Jahn, in the Kunstblatt, for 1837, No. 62. See also Passavant, Rafael von Urbino, vol. i. p. 240.
5. Called the Madonna del Sasso, because the foot is placed on a stone. This figure has not the height attributed to it by Vasari.
6. See Life of Paolo Pomano, vol. i.
7. These statues are still in their place.
8. The life of this artist follows.
9. This story is denied by the Cremonese. See Lanzi, vol. ii. p. 424, et seq.
10. Lanzi, on the contrary, speaks'thus of this master: “Boccaccio Boccaccino is to the Cremonese what Ghirlandajo, Mantegna, Perugino, and Francia are to their schools, 'the best modern painter among the ancients, and the best ancient among the moderns.’”
11. Lanzi calls this Camillo “the greatest genius of whom the Cremonese school can boast.”
12. For many interesting details respecting this artist, but which cannot here find place, the reader is referred to the Pittura Cremonese of Count Bartolommeo Vidoni, Milan, 1824.
13. According to Lanzi, he died at the age of thirty-four; but Count Vidoni would make him to have lived at least ten years longer.
14. Bernardo Luino; not as Bottari and Della Valle will have it, Lauino. —Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
15. Saronno.—Schorn.
16. These few words suffice to show that Vasari held Luini in high estimation, and if he has said no more of him, that has doubtless proceeded from the fact that he had no further information to impart.— Ed. Flor. 1838.