Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Pesello and Francesco Peselli

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE PAINTERS PESELLO AND FRANCESCO PESELLI.

[Flourished about 1390,—died after 1457.]
[born 1426—died 1457.]

It rarely happens that the disciples of distinguished artists, if they observe the precepts of those masters, do not themselves become very eminent; or if they do not surpass their instructors, they are at least, for the most part, found to resemble, and even equal them on all points. The earnest zeal of imitation, with assiduity in study, lends us power to approach the ability of him who has taught us the true mode of labouring in our calling; whence it is that disciples attain to such a point as afterwards to compete with their masters, and even to surpass them; since there is but little difficulty in adding to what has been already discovered by others.^[1] That this is true is made manifest by Francesco di Pesello,^[2] who so closely imitated the manner of Fra Filippo, that he would, without doubt, have surpassed that master by very much, had not death so prematurely taken him from us. It is also well known, that Pesello^[3] imitated the manner of Andrea dal Castagno, and as he found great pleasure in delineating animals, he constantly kept several of various sorts living in his house, depicting them with so much truth and animation, that there was no master at that time who, in this branch of art, was at all equal to him. This artist continued under the discipline of Andrea to the age of thirty years,^[4] learning, from his precepts, to become an excellent master; wherefore, having given a good proof of his ability,^[5] he was appointed by the Signoria of Florence to paint a picture in tempera, the subject of which was the Magi bringing offerings to Christ, and the work was placed in the centre of the staircase of their palace. Pesello acquired great reputation by this picture, principally because he has executed many portraits in it, among others that of Donato Acciaiuoli.^[6] In the chapel of the Cavalcanti family, in Santa Croce also, beneath the Annunciation of Donato, this master painted a Predella, whereon are depicted stories in small figures from the life of San Niccolò.^[7] In the Casa de’ Medici he decorated a balustrade with figures of animals, which are exceedingly beautiful, as also certain coffers, on which he depicted small stories of jousts and tournaments, wherein are several horses, admirably executed. In the same palace may be seen, even to the present day, a painting on canvas, by the hand of Pesello, representing Lions pressing against a grating, and which seem to be really alive, others are on the outside of the same, and there is one in combat with a Serpent. On a second canvas Pesello painted an Ox, a Fox, and other animals, all very natural and full of animation.^[8] In the church of San Piero Maggiore this master executed four stories, which are in the chapel of the Alessandri; the figures are small, and the subjects are taken from the lives of San Pietro, San Paolo, San Zanobi—the latter raising the Daughter of the Widow from the dead—and San Benedetto.^[9] In the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, also in the city of Florence, he painted a Madonna; with two other most beautiful figures, in the chapel of the Orlandini family. For the children of the Brotherhood of St. George, Pesello painted a Crucifix, a San Girolamo (St. Jerome), and a San Francesco; and in the church of St. George he executed a picture of the Annunciation. In the church of San Jacopo,^[10] at Pistoja, is a work by Pesello, representing the Trinity, with figures of San Zeno and San Jacopo; and in the houses of various citizens in dififerent parts of Florence, are numerous pictures, in square and circular forms, by the hand of the same master.

Pesello was a man of moderate habits and kindly disposition, always ready to serve his friends, and to aid them with cordial good will, in every way possible to him. He married early, and had a son named Francesco, but who was called Pesellino. The latter also devoted himself to paint ing, imitating the manner of Fra Filippo with infinite zeal. From what we see of this artist, it is manifest that he would have performed much greater things had his life been extended, seeing that he was most studious in his habits, and scarcely gave himself rest from his labours either day or night; of his ability we have a specimen in the Chapel of the Noviciate of Santa Croce, a most admirable Predella^[11] namely, beneath the picture of Fra Filippo: the figures are small, but might have been executed by the hand of Fra Filippo himself. He painted numerous pictures in small figures, which are in different parts of Florence, and had attained to considerable reputation in that city, when he died, in the thirty-first year of his age, to the great grief of his father Pesello, who did not long remain after him, but followed his son when in his seventy-seventh year.^[12]

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1. “This passage evidently requires to be taken with many grains of allowance,” remarks one of the Italian commentators, “since facile est inventis adders is more correctly applied to mechanical inventions than to the fine arts.” A second would fain remind Vasari, that^is master, Michael Angelo, had pronounced a different opinion, when he declared that “he who is content to follow others is but little likely to pa.ss before them.” And a German annotator would have our author remember, that “nothing great in art can be accomplished without genius.” These reproofs may suffice him. We do not, therefore, record our dissent from the opinions announced in this passage.
2. Here Vasari is speaking of Pesello the younger, whom Baldinucci confounds with his father.
3. The elder Pesello, that is, whose baptismal name was Giuliano.
4. That Pesello might imitate the manner of Andrea in his latter years is probable. But it is not possible that the former could have studied with the latter “to his 30th year,” Andrea dal Castagno having been born in the first year of the fifteenth century, while Pesello was already a painter in the year 1390.—Masselli.
5. In his first edition Vasari says that this “proof” was a picture for the chapel of Santa Lucia in the Via de’ Bardi.
6. Lanzi declares that picture to be in the Gallery of the Uffizj; but it is not to be found there at the present time. Rosini affirms himself to have discovered it in Bologna, and gives an engraving of the principal group. — See Storia della Pitture Italiana, vol. iii. p. 16
7. Bottara informs us that this predella or gradino was presented by a sacristan to Michael Angelo Buonarroti the younger, who gave a new one in its place. This beautiful gradino is now in the Buonarroti Gallery.
8. The fate of these works is unknown.
9. Now in the house of the Alessandri family, to which the work was removed when the church was destroyed on the 8th of July, 1784.
10. Tolomei, Guida di Pistoja, p. 19, assures us that this picture was not in the church of San Jacopo, but in that of the Trinity. It was sold to a foreigner on the suppression of the Congregation of Priests, to whom the church belonged; and Waagen enumeratestliis work among those seen by him in the collection of Mr, Young Ottley. See Kunstwerke und Künstler in England, vol. i. p. 397.
11. This Predella, justly praised by Vasari, comprised five stories, three of which, a Presepio, a Miracle of St. Anthony, a truly remarkable work, and the Decapitation of the Saints Cosimo and Damiano, are now in the Florentine Gallery of the Fine Arts. The other two, St. Francis receiving the Stigmata, and S.S. Cosimo and Damiano bringing succours to the sick, are in Paris, whither they were transported in 1813.
12. Baldinucci and Manni affirm that there are documents which show that Pesello’s death must have taken place on the 29th July, 1457, and that of his son Francesco Peselli, is alluded to by Filarete in his Trattato, written in 1460.