Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Sandro Botticelli

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE PAINTER, SANDRO BOTTICELLI.

[born 1457—died 1515.]

In the same time with the illustrious Lorenzo de’ Medici the elder, which was truly an age of gold for men of talent, there flourished a certain Alessandro, called after our custom Sandro, and further named Di Botticello, for a reason which we shall presently see. His father, Mariano Filipepi, a Florentine citizen, brought him up with care, and caused him to be instructed in all such things as are usually taught to children before they choose a calling. But although the boy readily acquired whatever he wished to learn, yet was he constantly discontented; neither would he take any pleasure in reading, writing, or accounts, insomuch that the father, disturbed by the eccentric habits of his son, turned him over in despair to a gossip of his, called Botticello, who was a goldsmith, and considered a very competent master of his art, to the intent that the boy might learn the same.

There was at that time a close connexion and almost constant intercourse between the goldsmiths and the painters, wherefore Sandro, who possessed considerable ingenuity, and was strongly disposed to the arts of design, became enamoured of painting, and resolved to devote himself entirely to that vocation. He acknowledged his purpose at once to his father, and the latter, who knew the force of his inclinations, took him accordingly to the Carmelite monk, Fra Filippo, who was a most excellent painter of that time, with whom he placed him to study the art, as Sandro himself had desired.

Devoting himself thereupon entirely to the vocation he had chosen, Sandro so closely followed the directions and imitated the manner of his master, that Fra Filippo conceived a great love for him, and instructed him so effectually, that Sandro rapidly attained to such a degree in art as none would have predicted for him. While still a youth he painted the figure of Fortitude, among those pictures of the Virtues which Antonio and Pietro Pollaiuolo were executing in the Mercatanzia, or Tribunal of Commerce in Florence.^[1] In Santo Spirito, a church of the same city, he painted a picture for the chapel of the Bardi family: this work he executed with great diligence, and finished it very successfully, depicting certain olive and palm-trees therein with extraordinary care.^[2] Sandro also painted a picture in the Convent of the Convertites, with another for the Nuns of San Barnaba.^[3] In the Church of Ognissanti he painted a Sant’ Agostino, in fresco, for the Vespucci: this is in the middle aisle, near the door which leads into the choir; and here Sandro did his utmost to surpass all the masters who were painting at the time, but more particularly Domenico del Ghirlandajo, who had painted a figure of St. Jerome on the opposite side. Sparing no pains, he thus produced a work of extraordinary merit. In the countenance of the Saint he has clearly manifested that power of thought and acuteness of perception which is, for the most part, perceptible in those reflective and studious men who are constantly occupied with the investigation of exalted subjects and the pursuit of abstruse inquiries. This picture, as we have said in the life of Domenico Ghirlandajo, has this year (1561) been removed entire and without injury from the place where it was executed.^[4] Having, in consequence of this work, obtained much credit and reputation, Sandro was appointed by the Guild of Porta Santa Maria to paint a picture in San Marco, the subject of which is the Coronation of Our Lady, who is surrounded by a choir of angels, the whole extremely well designed, and finished by the artist with infinite care.^[5] He executed various works in the Medici Palace for the elder Lorenzo, more particularly a figure of Pallas^[6] on a shield wreathed with vine branches, whence flames are proceeding: this he painted of the size of life. A San Sebastiano was also among the most remarkable of the works executed for Lorenzo.^[7] In the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Florence, is a Pieta with small figures by this master: this is placed beside the chapel of the Panciatichi, and is a very beautiful work.^[8] For different houses in various parts of the city Sandro painted many pictures of a round form, with numerous figures of women undraped. Of these there are still two examples at Gastello, a villa of the Duke Cosimo, one representing the birth of Venus, who is borne to earth by the Loves and Zephyrs: the second also presenting the figure of Venus crowned with flowers by the Graces; she is here intended to denote the Spring, and the allegory is expressed by the painter with extraordinary grace.^[9]

In the Via de Servi and in the Palace of Giovanni Vespucci, which now belongs to Piero Salviati, this master painted numerous pictures around one of the chambers: they are enclosed within a richly decorated frame-work of walnut wood, and contain many beautiful and animated figures.^[10] In Casa Pucci, likewise, Sandro painted Boccaccio’s Novella, of Nastagio degli Onesti, in four compartments: the figures are small, but the work is very graceful and beautiful.^[11] He also depicted an Adoration of the Magi^[12] in the same place. For the Monks of Cestello this master painted a picture of the Annunciation^[13] in one of their chapels, and in the church of San Pietro he executed one for Matteo Palmieri, with a very large number of figures. The subject of this work, which is near the side-door, is the Assumption of Our Lady, and the zones or circles of heaven are there painted in their order. The Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Evangelists, the Martyrs, the Confessors, the Doctors, the Virgins, and the Hierarchies: all which was executed by Sandro according to the design furnished to him by Matteo, who was a very learned and able man. The whole work was conducted and finished with the most admirable skill and care: at the foot of it was the portrait of Matteo kneeling, with that of his wife. But although this picture is exceedingly beautiful and ought to have put envy to shame, yet there were found certain malevolent and censorious persons who, not being able to afiix any other blame to the work, declared that Matteo and Sandro had erred gravely in that matter, and had fallen into grievous heresy.^[14]

Now, whether this be true or not, let none expect the judgment of that question from me: it shall suffice me to note that the figures executed by Sandro in that work are entirely worthy of praise, and that the pains he took in depicting those circles of the heavens must have been very great, to say nothing of the angels mingled with the others figures, or of the various foreshortenings, all which are designed in a very good manner.^[15] About this time Sandro received a commission to paint a small picture with figures three parts of a braccio high, the subject an Adoration of the Magi; the work was placed between the two doors of the principal fagade of Santa Maria Novella, and is on the left as you enter by the central door. In the face of the oldest of the kings, the one who first approaches, there is the most lively expression of tenderness as he kisses the foot of the Saviour, and a look of satisfaction also at having attained the purpose for which he had undertaken his long journey. This figure is the portrait of Cosimo de’ Medici, the most faithful and animated likeness of all now known to exist of him. The second of the kings is the portrait of Giuliano de’ Medici, father of Pope Clement YIL; and he offers adoration to the divine Child, presenting his gift at the same time, with an expression of the most devout sincerity. The third, who is likewise kneeling, seems to be offering thanksgiving as well as adoration, and to confess that Christ is indeed the true Messiah: this is the likeness of Giovanni, the son of Cosimo. The beauty which Sandro has imparted to these heads cannot be adequately described, and all the figures in the work are represented in different attitudes: of some one sees the full face, of others the profile, some are turning the head almost entirely from the spectator, others are bent down; and to all, the artist has given an appropriate and varied expression, whether old or young, exhibiting numerous peculiarities also, which prove the mastery that he possessed over his art. He has even distinguished the followers of each king in such a manner that it is easy to see which belongs to one court and which to another; it is indeed a most admirable work: the composition, the design, and the colouring are so beautiful that every artist who examines it is astonished,^[16] and at the time, it obtained so great a name in Florence and other places for the master, that Pope Sixtus IV., having erected the chapel built by him in his palace at Rome, and desiring to have it adorned with paintings, commanded that Sandro Botticelli should be appointed Superintendent of the work. He accordingly executed various pictures there: among them the Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness, Moses slaying the Egyptian, Moses receiving drink from the Daughters of Jethro the Midianite, and the Descent of Fire from Heaven when the Sons of Aaron offer Sacrifice; with several figures of holy Popes, in the niches above the paintings.^[17] By these works Botticelli obtained great honour and reputation among the many competitors who were labouring with him, whether Florentines or natives of other cities, and received from the Pope a considerable sum of money; but this he consumed and squandered totally, during his residence in Rome, where he lived without due care, as was his habit. Having completed the work assigned to him, he returned at once to Florence, where, being whimsical and eccentric, he occupied himself with commenting on a certain part of Dante, illustrating the Inferno, and executing prints, over which he wasted much time, and, neglecting his proper occupation, he did no work, and thereby caused infinite disorder in his affairs.^[18] He likewise engraved many of the designs he had executed, but in a very inferior manner, the work being badly cut. The best attempt of this kind from his hand is the Triumph of Faith, by Fra Girolamo Savonarola, of Ferrara, of whose sect our artist was so zealous a partizan that he totally abandoned painting, and not having any other means of living, he fell into very great difficulties. But his attachment to the party he had adopted increased; he became what was then ealled a Piagnone^[19] and abandoned all labour, insomuch that, finding himself at length become old, being also very poor, he must have died of hunger had he not been supported by Lorenzo de’ Medici, for whom he had worked at the small hospital of Volterra and other places, who assisted him while he lived, as did other friends and admirers of his talents.

In San Francesco, outside the gate of San Miniato, Botticelli painted a Madonna, the size of life, surrounded by angels, which was considered a very beautiful picture,^[20] Now Sandro was fond of jesting, and often amused himself at the expense of his disciples and friends. In allusion to this habit, it is related that one of his scholars, named Biagio,^[21] had copied the above-mentioned picture very exactly, for the purpose of selling it: this Sandro did for him, having bargained with a citizen for six gold florins. When Biagio appeared, therefore, his master said to him, “Well, Biagio, I Ve sold thy picture for thee at last, but the buyer wishes to see it in a good light, so it must be hung up this evening at a favourable height, and do thou go to the man’s house to-morrow morning and bring him here, that he may see it in its place; he will then pay thee the money,” “Oh, master,” quoth Biagio, “how well you have doneand having suspended the picture at the due height, he went his way. Thereupon Sandro and Jacopo, who w^as another of his disciples, prepared eight caps of pasteboard, such as those worn by the Florentine citizens, and these they fixed with white wax on the heads of the eight angels, who, in the painting in question, were depicted around the Madonna. The morning being come. Biagio appears with the citizen who had bought the painting, and who was aware of the jest. Raising his eyes on entering the workshop, Blaise beholds his Madonna, not surrounded by angels, but in the midst of the Signoria of Florence, and seated among those caps. He was about to break forth into outcries and excuse himself to the citizen, but as the latter made no observation on the circumstance, and began to praise the picture, he remained silent himself. Ultimately, the citizen took him home to his house and paid him the six florins, which the master had bargained for, wherewith Biagio returned to the bottega (workshop), where he arrived just as Sandro and Jacopo had taken off the pasteboard head-dresses, and saw his angels as veritable angels again, and no longer citizens in their caps. Altogether astonished at what he beheld, the disciple turned to his master and said, “Master mine, I know not whether I am dreaming, or whether the thing be really so, but when I came in just now, these angels had red caps on their heads, and now they have none! What may this mean?” Thou art out of thy wits, Blaise,” quoth Sandro, “this money hath made thy brain turn round; if the thing were as thou hast said, dost thou think this citizen would have bought thy picture?” “That is true,” replied Biagio, “and he certainly said nothing about it, but for all that it seems a very strange matter.” At last, all the other scholars getting round him, said so much that they made him believe the whole an imagination of his own.

A weaver of cloth once came to live close to Sandro, and this man erected full eight looms, which, when all were at work, not only caused an intolerable din with the trampling of the weavers and the clang of the shuttles, insomuch that poor Sandro was deafened with it, but likewise produced such a trembling and shaking throughout the house, which was none too solidly built, that the painter, what with one and the other, could no more continue his work, nor even remain in the house. He had frequently requested his neighbour to put an end to this disturbance, but the latter had replied, that he both could and would do what he pleased in his own house. Being angered by this, Sandro had an enormous mass of stone of great weight, and more than would fill a waggon, placed in exact equilibrium on the wall of his own dwelling, which was higher than that of his neighbour, and not a very strong one: this stone threatened to fall at the slightest shake given to the wall, when it must have crushed the roof, floors, frames, and workmen, of the weaver to atoms. The man, terrified at the danger, hastened to Sandro, from whom he received back his own reply in his own words, namely, that he both could and would do what he pleased in his own house; whereupon, not being able to obtain any other answer, he was compelled to come to reasonable terms, and to make the painter a less troublesome neighbour.

We find it further related, that Sandro Botticelli once went to the vicar of his parish, and, in jest, accused a friend of his own of heresy. The person inculpated having appeared, demanded to know by whom he was accused and of what. Being told that Sandro had declared him to hold the opinion of the Epicureans, to wit, that the soul dies with the body, he required that his accuser should be confronted with him before the judge. Sandro was summoned accordingly, when the accused man exclaimed, “It is true that I hold the opinion stated respecting the soul of this man, who is a blockhead; nay, does he not appear to you to be a heretic also; for, without a grain of learning, scarcely knowing how to read, has he not undertaken to make a commentary on Dante, and does he not take his name in vain?”

This master is said to have had an extraordinary love for those whom he knew to be zealous students in art, and is affirmed to have gained considerable sums of money; but being a bad manager and very careless, all came to nothing. Finally, having become old, unfit for work, and helpless, he was obliged to go on crutches, being unable to stand upright, and so died, after long illness and decrepitude, in his seventyeighth year. He was buried at Florence, in the church of Ognissanti, in the year 1515.

In the Guardaroba of the Signor Duke Cosimo are two very beautiful female heads in profile by this master, one is said to be the portrait of an inamorata^[22] of Giuliano de’ Medici, brother of Lorenzo; the other that of Madonna Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Lorenzo’s wife.^[23] In the same place, and also by the hand of Sandro, is a Bacchus, raising a wine-flask to his lips with both hands, a truly animated figure.^[24] In the cathedral of Pisa was an Assumption of the Virgin, with a Choir of Angels, commenced by Botticelli for the chapel of the Impagliata, but the work not pleasing him, he left it unfinished. He also painted the picture of the high altar in the church of San Francesco, at Montevarchi;^[25] and in the capitular church of Empoli he depicted two Angels, on the same side with the St. Sebastian of Rossellino. It was by Sandro Botticelli that the method of preparing banners and standards, in what is called inlaid work, was invented; and this he did that the colours might not sink through, showing the tint of the cloth on each side. The Baldachino of Orsanmichele is by this master, and is so treated, different figures of Our Lady are represented on it, all of which are varied and beautiful;^[26] and this work serves to show how much more eifectually that mode of proceeding preserves the cloth than do those mordants, which, corroding the surface, allow but a short life to the work; but as the mordants cost less, they are nevertheless more frequently used in our day than the first-named method.

Sandro Botticelli drew remarkably well, insomuch that, for a long time after his death, artists took the utmost pains to procure examples of his drawings, and we have some in our book which are executed with extraordinary skill and judgment; his stories were..exceedingly rich in figures, as may be seen in the embroidered ornaments of the Cross borne in procession by the monks of Santa Maria Novella, and which were executed entirely after his designs. This master was, in short, deserving of the highest praise for all such works as he chose to execute with care and good will, as he did the Adoration of the Magi, in Santa Maria Novella, which is exceedingly beautiful. A small round picture by his hand, which may be seen in the apartments of the prior, in the monastery of the Angeli at Florence, is also very finely done; the figures are small, but singularly graceful, and finished with the most judicious care and delicacy.^[27] Similar in size to that of the Magi just mentioned^[28] is a picture, ROW in the possession of the Florentine noble, Messer Fabio Segni. The subject of this work is the Calumny of Apelles, and nothing more perfectly depicted could be imagined. Beneath this picture, which was presented by Sandro himself to Antonio Segni, his most intimate friend, are now to be read the following verses, written by the above-named Messer Fabio:^[29]—

Indicio quemquam ne falsa laetere tentent
Terrarum reges, parva tabella monet
Huic similem Aegypti regi donavit Apelles:
Rex fuit et dignus munere, manus eo.

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1. Now in the Gallery of the Uffizj, with the other six virtues mentioned in the preceding life of Antonio Pollaiuolo. —Ed. Flor., 1832.
2. Authorities are divided as to the present place of this work; some affirming it to have been sold to the King of Bavaria, and to be now at Munich. Others, and with a better show of reason, maintain that it will bo found in the Gallery of Berlin.
3. The picture painted for San Barnaba is now in the Florentine Academy. Of that preceding it the fate is unknown.
4. Still to be seen on the wall of the church, to the right on entering the building, but not in so good a state of preservation as the St. Jerome of Ghirlandajo.
5. Now in the Academy of the Fine Arts in Florence, and considered one of the best works of this master.
6. Of this Pallas nothing is now known. — Ed. Flor., 1832.
7. The fate of the San Sebastian is also unknown.— Ibid.
8. In the time when Richa wrote (1755), this Pietà was in the Sacristy of the church. The Italian authorities now declare its present place unknown. The latest Florentine commentators (1849) inquire, if that now in the Pinacoteca of Munich may not be the work in question. It has been engraved in Galleria incisa e illustrata, &c., now in course of publication at Florence.
9. The birth of Venus is in the Uffizj. The Venus crowned by the Graces is also in the Uffizj, but the latter is in the private corridor which leads to the Pitti Palace. Both these figures are the size of life. In the Royal Gallery of Berlin, is a third of these nude figures of Venus, by Botticelli, of smaller size, and with long golden hair, painted on canvas, the ground very dark. — Ed. Flor., 1849.
10. The place wherein the pictures of the Vespucci Palace may now be found is not known.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
11. These four pictures are still preserved in Casa Pucci, Ed. Flor., 1846-9.
12. Of this work no authentic information can be obtained.
13. This church is now called Santa Maddalena de’Pazzi, and some writers affirm that the Annunciation here alluded to is still there; but later authorities declare the picture thus attributed to Botticelli to be executed by a much inferior hand; the frame-work only being that of his work. The painting itself they declare to have disappeared.
14. Richa, Chiese Florentine, gives a circumstantial account of the event here alluded to, the consequence of which was, that the altar was interdicted, and the picture covered from view. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
15. This picture, valuable on many accounts, and the more so for the fact that a part of the environs of Florence, as they then were, was depicted in it, has now, to our deep regret, passed into the possession of strangers. — Ed. Flor., 1849.
16. This painting, which is lamented as lost by many Italian vniters, was in the possession of the late Mr. Young Ottley, in the year 1816. See his Enquiry into the Origin and Early History of Engraving. In the latest Florentine edition of Vasari, 1846-9, there is a note to the effect that it has been discovered in perfect preservation in the Uffizj, where it has hitherto passed for a work of Domenico Ghirlandajo. We give this assertion for what it may be worth, referring the reader to the reasons wherewith Pini, who claims to be the discoverer, shall support his assertion in a promised work on the subject.
17. These stories, in one of which (the Temptation of Christ) Botticelli is considered to have crowded his figures injudiciously, are still to be seen in tlie Sistine Chapel.
18. See Ottley, History of Engraving, vol. i. See also, Bartsch, Peintre Graveur; Bibliografia Dantesca.—Prato. 1845.
19. Mourner, or Grumbler. The followers of Savonarola were so called.
20. This work is not now in San Francesco. A picture, answering to this description, was taken to Paris in 1812, and is still there; together with a Holy Family, likewise by Botticelli. There is also a similar work in the Florentine Gallery. — Masselli.
21. Blaise, or Basil.
22. This portrait is in the Pitti Palace; it has been engraved in the R, Galleria de’ Pittij with an illustration by Masselli.— Ed. Flor., 1849.
23. Lucrezia Tornabuoni was the mother of Lorenzo; his wife was Clarice Orsini.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
24. Of the Bacchus we have no authentic notice.— Ibid.
25. This picture is no longer in the church.
26. This baldachino, or canopy, is supposed to have been destroyed by time.
27. No account of this picture can now be obtained in Florence, but we (Florentine editors) have discovered a small round picture by this mtister in Lucca. — Ed. Flor., 1849.
28. It is, on the contrary, considerably smaller.—Ed. Flor., 1849.
29. Now in the Uffizj, but without the verses of Fabio. The subject is taken from Lucian (OpuscuU), who relates that Apelles being accused of seditious intentions by Antipholus, avenged himself on his rival by his picture of Calumny, a description of which, as given by Lucian, will be found in Bryan, Dictionary of Painters, &cc. — Introduction, page 11.