Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Stefano and Ugolino

by Giorgio Vasari

 

STEFANO, PAINTER OF FLORENCE, AND UGOLINO, PAINTER OF SIENA.

[1301?—1350? 1260?—1339.]

The Florentine painter and disciple of Giotto,^[1] Stefano, was an artist of such excellence, that he not only surpassed all those who had preceded him in the art, but left even his master, Giotto himself, far behind. Thus he was considered, and with justice, to be the best of all the painters who had appeared down to that time, and his works clearly show that he was so. In the Campo Santo of Pisa,^[2] Stefano painted a figure of the Virgin in fresco, which is superior, both in design and colouring, to the work of Giotto; and in the cloister of Santo Spirito, in Florence, he painted three of the arches, also in fresco. The first of these arches exhibits the transfiguration of Christ, with Moses and Elias; and the painter, figuring to himself the splendour by which the three disciples must have been dazzled, has represented them in extraordinary and very beautiful attitudes. The mode in which the figures are enveloped in their draperies proves, also, that Stefano sought to display the form beneath the folds, a thing that had not previously been attempted, nor taken into consideration, even by Giotto himself. Beneath the arch wherein he has represented Christ healing the man possessed by a demon, Stefano drew a building in perspective: this was in a manner then but little known, and was perfectly well done, showing great judgment, with much knowledge of art, power of invention, and correctness in' the proportions of the columns in the doors, windows, and cornices, and a manner of treatment so unlike that of the other artists of the time, that Stefano appears to have already acquired a certain perception of the good and perfect manner of the moderns. Among other ingenious things, Stefano invented a flight of stairs, of very difficult execution. These, whether painted or erected, were so excellent in design, displayed so much invention, and were so commodious, that they served as the model to the magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici the elder, when he constructed the external staircase of the palace of Poggio a Cajano, now the principal villa of the most illustrious our lord the duke.^[3] In the third arch, is the story of Christ saving St. Peter from shipwreck, so perfectly done, that the spectator fancies he hears the voice of Peter crying, “Domine salva nos, perimus.” This painting is considered much superior to the others; for, besides the graceful flow of the draperies, there is great sweetness in the air of the heads, with manifest terror of the sea: the attitudes of the apostles also, agitated by various emotions and by the marine ohenomerfa around them, are entirely appropriate and extremely fine. The work is partly destroyed by time, yet we clearly perceive the energy with which the apostles are defending themselves from the fury of the winds and waves. The painting has been greatly commended by the moderns, and at the time when it was completed, must certainly have seemed something wonderful to all Tuscany.^[4] At a later period, Stefano painted a St. Thomas Aquinas in the first cloister of Santa Maria Novella, and near one of the doors; where he also executed a Crucifixion, which has been greatly injured by other painters, who have attempted to restore it.^[5]. He left a chapel, in the same church, commenced, but not completed. The angels cast from heaven, with Lucifer, are seen falling in various attitudes. The work has suffered greatly from time; but it is still obvious that the foreshortening of the arms, legs, and trunks, is much better than was usual at that time: so that we perceive Stefano to have made some acquaintance with, and even pointed out to his contemporaries, those difficulties which must have beset the painters in their first attempts at foreshortening, but which, by careful study, they afterwards so completely overcame. Hence it is that he was called by his brother artists, “ the ape of nature”.^[6]

Being afterwards invited to Milan, Stefano commenced various undertakings for Maestro Visconti; but he could not remain to finish them, the change of air having caused him to fall sick, so that he was compelled to return to Florence. Here, having recovered his health, he executed a painting in fresco, in the transept of the church of Santa Croce, and in the chapel of the Assisi. The subject is the martyrdom of St. Mark, and the work has many figures of considerable merit.^[7] Stefano was, at a later period, invited to Rome as a disciple of Giotto; and there he painted certain frescoes, in the principal chapel of St. Peter’s, where stands the altar of the saint; the subjects being stories from the life of Christ.^[8] These pictures are between the windows in the great recess, and are finished with so much care, that it is obvious Stefano approached closely to the manner of the moderns, surpassing his master Giotto considerably, whether in design or other artistic qualities. He subsequently painted a St. Louis, in fresco, on a pillar in the church of Ara Celi. It is beside the principal chapel, on the left hand, and is highly commended, as exhibiting a life-like animation, not previously seen even in the works of Giotto. And of a truth, Stefano had great facility in design, as may be seen in our book before cited, where, in a drawing by his hand, there is the transfiguration, sketched as he executed it in the cloister of Santo Spirito, and done in such a manner that he must, in my opinion, have been a much better designer than Giotto. Stefano subsequently repaired to Assisi, and in the lower church of San Francesco, in the apsis of the principal chapel, which forms the choir, he commenced the painting, in fresco, of a “ Celestial Glory.” This work he did not complete; but from what is done, we perceive that he was proceeding with extraordinary care and ability. In this unfinished painting is a circle of saints, male arid female, exhibiting the most charming variety in the countenances, whether in youth, in middle age, or advanced years, so that nothing better could be desired. There is, moreover, such sweetness of expression and harmony in those blessed spirits, that their being done in the time of Stefano might well be considered impossible, although they certainly were by his hand. Of the figures that form this circle, however, the heads only are finished, and above them hovers a choir of angels, in various attitudes, gracefully bearing theological symbols in their hands, and all turning towards a figure of Christ crucified, who is seen in the midst of the picture, above the head of a St. Francis, whom numerous saints are attending. In addition to these figures, he placed angels in the border surrounding the work, each of whom holds one of those churches described by St. John the Evangelist in the Apocalypse; and these angels are drawn with so much grace, that it amazes me to find any one in that age capable of so much. Stefano evidently commenced this work with the purpose of completing it in the utmost perfection; and he would have succeeded, had he not been compelled by certain important affairs to return to Florence, and leave it unfinished.^[9] Whilst detained by these matters in Florence, he employed the time in painting a small oratory, for the Gianfigliazzi, in an angle of the Lung ’Arno, between their houses and the bridge of the Carraja.^[10] He here depicted the Virgin in the act of sewing, while the Child, who is dressed and seated before her, presents her with a bird. This work, though small, is finished with so much care as to merit no less commendation than the larger and more elaborate works of the master. When this oratory was finished and his affairs settled, Stefano repaired to Pistoja, whither he had been summoned by the then rulers, to paint the chapel of St. James. This he commenced in the year 1346, depicting a figure of God the Father, with certain apostles, on the ceiling, and representing events from the life of St. James on the walls. Among these, is that incident wherein the wife of Zebedee and mother of the apostles requires from Jesus Christ that he will place her two sons, the one on his right hand, and the other on his left, in the kingdom of his Father. Near to this, is the decapitation of the saint, very finely painted.^[11]

It has been supposed that Maso, called Giottino, of whom we shall speak hereafter, was the son of this Stefano, although many, led by the resemblance of the name, believe him to have been a son of Giotto; but I am more disposed, by certain memoranda that I have seen, and by trustworthy records preserved by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Domenico del Ghirlandajo, to believe him a son of Stefano, than of Giotto.^[12] Be this as it may, let us return to Stefano, of whom it may be truly said, that he contributed more than any other, Giotto excepted, to the amelioration of art: his powers of invention were richer and more varied, his colouring was more harmonious, and his tints were more softly blended; while, more than all, in care and diligence he surpassed all other artists.ì And with respect to his foreshortening, although he is defective on this point, as I have said, because of the great difficulties to be encountered, yet, more gratitude is due to him who is the first to investigate and conquer the worst obstacles in any pursuit, than to those who do but follow on the path previously made clear, even though it be with a better and more carefully regulated march. Thus, we have certainly great obligations to Stefano, for he who, walking in darkness, encourages others by showing them the way, confers the benefit of making known the dangerous points, and warning from the false road, enables those who come after to arrive in time at the desired goal. This master also began to paint in fresco the chapel of Santa Caterina, in the church of San Domenico, in Perugia, but left it unfinished.

At the same time with Stefano, there flourished the Sienese painter Ugolino, his intimate friend, and who also enjoyed considerable reputation. He painted many pictures and decorated various chapels in different parts of Italy, but always adhered in great part to the Greek manner,^[13] as one, who, having grown old in that method, was induced by a sort of obstinacy to follow the manner of Cimabue, rather than that of Giotto, which was nevertheless held in so much esteem. The picture on a gold ground,^[14] of the high altar of Santa Croce, is one of Ugolino’s works, as is also another, which remained for many years on the high altar of Santa Maria Novella, but which is now in the Capitol. To this the Spaniards perform a most solemn pilgrimage every year, on the festival of St. James; they visit the picture also on other solemnities and mortuary offices of the same saint.^[15]

Ugolino executed many other works, with great facility, but without departing from the manner of his master. He painted a Madonna on one of the brick piers of the Loggia which Lapo had built on the Piazza of Orsanmichele, and this figure performed so many miracles some few years after, that the whole loggia was for some time filled with images placed therein “ ex voto”, and the figure is still held in the highest veneration.^[16]

Finally, in the chapel belonging to Messer Ridolfo de’ Bardi, in the church of Santa Croce, wherein Giotto depicted the life of St. Francis, Ugolino painted an altar-piece in distemper, the subject a Crucifixion, with St. John and the Magdalen weeping, and a monk standing on each side of these figures.^[17]

Ugolino departed from this life in the year 1349,^[18] being then very old, and was honourably entombed in his native city of Siena. But, returning once more to Stefano, this master is said to have been a good architect also, and what we have related above may serve to confirm the truth of the assertion. He died, as is recorded, in the year of jubilee 1350, at the age of forty-nine, and was buried in the tomb of his forefathers, in the church of Santo Spirito, where the following epitaph, was placed over his remains:—

“ Stephano Elorentino pictori, facundis imaginibus ac colorandis dguris nulli unquam inferiori, Affines mcestiss. pos. Vix. an. xxxxix.”

---

1. Baldinucci makes Stefano to have been not only the pupil but the grandson of Giotto—the son, that is, of his daughter Catherine, married to the painter, Riccio di Lapo.
2. This is the only authenticated painting of this master still existing. Lanzi declares it to be in a grander manner than that of Stefano, but sajs it has been retouched.—See History of Painting, vol. i, p. 65.
3. Vasari should rather have said by Giuliano da San Gallo, who was the arehitect of the staircase at Poggio Cajano; but the counsels of Lorenzo may have determined this choice of a model. Antonio da San Gallo availed himself of the same in Orvieto.—Masselli.
4. These paintings have now entirely perished.—Ibid.
5. Still existing, but in much worse condition than when seen by Vasari; it is placed over the door which leads from the “Green Cloister” to the “ Great Cloister”, and has the figure of St. Domenico on one side, with that of St. Thomas on the other. Some compensation for the injury suffered by this painting, and for the loss of the others, may perhaps be considered to have been obtained by the discovery, which we have ourselves made, of a picture by this rare master, and one which remained unknown even to Vasari, although mentioned by Ghiberti. It will be found immediately on passing within the door which leads from the crypt to the most ancient cloister of the convent, and is in the lunette over a door, now walled up in the suppressed chapel of St. Thomas. It represents this saint—a half-length—with the pen in his right-hand, and an open book in his left, wherein are written the following words:—“ Verbum caro panem veri verbo carnem efficit.’' Ghiberti has described this picture as existing in the crypt, in the following terms;—“In the church of the Preaching Friars is a St. Thomas Aquinas, extremely well done; the figure seems quite to stand out from the wall, and is finished with great care.”—Ed. Flor. 1846.
6. Cristofano Landino, in the “Apology” preceding his Commentary on Dante, says:—“ Stefano is called the ‘Ape of Nature’ by every one, so accurately does he express whatever he designs to represent”.
7. This picture has perished.
8. The works here, and afterwards, described as executed in Rome, are wholly destroyed.
9. There is not a vestige of this “ glory” now to be seen in the lower church of Assisi; a wretched picture*—the Fall of the rebellious Angels, —having taken its place.—Schorn.
10. This work was destroyed when the Corsini palace was erected. Professor Kosini found a small picture, much injured by time, in the possession of Signor Ranieri Grassi, of Pisa, which he believes, with reason, to be a copy of this work,—the Virgin and Child being represented exactly as here described by Vasari.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
11. The paintings of which Vasari here speaks, and which Baldinucci also attributes to Stefano, should be ascribed, according to the ancient documents cited by Ciampi, to Alessio d’Andrea, and Bonaccorso di Cino,Florentine painters, who were invited to Pistoja in 1347.—Masselli.
12. Baldinucci speaks of Tommaso, without hesitation, as a son of Stefano.—Schorn, from the Roman edition of 1759.
13. Ugolino painted in the Italian manner of that day, neither is there any great difference between the manner of Giotto and his own. He cannot justly be charged with obstinacy, since he was never a scholar of Giotto, but the disciple of Duccio, nor was he inferior to Stefano or any other master of that time.—See Lettere Sanesi, vol. ii, p. 201.
14. This picture was removed to make way for the magnificent ciborium erected after the designs of Vasari himself'. Bottari believed it to be lost, but it was discovered by Della Valle in the dormitory of the neighbouring convent. Later writers, following a MS. note of the Cavalier Puccini, declare it to have been sold to an Englishman at the commencement of the present century for a few crowns.—See further, Waagen, Art and Artists in England.
15. No trace of this picture can now be discovered.
16. For a minute account of this oratory and picture, see Baldinucci and Villani, ut supra.
17. It is not known where this picture now is, and it is very probably tost.
18. Ugolino died in 1339, and the above date is a mistake of Vasari’s, or a misprint of his second edition: the date given in the first edition, where the life of Ugolino stands separately, being 1339: that biography is there closed by the following epitaph, which Vasari omitted in his second edition:—

    “Pictor divinus jacet hoc sub saxo Ugolinus,

    Cui Deus aeternam tribuat vitamque supernam.”

    Montani remarks, that this epitaph may very well be of the time of Ugolino; but that the epitaph on Stefano is manifestly of a much later date.