Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Introduction to the Lives

by Giorgio Vasari

 

INTRODUCTION TO THE LIVES.

---

SUMMARY.

Origin of the Arts of Design, first known among the Chaldeans— The Arts among the Egyptians and Hebrews—Among the Greeks and Romans—Among the Etruscans—Of the decline of the Arts among the Romans—The decline of' Architecture less rapid— The decline of Architecture accelerated by the departure of the Emperors from Rome—The invasion of the Roman Empire by Barbarians reduces the Arts of Design to ruin—The Arts suffered injury, from the indiscreet zeal of the early Christians — Still heavier injuries inflicted by the Emperor Constans II, and by the Saracens—Of the Arts under the Lombards, and of the Architecture called Gothic—Of some better buildings erected in Florence, Venice, and elsewhere—Architecture revives to a certain extent in Tuscany, and more especially at Pisa—In Lucca—Sculpture, Painting, and Mosaic, ceasing to imitate the Greeks,^[1] begin to revive by means of the Italians—Ancient Art as distinguished from the old— Conclusion.

It is without doubt a fixed opinion, common to almost all writers, that the arts of sculpture and painting were first discovered by the nations of Egypt, although there are some who attribute the first rude attempts in marble, and the first statues and relievi, to the Chaldeans, while they accord the invention of the pencil, and of colouring, to the Greeks. But I am myself convinced, that design, which is the foundation of both these arts, nay, rather the very soul of each, comprising and nourishing within itself all the essential parts of both, existed in its highest perfection from the first moment of creation, when the Most High having formed the great body of the world, and adorned the heavens with their resplendent lights, descended by his spirit, through the limpidity of the air, and penetrating the solid mass of earth, created man; and thus unveiled, with the beauties of creation, the first form of sculpture and of painting. For from this man, as from a true model, were copied by slow degrees (we may not venture to affirm the contrary), statues and sculptures: the difficulties of varied attitude,—the flowing lines of contour—and in the first paintings, whatever these may have been, the softness, harmony, and that concord in discord, whence result light and shade. The first model, therefore, from which the first image of man arose, was a mass of earth; and not without significance, since the Divine Architect of time and nature, Himself all-perfect, designed to instruct us by the imperfection of the material, in the true method of attaining perfection, by repeatedly diminishing and adding to; as the best sculptors and painters are wont to do, for by perpetually taking from or adding to their models they conduct their work, from its first imperfect sketch, to that finish of perfection which they desire to attain. The Creator further adorned his model with the most vivid colours, and these same colours, being afterwards drawn by the painter from the mines of earth, enable him to imitate whatsoever object he may require for his picture. It is true, that we cannot with certainty declare what was accomplished in these arts and towards the imitation of so beautiful a model, by the men who lived before the deluge, although we are fully justified in believing that they produced works of every kind, both in sculpture and painting, since Belus, son of the proud Nimrod, about two hundred years after the deluge, caused the statue to be made, which, at a later period, gave birth to idolatry. His renowned daughter-in-law, moreover, Semiramis, queen of Babylon, when building that city, not only placed various figures of animals, drawn and coloured from nature, among the ornaments of her edifices, but added statues of herself and of her husband Ninus, with figures in bronze, representing her father-in-law, her mother-in-law, and the mother of the latter, calling them, as Diodorus relates, by the names of the Greeks, Jupiter, Juno, and Ops^[2] (which as yet were not in use). And it was probably from these statues that the Chaldeans learned to form the images of their gods, since we know, that a hundred and fifty years later, Rachael daughter of Laban, when flying from Mesopotamia with Jacob, her husband, stole the idols of her father, as is plainly set forth in the book of Genesis.

Nor were the Chaldeans the only people who devoted themselves to sculpture and painting ; the Egyptians also laboured with great zeal in these arts, as is proved by the wondrous sepulchre of that ancient monarch, Osimandyas, described at length by Diodorus, and, as may be clearly inferred from the severe law enacted by Moses at the departure from Egypt, namely, that no image whatever should be raised to God, under pain of death. And when this lawgiver, descending from the Mount, found the golden calf set up and voluntarily adored by his people, he not only broke and reduced it to powder, in his great indignation at the sight of divine honours paid to a mere animal, but commanded that many thousands of the guilty Israelites, who had committed that idolatry, should be slain by the hands of the Levites. But that the worship, and not the formation of statues, was the deadly crime thus deprecated, we read in the book of Exodus, where the art of design and statuary, not only in marble, but in all kinds of metals, was given by the mouth of God Himself to Bezaleel, of the tribe of Judah, and to Aholiab, of the tribe of Dan, who were appointed to make the two cherubim of gold, the candlesticks, the veil, and the fringes of the sacerdotal vestments; with all the beautiful castings for the Tabernacle; and these embellishments were executed for no other purpose than to induce the people to contemplate and admire them.

It was from the works seen before the deluge, then, that the pride of man acquired the art of constructing statues of all those to whom they desired to attribute immortal fame; and the Greeks, who account for the origin of art in various methods, declare, according to Diodorus, that the Ethiopians constructed the first statues, affirming, that from them the Egyptians acquired the art, and that the Greeks derived it from the Egyptians. That sculpture and painting had attained their perfection in Homer’s time^[3], is rendered obvious by the manner in which that divine poet speaks of the shield of Achilles, and which he sets before our eyes with so much art, that it is rather sculptured and painted, than merely described. Lactantius Firmianus attributes the discovery to Prometheus, who moulded the human form of clay, after the example of the Almighty himself, and the art of sculpture is thus affirmed to have come from him. But according to Pliny, this art was carried into Egypt by the Lydian Gyges, who, standing near a fire, and observing his own shadow, instantly sketched himself on the wall with a piece of charcoal; and from that time, it was customary, as Pliny further says, to draw in outline only without colour, a method afterwards re-discovered, by less simple means, by Philocles, the Egyptian, as also by Cleanthes and Ardices of Corinth, and by Telephanes of Sicyon.

The Corinthian Cleophantes was the first among the Greeks who used colours, and Apollodorus was the first who handled the pencil ; they were followed by Polygnotus of Thasos, by Zeuxis and Timagoras of Chalcis, with Pythias and Aglaophon, all widely renowned.^[4]After these masters came the far-famed Apelles, so highly esteemed for his talents, as Lucian informs us, by Alexander the Great (that acute discriminator of worth and pretension), and so richly endowed by Heaven,—as almost all the best sculptors and painters ever have been. For not only have they been poets also, as we read of Pacuvius, but philosophers likewise, as in the case of Metrodorus, who, profound in philosophy as skilful in painting, and being deputed by the Athenians to Rome to adorn the triumph of Paulus Emliius, was retained by that commander to instruct his sons in philosophy.

We find, then, that the art of sculpture was zealously cultivated by the Greeks, among whom many excellent artists appeared ; those great masters, the Athenian Phidias, with Praxiteles and Polycletus, were of the number, while Lysippus and Pyrgoteles, worked successfully in intaglio, and Pygmalion^[5] produced admirable reliefs in ivory—nay, of him it was affirmed, that his prayers obtained life and soul for the statue of a virgin which he had formed. Painting was in like manner honoured, and those who practised it successfully were rewarded among the ancient Greeks and Romans ; this is proved by their according the rights of citizenship, and the most exalted dignities, to such as attained high distinction in these arts, both of which flourished so greatly in Rome, that Fabius bequehated fame to his posterity by subscribing his name to the pictures so admirably painted by him in the Temple of Salus, and calling himself Fabius Pictor. It was forbidden, by public decree, that slaves should exercise this art within the cities, and so much homage was paid by the nations to art and artists, that works of rare merit were sent to Rome and exhibited as something wonderful, among other trophies in the triumphal processions, while artists of extraordinary merit, if slaves, received their freedom, together with honours and rewards from the republics. Nay, so highly did the Romans honour the arts, that Marcellus, when he sacked the city of Syracuse, not only commanded his soldiers to respect a renowned artist residing therein, but, in attacking the above-named city, he was careful to refrain from setting fire to that part of it where a fine picture was preserved, and which he afterwards caused to be carried in triumph and with great pomp to Rome. And in course of time, when Rome, having well-nigh despoiled the whole world, had assembled the artists themselves, as well as their works, within her own walls, she was by this means rendered supereminently beautiful, deriving a much richer portion of her ornaments from foreign paintings and statues, than from those of native production. As, for example, from Rhodes, the capital of a not very extensive island, where more than three thousand statues^[6] in bronze and marble were counted. Nor were the Athenians less amply provided ; while the people of Olympia and Delphi had many more, and those possessed by Corinth were innumerable, all of great beauty and high value. Is it not also known that Nicomedes, king of Lycia, was so eager to possess a Venus from the hand of Praxiteles, that he expended nearly all the treasures of his people in the purchase of it? And did not Attalus the same thing? since, to gain possession of a picture of Bacchus, painted by Aristides, he made no scruple of paying upwards of six thousand sesterces^[7]; and this picture was afterwards deposited in the temple of Ceres, with great pomp, by Lucius Muramius.

But, notwithstanding all the honours paid to the arts, we cannot yet affirm, with certainty, to whom they owe their origin; seeing that, as we have said before, they were found to exist among the Chaldeans from the earliest times, and that some ascribe their origin to the Ethiopians, while the Greeks attribute it to themselves. It might, perhaps, be not unreasonable to suppose that the arts existed, from times still more remote, among the Tuscans, as our Leon. Batista Alberti maintains, and to the soundness of this opinion the marvellous sepulchre of Porsenna, at Chiusi, bears no unimportant testimony ; tiles in terra-cotta having been dug from the earth there, between the walls of the labyrinth, on which were figures in mezzo-relievo, so admirably executed, and in so good a manner, that all might perceive the arts to be far from their first attempts when these were formed ; nay, rather, from the perfection of the work, it might be fairly inferred that they were nearer to their highest summit than to their origin. Additional proof of this may be daily seen in the relics of red and black vases, constantly found at Arezzo, which were executed, as the manner would lead one to judge, about those times, and which, adorned as they are with the most graceful little figures and scenes in intaglio and basso- relievo, as also with numerous little masks in medallions delicately finished, must have been executed by masters who, even in that early age, were profoundly skilled and perfectly well practised in those arts. We are further assured, by the statues discovered at Viterbo, in the beginning of the pontificate of Alexander VI, that sculpture was in high esteem, and no inconsiderable perfection, in Tuscany, for although we cannot precisely determine the period when they were executed, the conjecture that they are all of the most remote antiquity is yet highly probable and well supported; since, from the character of the figures, the mode of burial, and the style of the buildings, no less than from the inscriptions, in Tuscan letters, found on them, it is obvious that they were executed in most remote times, and at a period when all things, in those lands, were in a prosperous and powerful condition. But what need have we of further or clearer proof than we now possess? for have we not found, even in our own days—that is, in 1554—while excavating ditches and raising walls for the fortifications of Arezzo, that figure of bronze, representing the Chimaera of Bellerophon, from the execution of which we clearly perceive the high perfection in which that art existed among the Tuscans, even to the most remote antiquity.^[8]The origin of this work is made manifest, not only by its Etruscan manner, but still more clearly by the letters inscribed on one of the paws, which, as they are but few, may be conjectured (for the Etruscan language is wholly unknown in these days) to record the name of the master and that of the figure: perhaps the date may be also given, as was usual in those times. The figure itself has been deposited, for its beauty and high antiquity, by the Lord Duke Cosmo, in the hall of the new rooms, lately added to his palace, and wherein certain passages from the life of Pope Leo X have been painted by myself. Many figures in bronze, besides the Chimaera, were discovered in the same place, all in the same manner, and now in the possession of my Lord the Duke. Upon the whole, then, as the state of art among the Greeks, Ethiopians, and Chaldeans, is equally dubious as among ourselves —nay, perhaps even more so—and as, at best, we have but the guidance of conjecture in matters of this kind, although this is not so entirely destitute of foundation as to be in danger of departing very materially from the truth, so I do not believe that I wandered far from the true solution, when I suggested above that the origin of these arts was Nature herself—the first image or model, the most beautiful fabric of the world—and the master, that divine light infused into us by special grace, and which has made us not only superior to all other animals, but has exalted us, if it be permitted so to speak, to the similitude of God Himself. This is my belief, and I think that every man who shall maturely consider the question, will be of my opinion. And if it has been seen in our times —as I hope to demonstrate presently by various examples— that simple children, rudely reared in the woods, have begun to practise the arts of design with no other model than those beautiful pictures and sculptures furnished by Nature, and no other teaching than their own genius—how much more easily may we believe that the first of mankind, in whom nature and intellect were all the more perfect in proportion as they were less removed from their first origin and divine parentage,—that these men, I say, having Nature for their guide, and the unsullied purity of their fresh intelligence for their master, with the beautiful model of the world for an exemplar, should have given birth to these most noble arts, and from a small beginning, ameliorating them by slow degrees, should have conducted them finally to perfection? I do not intend to deny that there must have been one who made the first commencement, for I know perfectly well that the first principle must have proceeded from some given time, and from some one person; neither will I deny the possibility that one may have assisted another, thus teaching and opening the way to design, to colour, and to relief ; for I know that our art is altogether imitation, of Nature principally, but also, for him who cannot soar so high, of the works of such as he esteems better masters than himself. But what I maintain is, that to claim the positive determination of who this man or these men were, is a perilous thing, nor is it strictly needful that we should know it, since all may see the true source and origin whence the arts have received their birth. The life and fame of the artist is in his works ; but of these works, the first, produced by the earliest artists, were totally lost, as, by degrees, were the second, and perhaps the third, being destroyed by time, which consumes all things ; and as there was then no writer to record the history of these productions, they could not be made known to posterity, at least by this method : and the artists, as well as their works, remained unknown. Thus, when writers began to preserve the memory of persons and events preceding their own times, they could say nothing of those concerning whom no facts had descended to them ; so that the first artists, in their enumeration, would necessarily be those whose memory had been the last to become obscured. In like manner, Homer is commonly said to be the first poet, not because there were none who preceded him—for that there were such, we see clearly from his own works, although they may not have been equal to himself—but because all memory of those earlier poets, whatever they may have been, had been lost for two thousand years. But to cease the discussion of this question, which is rendered too obscure by its extreme antiquity, let us proceed to matters of which we have better knowledge, the perfection of the arts, namely, then- decay and restoration, or rather second birth, of which we can speak on much better grounds.^[9] The rise of art in Rome must have taken place at a late epoch, if it be true, as we find asserted, that among her first statues was the bronze figure of Ceres, formed from the spoils of Spurius Cassius, who was deliberately put to death by his own father, for having aspired to become king. And although the arts of sculpture and painting continued to be practised to the close of the reign of the twelve Caesars, yet they did not maintain themselves in that degree of excellence and perfection which they had previously displayed ; so that, in all the buildings erected by the emperors, one after another, the arts may be gradually seen to decline, until all perfection of the art of design was ultimately lost. To the truth of this assertion, the works in sculpture and architecture, executed in Rome under Constantine, bear ample testimony, more particularly the triumphal arch, raised to him by the Roman people, near the Colosseum, where we perceive that, for the want of good masters, they not only availed themselves of sculptures executed in the time of Trajan, but also of the spoils brought to Rome from other parts of the empire. The observer who remarks that the sacrificial processions on the medallions, sculptured in mezzo-rilievo, with the captives, the larger reliefs, the columns, cornices, and other ornaments, formed of spoils and executed in earlier times, are well done, will also perceive that the works executed by the sculptors of the day, to fill up the spaces remaining unoccupied, are extremely rude. The same may be said of the small historical representations beneath the medallions and of the basement, where certain victories are represented, which, as well as the river-gods between the arches, are so rudely done, that we are justified in assuming the art of sculpture to have even then commenced its decline, although the Goths, and other barbarous and foreign nations, by whom Italy was ravaged, and all the nobler arts destroyed, had not then made their incursions. It is true that architecture suffered less during those times than the other arts, as may be inferred from the bath erected by Constantine at the entrance to the principal portico of the Lateran ; for besides the columns of porphyry, capitals in marble, and the double bases, taken from different localities, all very finely executed, the whole arrangement of the building is also excellent ; while the stuccoes, on the contrary,with the Mosaic and other incrustations, executed by the masters of that day, are by no means equal to the ornaments, taken for the most part from heathen temples, and employed in the construction of the same bath. It is said, that Constantine proceeded in like manner with the temple which he built in the garden of AEquitius, and which he endowed and gave to the Christian priests. The magnificent church of San Giovanni Laterano, erected by the same emperor, is an example of a similar kind, proving that sculpture had already declined greatly in his day : the figures of the Saviour and of the twelve Apostles, which he caused to be made in silver for this building, were in a very inferior style, without art, and with very little merit in design. Whoever will diligently examine the medals of Constantine moreover, with his statue and other works executed by the sculptors of his time, and now in the capitol, will see clearly that they are far from exhibiting the perfection displayed by the medals and statues of earlier emperors,— all which demonstrates clearly, that sculpture had greatly declined in Italy long before the coming of the Goths.

Architecture remained, as has been said, if not in its perfection, still in a much better state ; nor will this occasion surprise, for since almost all the more important edifices were erected from the spoils of earlier buildings, it was not difficult for the architects, in raising the new fabrics, to imitate the old, which they had always before their eyes ; and this they could do more easily than the sculptors, who, the art being wanting, were deprived of this advantage of imitating the noble works of the ancients. Of the decadence of sculpture, the church of the Prince of Apostles on the Vatican gives us clear proof ; for the riches of this building proceed solely from columns, capitals, bases, architraves, cornices, doors, and other ornaments and incrustations, all taken from different localities, and from the edifices so magnificently constructed in earlier times. The same thing may be said of the church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, built by Constantine at the entreaty of his mother Helena. Of that of San Lorenzo, without the walls of Rome, and of St. Agnes, erected by the same emperor at the request of Constantia, his daughter.^[10] And who is now ignorant of the fact that the Font,^[11] used at the baptism of this princess and her sister, was wholly adorned with the works of earlier times?—the porphyry urn with its beautiful engraved figures, the marble candelabra admirably sculptured in rich foliage, with boys in lowrelief, which are truly beautiful. In fine, we perceive from these and many other indications, that sculpture had already fallen to decay in the time of Constantine, and with it the other noble arts. Or if anything was yet wanting to their ultimate ruin, this was amply supplied by the departure of Constantine from Rome, when he resolved to transfer the seat of empire to Byzantium ; for he then not only took all the best sculptors, and other artists of the time, whatever they may have been, with him into Greece, but he also despoiled the city of innumerable statues, and many other of the finest works of sculpture.

After the departure of Constantine, the Caesars, whom he left in Italy, continued building in Rome and elsewhere, and did their best for the execution of such works as they constructed ; but, as we see, not only sculpture, but painting and architecture, fell constantly from bad to worse, and this, perhaps, because human affairs, when they begin to decline, never cease to sink, until they have reached the lowest depths of deterioration. And accordingly, notwithstanding the architects of the time of Pope Liberius made great efforts to produce an important work in the erection of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, they did not succeed happily in all parts ; for although that church—which was also constructed for the most part of spoils—is of tolerably fair proportions, yet it cannot be denied that the ornaments in stucco and painting (to say nothing of other parts) placed around the building above the columns, betray extreme poverty of design ; or that many other portions of that vast church prove the imperfection of the arts at the period of its erection. Many years later, when the Christians suffered persecution under Julian the Apostate, a church was built on the Coelian Mount to the martyrs San Giovanni and San Paolo, and the style of this erection is so much worse than that of Santa Maria Maggiore, as to prove clearly that the art was at that time little less than totally lost. The fullest testimony is further borne to this fact by the edifices erected in Tuscany at the same period. And omitting the mention of many others, the church built beyond the walls of Arezzo,^[12] in honour of St. Donatus, bishop of that city, who suffered martyrdom, together with the monk Hilarin, under this Julian the Apostate, was in no respect of better architecture than those before mentioned. Nor is this to be attributed to any other cause than the want of better masters in those times ; since this octagonal church, as may be still seen in our own day, built from the spoils of the Theatre, the Colosseum, and other edifices, which had been erected in Arezzo before that city was converted to the faith of Christ, was constructed without any restriction as to the cost, which was very great; the church was, besides, further adorned with columns of granite, porphyry, and varicoloured marbles, which had belonged to the antique buildings above named. And, for my own part, I make no doubt but that the people of Arezzo—to judge from the expense to which we see that they went for this church—would have produced something marvellous in that work, if they had been able to procure better architects ; for we perceive, by what they have done, that they spared nothing to render it as rich and in as good style as they possibly could make it ; and since architecture had lost less of its perfection than the other arts, as we have said more than once, there is exhibited a certain degree of beauty in this building. The church of Santa Maria in Grado, was at the same time enlarged, in honour of St. Hilarian, who had been long a resident in that church, when he received with St. Donatus the palm of martyrdom.

But as fortune, when she has raised either persons or things to the summit of her wheel, very frequently casts them to the lowest point, whether in repentance or for her sport, so it chanced that, after these things, the barbarous nations of the world arose, in divers places, in rebellion against the Romans ; whence there ensued, in no long time, not only the decline of that great empire, but the utter ruin of the whole, and more especially of Rome herself, when all the best artists, sculptors, painters, and architects, were in like manner totally ruined, being submerged and buried, together with the arts themselves, beneath the miserable slaughters and ruins of that much renowned city. Painting and sculpture were the first to suffer, as arts ministering rather to pleasure than utility ; while architecture, being requisite to the comfort and safety of life, was still maintained, although not in its earlier excellence. Indeed, had it not been that sculpture and painting still placed before the eyes of the existing generation, the representations of those whom they were accustomed to honour, and to whom they gave an immortality, the very memory, both of one and the other, would have been soon extinguished. Of these, some were commemorated by statues, and by inscriptions, which abounded in and on the different public and private buildings, as theatres, baths, aqueducts, temples, obelisks, colossal figures, pyramids, arches, reservoirs, and public treasuries, and lastly, in the sepulchres themselves, the great part of which were destroyed by those unbridled barbarians who had nothing of humanity but the name and image. Conspicuous among these were the Visigoths, who, having made Alaric their king, invaded Italy and assaulted Rome, which they twice sacked without restraint of any kind. The same thing was done by the Vandals, who came from Africa, under Genseric, their king ; and he, not content with the booty and prey that he took, or with the cruelties that he practised, carried the people away as slaves, to their extreme misery. Among these captives was Eudoxia, widow of the Emperor Valentinian, who had been slain, no long time previously, by his own soldiers. For all the best having long before departed to Byzantium with the Emperor Constantine, those remaining had in great part degenerated from the ancient valour of Rome ; neither was order or decency any longer to be found among them. Every virtue, nay, all true men, had departed together ; laws, name, customs, the very language, all were lost ; and amidst these calamities, all acting together, and each effecting its own share of the mischief, every exalted mind had sunk in the general degradation, every noble spirit become debased.

But infinitely more ruinous than all other enemies to the arts above named, was the fervent zeal of the new Christian religion, which, after long and sanguinary combats, had finally overcome and annihilated the ancient creeds of the pagan world, by the frequency of miracles exhibited, and by the earnest sincerity of the means adopted ; and ardently devoted, with all diligence, to the extirpation of error, nay, to the removal of even the slightest temptation to heresy, it not only destroyed all the wondrous statues, paintings, sculptures, mosaics, and other ornaments of the false pagan deities, but at the same time extinguished the very memory, in casting down the honours, of numberless excellent ancients, to whom statues and other monuments had been erected, in public places, for their virtues, by the most virtuous times of antiquity. Nay, more than this, to build the churches of the Christian faith, this zeal not only destroyed the most renowned temples of the heathens, but, for the richer ornament of St. Peter’s,^[13] and in addition to the many spoils previously bestowed on that building, the tomb of Adrian, now called the castle of St. Angelo, was deprived of its marble columns, to employ them for this church, many other buildings being in like manner despoiled, and which we now see wholly devastated. And although the Christian religion did not effect this from hatred to these works of art, but solely for the purpose of abasing and bringing into contempt the gods of the Gentiles, yet the result of this too ardent zeal did not fail to bring such total ruin over the noble arts, that their very form and existence was lost. Next, and that nothing might be wanting to the completion of these misfortunes, the rage of Totila was aroused against Rome, and having first destroyed her walls, he devastated her most noble and beautiful edifices, giving the whole city to fire and the sword, after having driven forth all the inhabitants, so that, during eighteen days, no living soul was to be found within the city ; paintings, statues, mosaics, and all other embellishments, were so entirely wasted and destroyed by these means, that all were deprived, I do not say of their beauty and majesty only, but of their very form and being. The lower rooms of palaces and other edifices being adorned with pictures, statues, and various ornaments, all these were submerged in the fall of the buildings above them, and thence it is that, in our day, so many admirable works have been recovered : for the immediate successors of those times, believing all to be totally ruined, planted their vines on the site, when these chambers remained buried in the earth ; the rooms thus buried were named “grottoes” by the moderns who discovered them, while the paintings found in them were called “grotesque.” The Ostrogoths being exterminated by Narses, the ruins of Rome were again inhabited, however miserably, when a hundred years after came Constans II, emperor of Constantinople, who, though amicably received by the Romans, yet despoiled and carried away all that, more by chance than by the good will of those who had devastated her, had remained to the wretched city of Rome. It is true that he did not enjoy his prey, for, being driven by a tempest to Sicily, he was there deservedly slain by his own people, leaving his spoils, his empire, and his life, the prey of fortune. But she, not yet content with the miseries of Rome, and to the end that the unhappy city might never regain her ravaged treasures, led an army of Saracens to the conquest of Sicily, and these foes transported not only the wealth of the Sicilians, but the spoils of Rome herself, to Alexandria, to the great shame and loss of Italy and all Christendom. Thus, whatever had escaped ruin from the pontiffs, and more particularly from St. Gregory,^[14] (who is said to have decreed banishment against all statues and other ornaments remaining in the buildings) was finally destroyed by the hands of this most wicked Greek. No trace, no vestige of excellence in art, now remained ; the men who followed immediately on these unhappy times, proceeded in a rude and uncultivated manner in all things, but more especially in painting and sculpture ; yet, impelled by nature, and refined, to a certain degree, by the air they breathed, they set themselves to work, not according to the rules of art, which they no longer possessed, but each according to the quality of his own talent.

The arts of design—being reduced to this state during and after the domination of the Lombards in Italy—continued to deteriorate in all that was attempted, so that nothing could be worse, or evince less knowledge of art, than the works of that period; and we have proof of this, among other things, in certain figures which are over the door of the portico of St. Peter’s, at Rome; they are in the Greek manner, and represent certain holy fathers who had disputed for the Christian Church before some of the councils. Many works, of a similar manner, might be adduced in support of this assertion; examples may be seen in the city of Ravenna and in the whole Exarchate, some especially in the church of Santa Maria Rotonda, outside Ravenna, executed soon after the Lombards were driven from Italy. But I will not omit to mention that there is one thing most extraordinary and well worthy of notice in that church^[15]—the cupola, namely, which covers it. This is ten braccia^[16] in diameter, and serves as roof and crown to the fabric; it is formed of one single stone, and is so large and unwieldy (the weight being more than 200,000 lbs.) that one cannot but marvel at the means by which it was raised to that height. But to return to our subject. It is to the masters of those times that we owe the fantastic images and absurd figures still to be seen in many old works. And a similar inferiority is perceptible in architecture, for it was necessary to build ; but all good methods and correct forms being lost by the death of good artists and the destruction of their works, those who devoted themselves to that employment were in no condition to give either correct proportion or grace of any kind to their designs. Then arose new architects, and they, after the manner of their barbarous nations, erected the buildings in that style which we now call Gothic,^[17] and raising edifices that, to us moderns, are rather to the discredit than glory of the builders, until at a later period there appeared better artists, who returned, in some measure, to the purer style of the antique ; and this may be seen in most of the old (but not antique) churches throughout Italy, which were built in the manner just alluded to by these last-named artists. The palace of Theodoric, king of Italy, in Ravenna, with one in Pavia and another in Modena, may serve as examples, being still in a barbarous manner, and rather vast and rich than well constructed or of good architecture. The same may be said of the church of San Stefano, in Rimini ; of that of San Martino, in Ravenna ; and of the temple of St. John the Evangelist, built in the latter city by Galla Placidia, about the year of our Lord 438. San Vitale erected, in 547 ; the abbey of Classis ; and, in brief, many other monasteries and churches, built after the domination of the Lombards, are instances of the same kind, all being vast and rich, as has been said before, but of extremely rude architecture. Many of the abbeys erected to St. Benedict, in France, are in this manner ; as is the church and monastery of Monte Casino, with the church of St. John the Baptist at Monza, built by that Theodelinda, queen of the Goths, to whom St. Gregory wrote his Dialogues. In this church the queen above named caused passages from the history of the Lombards to be painted, and from these paintings we learn that this people shaved the back part of the head, but retained long tufts of hair in front, and dyed themselves to the chin. Their vestments were ample folds of linen, as was usual with the Angles and Saxons ; they wore mantles of divers colours, with shoes open along the whole length of the foot, and bound across the instep with sandals. The church of San Giovanni, in Pavia, built by Gondiberta, daughter of Theodelinda, resembled those named above, as did that of San Salvadore in the same city, erected by Aribert, brother of the said queen, who succeeded Rodoald, husband of Gondiberta, in the kingdom, with the church of St. Ambrose, at Pavia, built by Grimoald, king of the Lombards, who drove Bertrid, son of Aribert, from his throne.^[18] Bertrid, also, when restored to his kingdom after the death of Grimoald, erected a convent for nuns, called the new convent, in Pavia, to the honour of Our Lady and of St. Agatha, the queen likewise building one without the walls, which she dedicated to the “Virgin Mary in Pertica.” Cuni bert, son of Bertrid, in like manner, erected a monastery and church to St. George, called di Coronate, on the spot where he had gained a great victory over Alahi. Nor was the church in anywise dissimilar, that Luitprand, king of the Lombards, and contemporary of Pepin, father of Charlemagne, constructed in Pavia, and which is called San Piero in Cieldauro ; one built to San Pietro Clivate, in the diocese of Milan, by Desiderius, who succeeded Astolphus, was in the same manner ; as were the monastery of San Vincenzo, in Milan, and the church of Santa Julia, in Brescia ; all buildings erected at enormous cost, but in a rude and irregular manner.

In Florence, meanwhile, the practice of architecture began to display some little improvement, and the Church of Sant’Apostolo, built by Charlemagne, was in a very beautiful manner, although small : the shafts of the columns, though formed of separate pieces, are extremely graceful and wellproportioned ; the capitals, likewise, with the arches and vaulting of the two small naves, furnish proof that some good artist had still remained in Tuscany, or had once again arisen in the land. In fine, the architecture of this church, is such, that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco did not disdain to use it as his model in building the Church of Santo Spirito, and that of San Lorenzo, in the same city. A similar progress may be remarked in the Church of St. Mark, at Venice, (to say nothing of San Giorgio Maggiore, built by Giovanni Morosini, in the year 978,) which was commenced under the Doge Giustiniano and Giovanni Particiaco, next to San Teodosio, when the body of the Evangelist was sent from Alexandria to Venice. But both the palace of the Doge, and the church itself, having received great injury from numerous fires, the latter was ultimately rebuilt in the the year 973, on the old foundations, in the Greek style, and after the manner that we now see ; this work was one of great cost, and was carried forward under the advice and direction of many architects, in the time of the Doge Domenico Selvo, who collected the marble columns for the building from whatever place he could lay hands on them, and wheresoever they were to be found. The edifice constantly proceeded, after the designs, as it is said, of several masters, who were all Greeks, till the year 1140, when Messer Piero Polani was Doge. The seven abbeys which Count Ugo, Marquis of Brandenburg, caused to be erected in Tuscany, were built during the same period, and in the same Greek manner, as may be seen in the abbey of Florence, in that of Settimo, and the others. All these buildings, as well as the vestiges of those that are ruined, bear testimony to the fact, that architecture still maintained itself in life, though grievously degenerated and departing widely from the excellent manner of the antique. And of this we find further proof in many old palaces, constructed in Florence after the ruin of Fiesole, in the Tuscan fashion, but in a very barbarous and ill-proportioned manner, as witness those doors and windows of immoderate length, and the aspect of those acute pieces^[19] in the vaulting of their arches, which were peculiar to the foreign architects of those times.

In the year 1013, we nevertheless perceive, that the art had regained somewhat of her ancient vigour ; and this we infer, from the rebuilding of that most beautiful church San Miniato sul Monte, constructed in the time of Messer Alibrando, citizen and bishop of Florence ; for to say nothing of the marble ornaments by which it is embellished, both within and without, the fagade gives us clear proof that the Tuscan architects here made efforts to imitate the fine proportions and pure taste of the antique in columns, arches, cornices, doors, and windows, correcting and improving their perceptions by the study of that most ancient temple, the church of San Giovanni, in their own city. At the same period, painting, which had been little less than totally extinguished, was seen to be slowly regaining life, as may be proved by the mosaic executed in the principal chapel of this same church of San Miniato.^[20]

From this commencement, then, the arts of design began to make progress in Tuscany by slow degrees, advancing gradually towards a better state of things, as we see from the first steps taken by the Pisans towards the construction of their cathedral, in 1016 ;^[21] for in those days it was a great undertaking to erect a church of such a character, having five naves, and being almost entirely covered with marble both within and without. The edifice was constructed after the designs, and under the directions of, Buschetto, a Greek, of Dulichium,^[22] an architect of rare excellence for those times ; the Pisans devoted an infinite amount of spoils to its erection and adornment ; these were brought by them in their fleets from the most distant regions, (they being then at the very summit of their greatness), as is made clearly manifest by the columns, capitals, bases, cornices, and other stones of every kind to be seen there ; and as some of these were small, others large, and others again of a middle size, great judgment must have been exercised by the architect, and much skill displayed, seeing that the whole fabric is nevertheless well-arranged, both within and without. To say nothing of other parts, and speaking only of the principal façade, Buschetto effected the gradual diminution of its summit with great ingenuity, employing a vast number of columns, and enriching the whole with antique statues and varied sculptures. The principal doors of the same façade were adorned in like manner, and between these doors, near that of the Carroccio namely, Buschetto himself was afterwards laid in an honourable tomb, bearing three sepulchral inscriptions, one of which, in Latin verses, I subjoin here, when it will be seen to be in nowise dissimilar to other attempts of the same period:—

Quod vix mille bourn possent Juga Juncta movere
Et quod vix potuit per mare ferre ratis,
Buschetti nisu, quod erat mirabile visu
Dena puellarum turba levavit onus.

And now, since I have before named the church of Sant’Apostolo in Florence, I will not omit to mention, that on a marble stone of this building, and at one side of the high altar, the following words may be read:—

“viii. v. Die vi Aprilis in resurrectione Domini Karolus Erancorum Bex a Koma revertens, ingressus Elorentiam cum magno gaudio et tripudio susceptus, civium copiam torqueis aureis decoravit, et in Pentecostem fundavit ecclesiam Sanctorum Apostolorura; in altari inclusa, est lamina plumbea, in qua descripta apparet praefata fundatio et consecratio facta per Archiepiscopum Turpinum testibus Rolando et Uliverio.^[23]

The building of the cathedral of Pisa, above described, awoke great desire in the minds of many throughout Italy, but more especially in Tuscany, for the undertaking of noble enterprises ; and the church of San Paolo was commenced in the city of Pistoja, in the year 1032, the Beato^[24] Atto, bishop of that city, being present, as we read in a contract made at the time. Many other edifices were erected at that period from the same cause, but to name them here would detain us too long. I will, nevertheless, not omit to mention, that in the year 1060, the round church of San Giovanni was built in Pisa opposite to the cathedral, and in the same piazza with that church.^[25] Respecting this building a fact is related which would seem incredible, were it not recorded in an old book of the works of the cathedral, namely, that the columns of this same San Giovanni, with the pilasters and arches, were erected in fifteen days, and no more. In the same book, which any one may examine who shall desire to do so, we read that a tax of one danaio per hearth was laid on the people for this building ; but we are not told whether the coin was of gold or of copper. There were 34,000 fires at this time in Pisa, as may be gathered from the same book. The work was certainly a very great one, of excessive cost, and difficult to execute, the vaulted roof of the Tribune more particularly, this having the form of a pear and being covered with lead. The external walls are nearly hidden by the abundance of columns and carvings of various kinds, and in the frieze of the central door is the figure of Jesus Christ with his twelve apostles, in mezzo-rilievo, executed in the Greek manner.

At the same time, that is, towards the year 1061, the people of Lucca, in rivalry of the Pisans, began their church of San Martino, after the design of certain scholars of Bus chetto,^[26]there being then no other architects in Tuscany. To the façade of this church a marble portico was added with many ornaments and sculpture. Stories in memory of Pope Alexander II, of which erection, and of himself, Alexander amply discourses, describing all fully in nine Latin verses ; nay, we have the same engraved, with other ancient letters, on the wall under the portico and between the doors. In the above-named façade are various figures, and under the portico several stories in marble, executed in mezzo-rilievo. They represent the life of St. Martin, and are in the Greek manner ; but the best, which are over one of the doors, were executed 170 years later by Niccola Pisano, and finished in 1233, as shall be related in the proper place. The intendants of the church, when these works were commenced, were Abellenato and Aliprando, as we learn from certain letters engraved in the marble in the same place ; these figures, from the hand of Niccola Pisano, show to what extent the art of sculpture was ameliorated by him. The greater part of the buildings erected in Italy at this time^[27], nay, we may almost say, the whole of them, were similar to this ; little or no improvement was perceptible in architecture from those days down to 1250 ; all had remained within the same limits, and continued to be executed in the same rude manner, of which numerous examples are still to be seen. But of these I will not now speak further, proposing to allude to them occasionally hereafter, as opportunity shall present itself.

In like manner, the best works in painting and sculpture, remaining buried under the ruins of Italy, were concealed during the same period, and continued wholly unknown to the rude men reared amidst the more modern usages of art, and by whom no other sculptures or pictures were produced, than such as were executed by the remnant of old Greek artists.

They formed images of earth and stone, or painted monstrous figures, of which they traced the rude outline only in colour. These artists—the best as being the only ones—were conducted into Italy, whither they carried sculpture and painting, as well as mosaic, in such manner as they were themselves acquainted with them : these they taught, in their own coarse and rude style, to the Italians, who practised them, after such fashion, as I have said, and will further relate, down to a certain period. The men of those times, unaccustomed to works of greater perfection than those thus set before their eyes, admired them accordingly, and, barbarous as they were, yet imitated them as the most excellent models. It was only by slow degrees that those who came after, being aided in some places by the subtlety of the air around them, could begin to raise themselves from these depths ; when, towards 1250, Heaven, moved to pity by the noble spirits which the Tuscan soil was producing every day, restored them to their primitive condition. It is true that those who lived in the times succeeding the ruin of Rome, had seen remnants of arches, colossi, statues, pillars, storied columns, and other works of art, not wholly destroyed by the fires and other devastations ; yet they had not known how to avail themselves of this aid, nor had they derived any benefit from it, until the time specified above. When the minds then awakened, becoming capable of distinguishing the good from the worthless, and abandoning old methods, returned to the imitation of the antique, with all the force of their genius, and all the power of their industry.

But that my readers may the better comprehend what it is that I call “old”, and what “antique”, I add that the antique are works executed before the time of Constantine, in Corinth, Athens, Rome, and other far-famed cities, down to the times of Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Adrian, and Antonine ; “old” are such as were executed from the days of St. Silvester, downwards by a certain residue of the Greeks, whose profession was rather that of dyeing than painting. For the greater part of the excellent earlier artists being extirpated in those times of war, there remained, as I have said, nothing to these Greeks (“old”, but not “antique”) save only the first rude outlines on a ground of colour, as is made sufficiently manifest by a crowd of mosaics executed throughout Italy by these Greeks, and which may be seen in any old church of whatsoever city you please, through all the land. The cathedral of Pisa and St. Mark of Venice, and other places, will furnish examples. Thus, in this manner, they executed many pictures ; figures with senseless eyes, outstretched hands, standing on the points of their feet, similar to those that may still be seen in San Miniato, outside Florence, between the doors which lead to the sacristy and the convent. In the church of Santo Spirito, also, in the same city, the entire wall of the cloister on the side towards the church is covered with these works. They are to be found in Arezzo, also, in the churches of San Juliano, San Bartolommeo, and others : and in the historical scenes around the old church of San Pietro, in Rome, between the windows,—things that have more of the monster in their lineaments than of the object they should represent. In sculpture they produced works of a similar style and in equal plenty ; some of them, in basso-relievo, may still be seen over the gate of San Michele, in the Piazza Padella of Florence ; they are in the church of Ogni Santi, and other places, frequently serving as ornaments to the doors of churches, where they sometimes act as corbels to support the canopy, but are withal so coarse and hideous, so deformed and ill-executed, that it seems impossible to imagine any thing worse.

Thus much^[28] I have thought it advisable to say respecting the first commencement of sculpture and painting, and may perhaps have spoken at greater length than was here needful; but this I have done, not so much because I was carried on by my love of art, as because I desire to be useful and serviceable to the whole body of artists, for they, having here seen the manner in which art proceeded from small beginnings, until she attained the highest summit, and next how she was precipitated from that exalted position into the deepest debasement ; and considering that it is the nature of art, as of human existence, to receive birth, to progress, to become old, and to die, may thus more perfectly comprehend and follow the progress of her second birth to the high perfection which she has once more attained in these our days. I have further thought, that if even it should chance at any time, which may God forbid, that by the neglect of men, the malice of time, or the will of heaven, which but rarely suffers human things to remain long without change, the arts should once again fall into their former decay, these my labours, both what has been said and what yet remains to be said, should they be found worthy of a more happy fortune, may avail to keep those arts in life, or may at least serve as an incentive to exalted minds to provide them with more efficient aids and support, so that, by my own good intentions, and the help of such friends, the arts may abound in those facilities, of which, it it be permitted to speak the truth freely, they have ever been destitute even to this day. But it is now time to come to the life of Giovanni Cimabue, who, as he first commenced the new mode of designing and painting, so it is just that he should also commence these lives, wherein I shall do my utmost to observe the order of the manner, rather than that of the time. In describing the forms and features of the artists, I shall be very brief, since their portraits, which I have collected at great cost and with much labour, will show what the appearance of each artist was in a better manner than could ever be done by words. And if the portraits of some are wanting, that is not my fault, but because they were not to be found. Again, if these likenesses should appear to some persons to be dissimilar to other portraits with which they are acquainted, let them consider that the likeness of a man in his eighteenth or twentieth year will never resemble one taken fifteen or twenty years later ; to this may be added, that drawn portraits are never so exact in resemblance as those coloured, besides which, engravers, who know little of design, always injure the faces from inability to manage those minutiae, on which it is that the perfect resemblance of the portrait depends, thus depriving the work of that perfection which is rarely if ever preserved in likenesses cut in wood. But enough ; the labour, expense, and industry, which I have bestowed in this matter, will be manifest to all those who, while reading it, shall perceive whence I have, as I best could, drawn my materials.^[29]

1. That is, the Byzantine Greeks.
2. Diodorus, 1. ii, c. 9, mentions the golden statues of Jupiter, Juno, and Rhea, but not as portraits.
3. Homer does not mention the Art of Painting, though its existence in his time must be inferred.
4. There was no celebrated painter of the name of Pythia Pausi or Nicias may be meant.
5. Fabulous.
6. Vasari says thirty, but Pliny says three. — Hist. Nat. xxxiv, 7, 17.
7. Pliny says denarii (xxxv, 4, 8), but still the sum would amount to two hundred guineas only
8. It is now in the Gallery of the Uffizzi in Florence. This Chimaera is commonly represented with the head of a lion and the body of a goat; it exists in many varieties.
9. For a more complete dissertation on the subjects here only touched upon by Vasari, see Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, i, i.
10. This tradition has been set aside by Bottari, in vol. iii of his Sculture e Pitture Sagre estratti dai Cimiteri di Roma. 1737.
11. Baptistery.
12. This church, called the Duomo Vecchio, was not built in the time of Julian the apostate,—that is, the fourth century,—but in the eleventh, by Alberto, Bishop of Arezzo. It was destroyed, by the orders of Cosmo I, and in the lifetime of Vasari himself, to make way for the fortifications of the city. See Muratori Ant. Ital. vol. iv, p. 428 ; also Rondinelli, Stato antico e moderno di Arezzo, 1755. Ed. Flor. 1767
13. St. Paul’s?
14. The memory of Pope Gregory the Great has been vindicated from this reproach, by Carlo Fea, in his dissertation, Delle Rovine di Roma ; in Winckelmann, Opere, vol. xi, p. 321, of the Prato edition. See also Plattner, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, part i, p. 240 ; and Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
15. Commonly called the Tomb of Theodoric. See Schorn in Thiersch’s Travels in Italy, vol. i, p. 394.
16. The braccio (pi. braccia) may be taken at twenty-one inches English, but varies greatly in different parts of Italy.
17. Vasari is here clearly in error, or is not sufficiently explicit. "Gothic", or the pointed architecture of the north, was not thoroughly developed until the thirteenth century. The “Romanesque”, or roundarch styles, prevailed in Italy in all the earlier centuries.
18. Vasari, like D’Agincourt, in our own time, sought the monuments of Lombard dominion in the country still called Lombardy; although the churches erected by the Lombard kings, more especially those of Pavia, were entirely rebuilt in the twelfth and following centuries. For more extended information on this point, see Rumohr, ut supra.
19. Quarti Acuti, perhaps the zigzag, introduced into Italy about the twelfth century.
20. The Mosaic in the apsis of San Miniato is not of the eleventh, but the end of the thirteenth century (1297), as we learn from an inscription on the frieze. — Florentine Edition, 1846.
21. The cathedral of Pisa was not commenced in 1016, but in 1063, as appears from an inscription on the façade.
22. For the question as to whether Buschetto were a Greek or an Italian, the reader is referred to Cicognora and Rumohr, Note, Germ. Trans.
23. In this inscription, says Rumohr, the credulity of Vasari appears to have been imposed on by some one of his learned friends, who seems to have trusted that he would receive Turpin, Roland, and Oliver as historical personages.
24. The “ Beato” of the Catholic hierarchy is a person of highly sanctified character, but who has not received all the honours of canonization, and is in so much of inferior grade to the Saint.— E. F.
25. The Baptistery was not founded in 1060, but 1153, as may be seen on a pilaster at the right of the entrance, where is the following inscription: “ mcliii—mense aug. fondata fuit haec ecclesia.” On the opposite side are the following words: “ Deotisalvi magister hujus operis.”—Ed. Flor.
26. Rumohr remarks that he cannot comprehend why Vasari should thus particularize San Martino, (a church of fine Gothic architecture of the thirteenth century, and which cannot have been built by these imaginary scholars of Buschetto,) when there are so many noble monuments of architecture, from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, in Lucca ; as, for example, the churches of San Frediano, San Michele, and Santa Maria Bianca.
27. For some of these churches, see Gaily Knight’s Ecclesiastical Architecture in Italy.
28. For more accurate and fuller details respecting art, from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, see Lanzi, History of Painting; D’Agincourt, Histoire de l'Art d’aprés les Monuments ; and Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen.
29. Vasari informs us, in the Life of Marc Antonio Raimondi, that these portraits, which first appeared in the edition of the Giunti, were drawn by himself and his pupils, and engraved on wood by Messer Cristofano, of Venice, by some called Coriolano. In a letter to Borghini, dated 1566, (Gaye, Carteggio medito d'Artisti, iii, 227,) Vasari speaks of his own portrait, which he had taken by means of a mirror, and given to this same Cristofano to engrave. Bottari supposed this master Cristofàno to have been a German.