Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Andrea Tafi

by Giorgio Vasari

 

ANDREA TAFI,^[1] PAINTER, OF FLORENCE.

[1213-1294.]

As the works of Cimabue awakened no small admiration in the men of his time, who were accustomed to the Greek manner only (he having certainly given better design and form to the art of painting), so the works in Mosaic of Andrea Tafi, who belonged to the same period, were also greatly admired, and himself considered an excellent, nay, a divine ^[1] artist, on their account ; people not supposing that better could be produced in that art, because nothing better had come under their notice.^[2] But Andrea, certainly not considering himself to be the most excellent artist in the world, and reflecting on the durability of works in Mosaic, left Florence and betook himself to Venice, where certain Greek painters were then working in Mosaic in the church of St. Mark. Forming a close intimacy with these artists, Andrea Tafi so contrived, that by promises, money, and entreaties, he at length prevailed on one of them. Maestro Apollonius, a Greek painter, to accompany him to Florence, here Andrea learned from him to fuse the glass, and prepare the cement used in mosaic. And with Apollonius, Andrea Tafi now undertook the decoration of the tribune of San Giovanni,—the upper part, namely, whereon are depicted the Powers, Thrones, and Dominions. In the same place, when he had become more expert, as will be shown hereafter, Andrea executed the figure of Christ, which stands above the principal chapel. But having mentioned San Giovanni, I will not omit to add that this ancient sanctuary is encrusted, both within and without, with marbles of the Corinthian order ; and not only are all its parts exactly proportioned and finely executed, but the doors and windows, also, are admirably distributed and arranged. Each façade is embellished by two columns of granite eleven braccia high, forming three compartments, over which are the architraves, supported by those columns, whereon the whole weight of the double-vaulted roof is thrown. This roof has been much praised, by modern architects, as a very extraordinary work ; and with justice ; for from this, Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, Donatello, and other artists of their times, perceived how much might be done in this art, and all derived great benefit from that work, and from the church of Sant' Apostolo, in Florence, a building erected in so good a manner that it makes a near approach to the true beauty of the antique, having all its columns, as I have said above, formed of pieces proportioned and fixed with such care, that much may be learnt by studying this edifice in all its parts. I could say much more concerning the excellent architecture of this church, but will add only that the architects deviated widely rom the true path when they reconstructed the marble façade of the church of San Miniato sul Monte, without the city of Florence. This was done on the investiture of the beatified San Giovanni Gualberto, a citizen of Florence, and founder of the order of the Monks of Vallombrosa ; but neither that nor many other works, afterwards executed, were by any means equal to those above named.^[3] And the same may be said of sculpture, since all that was done in Italy, by the masters of that time, betrays extreme rudeness, as we have already observed in the introduction to these lives. The truth of this remark may be proved in many places, and particularly in Pistoja, in the church of San Bartolommeo, belonging to the Canons Regular, where may be seen a pulpit most rudely sculptured, by Guido of Como ; the subjects represented are early scenes from the life of Christ, wiih the following words, engraved by the artist himself, in the year 1199 :—

“ Sculptor laudatur quod doctus in arte probatur
  Guido de Como me cunctis carmine promo.”

But to return to the baptistery of San Giovanni. I say nothing of its origin, because Giovanni Villani, and others, have written respecting it ; and having before observed that the improved architecture of our own times is due to that building, I will only add that, so far as we can now judge, the tribune was constructed at a later period ; and that, at the time when Alexis Baldovinetti, succeeding the Florentine painter Lippo, restored the Mosaic, it was perceived that the surface had formerly been coloured in red, the designs being executed immediately on the stucco.

Andrea Tafi, then, and the Greek Apollonius, when they decorated this tribune in Mosaic, divided it into compartments, which, contracted at their commencement, under the lantern, became gradually more extended as they approached their termination at the cornice, the upper part being divided into circles, each representing historical scenes. In the first are all the servants and ministers of the Divine will, namely, the Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Powers, Thrones, and Dominions. In the second, also in Mosaic, after the Greek manner, are depicted the principal works of God, from the creation of light to the deluge. In the circle beneath this, which descends with increased space to the eight sides of the tribune, the history of Joseph and his twelve brothers is represented. Beneath the circles are other compartments, all of equal size, and representing the life of Christ, in Mosaic, from the Annunciation to the moment of his Ascension into Heaven. Under the three friezes is the life of St. John the Baptist, commencing with the angel appearing to Zacharias, and proceeding to the decapitation of the saint, and his burial by his disciples. To these delineations, being, as they are, extremely rude, without art or design, and having nothing in them but the Greek manner of those days, I cannot give positive praise, yet they merit some commendation, when we consider the manner prevailing in those times, with the imperfect state in which the art of painting then was ; the work is, besides, carefully done, every piece of the Mosaic being well and firmly fixed. Moreover, the latter portions of this work are better, or, to speak more precisely, less badly done than the earlier parts ; although the whole, if compared with works of the present day, is better calculated to excite ridicule than admiration or pleasure. Andrea ultimately, and to his great credit, produced the Christ, seven braccia high, which is still to be seen above the principal chapel of the same building : this he completed alone, and without the aid of Apollonius. These works rendered him famous throughout Italy : he was reputed an excellent artist in his own country, and was highly honoured and rewarded. The good fortune of Andrea was really great—to be born in an age which, doing all things in the rudest manner, could value so highly the works of an artist who really merited so little, not to say nothing.^[4] The same thing occurred to Brother Jacopo da Turrita,^[5] of the order of St. Francis, for he, having executed the Mosaics of the small choir,^[6] behind the altar of the same church of St. John, received very rich rewards, although the work was by no means commendable ; he was even despatched to Rome as an excellent master, where he was employed in the chapel of the high altar of San Giovanni Laterano, as well as in that of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was also invited to Pisa, where he commenced the Evangelists, and other works, still to be seen in the apse of the choir of that cathedral ; they are in his usual manner, and he was assisted in their execution by Andrea Tafi and Gaddi Gaddo ; these mosaics were afterwards completed by Vicino, Jacopo having left them in a very unfinished state. The works of these masters continued for some time to be held in esteem ; but when the productions of Giotto came to be compared with those of Andrea, Cimabue, and the rest, as will be related at the proper place, people began to form a better judgment of art, perceiving the difference between the first manner of Cimabue and that of Giotto, in the figures of the one and of the other, as well as in those of their scholars and imitators. Commencing from this point, artists then began, by degrees, to follow the guidance of the better masters, and happily surpassing each other more and more from day to day, they have thus brought the arts from such mean condition to the summit of that perfection to which we now see them exalted. Andrea Tafi lived to the age of eighty-one, and died before Cimabue, in the year 1294. The fame and honour acquired by Andrea from his mosaics—he having first brought the art, in its improved manner, into Tuscany, and taught it to the Florentine artists—induced Gaddo Gaddi, Giotto, and others, to give it their attention, and to execute those admirable works, in that branch of art, by which they have gained themselves everlasting name and renown. There was not wanting one who magnified the merits of Andrea, after his death, by the following inscription :—

“Quì giace Andrea, ch’opre leggiadre e belle
    Fece in tutta Toscana, ed ora è ito
  A far vago lo regno delle stelle.”^[7]

Among the scholars of Andrea was Buonomico Buffalmacco, who, while still very young, played him many a mischievous trick ;^[8] to him he presented the portrait of Pope Celestine IV, who was a Milanese, with that of Pope Innocent IV, both of which were afterwards introduced by Buffalmacco into the paintings executed by him for the church of San Paolo, on the bank of the Arno. Antonio d’Andrea Tafi was also a disciple, and perhaps the son, of Andrea. He was a tolerably good painter, but I have not been able to discover any work by his hand ; I find him named only in the old book of the company of artists in design.^[9]

Among the old masters, then, Andrea Tafi merits considerable praise, because, although he acquired the rudiments of mosaic from those artists whom he conducted from Venice to Florence, yet he made important improvements in the art, conjoining the various pieces with extreme care, and executing his work as level as a painting (a matter of the highest importance in Mosaic), so that he laid open the true path to the artists who succeeded him, and to Giotto more especially, as will be seen in the life of that artist, but also to all those who, from his time to ours, have devoted themselves to that branch of painting. Thus it may be affirmed, with truth, that the wonderful works in Mosaic, now being executed in St. Mark’s, at Venice, and in other places, are indebted to Andrea Tafi for the first beginning.^[10]

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1. For some valuable details respecting Andrea Tafi, see Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. i, p. 49, et seq.
2. All the commentators on Vasari, widely as they differ on other points, agree in the expression of their astonishment, that he should permit himself these remarks ; but although the Byzantine glass mosaics were familiar in Sicily and the South, and at Venice, it does not follow that the art was much known, or practised, at Florence.
3. Vasari here seems to contradict the praises which he has justly given to the architecture of this church in the “Introduction to the Lives,” p. 27. — Ed. Flor. 1846.
4. This is one of those passages of his “Lives” in which Vasari betrays the taste prevailing in his time, with his own prejudiced and contradictory manner of judging the works of art which he calls “old,” in contradistinction to “antique.” But in our days the contempt of the academicians for the works of the elder masters is no longer acceded to ; oven the first attempts of the reviving arts are respected and studied, since all are beginning to perceive, that in the most essential qualities of art,—thought and feeling,—even the works of those times are better calculated to awaken admiration and reverence than ridicule.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
5. See Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. i, p. 49, et seq.
6. The small choir, which Vasari here calls “ Scarsella,” was added to the building in the year 1200, and bears the name of the author of the mosaics, in the following verses, with the date 1225 :—

   “ Sancti Francisci frater fuit hoc operatus
     Jacobus in tali prce cunctis arte probatus.”

   This is the Jacopo da Turrita of Vasari. — See further, Lanzi, History of Painting, ut supra.

7. Here lies Andrea, who enriched all Tuscany with graceful and beautiful works, and is now gone to adorn the region of the stars.
8. See the 191st “Novella” of Sacchetti, from which Baldinucci gives a mutilated history of these pranks, in his life of Buffalmacco.—Ed. Flor.
9. In the book of the Company of St. Luke, now in the possession of Sig. G. Masselli, we find Antonio di Andrea Tafi, 1348. —Ed. Flor.
10. All the commentators of Vasari protest against this assertion. The Byzantine mosaic workers were deservedly celebrated, not only in Europe, but in Asia and Africa, centuries before Andrea was born. The ornamental mosaics of the middle ages are yet unrivalled in their class.