Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Antonello of Messina

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE PAINTER ANTONELLO OF MESSINA.

[born about 1414—died about 1493.]

When I consider within myself the various qualities of the benefits and advantages conferred on the art of painting by the different processes brought into operation by those numerous masters who have pursued the second manner,^[1] I cannot do otherwise than consider them as truly ingenious and excellent, they having been above all things solicitous for the welfare of the art, which they have laboured to ameliorate at all points, without regard to dif&culty, expense, or labour, and without a thought for their own interests. Continuing then, during this whole period, to work on panel and canvas,^[2] with no other mode of colouring than that of distemper, which method was commenced by Cimabue in the year 1250, at the time when he worked with those Greeks,^[3] and was afterwards followed by Giotto, and the others of whom we have been speaking up to the present time, they constantly practised the same modes of operation, although it was not unknown to artists that in tempera paintings there wanted a certain softness and freshness, which, if they could be secured, were well calculated to give increased grace to the design, a more perfect charm to the colouring, and greater facility in the blending and union of the colours, which they had always laid on with the point of the pencil only.. But although many, discussing the matter, had zealously sought to effect this desirable object, yet none had discovered a satisfactory method, either by the use of liquid varnish, or by that of any kind of colour mixed with the tempera vehicles. Among the numerous artists who tried these and similar methods, but found all vain, were Alesso Baldovinetti, Pesello, and many others, none of whom could succeed in giving to their works that beauty and excellence which they had imagined to themselves, but which they failed to reproduce with the hand. And even if they had found what they sought, they would still have wanted the art of making pictures “in tavola” as durable as those executed on the wall, as well as that of so treating them that they might be washed without removing the colours, and would endure without injury whatever concussion they might be subjected to in the process of execution. To discuss all these things, considerable numbers of artists frequently assembled, and had often held long disputations thereon, but always without any useful result.

A similar wish was at the same time felt by many of the elevated minds devoted to painting beyond the confines of Italy; by the painters of France, that is to say, of Spain, of Germany, and other countries^[4] It happened, therefore, when matters stood at this pass, that Giovanni da Bruggia^[5] working in Flanders, and much esteemed in those parts for the great skill which he had acquired in his calling, set himself to try different sorts of colours; and being a man who delighted in alchemy, he laboured much in the preparation of various oils for varnishes and other things, as is the manner of men of inventive minds such as he was. Now, it happened upon a time, that after having given extreme labour to the completion of a certain picture, and with great diligence brought it to a successful issue, he gave it the varnish and set it to dry in the sun, as is the custom. But, whether because the heat was too violent, or that the wood was badly joined, or insufficiently seasoned, the picture gave way at the joinings, opening in a very deplorable manner. Thereupon, Giovanni, perceiving the mischief done to his work by the heat of the sun, determined to proceed in such a manner that the same thing should never again injure his work in like manner. And as he was no less embarrassed by his varnishes than by the process of tempera painting, he turned his thoughts to the discovery of some sort of varnish that would dry in the shadow, to the end that he need not exr pose his pictures to the sun. Accordingly, after having made many experiments on substances, pure and mixed, he finally discovered that linseed oil and oil of nuts dried more readily than any others of all that he had tried. Having boiled these oils therefore with other mixtures, he thus obtained the varnish which he, or rather all the painters of the world, had so long desired. He made experiments with many other substances, but finally decided that mixing the colours with these oils, gave a degree of firmness to the work which not only secured it against all injury from water when once dried, but also imparted so much life to the colours, that they exhibited a sufficient lustre in themselves without the aid of varnish, and what appeared to him more extraordinary than all besides was, that the colours thus treated were much more easily united and blent than when in tempera.^[6] Rejoicing greatly over this invention, as it was reasonable that he should do, Giovanni then commenced a multitude of paintings with which he filled all those parts, to the great delight of all who beheld them as well as with very large gain to himself; his experience increasing from day to day, and his pictures constantly attaining to a higher degree of perfection. No long time had elapsed be fore the fame of Giovanni’s invention spread, not only over all Flanders, but through Italy and many other parts of the world, awakening the utmost desire in all artists to know by what method he gave such perfection to his works. Beholding his paintings, but not knowing in what manner they were produced, they saw themselves compelled to extol and bestow immortal praises on him, at the same time regarding him with a blameless envy; and the rather, as for some time he would permit none to see him work, nor would he impart his secret to any. Having become old, however, Giovanni at length confided his method to his disciple Ruggieri da Bruggia,^[7] by whom it was transmitted to Ausse,^[8] disciple of Ruggieri, and to others of whom we have made mention when speaking of oil-painting in general. But with all this, and notwithstanding that the merchants made purchases of these works, which they sent to princes and other great personages throughout the world, to their own great profit; yet the knowledge of the method did not extend beyond Flanders: and although these pictures retained the pungent odours imparted to them by the mixture of colours and oils, more particularly when they were new, so that it might have been possible, as one would suppose, to discover the ingredients and detect the mode of proceeding, yet the latter was not discovered until after the lapse of many years. But it then happened that certain Florentine merchants, who traded in Flanders and Naples, sent a picture painted in oil by Giovanni, and containing many figures, to the king of Naples, Alfonso I., by whom the work was greatly prized, as well for the beauty of the figures as for the new invention of the colouring, and every painter in the kingdom hastened to see it, when it was very highly extolled by all.^[9]

Now, it happened that a certain Antonello da Messina,^[10] a man of lively genius, of much sagacity, and considerable experience in his calling, having studied design during many years in Rome, had first retired to Palermo, where he worked for some time, and had finally returned to Messina, his native place, where he had confirmed by his works the good opinion entertained of him by his countrymen as one well-skilled in the art of painting. This artist having betaken himself for certain of his affairs from Sicily to Naples, there heard that king Alfonso had received a painting from Flanders, painted in oil, by Giovanni da Bruggia, after such a manner, that it could be washed, would endure concussion, and was in all respects entirely perfect. Thereupon, having obtained a sight of the work, he was so forcibly impressed by the vivacity of the colours, and the beauty and harmony of the whole painting, that, laying aside all other business, and every thought, he repaired at once to Flanders. Arrived in Bruges, he entered into the closest intimacy with Giovanni, making him presents of various drawings after the Italian manner, and of other things, insomuch that Giovanni, who had become old, moved by this and by the deference which Antonello displayed towards him, was content that the Italian artist should see the method of his proceeding in oil-painting; nor did the latter depart from that place until he had acquired a perfect acquaintance with that mode of colouring of which he so earnestly desired the knowledge. No long time after, Giovanni having died,^[11] Antonello left Flanders to revisit his native land, and to make Italy partake in the advantages of a secret so useful, beautiful, and valuable. After having remained some few months in Messina, he repaired to Venice, where, being much addicted to the pleasures of life, a man, indeed, of very licentious habits, he resolved to fix his residence, and there finish his life, having found in that city a mode of existence exactly suited to his taste. Resuming his labours, he executed many paintings in oil, according to the method which he had learned in Flanders; these are dispersed among the houses of different gentlemen dwelling in Venice, by whom these works were valued on account of their novelty. He, likewise, produced many others which were sent to various places,^[12] and having at length acquired a name and renown, he was commissioned to paint a picture for the parish church of San Cassiano in the abovenamed city. This work was executed by Antonello with great care, he gave much time to its completion, and brought all the resources of his knowledge to the task he had undertaken.^[13] Being finished, it was highly commended for the novelty of the colouring, and the beauty of the figures, Antonello having displayed very good design therein, and the work was held in great esteem. When it was afterwards understood that he had brought the new secret from Flanders into Venice, he was always much beloved and amicably treated by the magnificent nobles of that city, so long as his life endured. Among the painters then in repute at Venice, one of the most distinguished was a certain Maestro Domenico. This man, when Antonello arrived in Venice, received him with so much courtesy and so many caresses, that more could scarcely be offered to a dear and valued friend. For this cause, Antonello, who was not willing to be surpassed in courtesy by Maestro Domenico, imparted to him, after some few months, the secret and method of painting in oil. This was so extraordinary a benefit and proof of friendship, that no other could have been equally acceptable to Domenico, and he certainly had reason so to estimate it, since it caused him, as he had foreseen that it would do, to be ever afterwards highly honoured in his native land. Now it is certain that those men are grossly deceived who, even though they are niggardly and avaricious respecting things that cost them nothing, yet believe that every one must be willing to do them service for the sake of their high deserts: the courtesies of Domenico Veneziano enticed from Antonello the secret which he, with so many labours and pains, had procured for himself, and which he would most probably not have made over to any other, even for a large sum of money. Meanwhile, as we shall in due time describe the works performed in Florence by Maestro Domenico,^[14] and declare to whom he afterwards proved himself liberal of that which had been so amicably imparted to himself, I now return to Antonello.

After having completed the picture of San Cassiano, this master executed many pictures and portraits for different nobles of Venice. Messer Bernardo Vecchietti, of Florence, has likewise a painting by his hand, San Francesco, namely, with San Domenico,^[15] both in one picture, and exceedingly beautiful. Antonello had also received a commission from the Signoria of Venice to paint certain pictures in the palace,^[16] a work which they had refused to commit to Francesco di Monsignore, of Verona, although the latter was highly favoured by the Duke of Mantua. But the Sicilian artist fell ill of a pleurisy, and died at the age of forty-nine, without having set hand to the work. He received honourable interment from his brother artists, in consideration of the benefit he had conferred on their art by making known the new method of colouring, as we find set forth in the following

epitaph:—

D. O. M.

Antonius pictor, praecipuum Messanae suae et Siciliae totius ornamentum, hac humo contegitur. Non solum suis picturis, in quibiis singulare artificium et venustas fuit, sed et quod coloribus oleo miscendis splendorem et perpetuitatem primus Italicae picture contulit summo semper artificium studio celebratus.

The death of Antonello was much regretted by many who were his friends, more especially by the sculptor Andrea Riccio, by whom the two undraped statues of Adam and Eve in marble, still to be seen in the court of the palace of the Signoria, were executed, a work accounted very beautiful.^[17] Such was the end of Antonello, to whom our artists are certainly not less indebted for having brought the method of painting in oil into Italy, than they are to Giovanni da Bruggia for having invented it in Flanders. Both have benefited and enriched the art: for in consequence of this discovery, we have since had masters so excellent that they have almost attained the power of making their figures alive; and their services are all the more valuable, inasmuch as there is no writer by whom the knowledge of this mode of painting is ascribed to the ancients. Nay, could we certainly know that they had not been acquainted therewith, the present age might be said to have surpassed the ancients in the advance towards perfection made by the adoption of that method. But as nothing is said in these times which has not been said before, so perhaps is nothing now accomplished which has not been already done in times gone by; this, however, I pass over in silence, and will say nothing more concerning it,^[18] but giving high commendation to those who, in addition to correct drawing, are continually adding something more to art, I proceed to write of other masters.

1. The author here alludes to the second of the three periods into which he has divided his work, and on each of which he treats of a certain manner or period of art. See the Introduction to the Second Part, vol. i.
2. Paintings on canvas only were but occasionally seen at this time, as when the work was intended to be borne in procession, or where lightness was required for some other cause. Canvas was nevertheless frequently used to cover the wood most generally used, but over the canvas a ground of gypsum was then laid, and on this, when he had well glazed it, the artist worked with his colours in distemper. For the various processes used in the preparation of the ground, the choice and mixture of colours, &c., see Cennino Cennini, Trattato della Pittura. See also the various Treatises on the Ancient Practice of Painting, translated by Mrs. Merrifield; with Eastlake’s Materials towards a History of Oil Painting, in all of which most ample and valuable details on these subjects will be found.
3. See the Life of Cimabue, vol, i.
4. The original has “other provinces.”
5. The renowned John van Eyck, called John of Bruges.
6. For the much-vexed question of the time when, and the person by whom, painting in oil was first practised, the reader is referred to the many writers who have treated the subject. Among those most easily accessible to the English reader may be mentioned, Eastlake, Materials, &c., and the Ancient Practice of Painting in Oil, translated from various Treatises with copious and valuable notes, by Mrs. Merrifield. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, may also be consulted with advantage, and there will be found a decree of Edward III. which Walpole adduces in support of his opinion that oil-painting was practised long before the time of the brothers Hubert and John Van Eyck, to the former of whom many of the disputants on this subject attribute the credit of the discovery. Tambroni, in his preface to Cennini’s Trattato della Pittura, p. 38, does not scruple to call the account given by Vasari, “one of those romances which are incapable of supporting the anvil of the critic.” Lanzi, on the contrary, History of Painting, affirms the truth of our author’s version, as do many other writers: while some attribute the invention to Antonello of Messina himself. The work of Cennino Cennini, admirably translated by Mrs. Merrifield, is of great value. The German reader will find the subject treated, more or less at length, by Waagen, Rumohr, Passavant, and many others.
7. Few notices of Ruggieri, or Roger of Bruges, exist. According to Facius, De Viris Illustribus, Roger of Bruges was in Rome during the jubilee of 1450; and Filarete, in his Trattato, written between the years 1460 and 1464, speaks of him as still living.
8. This name is generally believed to be a mistake or misprint; it should without doubt be written Anse, that is, Hans, and Hans Hemling is most probably the artist referred to. Barnewyck, Historie van Belgis, p. 493, declares the city of Bruges to be filled with the works of this master. Waagen and Passavant, who follow Van Mander, call this master Memling, as do many of the Italian writers; others adhere to the name Hemling, with some of the German critics. For various notices of this painter, and his works, see Boisseree, in Kunstblatt, No. 11 (1821), and No. 43 (1825). The latest edition of Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters gives an excellent compendium of the notices of this artist, furnished by different writers.
9. In the church of Santa Barbara in Naples, there is a picture of the Magi behind the high altar, which is said to be that here mentioned by Vasari; but the Guida di Napoli, written for the men of learning and science who assembled in that city in 1845, throws doubt on the subject, the portraits of Alfonso I. and Ferdinand being in the picture, which was not painted in Naples, but sent thither from Flanders. There is a passage however, in an unpublished work by the Neapolitan painter Stanzioni (born 1585), to the effect that the painting, having suffered injury in the transit, was restored by Zingaro and the Donzelli, by whom these portraits may have been introduced. According to Facius, ut supra, the picture sent from Flanders was an Annunciation.
10. The name of this painter is Antonello degli Antoni, and he is said to have descended from a family of artists. Gallo, Annali di Messina, assigns the year 1447 as that of his birth; but this is not in accordance with known facts, and we adhere to the most generally received opinion, which places it in 1414.
11. The date of Hans van Eyck’s death has been variously given, in 1470, 1445, and 1440; but the latest Florentine commentators assign that event to the last-named date, citing a document discovered in the archives of the cathedral of Bruges, from which it appears to be clearly shown that the Flemish master died in the month of June in that year.
12. The German galleries are richer than any other in the works of this master; there are three in the Berlin gallery, and one in that of the Belvidere (Vienna). Of the latter there is an engraving in Rosini, Storia della Pittura Italiana, See, vol. iii. p. 111.
13. This picture was in its place in the year 1475, and so remained until the end of the century, as we learn from Morelli, Notizie d’Opere d'Arte di Anonimo, p. 189. In 1580, Sansovino saw it still there, but at the time of Ridolfi (1646), see Meraviglie dell'Arte, it was no longer to be found.
14. The life of this master follows.
15. This picture was not a St. Francis and St. Dominick, but a Franciscan monk in dispute with a regular canon, it was transferred from the Vecchietti family to the possession of the Englishman, Ignatius Hugford; and is now, or was lately, in the hands of the Messrs. Woodburn.
16. The Ducal Palace, burnt in 1483, was not restored until 1493. These dates may assist in deciding the period of Antonello’s death. — Ed. Flor. 1832—38.
17. Vasari has here mistaken the name of Andrea Riccio of Padua, for that of Antonio Riccio of Verona, whose name is on the work in question. —See Cicognara, Storia della Scultura, for a notice of Andrea Riccio. who was a celebrated master in bronze, well meriting to find place in the “Lives” of Vasari.
18. Notwithstanding the attention that must have been awakened in Italy by the invention of Van Eyck, it does not seem to have had any very immediate consequences; on the contrary, the influence of the change which it was calculated to produce, appears to have been confined in the first instance to Venice and the Lombards. According to Zanetti, the first oil-painting executed in Venice was a St. Augustine, painted in the vear 1475, for the church of San Giovanni e Paolo, by Bartolommeo Vivarini. In Florence, painting in tempera maintained its ground still longer, a circumstance to which the horror felt for the crime of Andrea del Castagno (whose life follows), may possibly have contributed. Rumohr is doubtful Avhether Domenico Veneziano ever painted in oil. See the Kunstblatt for 1821, pp, 11, 178; see also Eastlake, Materials, p. 214, et seq. Lanzi, vol. i, p. 81, and vol. ii. p. 8, et seq. p. 95, et seq.