Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Benvenuto Garofalo and Girolamo da Carpi, painters of Ferrara, and other Lombard masters
BENVENUTO GAROFALO AND GIROLAMO DA CARPI, PAINTERS OF FERRARA, AND OTHER LOMBARD MASTERS.
[Flourished from towards the close of the 15th, to about the middle of the 16th century.]
In that portion of these Lives which we are now about to write, we propose to make a collection of, and briefly record all the best and most eminent painters, sculptors, and architects, who have appeared in Lombardy during our own times, that is to say, since the time of Mantegna, Lorenzo Costa, BoCcaccino of Cremona, and the Bolognese Francia: and this I do because I cannot relate the story of each in particular, and because it appears to me that it will be sufficient to record the works of these artists.
Nor should I have permitted myself to do even thus much, or to give a judgment of these masters’ productions if I had not first examined the same; but as from the year 1542 down to the present year of 1566, I had not travelled nearly all through Italy as I had previously done, neither had I seen the works of the above-named masters, nor those of some others, in which, during that space of twenty-four years, there must needs have been a great increase; so I determined, being almost at the end of this my work, to examine them before I should venture to write of their merits or demerits, whereof I resolved to form a judgment from the evidence of my own eyes.
Wherefore, the before-mentioned nuptials of the most Illustrious Signor Don Francesco Medici, Prince of Florence and Siena, my Lord, with the most Serene Princess, Queen Joanna of Austria, having been concluded, I, who had previously been for two years most busily occupied in painting the ceiling of the principal hall of their palace, then resolved to depart, and without sparing either cost or labour, to revisit Rome, all Tuscany, a part of the March, Umbria, Romagna, Lombardy, and Venice, with the wdiole of the Venetian territory, re-examining the old works and visiting the many new ones which have been executed since the above-named year 1542.
Having in the course of my journeys, therefore, made careful memorial of such things as I found most remarkable and worthy of being notified, that I might do no wrong to the deserts of the many artists, nor yet offer violence to that sincere truthfulness which is expected from all who write history of any kind, and who are required to speak without any bias or partiality whatever, I will now set down what may have been wanting to certain parts of that which I have already written, without departing from the order of my story, and will proceed to give notices of the works performed by certain masters who are still living, and who have produced and are producing excellent works; for it appears to me that so much is demanded by the deserts of many highly meritorious and noble artists.
I begin with the Ferrarese masters in painting.
Benvenuto Garofalo[1] was born in Ferrara, in the year 1481, to Piero Tisi, whose forefathers had by their origin been Paduans. He had received from nature so powerful an inclination to the art of painting, that when but a little child and while still at the school, whither he was sent that he might learn to read, he would do nothing but draw, an occupation from which his father, who considered painting a mere idleness, vainly endeavoured to deter the boy, for he found that to do so was impossible. At length the father perceived that he would do better to second the impulse of nature in this his son, who did nothing but draw night and day; and finally therefore, he resolved to place him with Domenico Laneto,[2] who was then a painter of very fair repute in Ferrara, although his manner was somewhat dry and laboured.[3]
With this artist Benvenuto had remained for some time, when, having gone on a certain occasion to Cremona, he there saw the paintings in the principal chapel of the cathedral; now among others from the hand of Boccaccino Boccacci, a Cremonese painter, by whom the whole apsis had been painted in fresco, was a figure of Our Saviour Christ, who, seated on his throne and with two Saints on each side, is represented in the act of bestowing his benediction;[4] and being greatly pleased with that work, Benvenuto fixed himself, by the intervention of some friends,[5] with Boccaccino, who was at that time still occupied in the same church, with stories in fresco from the life of the Madonna, of which we have already spoken in his Life: these works he executed in competition with the painter Altobello,[6] who was employed on frescoes from the Life of Christ in the same churchy nay, opposite to the work of Boccaccino, where Altobello was producing stories which are exceedingly beautiful and truly worthy of commendation. Pleased, as we have said, with Boccaccino’s manner, Benvenuto remained two years in Cremona, and having made great progress under the discipline of the Cremonese artist, he departed, being then in his nineteenth year, and repaired to Rome.
It was in the year 1500[7] that Garofalo arrived in that city, where he placed himself with Giovanni Baldini, a Florentine painter of considerable ability,[8] who had a large number of most beautiful drawings by different masters of eminence in his possession, and on these Benvenuto practised whenever he had time, more particularly during the night. After having remained with Baldini fifteen months, and having examined the works of art in Rome to his great delight, Benvenuto continued for some time to move about through various parts of Italy, and finally arrived in Mantua, where he remained during two years with Lorenzo Costa, serving him with so much affection that, after the lapse of that time, Lorenzo, to reward his attachment, procured him an appointment to the service of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, by whom Lorenzo himself was employed.
But Garofalo had not been long with the Marquis, before he was compelled, by the illness of his father, to return to Ferrara, where he then continued during four years, exe cuting numerous works on his own account, as well as others, which he performed in the company of the Dossi.[9]
In the year 1505, Messer Jeronimo Sagrato, a gentleman of Ferrara, who resided in Rome, sent for Benvenuto, desiring him to repair to the last-named city, which he did most gladly, and the rather as he much desired to see the miracles then related of Raffaello da Urbino, and of the chapel of Pope Julius,[10] which had been painted by Buonarroto.[11]
But when Benvenuto had seen the works here alluded to,: he was not only amazed, but felt almost in despair, as he regarded the graceful animation which Raphael was imparting to the art, and remarked the profound knowledge of design evinced by Michelagnolo. He anathematized the manner of Lombardy, and that which he had acquired with so much study and labour at Mantua; nay, had it been possible, he would very fain have divested himself of all that he had learned with so much pains: but since better might not be, he resolved to unlearn that which he had given his youth to acquiring; and after the loss of so many years, he determined from a master to become once more a disciple.[12]
He thereupon began to copy and draw from those works which he considered the best and most difficult, giving scarcely any of his attention to other matters, but labouring perpetually at these designs for two years, when his bad manner had become changed for a good one to such an extent that he was now held by the artists in much account: nay, what was more, he demeaned himself in such sort, and displayed so much diffidence as well as courtesy, that he became the friend of Raffaello da llrbino, who, kind and obliging as he was, assisted and favoured Benvenuto greatly, teaching him many things; and if the latter had continued to practice in Rome, there cannot be a doubt but that he would have produced works fully worthy of his fine genius.
But he was compelled, I know not by what cause, to return to his native place; yet in taking leave of Raphael, he promised to abide by his counsels, and once more to repair to Rome, where Raphael assured him that he would supply him with more occupation than he could require, and that in very honourable works.
Having reached Ferrara, and despatched those affairs which had been the cause of his returning thither, Benvenuto was preparing himself to revisit Rome, when the Signor Alfonso Duke of Ferrara, invited him to paint a small chapel in the Castello, in company with other Ferrarese painters, which having completed, his departure was again prevented by the pressing kindness of Messer Antonio Costabili, a Ferrarese gentleman of much authority and influence, who induced him to paint a picture in oil for the high altar of the church of Sant’ Andrea, and that done he was compelled to execute another in San Bertolo, a monastery of Cistercian monks, in which he painted an Adoration of the Magi, which was greatly admired. He was then called on to execute a picture for the cathedral,[13] with two others which were placed in the church of Santo Spirito:[14] in one of these is the Virgin, seen in the air with the Divine Child in her arms, with other figures beneath; and in the other is the Nativity of Jesus Christ.
While Benvenuto was occupied with these works, he constantly thought with extreme regret, nay, even with pain, or his estrangement from Rome, and was resolved that, come what might, he would at once return to that city; but the death of his father Piero taking place at that time, all his plans were deranged, seeing that he then found himself with a marriageable sister on his shoulders, a brother only fourteen years old, and his family affairs in great disorder. Benvenuto was thus compelled to resign himself and make up his mind to remain in his native place.
He then separated himself from the Dossi, in whose company he had previously worked; and in the church of San Francesco he painted a chapel entirely alone: the subject is the Resurrection of Lazarus; the numerous figures are very good and most agreeably coloured, the attitudes are full of force and movement; Benvenuto consequently received much commendation for his work. In another chapel of the same church our artist painted the Slaughter of the Innocents cruelly put to death by Herod; this was so well done, and the figures of the soldiers and others engaged therein are so full of life, that the picture is a perfect marvel. The various expressions of the many faces, also, are admirably rendered; grief and fear in the countenances of the mothers and nurses, pain and death in those of the infants, and cruelty in the faces of the murderers, with many other peculiarities, which gave infinite satisfaction.[15]
It is also to be remarked that in the execution of these works, Benvenuto adopted a method which had never before been used in Lombardy; he made models of earth that is to say, to the end that he might the more truthfully render botli the lights and the shadows; he employed the model of a figure in wood likewise, jointed and hinged in such a manner that it could be brought into any attitude whatever, and this he then arranged after his own pleasure, placing his draperies thereon, and moving them into such positions as he required.
But what is of more importance than all the rest, he copied every minutia from life and nature, as one who knew that the right and true method is to observe and copy the living subject. For the same church our artist painted the altar-piece of a chapel, and on one of the wails he painted a fresco, the subject of which is Our Saviour Christ, taken by the multitude in the Garden of the Mount of Olives.[16]
For the church of San Domenico, in the same city of Ferrara, Benvenuto painted two pictures in oil;[17] one representing the Miracle of the Cross and Sant’ Elena; in the other is San Pietro Martire,[18] with a considerable number of very beautiful figures.[19] In this work Benvenuto appears to have greatly changed from his first manner, that here to be remarked, is much bolder and less laboured. For the nuns of San Silvestro this master painted a picture, the subject of which is Christ Praying on the Mount, while the three Apostles are sleeping beneath. For the nuns of San Gabbriello he executed an Annunciation;[20] and for the Sisters of Sant’ Antonio he painted the Resurrection of Our Saviour Christ, as the picture of their high altar.
In the church of San Girolamo, Benvenuto painted a picture for the Frati Ingesuati; this represented the Divine Child in the Manger, and around him is a choir of exceedingly beautiful angels; it was placed on the high altar, and is esteemed an admirable work. In Santa Maria del Yado there is a well-composed and beautifully-coloured picture by the same hand; Our Saviour Christ namely, ascending into heaven, with the apostles standing beneath, and looking after their ascending Lord in profound astonishment.[21]
For the church of San Giorgio, which is a place belonging to the monks of Monte Oliveto, without the city, Benvenuto painted a picture in oil, the subject being the Magi offering their Adoration to the Infant Christ, and bringing to him presents of myrrh, incense, and gold. This is one of the best works ever executed by that master in the whole course of his life;[22] but all his productions greatly pleased the people of Ferrara, and caused them to employ him in the painting of pictures almost without number for their dwellings. He painted very many for monasteries also, as well as for the castles and villas without the city and for the neighbourhood around it. Among other places he worked at Boldeno, where he produced a picture on panel representing the Resurrection of Christ: he also painted the Refectory of Sant’ Andrea in fresco, and here he displayed exceedingly rich invention, with much power of fancy, the numerous figures of the work being intended to signify and set forth the connexion between the Old Testament and the New.[23]
But since the works of this master are almost innumerable, so it shall suffice me to have mentioned such of them as are to be considered the best.[24]
Girolamo da Carpi received his first instructions in painting from Benvenuto Garofalo, as will be related in his life, and together they depicted certain subjects in imitation of bronze, on the façade of the house of the Muzzarelli family, which is situate in the Borgo Nuovo. They also painted, in like manner together, both the interior and the outside of the palace of Copara, a place of recreation belonging to the Duke of Ferrara, for whom Benvenuto executed many other works, some alone, and some in the company of other painters.
Now Benvenuto had long lived in the determination to take no wife, but after he had lost the society of his brother, he became tired of living alone, and in the fortieth year of his age he resolved to marry. This he had not done more than a year, when he fell seriously ill, and lost the sight of his right eye, nor was he without fear and much danger of losing the other. He then recommended himself to God, and made a vow to wear grey clothing ever after, as, in effect, he did, when by the grace of God the sight of the left eye was preserved to him so perfectly, that the works executed by Garofalo in his sixty-fifth year are so well done, so delicately finished, and evince so much care, that they are truly wonderful. Respecting this master there is further to relate, that the Duke of Ferrara was on a certain occasion displaying a work in oil, by Benvenuto, to Pope Paul III., the Triumph of Bacchus namely, five braccia long,[25] with another representing the Calumny of Apelles,[26] both executed at that age by Garofalo, after the designs of Raffaello da Orbino, and each placed over a certain chimney-piece in the palace of his Excellency the Duke; he was showing them, I say, to Pope Paul, when that Pontiff declared himself to be struck with astonishment, that works of such extent and beauty should have been executed by a man of so advanced an age; one, too, who had but a single eye.
On every festival day during twenty years, Benvenuto worked without intermission, for the love of God, and accepting no payment for his labour, at the convent belonging to the nuns of San Bernardino,[27] where he executed many works of importance in oil, in tempera, and in fresco; this was certainly a very remarkable thing, and full proof of his sincerity and good nature; the rather as he had no competitors in that place, yet gave as much care and study to all that he did, as he could have done had he been labouring in a much frequented district. These works of San Bernardino are very good compositions, and the heads have considerable beauty of expression, the grouping is free from confusion, and the figures are in a soft and good manner.
Benvenuto had many disciples, but although he taught them all that he knew more than willingly, and might have expected that some one of them would have distinguished themselves, yet no one of these young men ever made any progress; and instead of receiving from them that affection and gratitude which his kindness had well merited, he never obtained any thing better than vexations from any one of them; insomuch that he was wont to declare the only enemies he had ever had in his life to have been his own disciples and assistants.
In the year 1550, when Benvenuto had become much advanced in age, his disease of the eyes returned upon him, and he became totally blind: in this state he remained nine years, supporting his misfortune with great constancy of mind and patience, being in all things submissive to the will of God. At length, and when he had attained his seventyeighth year, rejoicing in the approach of death, and seeming to himself to have too long wandered in darkness, with the hope of thenceforward enjoying eternal life, he completed the course of his life on the 6th day of September, in the year 1559. Benvenuto left a son called Girolamo still living, who is a very amiable person, and also a daughter.
This artist was an exceedingly good and worthy man, cheerful of disposition, mild in his converse, and always supporting the trials of his life with patient resignation. In his youth he found much pleasure in fencing and in playing on the lute; he was very warmly attached to his friends, and was indeed beyond measure affectionate and devoted to their service; among his intimates were the painter Giorgione da Castel Franco, Titian of Cadore, and Giulio Romano, Benvenuto was indeed universally well-disposed, and ever proved himself most friendly to all those of his art; I can myself bear testimony to this matter, seeing that during the two visits which I made to Ferrara in his time, I received from him innumerable favours and marks of kindness.
Benvenuto was honourably interred in the church of Santa Maria del Yado, and received from many persons of distinction that tribute of respect, both in verse and prose, which his qualities had well deserved.[28] But as I have not been able to procure the portrait of Garofalo,[29] I have placed at the commencement of this series of Lombard painters that of Girolamo Carpi, whose Life I am now about to write.
Girolamo, then, who was called Da Carpi,[30] f and who was a Ferrarese, and disciple of Benvenuto Garofalo, passed his earlier years in the work-shops of his father Tommaso, who was a painter of shields, and who employed him to decorate cotfers, seats, frames, and other matters of similar character. Girolamo, having subsequently made some progress under the discipline of Benvenuto, expected that his father would set him free from the necessity of executing those mechanical works, but as Tommaso, desirous of gain, would do nothing of the kind, his son resolved to leave him, come what might thereof.
He thereupon departed from Ferrara and repaired to Bologna, where he found much favour with the gentlemen of that city: wherefore having taken certain portraits, which were found to be very fair likenesses, he acquired so good a reputation that he made large gains, and was able to gain more for his father by his abode in Bologna than he had done while in Ferrara.
Now at that time there had been a work by the hand of Antonio Correggio transported to Bologna and deposited in the house of the Counts Ereoiani. The subject of the picture was our Saviour Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the form of the Gardener;[31] and this painting, which was executed with a degree of perfection, and finished with a softness to which no words could do justice; this work, I say, did so possess itself of the heart of Girolamo, that he could not satisfy himself w’ith copying it, and at length set off for Modena, to see the other works of Correggio in that place. Arrived there accordingly, Girolamo was filled with admiration at the sight of what he beheld, but he was struck with astonishment by one among them more than by all besides. This was a large picture, which is, indeed, most divine: the subject of the work is Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, the infant being in the act of placing the ring on the finger of Santa Caterina, whom he is espousing.[32] There is, besides, a San Sebastiano and other figures, with expressions of countenance so beautiful that those faces appear to have been made in Paradise; the hair and hands, moreover, are such that it is not possible to imagine any thing more perfect in their kind, nor can anything painted be more natural or more life-like.
From the Doctor, Messer Francesco Grillenzoni, the owner of the picture, and who had been an intimate friend of Correggio, Da Carpi obtained permission to copy the same, which he did with all the care that it is possible to conceive.
He afterwards did as much in respect to the picture of San Pietro Martire,[33] which Correggio had painted for a company of laymen, by which it is held in the high estimation which it so justly deserves. In this work, to say nothing of the other-figures, there is most particularly to be remarked, that of the Infant Christ in the lap of the Virgin Mother, and this does truly appear to breathe. The figure of San Pietro Martire also is eminently beautiful. Girolamo likewise copied a small but no less admirable picture by the same master, which belonged to the brotherhood of San Sebastiano, for whom Correggio had painted it.[34] All these works, thus copied by Girolamo, improved his manner to such an extent that it was no longer the same thing, and did not appear to be his own.
From Modena Girolamo proceeded to Parma, where he had heard that there were also works by Correggio, and where he copied certain of the pictures in the apsis of the Cathedral, among them an admirably fore-shortened figure of our Lord ascending into Heaven and surrounded by numerous Angels,[35] while the Apostles are standing beneath in contemplation of that miracle. Girolamo likewise copied the four Saints, protectors of Parma, by whom the niches are occupied; these are San Giovanni Battista, who has a Lamb in his hand; St. Joseph, the Spouse of Our Lady; the Florentine, San Bernardo degli Uberti, who was a cardinal and bishop of Florence; with another saint who was also a bishop.
In the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista, moreover, Girolamo studied the figures of the principal chapel, which is in the apsis of that church, these being in like manner by the hand of Correggio, the Coronation of Our Lady namely, with figures of San Giovanni Evangelista, of the Baptist, of San Benedetto, San Placido, and a large number of Angels, who surround the principal group. He likewise copied the admirable figures which are in the chapel of San Joseffo in the church of San Sepolcro, a work that may be truly called divine.[36]
Now it may be considered certain, that he who takes great pleasure in the manner of some particular master, and studies that manner with love and zeal, will at least acquire some tincture of the same, and give evidence thereof in parts, if not in the whole of his own works; it has, indeed, sometimes happened, that the scholar has become more distinguished than his master: but with respect to Girolamo we have principally to remark, that he approached the manner of Correggio in certain parts, and when he had returned to Bologna he constantly endeavoured to imitate his works, studying none other but those, and the pictures by the hand of Raffaello da Urbino, which, as we have before related, the men of that city have in their possession.[37] All these particulars I obtained from Girolamo himself, whom I knew well in Rome, seeing him there frequently during the year 1550, when he often lamented with me that he should have consumed his youth and the best of his years in Ferrara and Bologna, instead of passing them in Rome or some other place, wherein he might have made more important acquisitions in art.
But Girolamo was besides impeded to no small extent in his studies of art by the too earnest devotion with which he addicted himself to his pleasures and to playing on the lute, in which he spent the time that might have been given to his improvement in painting. He ultimately returned to Bologna, where, among many other portraits, he took that of the Florentine Messer Onofrio Bartolini, who was then pursuing his studies in Bologna, and who afterwards became Archbishop of Pisa: that head, which now belongs to the heirs of the above-named Messer Noferi,[38] is an exceedingly beautiful one, and in a singularly graceful manner.
At the same time the painter Messer Biagio[39] was working in Bologna, and this artist perceiving that Girolamo was getting into credit, began to fear that he would pass before himself and deprive him of all his gains; he therefore watched his opportunities, and succeeded in establishing a friendship with Girolamo, whom he then laboured to retard in his progress, attaching himself so closely to his society, and becoming so intimate with Girolamo, that after a time they began to work in company, and so continued for some time.
Now this arrangement was not only detrimental to Girolamo in the matter of gain, but was also highly injurious to his progress in art, seeing that he now followed the practice of Maestro Biagio, who worked by mere facility of hand, and took all his pictures from the designs now of one master and now of another, in a manner which, being also pursued by Girolamo, the latter now gave no further care or study to his paintings.
There was at that time a certain Fra Antonio, a Monk of the Monastery of San Michele in Bosco, which is situate immediately outside of Bologna, and this Frate had painted a figure of San Sebastiano, the size of life, in his own convent, with a picture in oil for a convent of that same order of Monte Oliveto which was situate at Scaricalasino, and some figures in fresco at the chapel of the garden of Santa Scolastica at Monte Oliveto Maggiore. The Monk Antonio having done these things, it was determined by the Abbot Ghiacciro, who had detained him during that year at Bologna, that he should paint the New Sacristry of the church: but the Frate Antonio, who did not feel equal to undertake so great a work, or who did not care perchance to undergo much labour and fatigue, as is frequently the case with that kind of people,—Frate Antonio, I say, so contrived that the work was entrusted to Girolamo and Maestro Biagio, who accordingly painted the whole chapel in fresco. In the compartments of the ceiling these artists depicted Children and Angels, and on the principal wall they represented the Story of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the figures of which are very large: the design for this picture was taken from that executed in Rome by Raffaello da Urbino for San Pietro in Montorio. On the remaining space they painted figures of Saints, of which some at least are very good.
Girolamo meanwhile perceived that his association with Maestro Biagio was by no means advantageous to him, nay, was likely to prove his utter ruin; he therefore determined to separate himself from his company, which he did when the undertaking above-mentioned was completed, and then began to work alone. The first picture which he executed entirely by himself was one for the chapel of San Sebastiano in the church of San Salvadore, a performance wherein he acquitted himself exceedingly well;[40] but having shortly afterwards received intelligence of the death of his father, Girolamo returned to Ferrara, where he for that time did little besides taking a few portraits and other works of but slight importance.
Meanwhile Titiano Yercellio had been invited to Ferrara, as will be mentioned in his life, there to execute certain paintings in a small room or study for the Duke Alfonso, wherein Giovan Bellino had previously performed certain works, and where Dosso had painted a Procession of Bacchanals,[41]! the figures of which are so fine that he would well merit the name of a good painter for that work only, had he never produced any other;[42] when Girolamo profited by the arrival of Tizian, and by his means, with the intervention of some other persons also, he began to obtain access to the court of the Duke.[43] He now, as it were to give a specimen of what he could do, copied the head of Ercole, Duke of Ferrara, from a painting by the hand of Titian, and this he did so well that it appeared to be exactly the same as the original, for which reason it was sent into France as a work of great merit.
At a later period, and when Girolamo had taken a wife and become the father of a family, perhaps somewhat earlier than he ought to have done, he painted the Four Evangelists in fresco, in the angles of the ceiling in the church of San Francesco at Ferrara. These were tolerably good figures, and in the same church he painted a frieze which passed entirely around the building, a work of very great extent, and comprising numerous figures in half length, with little children most charmingly intermingled and linked together.[44] In a picture which he was commissioned to execute, also for the church of San Francesco, Girolamo painted the figure of Sant’ Antonio of Padua with other Saints; and in a second picture he represented Our Lady in the air with two Angels, this last being placed on the Altar by the Signora Giulia Muzzarella, whose portrait the artist depicted therein with very great success.
In Rovigo Girolamo da Carpi executed a work for the Church of San Francesco, the subject chosen was the Descent of the Holy Spirit in Tongues of Fire; this was a performance worthy of the highest commendation, for the excellence of the composition as well as for the beauty of the heads. For the church of San Martino in Bologna likewise he painted a picture representing the three Magi, both the figures and heads of which are exceedingly beautiful.[45]
At Ferrara the works performed by Girolamo were the fa§ade of a house for the Signor Battista Muzzarelli, which he painted in company with Benvenuto Garofalo, as we have said, with that of the palace of Copara, a villa belonging to the Duke, and situate at the distance of about twelve miles from Ferrara. In the last-mentioned city itself he also painted the fa$ade of the house of Pietro Soncini, which is on the Piazza and near the Fish Market, depicting there the taking of Goletta by the Emperor Charles V. At San Polo, which is a church in the same city belonging to the Carmelite Monks, our artist painted a picture in oil representing San Girolamo with two other Saints, all of the size of life.[46] In the ducal palace Girolamo painted a very large picture, with a figure full of animation, movement, and grace, and exhibiting admirably good relief; this, which was of the size of life, was intended to signify Opportunity.
The same artist also painted a nude figure of Venus, the size of life, and in a recumbent attitude, with Love beside her; this was sent to Paris, but I, who saw the work at Ferrara, in the year 1540, can with truth affirm that it was a most beautiful one. Girolamo likewise commenced the painting of the Refectory of San Giorgio, a monastery which the monks of Monte Oliveto possess in Ferrara, and did indeed complete the work to a considerable extent, but some part of it was left unfinished and this has been now brought to a conclusion by the Bolognese painter Pellegrino Pellegrini.[47]
But he who should make mention of all the pictures which Girolamo executed in the houses of different nobles and gentlemen, would make the story much longer than it is our purpose to do, wherefore I will speak of two only; these, however, are indeed most exquisite. One of the two is a copy from a picture by the hand of Correggio, and which is beautiful to a marvel, now in the possession of the Cavalier Boiardo, in Parma; the subject Our Lady, who is putting a little tunic or camicia on the Infant Christ, and from which Girolamo took a copy, as we have said, so entirely faithful, that it appears to be the same and no other. The second is also a copy from a work by Parmigianino, and which is now at the Certosa of Pavia,[48] in the cell of the Vicar; this also is executed with so much love and zeal that no miniature can be found finished more delicately.
Girolamo painted many other pictures, with infinite care; and, as he took much pleasure in architecture, our artist sometimes undertook works in that branch of art likewise; he prepared numerous designs for buildings belonging to different private persons, but also served in this particular the Cardinal of Ferrara, Ippolito de’ Medici, who, having bought the garden at Montecavallo in Rome, which had previously belonged to the Cardinal of Naples, with several vineyards belonging to other persons which surrounded it, invited Girolamo to Rome, to the end that this master might serve him, not in the buildings only, but also in the truly regal decorations of wood work, &c., which adorn that garden;[49] and in this work he acquitted himself so well, that all who beheld it were amazed; nor, indeed, do I know any one who has done better in wood-work (afterwards covered with the most exquisite foliage) than Girolamo da Carpi, or who has produced a richer variety of graceful forms, such as temples of different characters, wherein may now be seen arranged many of the finest antique statues to be found in Rome, part of the latter being complete, and part having been restored by the Florentine Valerio Cioli[50] and other sculptors.
By all these labours Girolamo da Carpi, having got himself into very good credit at Rome, was preferred, in the year 1550, by the above-named Cardinal, his lord, who loved him very greatly, to the service of Pope Julius III., who made him architect of the works then in course of erection at the Belvidere, giving him rooms there, with a good stipend. But as that Pontiff was never to be contented in matters of that kind, (more particularly at the commencements, and when, understanding nothing of design, he constantly became dissatisfied at night with that which had pleased him in the morning,) and as besides Girolamo had to be perpetually contending with certain old architects, to whom it seemed a wonderful thing that a new and unknown person should be placed before them,—Girolamo, I say, clearly perceiving the envy and probable malignity of these men, resolved to retire, and this he did the more readily because he was himself rather lukewarm of disposition than otherwise.
Taking the prudent part, therefore, our artist returned to Montecavallo and to the service of the Cardinal, a step for which he was much commended by many who thought that it was indeed too desperate a life to be every day and all day long contending about each trifling arrangement with this person and that: then, as he well said, it is better to have quiet of mind, though with only bread and water, than to sigh and break one’s heart in the midst of greatness and honours. When, therefore, Girolamo had executed a very beautiful picture for that prelate, his lord,—with which I, who have seen it, was very greatly pleased,—being now weary and exhausted, he returned with his said lord to Ferrara, thereto enjoy the repose of life in his own home with his wife and children, leaving the hopes and schemes of fortune in the hands of his adversaries, who obtained from the Pontiff just what he had received himself, and nothing more or better.
While Girolamo was thus residing at Ferrara, the palace took fire, by some accident, I know not what, when the Duke Ercole charged our artist with the care of restoring it; an office which he performed exceedingly well, adorning the fabric as he best could in that country, where they suffer a great dearth of stone for making polished ornaments; he acquitted himself so well indeed, as to secure the favour of the Duke, who remunerated his labours most liberally.
Finally, having completed this work and many others, Girolamo died at the age of fifty-five,[51] and in the year 1558, when he was buried beside his wife in the church of the Angeli. He left two daughters and three sons, Giulio, Annibale, and another, that is to say.
Girolamo was a man of a cheerful character, very agreeable in conversation, in his works somewhat leisurely and slow, of middle stature, an immoderate lover of music, and perhaps rather more earnestly devoted to the pleasures of sense than was altogether desirable. After his death the works of his lords were carried on by the Ferrarese architect Galasso,[52] a man of admirable genius, and of such remarkable ability in all things appertaining to architecture, that, to judge from what we see of his designs, he would have displayed a much higher degree of excellence than he has now done, had he been employed in works of greater importance.
The excellent sculptor Maestro Girolamo[53] was in like manner a Ferrarese; he had his abode at Ricanati, and executed numerous decorations in marble for the house and chapel of the Madonna at Loretto, after the death of Andrea Contucci his master, making large numbers of the ornaments, by which that edifice is enriched. When Tribolo, who was the last of the masters in design employed at Loretto, had departed from that place, after having completed the large marble relief which is at the back of the chapel, that namely which represents the Angels bringing that House from Sclavonia to the wood of Loretto,—when Tribolo had departed, I say, this Girolamo continued working at the completion of various parts, labouring perpetually from the year 1534 to the year 1560, and executing numerous works. The first of these was the seated figure of a Prophet, three braccia and a half high, and this, being considered a good and beautiful work, was placed in a niche on the western side of the chapel.
The success of Girolamo in respect of this figure, caused him to be subsequently charged with the execution of all the other Prophets, one only excepted, and this, which is on the outside, to the east of the edifice, and opposite to the altar, was by the hand of Simone Cioli of Settignano, who was also a disciple of Andrea Sansovino. With that exception, I say, all the prophets are by the above-named Maestro Girolamo, and are executed with much diligence, study, and good ability. For the chapel of the Sacrament the same master has prepared the Chandeliers of bronze, which are about three braccia high, and are richly covered with foliage as well as figures, cast in full relief; these are so admirably well done that they are indeed a marvel. A brother of Maestro Girolamo, who is an exceedingly able master in works of cast metal, has also executed numerous undertakings in Rome, where he has laboured in company with Maestro Girolamo. Among these productions may more particularly be specified a very large Tabernacle in bronze, for Pope Paul III., which is to be placed in that chapel of the palace of the Vatican which is called the Paolina.
There have, in like manner, been at all times excellent masters in our arts among the Modanese, as we have remarked in other places, and as may be seen in respect of painting by four pictures which have hitherto received no mention at my hands, because I do not know by what masters they were executed. They were painted in tempera in that city, a hundred years since, and according to those times, are very beautiful, being finished with great care: the first is at the high altar of San Domenico, the others are in the chapels of the nave in the same church. There is also now living in that city, a painter called Niccolò,[54] who in his youth produced numerous works in fresco around the shambles which are tolerably well done;[55] he also painted a picture on panel, for the high altar of San Piero, a place belonging to the Black Friars, the subject being the Decapitation of San Piero and San Paolo.[56] In this work, and in the soldier who cuts off the heads of the martyrs, Niccolò imitated a similar figure of much-renowned beauty by the hand of Antonio da Correggio, and which is in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista, at Parma.[57] Niccolò was more distinguished as a painter in fresco than in the other modes of painting, and in addition to the many works which he has produced in Modena[58] and at Bologna,[59] am told that in Prance, where he is now living, he has executed many admirable pictures, under Messer Francesco Primaticcio, Abbot of San Martino, after whose designs Niccolò has painted numerous works, as will be related in the life of Primaticcio himself.[60]
Giovan Battista,[61] a rival or competitor of the abovenamed Niccolò, has also produced numerous works in Rome and other places, but more particularly in Perugia, where he has painted several pictures from the life of the apostle St. Andrew, in the chapel of Signor Ascanio della Cernia, in the church of San Francesco; and in these paintings he has acquitted himself exceedingly well. In the same place, a picture in oil, representing the Adoration of the Magi, was painted, in competition with Niccolò Abati, by the Fleming Arrigo,[62] master in glass, and this would have been very beautiful had it not been somewhat confused and overloaded with colours, which destroy each other, and deprive what should be the principal figures of their due prominence. He has, how'ever, been much more successful in a glass window of the chapel of San Bernardo, which is one of those in the church of San Lorenzo in the same city, and which he designed and painted entirely alone.
But to return to Giovan Battista: having gone hack to Modena on the completion of these works, that artist painted two large pictures on the walls of the church of San Piero, for which Niccolò had painted the altar piece; the subject of these two pictures being scenes from the lives of San Piero andSan Paolo.[63]
The same city of Modena has produced certain sculptors worthy of being enumerated among good artists. For, to say nothing of II Modanino, of whom we have made mention in another place,[64] there was a master called Il Modana,[65] who has produced most admirable works in terra-cotta, some of the size of life and others still larger. Among these may be enumerated those executed for a chapel in the church of San Domenico, in Modena, with others for the Dormitory of San Piero, a monastery belonging to the Black Friars, and also situate in Modena. This last-mentioned work is a Group consisting of Our Lady, with San Benedetto, Santa Justina, and another Saint; and to all the figures composing it the master has given the colour of marble in such perfection that they might be taken for that material. They have all very beautiful expression in the faces moreover, with admirable proportion in the forms, and very fine drapery. Il Modana has executed a similar group in the Dormitory of San Giovanni Evangelista, at Parma,[66] and on the outside of the church of San Benedetto, in Mantua, he has executed a considerable number of figures the size of life, and in full relief; these are placed in niches along the front, and beneath the portico, they are exceedingly beautiful, and imitate marble so perfectly that the spectator cannot but suppose them to be of that stone.
The Modenese sculpcor Prospero Clemente[67] has, in like manner, ever been and still continues to be an exceedingly able master in his vocation. There are proofs of his ability in the Cathedral of Reggio, where the tomb of the Bishop Rangone is by his hand. In this work there is a seated statue of the above-named prelate with two children, all admirably well done. The commission for this tomb was received by Clementi from the Signor Ercole Rangone. In the Cathedral of Parma likewise, there is a tomb by Prospero Clemente; the sepulchral monument of the Beato Bernardo degli Uberti namely, a Florentine, who became a cardinal and was bishop of that city. This undertaking Clemente completed in the year 1548, and very much has his work been extolled.[68]
In Parma, likewise, there have been at divers times many excellent artists and men of fine genius, as we have said elsewhere. There is an admirable picture in the cathedral, for example, which was painted in the year 1499, by the Parmesan artist Cristofano Castelli. Of Francesco Mazzuoli[69] we have already written the life, and there have been many other men of distinguished ability in that city. But respecting Mazzuoli, we have before mentioned that he commenced certain works in the Madonna della Steccata, which at his death were left unfinished, when Giulio Romano, having prepared a coloured design on paper, which may still be seen in that place by every one, commanded that a certain Michelagnolo Anselmi, who was by his birth a Sienese, but bad by adoption become a Parmesan,[70] should execute that cartoon, he being a good painter. The subject chosen for the work was the Coronation of Our Lady.[71]
Having commenced his labours accordingly, Anselmi did certainly acquit himself to perfection, and well deserved the commission which he then received to paint one of four very large recesses which there are in that church; the one now in question was opposite to that wherein Michelagnolo Anselmi had painted the above-mentioned Coronation after the design of Giulio Romano.
Setting hand to his work, therefore, Anselmi there executed an Adoration of the Magi, the picture comprising a very considerable number of figures, which were besides exceedingly beautiful. He also painted the Wise Virgins on the plane of the arch, as we have related in the life of Mazzuoli, adding a decoration of rosettes in copper. But Anselmi died while there was still almost a third of the work unaccomplished, wherefore that picture was completed by the Cremonese, Bernardo Soiaro,[72] as we shall presently relate. By the hand of the same Michelagnolo Anselmi is the Chapel of the Conception, in the Church of San Francesco, at the above-named city of Parma, and in San Pier Martire there is a Celestial Glory by the same master in the Chapel of the Cross.
Jeronimo Mazzuoli,[73] who was the cousin of Francesco, as I have said before, continuing the work which had been left unfinished by his kinsman in the Church of the Madonna, there painted an arch with the Wise Virgins, and added the decoration of rosettes. He afterwards executed a work in the great tribune, which is opposite to the principal door of entrance. The subject of this last-mentioned performance is the Holy Spirit descending on the Apostles in Tongues of Flame; while on the other and last of the arches, Jeronimo depicted the Nativity of Jesus Christ; which, although it was not then uncovered, he showed to us in this present year of 1566, to our great pleasure, seeing that for a work in fresco it is a truly beautiful one.
The great tribune of that same Madonna della Steccata, which is now in course of execution by the Cremonese painter Bernardo Soiaro, will also prove to be an admirable production when it shall have been finished, and will be fully able to endure comparison with the other works to be seen in that place. But of this result we may not affirm that any other than Francesco Mazzuoli himself has been the cause, seeing that it was he who with such excellent judgment commenced the magnificent decoration of the church which had been erected, as we have before related, after the design and under the direction of Bramante.
With respect to the masters of our arts in Mantua, I have to remark, in addition to what has been already related in the life of Guilio Romano, that the latter so widely disseminated the seeds of art in Mantua and throughout Lombardy, as to have secured a succession of able masters, of whom there have been many since that time, while his own works are daily more and more appreciated and extolled. For although Giovanni Battista Bertano,[74] principal architect to the Duke of Mantua, has constructed many splendid apartments in the palace, and above that part where are the aqueducts and the corridor, adorning these rooms very richly with stucco works and pictures, executed for the most part by Fermo Guisoni,[75] the disciple of Giulio, and by others; yet they cannot be compared, as will be shown, with those directed by Giulio himself. This same Giovanni Battista has made Domenico Brusasorci[76] paint a picture in oil after his design, in Santa Barbara, the church of the ducal palace, which is indeed a work most truly deserving of praise; the subject is the Martyrdom of Santa Barbara.[77] Having studied Vitruvius, moreover, this Giovanni Battista has written and published a work on the Ionic Volute, following the precepts of the above-named author, and showing how the volute should be turned.[78]}; He has also erected at the principal entrance of his own house in Mantua, a column of stone, whereon are marked all the admeasurements and dimensions of the said Ionic order, comprising the ancient palm, inch, foot, and braccio, with the other orders figured plainly, to the end that all who desire to do so, may examine whether the measures thus given be correct or not.
The architect Bertano has likewise caused pictures to be executed by various masters in the church of San Piero, which is the cathedral church of Mantua, and may be called the work and architecture of Giulio Bomano, since he, restoring that edifice, gave it a new and modern form: here then, Giovanni Battista has caused a painting to be executed for each chapel, two of them being painted after his own design, by Fermo Guisoni. The subject of one is a Santa Lucia, [79] and that of the other San Giovanni Evangelista.
Another of similar character, Bertoni caused to be executed by the Mantuan painter Ippolito Costa.[80] The subject of this last-mentioned work is Sant’ Agata,[81] with her hands tied and placed between two soldiers, by whom she is cruelly mutilated.[82] In the same cathedral a picture was executed, as we have before related, by the Veronese Battista d’Agnolo del Moro;[83] this is at the Altar of Santa Maria Maddalena, while that for the Altar of Santa Thecla was undertaken by Jeronimo Parmigiano. The Veronese Paolo Farinato,[84] received commission for the picture of the Altar of San Martino, as did Domenico Brusasorci for that of Santa Margherita, while the Cremonese Giulio Campo,[85] painted the picture for the Altar of San Jeronimo. But the best of all, though they are all beautiful, was that, the subject of which is Sant’ Antonio the Abbot beset by a Demon, who tempts him in the form of a woman, and this was by the hand of Paolo Veronese.
But as regards the Mantuan artists, it is certain that the city has never had a more able master in painting than Rinaldo, who was a disciple of Giulio Romano, and by whose hand there is a picture in the Church of Sant’ Agnese in Mantua, of which the figures are most beautiful. The subject of the work is Our Lady in the air, with Sant’ Agostino and San Girolamo; but this artist was prematurely removed from the world by death.
In a very fine studio and “antiquarium” which the Signor Cesare Gonzaga has caused to be made, and which he has filled with antique statues and busts in marble, that Signor has furthermore commissioned Fermo Guisoni to execute paintings for the greater embellishment thereof: these consist principally of the genealogy of the Gonzaga family, and the artist has acquitted himself to admiration in every particular, but more especially in the expression of the faces. The Signor Cesare has also deposited certain pictures besides in that place, some of which are without doubt exceedingly precious, as for example, that of the Madonna with the Cat, which was executed by Raffaello da Urbino,[86] with another, in which Our Lady, a figure of most exquisite grace, is represented as washing the Infant Christ.[87]
The same noble has had a second large study set apart for medals, and in this, which has been adorned in ebony and ivory by a certain Francesco da Yolterra, who in that kind of work has not an equal, the Signor Cesare has a number of small figures in bronze, all antique, which could not possibly be more beautiful than they are. At a word, since the time when I formerly visited Mantua, and from that period down to this year of 1566, when I have seen it again, the city has been so richly adorned and been rendered so beautiful, that if I had not seen the change, I could not have believed it possible. And what is more, the artists have greatly increased their numbers, and are continually increasing them.
To the excellent sculptor and engraver of prints, the Mantuan Giovanni Battista for example, of whom we have already made mention in the life of Giulio Romano, and in that of Marcantonio Bolognese,[88] there have been born two sons, who engrave copper-plates divinely; nay, what is still more remarkable, he has a daughter called Diana, who engraves so admirably well, that the thing is a perfect miracle; for my own part, who have seen herself—and a very pleasing and graceful maiden she is—as well as her works, which are most exquisite, I have been utterly astonished thereby.[89]
Nor will I omit to mention that the above-named Mantuan artists have produced many works in San Benedetto of Mantua (which is a most renowned Monastery of Black Friars, and was restored in a very fine manner by Giulio Romano), as have also certain Lombard masters, to say nothing of those already enumerated in the Life of Giulio.
There are works by Fermo Guisoni, for example, in that place; a Nativity of Our Saviour Christ that is to say. There are two pictures, moreover, by Girolamo Mazzuoli, and three by Latanzio Gambaro da Brescia,[90] with three besides by Paolo Veronese, and these last mentioned are the best. In the same monastery, and at the upper end of the Refectory, there is a picture in oil by the hand of a certain Fra Girolamo, a lay brother of San Domenico,[91] of whom there has before been mention made; there is a picture in oil, I say, which Fra Girolamo copied from that most beautiful Supper of Our Lord, painted in the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, at Milan, by Leonardo da Vinci, and which he has imitated so exactly, that I was much amazed by the beauty and fidelity of the work. Now, I record this circumstance all the more willingly, because in the course of this year, 1566, I have seen the original of Leonardo at Milan, and found it in so grievous a state, that there is nothing more than a confused mass to be perceived; wherefore, the good faith of this worthy father is all the more valuable, since it will ever bear testimony in those parts to the art of Leonardo da Vinci. I have seen another picture by the hand of the same Frate, and this also is a copy from a painting by Leonardo. It is in the house of the Mint, at that same city of Milan, and there it was that I saw it. The subject is a Woman, who is smiling; and there is a figure oi San Giovanni Battista as a child, a very faithful and well executed copy.[92]
Cremona likewise, as we have remarked in the Life of Lorenzo di Credi and in other places, has at different times produced men who have performed very commendable works in painting, and we have already related[93] that when Boccaccino Boccacci was occupied with the apsis of the Cathedral of Cremona, and with the Stories from the life of Our Lady in other parts of the church, we have already recorded, I say, that there was then a good painter at Cremona called Bonifazio Bembi;[94] and that Altobello in like manner executed numerous stories in fresco from the life of Jesus Christ, these last giving evidence of much more power in design than do those of Boccaccino.
Altobello subsequently painted a chapel in fresco in the church of Sant’ Agostino at Cremona, and this he did with a very graceful and beautiful manner, as may be seen by every one. In the Corte Yecchia at Milan, the Piazza or Court of the Palace that is to say, this master depicted an armed figure, clothed after the manner of the antique and standing erect; many others were executed in the same place, and about the same time, by other masters, but that of Altobello was the best of all.
When Bonifazio died, the above-mentioned stories from the life of Our Saviour Christ in the Cathedral of Cremona, were left unfinished, when such of them as had been commenced by Bonifazio were completed by Giovan-Antonio Licinio of Pordenone, [95] called in Cremona De’ Sacchi; that master painted five stories in fresco, depicting the Passion of Our Saviour Christ therein, with a manner of much dignity and grandeur, the figures large and very bold in style, the colouring powerful, the foreshortenings full of force and life, qualities by which the Cremonese were taught the good and true method of painting. Nor was this done in fresco only, seeing that in the same cathedral, and on one of the pilasters about the centre of the church, there is a picture on panel by the hand of Pordenone, which is, indeed, most beautiful. This manner of painting was subsequently imitated by Cammillo, the son of Boccaccino, in the principal chapel of San Gismondo, without the city, which that Cammillo painted in fresco; and in this, as well as other works, he succeeded so well that he finally became a much better artist than his father had been. He was, nevertheless, so dilatory and indolent in his proceedings that he completed but few works, except such as were small and of but little importance.[96]
But the artist who most carefully imitated the good mantier, and was most essentially benefited by the competition of the above-named masters, was Bernardo de’ Gatti, called Il Soiaro,[97] of whom we have already spoken. Some declare this artist to have been a native of Verzelli, while others affirm that he belonged to Cremona; but be that as it may, and let him have come from whithersoever they will, he painted a very beautiful picture for the high altar of San Piero, a church of the Canons Regular; and in their refectory he also depicted the story, or rather miracle, which Our Saviour Christ performed, when he satisfied the hunger of an infinite multitude with five loaves and two fishes: but this last Bernardo retouched to such extent, a secco, that it has lost all its beauty.[98] In the church of San Gismondo, which is situate, as we have said, without the city of Cremona, Il Soiaro painted the Ascension of Our Saviour Christ into heaven; this work, which is beneath one of the vaulted arches, is a very graceful performance, and admirably coloured.
In the church of Santa Maria di Campagna, at Piacenza, Il Soiaro painted a fresco in competition with Pordenone, and opposite to the Sant’ Agostino, of which we have before spoken.
The subject of this work is San Giorgio, he is on horseback, in full armour, and is in the act of Destroying the Dragon, the figure displaying much boldness and animation, with admirable relief. Having finished that work, El Soiaro was commissioned to complete the Tribune of the Church, which had been left unfinished by Pordenone, and in which he depicted all the Life of the Madonna, in fresco; and although the Prophets and Sybils, with Angels in the form of Children, which had previously been painted in that apsis by Pordenone, are beautiful, yet 11 Soiaro has acquitted himself so well, that the whole work might he supposed to have been executed by one and the same person.
There are certain small pictures which this artist has painted in Yigevano likewise; they are placed on some of the altars in the church, and are highly worthy of praise. He subsequently repaired to Parma, there to work in the Madonna della Steccata; while in this place he completed the Apsis and the Arch which had been left unfinished by the death of the Sienese Michelagnolo: and here, too, 11 Soiaro obtained so much credit by the excellence of his labours, that the Parmesani have commissioned him to paint the principal Tribune of the church, where he is now occupied with a picture representing the Assumption of Our Lady, in fresco, a work which, as it is hoped, will be in all respects worthy of commendation.[99]
At the time when Boccaccino was still living, although he had then become very old, Cremona possessed another painter, called Galleazzo Campi,[100] who painted the Bosary of the Madonna in a large chapel of the church of San Domenico, in that city; as he did also a façade at the back of the church of San Francesco, with other pictures and works of various kinds, which are to be seen in Cremona, and display a tolerably fair amount of merit.[101] To Galeazzo were born three sons, Giulio, Antonio, and Yincenzio. The first-named Giulio, although he acquired the principles of art under his father, did nevertheless subsequently follow the manner of Il Soiaro, as being the better one. He also studied very carefully certain pictures which Francesco Salviati had painted in Pome, to the end that the subjects might be woven into arras, and sent to Piacenza to the Duke Pier Luigi Farnese.
The first works executed by Giulio in his youth, at Cremona,[102] were in the choir of the church of Sant’ Agata, where he depicted four large stories from the life of that Virgin Martyr; and these were of such merit that a practised master would perhaps scarcely have done them better. At a later period our artist painted some pictures in Santa Margarita,[103] and decorated the façades of numerous palaces in chiaro-scuro; these works giving proof of very good design. For the church of San Gismondo, which is situate outside of Cremona, Guilio Campi painted the picture of the High Altar in oil; and this is much extolled for the multitude and diversity of the figures delineated therein, seeing that these may well bear comparison with those of the painters who had worked before him in that church.[104] Having painted the altar-piece, he executed numerous frescoes in the vaulting, one of which may more particularly be specified. This represents the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, whose figures appear foreshortened as seen from below, and are managed with infinite grace, while they give proof of much judgment in art.
At Milan, also, in the church of the Passion, which belongs to the monastery of the Canons Regular, the same artist painted a Crucifixion in oil. This is on panel: over all are seen the figures of Angels, and beneath, are the Madonna, San Giovanni Evangelista, Santa Maria Maddalena, and the other Maries. For the nuns of San Paolo, who have also a convent at Milan, Giulio Campi executed four pictures, representing the Conversion and other events in the life of the above-named Saint;[105] a work in which he was assisted by his brother Antonio, who also painted one of the chapels in a new church which had been erected after the design of Lombardino, at the convent of Santa Caterina, near the Porta Ticinese. The subject of this work is Sant’ Elena causing the Holy Cross of Christ to be sought for; and the picture is a very good work.
Vincenzio, also, the third of these brothers, having acquired his art from Giulio the eldest brother, as did also Antonio the second, is now a young artist, of whom there are the Arery fairest expectations. And not only have these, his two brothers, been disciples of Giulio Campi, but so has also the Brescian Lattanzio Gambara, with many others. Those from whom he has nevertheless received the highest honour, and who have proved themselves most excellent in art, are the paintress Sophonisba Anguisciola and her three sisters, all of whom have been his disciples. These richly gifted maidens were born to the Signor Amilcar Anguisciola, and to the Signora Bianca Punzona, both of whom belong to the noblest families in Cremona.
But with respect to the above-named Sophonisba, of whom we spoke some few words in the Life of the Bolognese sculptress, Madonna Properzia de’ Rossi, not knowing any thing more at that time,[106]* I have now to relate that I have this year seen a picture by her hand in the house of her father at Cremona. The subject of this work, which is very carefully treated, is a family group, the three sisters of the paintress namely playing at Chess, with an old woman belonging to the family; these figures are executed with so much boldness and freedom that they appear to be truly alive, and seem to want nothing but the power of speech.[107] In another picture by this same Sophonisba, is a portrait of her father the Signor Amilcar, who has one of his daughters on one side of him, a lady called Minerva, and who was much distinguished in letters as well as in painting; on the other side of the Signor Amilcar is Asdrubal his son, and the brother of Sophonisba; these figures likewise are so well done that they seem to breathe, and are indeed most life-like.
At Piacenza, in the house of the Signor Archdeacon of the principal church, there are two most beautiful pictures by the hand of this lady.[108] One of them presents the portrait of the Signor Archdeacon above-named, the other that of Sophonisba herself. I have already related the fact of this lady’s being invited by the Duke of Alva to enter the service of the Queen of Spain, and in that country she still remains, receiving very handsome appointments, and being highly honoured. Many portraits and other pictures which are greatly extolled, have been executed by Sophonisba during her residence in Spain, and the fame of these her works moved Pope Pius IV. to make known to her that he desired to have the portrait of the above-mentioned most illustrious Queen of Spain from her hand; wherefore, having executed the same with all the diligence and care that was possible, she sent the portrait to Rome, there to be presented to his Holiness, accompanied by a letter, written in the precise terms that follow. “Holy Father. From the Most Reverend Nunzio of your Holiness, I understand that you desire to have from my hand the portrait of her Majesty the Queen my mistress. Now as I consider this commission a singular grace and favour, having to serve your Holiness, I have requested permission from Her Majesty, who has most willingly granted the same, perceiving in this wish a proof of the paternal affection which your Holiness bears to Her Majesty; I send the portrait, therefore, by the occasion afforded to me by this Cavalier, and if in that painting I shall be found to have satisfied the wish of your Holiness, I shall find infinite comfort in the knowledge thereof: but I will not omit to say that if the beauties of mind possessed by this most illustrious Queen could also be represented by the pencil to the eyes of your Holiness, you could see nothing more admirable. As respects the delineation of those features which may be portrayed by art, I have not failed to use all the care which I could command, to the end that your Holiness might behold them in their truth.
“And with, this conclusion I kiss the most holy feet with all reverence and humility.
“From Madrid, on the 16th of Sept. 1561.
To this letter his Holiness returned the following reply, and the portrait appearing to him to he a very beautiful and admirable work, he caused his answer to he accompanied by gifts worthy of the great abilities of Sophonisba.
“Pius Pope IV. — Dilecta in Christo filia.
“We have received the portrait of the most illustrious Queen of Spain, our dearest daughter, which you have sent us, and which has been most acceptable, as well on account of the person represented, whom we love paternally, for her piety and the many pure qualities of her mind, to say nothing of other considerations, as because the work has by your hand been very well and diligently accomplished.
“We thank you for it, assuring you that we shall hold it among our most valued possessions, commending this your skill, which, albeit very wonderful, is nevertheless as we hear, the very smallest among the many gifts with which you are endowed.
“And with this conclusion we send you again our benediction. May our Lord have you in his keeping. Dat. Romae, die 15 Octobris, 1561.”
This testimony suffices to show how great is the ability of Sophonisba; and one of her sisters called Lucia, left a reputation at her death which was scarcely inferior to that of Sophonisba, she also having executed pictures no less beautiful and valued than those painted by her sister. Of this an example may be seen in Cremona, where there is a portrait by her hand of the excellent Physician, Signor Pietro Maria, with one even more remarkable in another portrait, that of the Duke of Sessa namely, which was painted by this well endowed maiden, in a manner so truthful that it seems as though better could not be done, and that no likeness could be made to resemble the original with a more life-like reality.
The third of the sisters Anguisciola, called Europa, is not yet past the age of childhood; to her, who is full of grace and good parts, I have spoken myself this year, and from what we now see of her works and designs, she will be in no wise inferior to her sisters Sophonisba and Lucia. Europa has already executed many portraits, the likenesses of gentlemen in Cremona, which are indeed entirely natural and beautiful. One of the likenesses executed by her hand, that of the Signora Bianca her mother namely, was sent into Spain and pleased Sophonisba greatly, as it did every one who saw it. And since the fourth named sister, Anna, who is still but a little child, has also begun to devote herself and with much profit, to design, I know not what further to say, than that there must be a great inclination received from nature, and that to this much practice must needs be added, before any can hope to equal what has been done by these four noble and richly gifted sisters,[109] who have proved themselves enamoured of all the highest qualities, but most especially of those which appertain to design. At a word the house of the Signor Amilcar Anguisciola (the most fortunate father of an admirable and honoured family) appears to me to be the very abode and dwelling-place of painting, or rather of all the excellencies.
Meanwhile, since women so well know how to produce living men, what marvel is it that those who please to do it should prove so perfectly able to make the painted semblance? But to return to Giulio Campi, of whom I have said that these young ladies were disciples; in addition to his other works there is to be mentioned a large picture which he painted on cloth to serve as the covering of the organ in the cathedral church; this is in tempera, it exhibits a vast number of figures, the subject chosen being events in the history of Esther and Ahasuerus, with the Crucifixion of Idaman. There is, moreover, a graceful picture by his hand on the Altar of San Michele in the same church, but since this Giulio still lives, I will say no more at present in relation to his works.
The sculptor Geremia, of whom we made mention in the life of Filarete,[110] was also a Cremonese; there is a large work in marble by his hand in San Lorenzo,[111] a house of the monks of Monte Oliveto, Giovanni Pedoni,[112] who has produced numerous works in Cremona and Brescia, was likewise a native of the former city; among his productions, those now in the house of the Signor Eliseo Raimondo are particularly to be mentioned, as being very beautiful and praiseworthy.
In Brescia likewise there have been and still are persons who have proved themselves most excellent in works or design; among others Jeronimo Romanino,[113] who has produced a vast number of paintings in that city. The picture of the High Altar in the Church of San Francesco, which is a tolerably creditable work, is by the hand of this master, as are likewise the small folding doors which close in the altarpiece; these are painted in tempera both within and without; another picture in the same church, painted in oil and very beautifully done, is also by Jeronimo Romanino; in this work the artist has given singularly close imitations of natural objects.[114]
But a much more able artist than Romanino was Alessandro Moretto,[115] who painted a fresco beneath the arch of the Porta Brusciata; the subject of this work was the funeral procession of the Saints Faustino and Jovita,[116] with groups of figures following the remains of those Saints, all exceedingly well executed in fresco. In San Nazzaro, which is also in Brescia, there are certain works by the hand of Moretto, with others in San Celso,[117] which have considerable merit; and one in San Piero at Oliveto, which is an exceedingly graceful and beautiful performance. At the house of the Mint in Milan also there is a picture by Alessandro Moretto which represents the Conversion of Saint Paul and in which are many heads of great life and animation; the draperies and habiliments are likewise perfectly well done. This artist was indeed particularly fond of depicting vestments in cloth of gold and silver, with 'velvets, damasks, and other textures of all kinds, which he also arranged about his figures with infinite care.
The faces of Alessandro Moretto are full of animation and have somewhat of the manner of Raffaello da Urbino; nay, they would without doubt have had much more thereof, had Moretto not always dwelt at so great a distance from that master. The Brescian painter Lattanzio Gambara, who as we have before said, acquired his art under the Cremonese Giulio Campo, was the son-in-law of Alessandro,[118] and is now the best painter in Brescia. The picture of the High Altar in the Monastery of the Black Friars of San Faustino, is by the hand of Lattanzio, as are paintings in fresco on the walls and vaulting of that edifice, with other pictures in the same edifice. On the high altar of the Church of San Lorenzo likewise, is a picture by this artist, with two stories on the walls; all those of the vaulting, moreover, which are in fresco, and nearly all in a very good manner, are by the same artist.
Lattanzio Gambara has given proof of admirable invention herein, as well as in the paintings of the interior; he has also depicted the façade of his own dwelling which is situate between San Benedetto and the Episcopal Palace. In addition to many other works executed in that house, may be mentioned two beautiful portraits by his hand, which I saw there the last time I was in Brescia; these are that of Alessandro Moretto his father-in-law, and a most beautiful head of an old man, with that of his own wife, the daughter of the abovenamed Alessandro; and if all the works of Lattanzio had been equal to those portraits, he might have been accounted among the best masters of our art. But since the number of his pictures is very great, and since he is besides still living, it shall suffice me for the present to have made mention of him thus far.
In Venice and Milan there are numerous works by the hand of Giangirolamo,[119] who is also of Brescia. In the beforementioned house of the Mint at Milan, for example, are four pictures representing Night-pieces and Conflagrations; and in the house of Tommaso da Empoli there is a Nativity of Our Saviour Christ, the time of which is also night, and which is very beautiful:[120] there are besides other works of similar fantasies in which he was an adept; but since he occupied himself principally with matters of that kind, and never undertook any work of importance, we can say nothing more of him than that he was a fanciful and ingenious person, what he has accomplished well meriting to be highly commended.
Girolamo Muziano[121] is also of Brescia, and having passed Ills youth in Rome, has produced many beautiful works both in figures and landscape.[122] In the city of Orvieto there are two pictures in oil by this artist, they are in the Church oi Santa Maria, which is the Cathedral of that place, and where there are also figures of the Prophets in fresco by Girolamo Muziano, which are exceedingly beautiful. The copper plates which have been executed after his cartoons also give proof of good design;[123] but as this master likewise is still living and in the service of the Cardinal Ippolito da Este, by whom he is employed in the edifices and decorations which that prelate is causing to be executed in Rome, at Tigoli, and in other places, I will say nothing more respecting him in this place.[124]
There has lately returned from Germany the painter Francesco Richino,[125] who is also a Brescian, and who, to say nothing of the many works which he has produced in other places, has executed certain pictures in oil for the abovementioned Church of San Piero Oliveto at Brescia, which are painted with much forethought and evince great care.
The brothers Cristofano and Stefano[126] are also painters of Brescia, where they are in high repute among the artists for the facility with which they execute views in perspective. Among other productions of this kind in Venice is one on the level wood-work or wainscot in Santa Maria dell’ Orto, where they have represented a Corridor with a double range of twisted columns, similar to those of the Porta Santa in Rome; and these columns, being placed on socles which project in full relief, cause that church to have the appearance of possessing a magnificent corridor with a groined roof passing entirely around it; the point of sight of this work, which displays most beautiful foreshortenings, is in the centre of the nave, and the performance is so fine a one as to astonish all who behold it, seeing that the wood-work, which is indeed level, is made to appear as if it had great depth of recession, an effect which is much heightened by the rich variety of cornices, and festoons, with masks and various figures which enrich the same, and add infinite magnificence to the whole. This production does indeed merit very great praise, as well for its novelty as because it has been executed throughout with extraordinary ingenuity and care.[127]
Now the work above-mentioned pleased the most illustrious Senate of Venice very highly, insomuch that these Signori commissioned the same artists to execute a similar performance in the Library of San Marco,[128] and this, though a smaller one, is a very admirable work for a thing of that kind.
These brothers have lately been invited to paint a magnificent hall in their native city of Brescia, with decorations of similar kind: the building was commenced at a very great cost many years since on the Piazza of the city, and is erected over a vast colonnade, beneath which the citizens have their walk. The hall is sixty-two paces long, by thirty-five broad, and at the highest point its elevation is equal to its width: the building has indeed the appearance of much greater extent, being entirely isolated on all sides, and havingno other chamber or edifice near it In this magnificent hall, therefore, the above-named brothers have produced numerous works to their very great credit: they first arched the roof with strong rafters, bound with clamps of iron, and, having covered it with lead, they formed a coved ceiling, which is an exceedingly rich and handsome work.[129] It is true that in this immense space there have been placed but three pictures, which are in oil, and were painted by the elder Titian, but there might with good effect have been many more exhibited there, and the divisions might have been of better proportions, adorned with richer devices, and in every way more beautiful, and this would have imparted a more cheerful aspect to that hall, which in every[130]
Now having spoken, in this part of our work, of the artists who have flourished in the cities of Lombardy, it cannot but be fitting that we should also make mention of those belonging to Milan, the chief city of that province, of such of them, that is to say, as we have not before named, seeing that they, have been in question more than once in divers portions of this our book. Wherefore, to begin with Bramantino,[131] of whom some discourse has been made in the Life of Pietro della Francesca del Borgo:[132] I find that he has executed many more works than I have mentioned when speaking of this master on a former occasion; and, of a truth, I could scarcely suppose it possible that an artist so frequently cited, and to whom Milan is indebted for good design,[133] should have produced so few works, as those which were all whereof I could formerly obtain intelligence.
After having painted in Rome, then, as has been related, certain apartments for Pope Nicholas V.,[134] and finished that foreshortened figure of Our Saviour Christ, with the Virgin who is holding the Divine Child in her arms, and is accompanied by San Giovanni and the Magdalene, which is over the door of San Sepolcro, in Milan, and is an admirable work:[135] after having done this, I say, Bramantino furthermore depicted the Nativity of Christ Our Saviour, in fresco, on a façade of the Mint;[136] and in the church of Santa Maria di Brera he painted the Birth of the Madonna,[137] with figures of Prophets on the doors which close the organ in that church. The figures in this last-mentioned work are foreshortened admirably, and there is a view in perspective, which is also exceedingly well done; but this does not surprise me, that master having always delighted in the details of architecture, with which he was well acquainted.
Indeed I remember to have seen in the possession of Valerio Vicentino, a very beautiful book filled with designs of antiquities, the measurements and execution of which were wholly by the hand of Bramantino; it comprised those existing in Lombardy, and gave the plans of many renowned edifices, which I did myself design from that book, being then a youth.[138] There was the church of Sant’ Ambrogio in Milan, for example, which had been erected by the Lombards, and was filled with pictures and works in sculpture, after the Greek manner: it bad a circular apsis of considerable extent, but which was not well considered, as respects the architecture. This church was subsequently, and in the time of Bramantino, rebuilt after his design,[139] when it received the addition of a portico in stone, on one of the sides, the columns being formed to resemble trees that have been cut down, and having a new and peculiar effect.[140]
In the same book was the ancient portico of the church of San Lorenzo, in the city of Milan, and this portico is a vast and 'beautiful as well as very much renowned work, but the architecture of the church is in the Gothic manner.[141] The church of Sant’Ercolino[142] was in like manner designed in this work, a most ancient building, rich in marble and stucco works, which are extremely well preserved, as are some vast sepulchral monuments in granite, which are also in that edifice. The church of San Pietro-in-Ciel d’Oro, at Pavia, has also a place among these designs: the body of Sant’Agostino is in the sacristy of this church, and is deposited within a tomb covered with small figures, which I believe to be by the hand of the Sienese sculptors Agnolo and Agostino.[143] The tower built of bricks by the Goths was in like manner there designed, and is a very beautiful thing, entirely worthy of such memorial, seeing that, to make no mention of many other ornaments, there are figures on this tower six braccia high, and made of terra-cotta, which have maintained themselves in very fair preservation, even to our own days.
It is said that in this tower died Boethius, who was buried in the above-named church of San Piero-in-Ciel-d’Oro, now called Sant’ Agostino, where his tomb is still to be seen, with the inscription which was placed on it by Alessandro, by whom the church was rebuilt and restored,[144] in the year 1222. Finally there was designed by the hand of Bramantino in this book the most ancient church of Santa Maria, in Pertica, a round structure erected by the Lombards with the spoils of war; here lie buried the remains of the French and others who were defeated and slain before Pavia, at the time when King Francis I. of France was taken prisoner by the army of the Emperor Charles V.
But now to leave these designs, I have further to relate, that Bramantino painted the façade of the Signor Giovanni Battista Latturate[145] in Milan, depicting thereon a figure of Our Lady between those of two Prophets. On the façade of Signor Bernardo Scacalarozzo likewise, this artist painted four colossal figures in imitation of bronze, which are tolerably well done.[146] There are, besides, other works by his hand in Milan, all of which have procured him considerable praise, seeing that he appeared in that city as the first light of a good manner in painting, and was the cause of Bramante’s having become so excellent as he did in architecture, the first things studied by Bramante having been the designs of Bramantino.[147] It was after his design moreover,[148] that the church of San Satiro was erected, and that church pleases me exceedingly, seeing that it is a very beautiful production, richly adorned with decorations of columns, double corridors, and other ornaments, both within and without, to say nothing of the most beautiful sacristy, where there is a large number of statues.
But that which is here most of all worthy of praise, is the central tribune, the beauty of which caused Bernardino da Trevio,[149] as we have already related in the Life of Bramante,[150] to pursue the same mode of proceeding in the cathedral of Milan, and eventually to devote himself wholly to architecture, although his first and principal vocation had been painting. In the monastery of the Grrazie for example, Bernardino depicted four stories of the Passion of Our Lord, as we have before said. These works are in fresco; they are in one of the cloisters, and there are others, also by the same artist, in another cloister: these last are in chiaro-scuro.
It was by Bernardino da Trevio that the sculptor Agostino Busto, called Bambaja, was brought forward and powerfully assisted: of this Bambaja mention has been made in the Life of Baccio da Montelupo;[151] there are works by his hand at Santa Marta, a convent of nuns in the city of Milan; and here I have myself seen, although it is not without difficulty that permission to enter that place is procured, the tomb of Monsignore Foix, who died at Pavia.[152] This monument is constructed of numerous pieces of marble carved in low relief, and presenting ten stories, the small figures of which are sculptured with infinite care: these stories consist principally of the various battles, victories, and other deeds of that noble; the storming of fortified places among others: finally, are represented his death, burial, and sepulture, and to say all at a word, they are such, that, regarding it in great astonishment, I stood for a while considering how it has been found possible to produce by means of hand and chisel so delicate and extraordinary a work: for in this monument we have decorations consisting of trophies, arms of every kind, chariots, artillery, and many other engines and implements of war, all carved with the most surprising perfection, and lastly the figure of Monsignor Foix himself, the size of life, wearing his armour, and with a countenance which seems almost to rejoice, even in death, over the victories gained by his hand.
It is indeed greatly to be lamented that this work, which is truly worthy to be accounted among the most astonishing productions of the art, should have been left unfinished, and be now permitted to remain in pieces on the earth, instead of being erected in some befitting position: neither am I surprised to find that some of the figures have been carried off and sold, to be afterwards put up elsewhere and for other purposes.[153] But there is, now-a -days, so little humanity or rather gratitude, to be found amongst men, that among all the many who were favoured by, and received benefits from, the noble Gaston, none has been known to give himself any concern for the memory of De Foix, any more than for the excellence and beauty of the work thus abandoned. There are other works by the same Agostino Busto, in the cathedral for example, as well as in San Francesco, where there is the tomb of the Biraghi family, as we have said: at the Certosa of Pavia also there are examples of his ability with many others, in different places, which are for the most part truly admirable.
Among the competitors of Agostino Busto was a certain Cristofano Gobbo[154], who also executed numerous works on the façade of the above-named monastery of the Certosa, as he did also in the church, and these he effected so well that he may justly be enumerated among the best sculptors at that time in Lombardy. The figures of Adam and Eve, which are on the eastern front of the cathedral of Milan, are in like manner by the hand of Cristofano, and are considered remarkable works, such, in short, as may well bear comparison with any that have- been produced in those parts by other masters.
Almost at the same time there was a sculptor in Milan, called Angelo, and who bore the surname of Ciciliano. This artist produced a work on the same side of the cathedral above-mentioned; this is no less beautiful than that of Cristofano, which stands near it; the work of Angelo is a figure representing Santa Maria Maddalena borne through the air by four Angels in the form of children; the size is that of the Adam and Eve by Cristofano. The last mentioned sculptor gave much attention to architecture as well as to sculpture, and among other works he commenced the portico of San Celso,[155] in Milan, which was finished after his death by Tofano,[156] called II Lombardino, who erected many churches and palaces in all parts of Milan, as we have already related in the Life of Giulio Romano; among these, the convent, church, and vestibule belonging to the nuns of Santa Caterina, and which is situate at the Porta Ticinese, may more particularly be mentioned; many other fabrics of similar character were also constructed by Tofano.[157]
Silvio da Fiesole[158] was also employed, by the intervention of Tofano. in the works of the above-mentioned cathedral, and among the stories in the life of Our Lady which decorate a door looking towards the north west, there is one by his hand, that namely which represents the Espousals of the Virgin, a very beautiful relief it is. The story of similar size which is opposite to this, represents the Marriage at Cana in Galilee, and is by the hand of Marco da Gra,[159] a very able sculptor, but these stories are still in process of execution, being at this time carried forward by a very studious youth called Francesco Brambilari,[160] who has almost completed one, in which are the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit. This also is a very beautiful work. Francesco has likewise made a basin or reservoir in marble, which he has decorated with ornaments pierced in the stone, as well as with admirable foliage and a group of children, which are singularly graceful; over this (which is to be placed in the cathedral) there is eventually to stand a marble statue of Pope Pius IY. de’ Medici, who was a native of Milan.
And here we may with truth affirm, that if the study of art were pursued with as much zeal in Milan as it is in Rome and Florence, the able masters to be found there might have produced, nay, might still be producing, very admirable works; and of a verity the Milanese are at this time not a little indebted to the Aretine Leone Leoni,[161] seeing that he, as we shall relate hereafter, has spent considerable sums of money as well as much time, in collecting many casts from the antique which he has had brought to Milan for his own use and that of the other artists.
But to return to the Milanese painters. After Leonardo da Vinci had executed the before-mentioned Last Supper in that place there were many who sought to imitate him, more particularly Marco Uggioni and some others, of whom we have made mention in the Life of Leonardo.[162] That master was very successfully imitated by Cesare da Sesto likewise, and this last-mentioned artist was also a Milanese; in addition to the works by his hand whereof we have made mention in the Life of Dosso, there is a large picture in the house of the Mint at Milan, which is indeed a rich and beautiful work. The subject is the Baptism of Our Saviour Christ by St. John.[163] Another picture by Cesare da Sesto is the halflength figure of Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist in a Charger, which is also executed with admirable ability; and furthermore this artist depicted an altar-piece in the church of San Rocco, which is situate without the Porta Romana; the subject of that work likewise being St. John the Baptist, but represented as a child; to say nothing of many other paintings by the same hand, all of which are much admired.[164]
The Milanese painter, Guadenzio, was also considered in his lifetime to be an able artist;[165] he painted the picture for the high altar in the church of San Celso,[166] and in Santa Maria delie Grazie he painted a chapel in fresco, the subject chosen being the Passion of Our Saviour Christ, represented by figures the size of life, these last exhibiting singular movement and animation in the attitudes.[167] After this Guadenzio painted a picture on panel in the same chapel, and in rivalry of Titian;[168] but although he made great efforts, his work cannot be said to surpass those of the other artists who have laboured in the same place.[169]
Bernardino di Lupino,[170] of whom we have already made some mention elsewhere, depicted various works for the house of the Signor Gianfrancesco Babbia, which is situate near San Sepolcro in the city of Milan; the front of the house that is to say, with the Loggie, halls, and other apartments. The subjects of these pictures were taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and other fables; the figures are good and beautiful, and the work is carefully executed and very delicately finished.[171] In the Munistero Maggiore[172] likewise, Bernardino produced certain works, having decorated the entire front of the high altar with stories of different subjects, and painted a picture of Our Saviour Christ scourged at the column, with many other productions, all of which are of very fair merit.[173]
- ↑ This painter is sometimes called Benvenuto Tisio of Garofalo, a village in the province of Polesine. He was in the habit of painting a clove pink or gilliflower on his works, in place of his name, Garofalo being the name of that flower in certain parts of Italy; he was so called in consequence.
- ↑ The true name of this Laneto, or as Orlandi calls him Lanetti, was Domenico Panetti, and it is a curious fact that from having been the master of Garofalo, he subsequently, and when Benvenuto had returned to Rome bringing with him the style of Raphael, became his disciple, nay, was ultimately a somewhat distinguished painter, instead of a common-place one, as he had previously been. See Lanzi, vol. iii. p. 194, English Edition.
- ↑ There is a picture by this master in the Gallery of Dresden.
- ↑ See La Pittura Cremonese, by the Count Soresina Vidoni, where there is a print of this work.
- ↑ Benvenuto was at that time with his maternal uncle, Nicolò Soriani, who was also a painter, and with whom he resided for the purpose of being near Boccaccino.
- ↑ Altobello da Melone, also a Cremonese. There is further mention of this painter in a subsequent page. See also Lomazzi, Trattato sopra la Pittura, Milan, 1584; and Lamo, Discorso sopra le tre Arti, Cremona, 1584. See also Morelli, Notizie, &c.
- ↑ It would seem that there must here be an error in the date, since the works of Altobello and Boccaccini referred to in the text, bear respectively the dates 1518, 1515, and 1517.
- ↑ For some few notices concerning Baldini, see Baruffaldi, Vite de più insigni Pittori.
- ↑ For mention of whom see vol. iii. of the present work.
- ↑ The Sistine Chapel, which Vasari calls the Chapel of Julius, from that Pontiff having given the commission for its decoration.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ Here is another manifest inaccuracy, most probably an errror of the copyist or the press. In the Kunstblatt for 1844, No. 165, we have an original memorandum by Michael Angelo’s own hand, wherein he notifies the commencement of his paintings in the Sistine Chapel as taking place on the 10th of May, 1508. That but little by the hand of Raphael was to be seen at the date given in the text is also known, but for the details respecting these matters, which cannot here find place, our readers are referred to Rehberg, Rafael Sanzio aus Urbino, München, 1824; Fea, Notizie, &c., Rome, 1822; Quatremere de Quincy, Histoire de la Vie et des Ouvrages de Raphael, Paris, 1824; Platner und Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom; Duppa, Life of Rajfaello Sanzio, London, 1816; and Passavant, Rafael Von Urbino und sein Vater Giovanni Santi, Leipsig, 1839, which last is perhaps the best authority among all the many we possess, as regards accuracy in describing the works of Raphael.
- ↑ This account of the discontent of Benvenuto with the Lombard manner is to be taken with certain grains of allowance, and rather as comparing it with that of Raphael, than as declaring it to be bad in itself. It is to be remarked also that at the time here in question, Correggio had not yet obtained his fame among the Lombards.
- ↑ That namely which is still to be seen in the Cathedral of Ferrara, and which represents Our Lord surrounded by numerous saints.
- ↑ The works in the Church of Santo Spirito were restored by Palmaroli in the year 1826. They bear the usual superscription of the master, the clove pink or gilliflower namely.
- ↑ These pictures, as well as others painted by Benvenuto in the Church of San Francesco, and not mentioned by Vasari, are still in existence.
- ↑ This has suffered greatly by time, as well as by the negligence of those who have had the care of the Church.
- ↑ They are both still in the Church.
- ↑ Peter the Martyr, a Dominican monk and Inquisitor of the thirteenth century, was a native of Verona. He was assassinated by one of the enemies whom his severities in his office had aroused against him, as he was proceeding from Milan to Como.
- ↑ Lanzi remarks that certain of the authorities declare the St. Peter the Martyr to have been painted in competition with Titian, and that if the work of the last-named master should be lost, that of Garofalo might take its place.
- ↑ There is an Annunciation by Garofalo in the Palace of the Magistracy at Ferrara, and another in the Pinacoteca of the Brera at Milan.
- ↑ This picture was taken to Rome, and in its stead was placed a copy by Bononi.
- ↑ These and other pictures taken from the suppressed churches and monasteries, are now deposited in the Palace of the Communal Magistracy.
- ↑ This great picture in fresco is still in existence, although much injured in various parts. In the year 1341, the painter Pellegrino Succi was sent to Ferrara by the Pope (then Gregory XVI.) with a commission from that Pontiff to transfer the fresco to canvas, that the work might thus be saved from destruction. The invention is so quaint and singular a one, that we will' endeavour to give our readers some idea of its principal features. In the centre is Our Saviour Christ on the Cross; he has the New Testament on his right hand, the Old on his left, the last represented as placed on an Ass. From the Cross of Our Lord proceed Arms, which place a Crown on the head of the New Testament: they also hold the keys of Paradise, deliver the Patriarchs from Hell, and slay the Old Testament. Through the hands of a figure representing Religion flow streams of blood, which fall on the three principal Sacraments, and opposite to these are seen the Sacrifices of the Old Testament: Solomon’s Temple has also a place in this composition, and opposite to it is the preaching of St. Paul. Over the whole is a figure of the Almighty Father seated on a Rock.
- ↑ "The City of Ferrara,” observes a grieving compatriot of our author, "has at various periods been deprived of many valuable paintings. In 1617, Pope Urban VIII. took many of those executed by her most distinguished masters from the churches, and others were carried away under the reign of Napoleon.”
- ↑ This fine picture of the Bacchic Procession is now in the Gallery of Dresden. —Förster.
- ↑ The fate of this work is not known.
- ↑ The Convent of San Bernardino is among those that have been suppressed, and of the works executed there by Garofalo nothing is now known.
- ↑ There is a large number of Benvenuto’s works in Rome, many of them being to be found in private houses as well as in public galleries, &c.: there are several in that of the Capitol, for example, and one or more in the Vatican. Lanzi speaks of one in the Chigi Palace, and Bottari mentions another as in the Corsini, but the present writer cannot remember to have seen either of these examples. The two in our own National Gallery, the Vision of St. Augustine and a Holy Family namely, need no mention here.
- ↑ There are two portraits in the Louvre which are believed to be of this artist, but principally because they hold a clove pink or gilliflower in the hand: that which Manolessi believed himself to have discovered, is considered by Lanzi to be the portrait of Giovan Battista Benvenuti, called L’Ortolano.
- ↑ Superbi, Apparato degli nomini illustri di Ferrara, calls him de’ Carpi, but the dispute on what Lanzi has well called the frivolous question thus arising, has been set at rest by Baruffaldi, Vite de’ Pittori Ferraresi, who cites authentic documents to show that his name was Girolamo Bianchi, and that he was as Vasari—who having been his friend, was a highly competent authority'—has said, “called Da Carpi.” In some of the later editions of our author his life is separated from that of Benvenuto, &c., but we adhere to the text as arranged by Vasari himself in the edition of 1560.
- ↑ Mentioned in the Life of Correggio. See vol. ii. p. 407, note §.
- ↑ This picture, which in the seventeenth century was in possession of Cardinal Sforza, came afterwards into that of the French king, and is still in the Louvre. It has been engraved by Etienne Picard, and the small replica at Naples has been engraved by Jacob Felsing. In the Hermitage at St. Petersburg there is a picture exactly similar to that at Naples, and which bears the following inscription:—Laus Deo. Per Donna Metilde d'Este Antonio Lieto di Correggio fece il presenti per sun Divozione, 1517.
- ↑ The St. Peter the Martyr was one of those pictures which passed from the Gallery of the House of Este to that of the king of Poland: it is now in the Dresden Gallery, where it is called the St. George, from the circumstance of that Saint holding a prominent position in the picture.
- ↑ This picture is not a small, but rather a large one; there is an engraving of it by one of the many engravers Kilian, but whether by Lucas, Wolfgang, or one of their sons, the present writer has not been able to ascertain. This also is in the Dresden Gallery, where it is known as the Madonna di Sebastiano.
- ↑ Vasari here corrects the mistake which he had previously made, of placing this work in the Church of St. John the Baptist; Bottari considers him to have taken the opportunity here offered for speaking of Correggio’s works, partly to the end that he might add certain notices received after the Life of Correggio had been written, and correct some few mistakes into which he had fallen while preparing that biography. See the Roman Edition of Vasari, 1750.
- ↑ The pictures of the Church of San Sepolcro were engraved by Francesco Brizio, a disciple of Ludovico Caracci.—Bottari. See also Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, who enumerates the Holy Family, called the “Madonna della Scodella,” now in the Gallery of Parma, among the engravings of Brizio. The last-named work ot Correggio has been also engraved by Toschi.
- ↑ The celebrated St. Cecilia.
- ↑ Contraction of Onofrio. The fate of this portrait is not known.
- ↑ Biagio Pupini, called Maestro Biagio delle Lame. See vol. iii. p. 326, where there is also mention of this artist.
- ↑ The subject of this work is the Marriage of St. Catherine, it was removed at the restoration of the Church in the sixteenth century, and is now beneath the organ.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ Which still retains its place.
- ↑ Vasari has perhaps mentioned Dosso too slightly in other places, and now expresses himself in more favourable terms, in consequence of the better knowledge of that artist which he had obtained during his subsequent travels through Italy.
- ↑ Lanzi affirms that it was not when Titian painted the Duke’s study that he thus favoured and assisted Girolamo, who was then no more than a child, but at a later period.
- ↑ The frieze is still in existence, as are the figures of the Evangelists, but some of these have been restored. —Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
- ↑ It is in the first chapel, and almost at the entrance to the church. Lanzi, Storia Pittorica, declares this work to unite the beauties of the Roman and Lombard schools.
- ↑ Still in its place.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ He was the son of Maestro Tibalclo, a Bolognese builder, and is therefore sometines called Pellegrino Tibaldi, and sometimes Pellegrino of Bologna. He is mentioned again by Vasari in the Life of Primaticcio. See also Zanotti, Storia dell'Accademia Clementina di Bologna.
- ↑ Bottari remarks, that by defect of memory Vasari has committed two errors in this passage, since the picture of the Certosa, which was afterwards sent into Spain, was the work of Correggio (it is now in our National Gallery); while “that painted for the Cavaliere Boiardo,” was the Cupid preparing his bow by Parmigiano, and which is now in the Bridgewater Gallery.
- ↑ Where the pontifical Palace now stands. —Bottari. The Palace of the Quirinal that is to say; the Quirinal Hill is still popularly called Monte Cavallo, from the antique horses which, as most of our readers will remember, form the glorious ornament of that place.
- ↑ Valerio Cioli of Settignano was the son of the sculptor Simone Cioli, and a disciple of Tribolo. There is further mention of Valerio in the Life of Michael Angelo.'—Ed. Flor.} 1832-8.
- ↑ According to Baruffaldi, Vite dè piu excellenti pittori Ferraresi, Girolamo da Carpi’s age at his death was sixty-eight.
- ↑ The Florentine editors of the Passigli edition of our author, remind us that this is not the painter Galasso, whose Life Vasari has already given. See vol.ii., p. 126, et seq.
- ↑ Girolamo Lombardi of Ferrara. For the many sculptors of this family see the Memorie degli Artisti della Marca d'Ancona, by the Marchese Amico Ricci.
- ↑ Niccolò Abati, sometimes called simply Niccolino, but more commonly Niccolò dell’ Abate, not, as some authors affirm, because the Abbot Francesco Primaticcio made him known to the French, and contributed to the rise of his fortunes, but because, as Lanzi has shown, that was his family name. The life of this artist also was written by Zanotti, in loc. cit.
- ↑ Tiraboschi denies that Abati painted in this place, but it has been shown by the Cav. Gio. Battista Venturi, of Brescia, that he did work there, although only as the assistant of Alberto Fontana, to whom the commission for the paintings had been given.
- ↑ Or rather the martyrdom of those Saints, since they were not both beheaded. This picture is in the Dresden Gallery; it was engraved, according to Förster, by Folkena, for the description of that Gallery by Zucchi and Kilian.
- ↑ This figure is in a Martyrdom of St. Piacidus, and his sister, St. Placida, called by some writers Santa Flavia. It is now in the Ducal Gallery of Parma, and has been engraved by D. Delfini.
- ↑ The frescoes executed by Niccolò at Scandiano, a Palace of Duke Ercole, are particularly extolled. See Venturi’s illustrations to the engravings of these frescoes, published by Guizzardi, Modena, 1821. There are works executed by Niccolò Abati, in company with Fontana, in the Palace of the Municipality also.
- ↑ The frescoes and other works of our artist in Bologna are likewise described in Venturi, as above cited. See also Zanotti, Pitture di Pellegrino Tibaldi e di Niccolò dell' Abate, Venice, 1756.
- ↑ Whose Life follows. See also Felibien, Entretiens sur les vies des Peintres, &c.
- ↑ Gio. Battista Ingoni, of a noble and once ancient family, but of no great repute as a painter. Vedriani, who wrote especially of the Modanese artists, Vite de' Pittori Modanesi, adds nothing to what Vasari tells us of Ingoni; indeed, he uses the very words of our author. Tiraboschi, in his notices of Modanese painters (in the Biblioteca Modanese), has mention of Ingoni, but little more.
- ↑ For certain details relative to the works of this Flemish master, see Della Valle, Storia deli' Duomo d'Orvieto, p. 331.
- ↑ Giovan-Battista Ingoni survived until 1608, when he died, at the age of eighty-three.
- ↑ See the Life of Giuliano da Majano, vol. ii. of the present work, p. 13.
- ↑ This, according to the best authorities can he no other than Antonio Begarelli, a celebrated artist in terra-cotta, whose works are as above described.
- ↑ These figures are now in the Institute of the Fine Arts at Parma. See Cicognara, Storia della Scultura, tomo ii. p. 364.
- ↑ The Padre Luigi Pungileoni shows that Prospero Spani, called Clemente, was a native of Reggio; see the Giornale Arcadico, November and December, 1831, p. 344: but Bottarihad previously affirmed as much in the Roman Edition of our author, and his assertion has since been further supported by documents which the Cav. Francesco Fontanesi brought forward in a Discorso published at Reggio in 1826.
- ↑ For details respecting this artist’s works, see Monumenti di Pittura e Scultura trascelti in Mantova, Mantua, 1827. See also Memorie sopra Prosper Clementi Scultore Reggiano, in the Giornale Arcadico for 1831.
- ↑ For the Life of Mazzuoli, called Parmigiano, see vol. iii. of the present work, p. 356, et seq. The reader may also consult the Padre Ireneo Affò, Vita del Graziosissimo Pittore, Francesco Mazzola detto il Parmigiano, with Sketches of the Lives of Correggio and Parmigiano, London, 1823.
- ↑ Anselmi was not a SienesSe, but a descendant from the ancient and noble family of his name in Parma. He was an admirable painter, although but little known beyond his native country. There are works by his hand in the Church of San Stefano at Parma; and in a Church of Montechiangelo, a fortified place of the Torelli, there are others of great merit. The reader will find details respecting this master in Lanzi, vol. i. p. 295, vol. ii. p. 399, et seq. See also Affò, Il Parmigiano Servitore di Piazza, Parma, 1794.
- ↑ According to Lanzi, Giulio Romano sent nothing more than a simple sketch, when Michelagnolo Anselmi prepared the cartoon, and executed the picture.
- ↑ Bernardo Gatti, called Il Soiaro.
- ↑ Of whom there has been favourable mention in the Life of Parmigiano.
- ↑ Giovanni Battista Ghisi, called Bertano, was the chief of a family of artists who bore the name “Mantuano.” He was employed by the Duke Vincenzio, and after the death of Giulio Romano, was considered one of the most active artists in Mantua. See Orlandi, Abecedario Pittorico.
- ↑ Mentioned in the Life of Giulio Romano, see ante, p. 57.
- ↑ Domenico Riccio, called Brusasorci (Burn the Mice), from hi3 father, who having invented a method of destroying those animals, obtained the soubriquet of Brusasorci.
- ↑ For the legend of this saint see Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. ii. p. 103, et seq.
- ↑ The MS. of this work is in the possession of the Earl of Burlington.
- ↑ See Mrs. Jameson, ut supra, vol. ii. p. 234, et seq.
- ↑ According to Orlandi, Ippolito Costa was a disciple of Girolamo da Carpi, but Bandinelli considers him to have made his principal acquirements under Giulio Romano.
- ↑ For the legend of this saint also, the reader is referred to Mrs. Jameson, as above cited, vol. ii. p. 229, et seq.
- ↑ According to Lanzi, this picture, which was after the design of Bertano, has more of the style of Giulio Romano than have any of those painted by Ippolito, after his own designs.
- ↑ So called because he was the disciple of Francesco Torbido, called II Moro: see vol. iii. of the present work, p. 410.
- ↑ An excellent painter, and a disciple of Niccolò Giolfino. See the Cremonese artists, p. 527, et seq. of the present vol.
- ↑ Of whom we have more hereafter.
- ↑ This is now at Naples, in the Museo Borbonico namely.—Förster.
- ↑ Now in the Gallery of Dresden, but according to the authority just cited, it is not the work of Raphael, but of Giulio Romano.
- ↑ It would seem that Vasari did not know the Giovanni Battista, of whom he is now speaking, to be one and the same person with the Duke’s architect whom he has so lately cited, yet this fact would now appear to he placed beyond dispute.
- ↑ Diana Ghisi became the wife of Francesco Ricciarelli of Volterra, and has therefore subscribed herself in some of her engravings, Diana civis Volaterrana; in others, she signs herself simply Diana. Bartsch, Le Pientre Craveur, enumerates forty-six plates by her hand.
- ↑ A native of Brescia; he first studied, under Giulio Campo> in Cremona, but retiring to his native city, afterwards became the disciple of Girolamo Romanino, whose daughter he is said to have married.
- ↑ Fra Girolamo Monsignori.
- ↑ See the Life of Fra Giocondo, Liberate, and others, vol. iii. p. S58, et seq., of the present work, where mention is made of Fra Girolamo Monsignori. See also vol. v. and last of the present work.
- ↑ For the Life of Boccaccino see vol. iii. p. 154, et seq.
- ↑ The Count Vidoni, in his magnificent work. La Pittura Cremonese, gives some account of this Bonifazio, as does Zaist, Notizie istoriche de’ Pittori Cremonesi.
- ↑ For the Life of this master, see vol. iii. of the present work, p. 260, et seq.
- ↑ This painter is mentioned by Lomazzo and Lamo, as before cited. See also the Count Vidoni, ut supra. He died in the year 1546.
- ↑ Sojaro or Sogliaro. This in the Cremonese dialect means a cooper, of which trade was the father of Bernardo. There are two pictures by his hand in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, an Ecce Homo and a Crucifixion; of the last, a German writer, Hirt, hath deposed in such sort as to merit the most special ear of my reader; his magniloquent words are as follow:—“It is composed with the discretion of Leonardo, designed with the learning of Michael Angelo, inspired [unless the reader will have the original, besouled] with the spirit-giving breath of Raphael, coloured with the fresh tone of Titian, and transfused with the clear-obscure of Correggio.”
- ↑ Let the reader consult Vidoni, La Pittura Cremonese, as above cited, where there is no inconsiderable part of the work given in two plates, with the addition of valuable remarks: see p. 57, et seq.
- ↑ This work is said to he one of those whicn the master accomplished with his left hand, he having lost the use of his right hand by a paralytic affection. He died at an advanced age, in the year 1575.
- ↑ According to an inscription, discovered some years since on the portrait of Girolamo Campi, in the Florentine Gallery, he was born in the yeai 1477, and died in 1536. See Vidoni, Pittura Cremonesa, as before cited.
- ↑ The works above described have long perished, but Lanzi mentions a picture by Campi as still existing in the Church of San Sebastiano in Cremona.
- ↑ Giulio Campi is said to have perfected himself in his art under Giulio Romano, with whom he studied some time in Mantua. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ The Church dedicated to the Saints Pelagia and Margherita, that is to say.— Ibid.
- ↑ This picture represents the Duke Francesco Sforza kneeling with Bianca Maria Visconti, in the act of adoring the Madonna; they are supported by the Saints Sigismund, Jerome, Grisano, and Daria. Of this painting also there is an engraving with illustrations, in the above mentioned work of Count Vidoni.
- ↑ Engraved by one of the Ghisi family.
- ↑ See vol. iii. of the present work, p. 243; but her father is there called Annibale, instead of Amilcar.
- ↑ This work is said by some authorities to be in England, but the present writer has not been able to ascertain the collection in which it may be found. Förster meanwhile affirms it to be in that of the Count Raczynsky at Berlin.
- ↑ The portrait of Sophonisba, painted by herself, is at Althorpe; and there is a Marriage of St. Catherine by her hand at Wilton.
- ↑ There was a fifth sister, named Elena, but she became a nun.
- ↑ “This is an error of memory in our author,” remarks one of his compatriots, “since he has not mentioned the sculptor, Geremia, in the Life of Filarete but he has named that artist in the Life of Filippo Brunellesco, which will be found in the first volume of the present work.
- ↑ This also is an error; the work in question is the Tomb of the Saints Marius and Martha, but the author of the same was Antonio Amadeo of Pavia, and it was executed in the year 1482, as we learn from an inscription on the tomb itself.
- ↑ Cicognara, Storia della Scultura, tomo ii. p. 186, calls Giovanni Pedoni and his son Cristofano, natives of Lugano, and speaks very highly of their abilities.
- ↑ An excellent painter and follower of the manner of Titian. —Bottari. See also Averoldi, Scelte Pitture di Brescia; and Ridolfi, Maraviglie dell'Arte.
- ↑ In the Church of Santa Maria di Calchera, in Brescia, there is a picture representing the Communion of Sant’ Apollonius, by this master, with the Resurrection of Lazarus, a Marriage of the Virgin, and the Last Supper of Our Lord, in the Church of San Giovanni.
- ↑ Alessandro Bonvicino, called Moretto, was bom in Brescia towards the close of the fifteenth century. His first master was Fioravante Ferranola, also a Brescian, but his principal acquirements were obtained from Titian. There are some fine frescoes by Bonvicino in the Villa Martinengo, at Novarino, near Brescia, with many other works. There is also a Santa Maddalena by this master in the Venetian Academy of the Fine Arts, a Madonna in the Berlin Gallery, the Doctors of the Church in the Stadtische Museum at Frankfort, a Santa Justina in the Belvedere at Vienna, with a Coronation of the Virgin and other works in the Brera at Milan, ilis last production, bearing the date 1554, is in the Frizzoni Gallery at Bergamo. The fellow citizens of this master erected two monuments to his memory some few years since, and about the same time his bust was placed in the Capitol at Rome.—Kunstblatt for 1844, p. 160. See also Zamboni, Memorie intorno alle Fabbriche di Brescia.
- ↑ For the little that is to be told of these saints, who were brothers, our readers are referred to Mrs. Jameson, as so frequently cited.
- ↑ The Church of S.S. Nazzaro and Celso are one and the same.— Förster.
- ↑ “Lattanzio was not the son-in-law of Alessandro Moretto, but of Romanino,” remarks an Italian commentator; but the information of Vasari appears to have been derived from so good a source, that we may fairly suppose him to have been correct. Lattanzio may have married twice and been son-in-law to both these artists.
- ↑ Girolamo Savoldo, otherwise called Giangirolamo Bresciano. See Ridolfi, Maraviglie, &c., part i. p. 255. See also Paolo Pino (Dialogo della Piltura Veneziana), who places him among the first artists of his time.
- ↑ There is a picture by Savoldo in Berlin which represents a girl hurrying from a fire which is raging among old buildings; this painting bears his signature. His principal work is at Pesaro, the subject is Our Saviour Christ seen in the clouds of heaven; beneath are numerous saints.—Ed. Flor., 1838, and German Translation of Vasari, note.
- ↑ Girolamo Muziano was born at Aquafredda, near Brescia, in 1528; he acquired the first principles of design from Romanino, but subsequently studied colouring under Titian: according to some of the best among our authorities, this artist imitated Michael Angelo in the outline and movement of his figures.
- ↑ For the execution of which he was so highly distinguished, that he obtained in Rome the appellation of Girolamo de’ Paesi (landscapes).
- ↑ They were engraved by Cornelius Cort and Niccolò Beatricetto.— Bottari.
- ↑ This master is said to have been so zealous a student, that he would sometimes shave his head, to the end that he might be the less easily persuaded to leave his house. There are works of his not in Rome only, but in the Louvre, at Orvieto, in Dresden, and other places.
- ↑ See Leonardo Cozzando, Ristretto della Storia Bresciano, by whom Richini is said to have been a poet and architect, as well as painter. — Masselli.
- ↑ Cristofano and Stefano Rosa painters in perspective, are mentioned by Ridolfi, Maraviglie dell'Arte, part i. p. 255.
- ↑ This work is still in existence, but somewhat faded and obscured.
- ↑ Now no longer a library, but the Palace of the sovereign.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ These artists survived the account here given many years. Cristofano died in 1576, Stefano in 1572. For details respecting these artists see Ridolfi, Maraviglie dell’Arte; Zamboni, Notizie delle Fabbriche piu celebri di Brescia, &c.; and Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. ii. p. 229, et seq., where their works are very highly praised.
- ↑ Cristofano Rosa had a son named Pietro, who was a disciple of Titian, but died while still young in 1577, either of the plague or of poison. —Bottari. See also Lanzi, History of Painting (English Edition), vol. ii. p. 186, et seq.
- ↑ Bartolommeo Suardi, or Suardo, called Bramantino, from having been the disciple of the architect Bramante. See Passavant, in the Kunstblatt for 1838, No. 68. See also Lanzi, as before cited, vol. ii. p. 472, et seq.
- ↑ For whose Life see vol. iii. p. 13, et seq.
- ↑ The truth of this assertion has been much disputed, but the question is one which cannot be entered into in this place.
- ↑ It was not the present master, but his disciple, called Agostino Bramantino, that painted the rooms of Nicholas V. See De Pagave, Sienese Edition of Vasari.
- ↑ This is a veritable work of Suardi.— Masselli. In the Church of Sant’ Eustorgio also there is a work by his hand, certain Angels namely; and in the Church of Santa Maria, near San Sestino in Milan, there are the Four Evangelists by this master. —Förster.
- ↑ This work is no longer visible.—De Pagave, ut supra.
- ↑ This also has perished.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ This work was designed by Agostino di Bramantino, it is therefore an error to speak of it as having been studied by Bramante, as our author has done in a subsequent page. —De Pagave.
- ↑ This Church has been more than once restored, but never wholly rebuilt.—Ibid.
- ↑ The portico on one of the sides of Sant’ Ambrogio was designed at the command of Ludovico Il Moro, by Bramante, who also directed its execution. —Masselli.
- ↑ It was destroyed in 1537, and was rebuilt in a different manner.— Masselli.
- ↑ This should be Sant’ Aquilino. —Ibid.
- ↑ The tomb of Sant’ Agostino is by a master whose name has not yet been ascertained; it was commenced on the 14th of December in the year 1362. — Förster.
- ↑ Thus in the text:—Si edificò e restaurò.
- ↑ This house was the paternal abode of Bartolommeo Suardi, called Bramantino, nor is it known by what means it fell from the possession of his family into that of the Lattuanti. —De Pagave, Sienese Edition of Vasari.
- ↑ This façade was painted by the architect Bramante.—Ibid.
- ↑ This is not the fact, as the admirers of Bramante are careful to affirm, sometimes with less of courtesy than energy. When Bramante went to Milan he was well versed in the branch of his art here in question.
- ↑ The text would make it appear that Bramantino was here meant, whereas the master really intended by this “whose” is Bramante. A slight looseness of expression is not unusual with our excellent Giorgo, this must needs be admitted; his reader has now and then to fish awhile for his meaning, and that not unfrequently in sufficiently troubled Avaters, but if he be not always precise in expression, never shall he be found otherwise than upright of intention; and judge ye the whether, O reader of our hearts! Besides, hath he not himself told us that his hand was ever more familiar with the pencil than the pen? and if he be not the Martinet of phrases that your ultra-delicate ear demands, what right have we to quarrel with him for not being what he has warned us he does not propose to be? Let us give him peace rather, and accept what he has done, which is so much, rather than cavil at what he has omitted, seeing that this last is indeed so little. Vale, oh excellent reader.
- ↑ Bernardino Zanale of Treviglio. This artist wrote a Treatise on the Laws of Perspective and the Proportions of the Human Form, which was completed in the year 1524. Specimens of his manner are to be seen in the Sacristy of Santa Maria delle Grazie, and in the Brera at Milan. He was invited to Bergamo in 1525, and died in the following year. See Passavant, Kunstblatt for 1838, p. 266.
- ↑ For this Life, see vol. ii. p. 426, et sec.
- ↑ The Life of Baccio da Montelupo will be found at p. 136, et seq., of vol. iii. Agostino Busto is mentioned in the Life of Vittore Carpaccio also, for which see vol. iii. p. 329, et seq.
- ↑ Gaston di Foix died in battle with the Spaniards at Ravenna, in the year 1512.
- ↑ De Pagave, in his notes to the Sienese Edition of our author, gives some account of the dispersion of the works prepared for this magnificent tomb. A large quantity of the precious sculptures were taken to the Villa Castellazzo, near Milan, formerly the property of the Counts Arconati, but now belonging to the Busea family. Some of the pieces are carefully preserved in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, where the present writer remembers to have seen them in the year 1837, as also in 1841, and again in 1845; whether they yet remain there may now perhaps be reasonably doubted. Others are said to be in the Brera. Cicognara, Storia della Scultura Moderna, tom. ii. has given plates very carefully engraved in outline of a certain portion, (see plates Ixxvii. and lxxviii.) and at p. 355 of the same works he declares himself to have seen some of these works in Paris.
- ↑ Cristofano Solari, called the Gobbo (Hunchback), of Milan, was a brother of that Andrea, who is mentioned by Vasari at the end of the Life of Correggio; see vol. ii. p. 411.
- ↑ The design of the church and portico of San Celso was by Bramante, according to De Pagave, and the execution of the work was confided to Angelo Siciliano, whom Vasari calls Ciciliano.
- ↑ Cristofano, that is to say.
- ↑ De Pagave attributes the works at the Porta Ticinese to Galeazzo Alessio, of Perugia.
- ↑ Silvio Cosini of Fiesole has been already mentioned in the Life of Andrea da Fiesole. See vol. iii. p. 103.
- ↑ It has been suggested that this “Marco da Gra” may probably mean Marco Ferrerio, called Agrafe, by whom the celebrated marble statue of St. Bartholomew, in the Milanese Cathedral, was executed.
- ↑ Whose true name was Brambilla. Förster informs us that the metal Tabernacle of the Sacrament in the Cathedral of Milan was cast by this master.
- ↑ Some slight mention has been made of Leone Leoni, in the Life of Valerio Vicentino, see vol. iii. p. 467, et seqbut Vasari afterwards wrote a separate biography of this artist, which will be found in a subsequent page of the present work.
- ↑ See vol. ii. p. 392. This painter is more commonly called Marco Oggione, and occasionally Uglone.
- ↑ This most admirable picture is now at Milan, in the possession of the noble family of Scotti-Galanti. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8. It was engraved by Fumagalli, in the Scuola di Leonardo, 1821.
- ↑ This work came into the possession of the Melzi family.—Ibid. From a note to the German Translation of our author we learn that one of the finest, if not the very best, picture of Cesare da Sesto was painted for the High Altar of the Church of San Niccolò in Messina, and is now at Naples (in the Museo Borbonico). See also Passavant, in loc. cit., p. 277.
- ↑ Guadenzio Ferrari, who was born in 1484 at Valduggia, near Novara, in the Sardinian States, for which cause the Piedmontese account him to be one of their school. See Della Valle, Introduction to vol. x. of the Sienese Edition of our author. Orlandi calls him a disciple of Perugino, and he is said by some writers to have painted in the Farnesina with Raphael. Guadenzio was a sculptor and architect, as well as painter. See the Marchese R. d’Azeglio, who gives details respecting this master, in his richly illustrated work on the Royal Gallery of Turin. Guadenzio Ferrari died in the year 1550, and while occupied with the Last Supper, still to be seen in Santa Maria della Grazie, at Milan.
- ↑ There is no work by Guadenzio at San Celso, but in the Church of the Blessed Virgin, which is very near it, there is a Baptism of Our Lord by St. John. — Masselli.
- ↑ The subject of this work is the Flagellation and Crucifixion of Our Saviour Christ, and is still in fair preservation. —Ibid.
- ↑ The subject of the work here in question is the figure of St. Paul the Apostle, represented in an attitude of meditation, and in the distance is seen the story of his conversion. It was painted, according to the authorities, in the year 1543, and is now in the Louvre, together with that of Titian, painted for the same place, and which represents Our Saviour Christ crowned with thorns.
- ↑ Lomazzo, Trattato sulla Pittura, &c., makes this master one of the “seven greatest painters in the world,” and the authorities who do not accept this opinion, are yet agreed in admitting that the passing notice here given to him by Vasari does in no way meet his deserts. The Santa Caterina by Guadenzio Ferrari is on all hands considered to be a work of the first rank. The taste of this artist may without doubt be considered questionable in certain points, but into details of this kind it is not our province to enter in this place; the reader who shall desire such, will find them in Lanzi, ut supra; School of Milan, vol. ii. p. 496, et seq.; in Bordiga, Notizie intorno alle opere di G. Ferrari, pittore e plastico, Milan, 1821; in Lomazzo, Trattato, &c.; in Orlandi, Abecedario Pittorico; and in many other works.
- ↑ Or rather, Luino, as we have already remarked.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8. See vol. iii. of the present work, p. 156. Passavant considers him to have commenced his labours about the year 1488. See Beitrage zur Kentniss der Lombardischen Malerschulen, and the Kunstblatt, as before cited.
- ↑ The pictures painted by Bernardino Luino in the house of the Rabbia family are declared by some of the Florentine writers to have been destroyed, when the building was restored in the last century; but from a note to the German Translation of our author we learn that certain portions of them are still to be seen in the Casa Silva at Milan.
- ↑ The Great Monastery has been suppressed, but in the Church annexed to it, and which is dedicated to San Maurizio, there are numerous pictures by Luino, who is one of the most admirable and meritorious of the Lombard masters. There are indeed not wanting authorities who consider him the first; and when we remember the correctness and grace of his design, the purity of his style, and the singular delicacy of his execution, we are but slightly disposed to question their judgment.
- ↑ The short mention with which our author has passed over the works