in Cennini’s day being perfectly well known to all artists in these our times. But I will not omit to remark, that Cennini makes no mention of certain earths, such as the dark terra rossa, nor of cinnabar and various greens—perhaps because they were not then in use; other colours were in like manner wanting to the painters of that age, as umber for example, yellow-lake (giallo santo), the smalts, both for oil and fresco painting, with certain yellows and greens, all which have been discovered at a later period. Cennini likewise treats of grinding colours in oil, to make red, azure, green, and other grounds of different kinds;[1] he speaks of the mordants, used in the application of gold also, but not as applied to figures. In addition to the works which Cennini executed in Florence, with his master, there is a Virgin accompanied by certain saints, from his hand, under the loggia of the hospital of Bonifazio Lupi, the colouring of which was managed so carefully, that it remains in good preservation even to this day.[2]
This Cennino, speaking of himself in the first chapter of his book, has the following passage, which I give in his exact words:—“I, Cennino di Drea Cennini, of Colle di Valdelsa, was instructed in the said art during twelve years, by my master Agnolo di Taddeo, of Florence, who learnt the same from Taddeo his father, which last was the godson of Giotto, and his disciple for four-and-twenty years. This Giotto transmuted the art of painting from Greek into Latin; he brought it to our modern manner, and certainly did more to perfect it than any other had ever done.” These are the precise words of Cennino, to whom it appeared, that as he who translates any work from the Greek into the Latin, confers a great benefit on all who do not understand Greek, so did Giotto, in transmuting the art of painting from a manner not known or understood by any one (unless, indeed, that all might easily perceive it to be senseless)—to a manner at once
- ↑ This passage of Vasari is considered to be in contradiction to the remarks he afterwards makes (in his life of Antonello da Messina) on the discovery of oil painting; but Lanzi, availing himself of the observations of Morelli, has reconciled this apparent contradiction, as will be seen in the proper place. —Montani.
- ↑ See Gaye, vol. i, 528-9. The paintings of Cennini must have been destroyed in 1787, when the hospital was changed into a lunatic asylum, and its form altered.
