Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/119

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vittore pisanello.
111

of the council held hy Pope Eugenius, whereat the aforesaid emperor was present; the reverse of this bears the Cross of Christ, sustained by two hands, that of the Latin church, namely, and that of the Greeck.[1]

So far Giovio. Vittore Pisano likewise executed the portraits, also on medals, of Filippo de’ Medici, Archbishop of Pisa, Braccio da Montone, Giovan Galleozzo Visconti, Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, Giovanni Caracciolo, grand Seneschal of Naples, with those of Borso and Ercole D’Este, and of many other nobles and personages, renowned in arms or distinguished for learning. For the reputation he had acquired in this branch of art Pisano has been celebrated by many very great men and excellent writers; and, in addition to what was written of him by Biondo, as before related, he was highly extolled in a Latin poem, composed by his compatriot the elder Guerino, a well-known and very learned writer of that day. Of this poem, called from the name of its subject, II Pisano del Guerino, Biondo also makes honourable mention. Vittore was, in like manner, celebrated by the elder Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano, that is, father of the other Strozzi, who, like himself, was an excellent poet in the Latin tongue. The father, I say then, honoured the memory of Vittore Pisano in a most beautiful epigram, which is in print with the others.[2] And these are the fruits that are borne by a life passed worthily and in the practice of virtuous labours.

It has been said by some writers that when Pisano, then very young, was acquiring his art in Florence, he painted a picture in the old church of the Temple, which stood where the old citadel now is. The subject of this work was taken from the life of San Jacopo di Galizia, and represents the story of the pilgrim, in whose pocket, while he was going on a pilgrimage to that saint, the son of his host put a silver cup, to the intent that he might be punished as a thief; but the pilgrim, being aided by San Jacopo, is by him reconducted to his home in safety. In this painting, Vittore

  1. Bottari, Lettere Pittoriche, gives this epistle entire.
  2. The Poem of Guerino is lost. The Epigram of Strozzi may still he seen in the Strozii Poetace Pater et Films.—Eroticon, lib. ii. p. 127. Aldine Edition, It is that commencing, “Statuarium Antiquis Comparandum”, &c.