GALASSO GALASSI, PAINTER, OF FERRARA.[1]
[born about 1438—died 1488.]
When foreigners execute works of art in a city wherein there are no native artists of eminence, this circumstance constantly awakens the genius of some one among the citizens, who afterwards labours, by the study of that art, to make such progress that his native city shall no longer require to invite strangers (who afterwards bear away the wealth of the place,) for the execution of embellishments. These I say, then, strive to secure to themselves, by the exercise of their talents, those riches which appear to them so desirable, when they see them lavished on foreigners. The truth of this remark was rendered clearly manifest by Galasso of Ferrara, who, seeing Pietro of Borgo a San Sepolcro remunerated by the Duke for the works which he executed, besides being honourably entertained in Ferrara on the same account, was excited by this example to devote himself to the study of painting, on the departure of Pietro, with so much zeal, that in his native city he acquired the reputation of being a good and even excellent master.
Galasso was all the more favourably considered in Ferrara from the fact that by a journey made to Venice he had acquired the method of painting in oil, which he had carried to Ferrara,[2] where he afterwards executed numerous figures in that manner, which are scattered about in the different churches throughout Ferrara.[3] Flaving, at a later period, repaired to Bologna, whither he had been invited by certain Dominican monks, Galasso painted a chapel in oil for the
- ↑ This life does not appear in all the editions of Vasari, but the later Italian commentators have restored it to the place which it occupied in the first edition, and we follow their example.
- ↑ Many authors affirm that the practice of oil-painting was first taught in Ferrara by Roger of Bruges, from whom Galasso, among other artists, acquired it.
- ↑ The reader, who may desire minute details respecting the works of this artist, will find them in Baruffaldi, Vite degli Artefici Ferraresi, edited by Boschini.—Ferrara, 1844-8.
Legist, Marianus Socinus, may be seen in the Hall of modern bronzes, in the Gallery of the Uffizj, This was executed by Lorenzo, at the cost of the city, in 1467, and was intended for the tomb of Socinus.
