that work, he sank into so strange a state, that he would work no more, and his peculiarities increasing, he became utterly distracted, and died more like the beasts that perish than like a Christian man.[1] At the same time, in the same city, lived the Milanese, Bernardino da Trevio, who was engineer and architect of the Duomo, he was admirable in design and was held by Leonardo da Vinci to be a most excellent master, although his manner is somewhat crude and his paintings are hard and dry. At the upper end of the cloister of Santa Maria delle Grazie, there is an Ascension of Christ by Bernardino da Trevio, wherein the observer will remark some very admirable foreshortenings. In San Francesco also, he painted a chapel in fresco, the subject being the death of San Pietro and that of San Paolo. In Milan and the neighbourhood of that city, there are likewise many other works by this master, all held in high estimation, and in my book of drawings I have a female head by his hand, very beautifully executed in charcoal and white lead, from which a very fair notion of his manner may be obtained.[2]
But to return to Bramante. After having thoroughly studied that fabric (the Duomo), and made the acquaintance of the above-named engineers, he became inspirited to such a degree, that he resolved to devote himself entirely to
- ↑ Our author is happily in error respecting Cesariano, whose fate was not so melancholy as his narration would lead us to believe. He was at one time unhappy in his domestic circumstances, but that misfortune was of a temporary nature only; his merits as an artist also were ultimately acknowledged, and he received all the honours of which, as De Pagave assures us, his talents and character rendered him deserving. Cesariano was not born until 1483, seven years, that is to say, after Bramante’s arrival in Milan; he studied architecture under that master, and was one of his most distinguished scholars. For further details see De Pagave, ui mpra. See also the Marchese Poleni, who has written the life of Cesariano, and from whom we learn that he was a miniature painter as well as architect. At Ferrara he obtained great honour for his learning, from the University of that city, and was finally appointed to complete the internal arrangements of the cathedral of Milan: he died at the last-named city in the year 1542.
- ↑ Bernardino Zenale, of Trevilio. This artist is much commended by Lomazzo and Lanzi. For minute details see the work of Count Tassis, Vite degli Artefici Bergamaschi, tom. i.; see also Passavant, in the Kunstblatt for 1838.
