nephew of Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo, called Bastiano, was placed with him to learn the art of painting. But the youth had not been long with Perugino, when he saw the work of Michelagnolo in the house of the Medici, the Cartoon, that is to say, of which we have so frequently spoken, and became so fervid an admirer of the great artist’s manner, that he would no longer frequent the workshops of Pietro, seeing that the manner of the latter, in comparison with that of Buonarroti, appeared to him to be dry and minute; a manner, in short, that was by no means to be imitated.
Now among all the artists who were then engaged in copying that Cartoon, which was at one time the school of all who wished to devote themselves to painting, the most able was considered to be Ridolfo Ghirlandajo; wherefore Bastiano selected that Ridolfo for his companion, to the intent that from him he might learn to paint, and thus they became very intimate friends. But not for this did Bastiano neglect the study of the above-named Cartoon, or the copying of the nude figures thereof; on the contrary, he drew the whole composition in a smaller size, designing every figure in the different groups, a thing which none had previously done, no one but himself having copied the work as a whole.
All this Bastiano did with the utmost care and attention that he could possibly command, devoting himself to the study of the work with such earnest zeal, that he finally became capable of rendering an exact account, not only of the attitudes and muscles of those figures, but of the forces exerted by the latter; nay, he was even ready on every occasion to assign the motive which had induced Buonarroti to adopt certain attitudes, such namely as presented more than common difficulty of execution; and in doing this he would pronounce his opinions with a gravity, deliberation, and sententiousness, which caused a party of very clever artists to fix on him the name of Aristotile,[1] and this was considered to be all the more suitable because it appeared that, according to an ancient portrait of the great writer and secretary of nature, Aristotle, the face of Bastiano bore a very close resemblance to that of the Stagirite.
- ↑ Our readers will perceive that Vasari subsequently gives another and less probable reason for his choice of a soubriquet.—Ed. Flor. 1832-8.
