stories in fresco, which the Signor Duke desires to have painted on the wall beside the Organ, in the Church of San Lorenzo, and we cannot doubt but that he will here prove himself that excellent Bronzino, whom we have always known him to be.[1]
This master has besides taken great pleasure in poetry, and has written many stanzas and sonnets, some of which have been printed; but he is above all remarkable (as regards poetry) for his success in rhymes written after the playful manner of Berni;[2]nor have we any one in our day who is more ingenious, varied, fanciful, and spirited, in this jesting kind of verse, than Bronzino, as all will see, if the wdiole of his works should some day be printed, as it is believed and hoped that they will be. Our artist is, and ever has been, most liberal of all that he possesses, and most kindly in all things, as it is possible for any one, even an artist, noble as he is, to be; gentle of disposition, he has never offered injury to any one, and has ever loved the distinguished men of his own vocation, as well we know who have lived on terms of close friendship with him for three and forty years, from 1524 that is, to the present year of 1567; since it was at the first mentioned period, when he was labouring at the Certosa, with Pontormo, that I first began to know and love this man; I then going, as a youth, to draw from the works of Jacopo, at that place.[3]
Bronzino has had may followers and disciples, but the first (to speak now of our own Academicians) is Alessandro Allori, who has been ever beloved by his master, not as a disciple only, but as if he were his own son; they have
- ↑ One only, a Martyrdom of San Lorenzo, was painted, and that still retains its place.
- ↑ The burlesque poems of Bronzino are declared by the Academy Della Crusca to be models of their manner. Seven of them will be found (as the present writer is informed) among the early printed works of Bemi, others in an edition published at Naples in 1723, but dated, “Florence and London.” The whole were printed, but, as it is said, from an incorrect copy, at Venice, in 1822, and a part of Bronzino’s Canzoni and Sonnets was published for the first time at Florence in 182*2-3.
- ↑ Borghini, in his Riposo, says that Bronzino died in his sixty-ninth year, but does not give the date. In a Book of the Guild of Painters, however, I (Bottari) have found him mentioned as down for the tax, on the 1st of November, 157*2, but the tax is not marked as paid whence we may infer that Bronzino died towards the end of that year, or the commencement of the following; about four years after Vasari wrote the above, that is to say.
