Giorgio Vasari

“ Two days Giorgio with more gladness than if he had been his brother, as was indeed due to one by whom Vasari knew himself to be so much beloved, and who desired nothing more earnestly than to pass the rest of his life beside him. From Arezzo they both then proceeded to Florence, where Cristofano instantly went to kiss the hand of the Duke, who was much pleased with him, and not a little surprised also, for whereas he had expected to see some great ruffianly bravo, he beheld before him the most good-natured looking little man in the world. ”

“ I don’t know how it happens, Signor, but I must needs see to getting myself a kind of cloak that shall be alike on both sides, and have neither right nor wrong, for I have not patience to endure this sort of cloak, seeing that when I dress myself and leave the house in the morning it is for the most part dark, besides that one of my eyes has been so much weakened that I can see nothing at all with it. ”

“ This oval is supported on one side by Self-knowledge, with compasses, a sector, an armillary sphere, the quadrant, and numerous books around her, while she holds a mirror, in which she is regarding her own visage, in her hand, and on the other side is seen Deceit, a most repulsive old woman, meagre and toothless, who laughs mockingly in the face of Self-knowledge, while she is concealing her own revolting countenance behind a fair and lovely mask. ”

“ Cristofano was a man who loved to speak but little, and liked that others also should be brief in discourse, he would even have had all the names of people be very short, greatly approving that of a slave belonging to Messer Sforza, and who was called M. “Yes,” said Cristofano, “such as those are good names, but your Giovan-Francesco and Giovan-Antonio! why one has to work for an hour before they can be brought out.” ”

“ Vasari was indeed much entreated by the Veronese architect, Michele San Michele, to fix himself in Venice, and might perhaps have agreed to remain there for some years, but Cristofano constantly dissuaded him from doing so, declaring that Venice was no place to settle in, good design being but little regarded there, and the painters of that city giving but slight attention to that matter, nay, being as he affirmed, rather a hindrance to the progress of art than promoters of the same, seeing that they felt but little zeal for the labours of their vocation ”

“ Beneath this frieze, and in the seven spaces which are between the upper windows, Cristofano depicted the seven Planets, with the seven celestial signs above them, as a finish and ornament. Beneath the cornice of those windows are figures of the Virtues, placed two and two, and supporting two large oval medallions, within which are depicted stories significant of the Seven Ages of Man, each age being accompanied by the virtues which are considered the most appropriate to it: under the ovals which are between the spaces of the lower windows, are the three Theological and the four Moral Virtues. ”

“ Thereupon Giorgio, who had known Almeni in former times, and was indeed his intimate friend, they having been together in the service of the Duke Alessandro,—Giorgio, I say, arranged the whole matter in accordance with the extent of surface presented by the façade, and sent Messer Sforza a design of most beautiful invention.
According to this design, the windows were surrounded by various ornaments, while every compartment of the whole front was filled with rich historical pictures, the subjects of which, to say it briefly, was the whole Life of Man, from his birth to his death. ”

“ Cristofano was indeed so good a painter of grottesclie that few could be better, but he did not give them the nicety of finish required to ensure perfection; Stefano on the contrary, was somewhat deficient in the requisite force and grace, the first strokes of his pencil rarely sufficing to place the object depicted in its due position, but as he was very patient, he did finally succeed in completing his grottesche, although not without increased labour, yet with superior delicacy and neatness. ”

“ In this place, where he lived in much peril, he nevertheless abode for some time, and then painted for the Abbot Bufolini of Città di Castello, who has a most beautiful and commodious dwelling at San Justino, a certain chamber in one of the towers, forming the divisions of his work by figures of boys and others, which appear foreshortened as they are looked at from below, and are in a truly admirable manner: Cristofano added grottesche, garlands or festoons, beautiful masks, and many other decorations, all of which are as graceful and fanciful as can be imagined. ”

“ Greatly exulting, therefore, and declaring that never had any man been so good a friend to him as Vasari, he started early the following morning from Città di Castello, where the intelligence had found him, to the Borgo, where he presented the letters of his reinstation to the Commissary, and thence repaired to the house of his father, where his mother, with the brother who had also been in exile, but who had long before received permission to return to his country, were struck with amazement at the sight of him. ”

“ After the Sun—to begin again with the upper part of the work—comes Venus, who is holding Love in her arms, and is kissing him with the fondness of a mother; she also has her appropriate attribute above her. In the oval beneath her is Youth, a young man namely, seated amidst books, instruments for mensuration, and other requisites to the arts of design, with maps and globes, celestial and terrestrial: behind him is a Loggia, within which are other young men, who sing, dance, play on various instruments, and amuse themselves to their hearts’ content ”

“ Leaving Rome and returning to Florence, Vasari was invited to Rimini, for the purpose of painting a chapel in fresco, with an altar piece also, in the church of the monks of Monte Oliveto, the commission for which he received from the abbot, Gian Matteo Faettani. On his way Giorgio passed through San Justino, intending to take Cristofano away with him, but the abbot Bufolini, for whom Doceno was then painting a hall, would not suffer him to depart at that time, although he promised Vasari to despatch Cristofano soon after, and to take on himself the care of his journey even into Romagna. ”

“ Rich ornaments in stucco and carved work, with various compositions of figures executed after the Cartoons of Vasari, were completed accordingly, when Giorgio commanded that the works in fresco should be entrusted to Cristofano alone, Vasari desiring that as this was a work which would be liable to be examined closely, the figures not being more than one braccio high, so Cristofano should here have an opportunity for executing something that should be eminently beautiful, in his own peculiar walk of our vocation. ”

“ The last story and that which concludes the whole invention, is a figure of Death, mounted on a meagre horse and placed between two niches; the scythe is in his hand, and with him are Famine, War, and Pestilence, by whose aid he is rushing upon and hunting down people of every age and condition. ”

“ Not only did Cristofano now assist Lattanzio therefore, but he depicted with his own hand the greater part of the best works now to be seen in the apartments of that fortress, wherein Raffaello dal Colle and Adone Doni of Ascoli [13] also laboured, the latter a much experienced and able artist, by whom many works have been performed in other parts of his native place. The Cortonese painter, Tommaso del Papacello was likewise employed in the same fortress, but the best among all who worked there, and the artist who obtained for himself the highest degree of praise, was Cristofano ”

“ But Giorgio having at length arrived, and having been received by his most Illustrious Excellency, as well as by the above-named Messer Sforza, with many proofs of kindness, began to consider by whom it would be desirable to cause the façade of Almeni’s house to be executed; then not suffering the opportunity to escape him, Vasari assured Messer Sforza that there was no one better able to undertake that work than Cristofano, adding, that neither in that nor in the other decorations which were to be undertaken for the palace, would he (Vasari) be able to proceed without the help of that artist. ”

“ The entire cornice, the festoons, the children, and the seven Signs of the Zodiac, were executed by Cristofano almost entirely alone; then beginning with one side, he first depicted the Moon, painting as her representative a figure of Diana, with her lap full of flowers, as Proserpine is frequently delineated, and bearing a moon on her head; while over all is the Sign of the Crab. The oval beneath is that which contains the story of Infancy, or the Birth of Man, and here are represented nurses suckling infants, while the women who have given birth to those infants are seen in their beds ”

“ Tn one of the niches beside him is the god Pluto, beneath whom is Cerberus the dog of hell; the other niche is occupied by a large figure, who is seen to rise from a sepulchre, the time here prefigured being the last day.
In addition to all these things, Cristofano furthermore depicted nude figures holding the various devices of his Excellency; in the pediments of the grated windows and over the portal were placed the ducal arms, the six balls whereof were borne aloft in the air by nude figures of children, their forms intertwined as they hover about in attitudes of exceeding grace. ”

“ Vasari having arrived in Bologna, a month had not elapsed, before, Giorgio himself designing, and Cristofano, aided by Battista, sketching the pictures with his colours, they were all three completely outlined, to the great praise of Cristofano, who acquitted himself to admiration in the matter. The paintings being thus all sketched, they commenced the frieze, which Cristofano was to have executed entirely with his own hand ”

“ This oval is sustained by Truth, represented by a figure of the purest simplicity and beauty; a very young girl namely, entirely nude; beside her is a male figure with trussed up garments, to represent Falsehood: his countenance is exceedingly beautiful, but the eyes are cast to the earth. Beneath the oval and between the windows is Faith, who is administering the rite of Baptism to an infant from a shell filled with water, while in the left hand she holds a Cross: beneath is a figure representing Logic ”

“ The ceiling was divided into four large compartments, filled each with a picture extending ten braccia in one way and eight in the other; the width of all the niches, each of which was four braccia wide, was surmounted by a frieze, which passed around the cornice, and immediately over every niche was a picture three braccia long and of equal breadth, being in the whole twenty-three, while one of double the size, six braccia namely, was placed above the stage and made the entire number twenty-four. ”

“ This façade our artist completed in a ew months, to say nothing of the fact that he passed some weeks at the Borgo, visiting his family, and enjoying his restoration to his coun try and civil rights. Nor will I refuse the labour of enumerating the compartments, and describing the figures of the work in question; for, exposed as it is to the air, and liable as the pictures are to all the injuries of the seasons, it may perhaps not have a long life ”

“ In the chamber of Ceres, which is near this, Doceno painted children in certain of the angles, with festoons which are indescribably beautiful, and in the central picture, where "Vasari had delineated Ceres borne on a chariot drawn by serpents, and seeking Proserpine with a lighted pine torch, Cristofano likewise executed many parts with his own hand, Vasari being then sick and having left the above-named picture of Ceres unfinished, with other works commenced before his illness. ”

“ The pictures were to be in oil, each four braccia in height, they were to occupy the upper end of the Refectory, and to have a frieze or bordering of historical scenes around them, the height thereof to be three braccia, the figures very small, and the subjects, twenty in number, to be taken from the Apocalypse. ”

“ Meanwhile Giorgio Vasari returned from Borne, and was sojourning in Florence Avith the Duke Alessandro, until the Cardinal Ippolito, his lord, should arrive from Hungary; when he was to commence the decoration in fresco of certain apartments in the Medici palace, the subjects chosen being events from the life of Caesar: Giovanni da Udine having adorned the ceilings of that building with stucco work and paintings. ”

“ Flor., 1838. ↑ A painter known only by favour of the mention thus made of him bv Vasari.- —Ed. Flor., 1832-8. ↑ The Fortress of San Giovanni Battista, or Fortezza da Basso namely. ↑ These works are still to be seen in the Palazzo Vitelli, called Della Macchia. —Ed. Flor.832-8. ↑ Stefano Veltroni, the cousin of Vasari. He afterwards assisted the latter in the Vignaof Pope Julius at Rome, and subsequently accompanied Giorgio, first to Naples, and then to Bologna. ↑ These works still exist. ↑ The Olivetine Monks of San Michele-in-Bosco were suppressed in the year 1797.— Ed. Flor. ”