Giorgio Vasari

“ In this branch of art it is indeed certain that none have’ ever shown equal mastery, none have ever exhibited so much beauty of design, so fine a manner, such perfect facility, and such remarkable promptitude, as have distinguished these masters; their works are considered with increased admiration by all artists each time that they behold them, and every one is struck with astonishment at the manner in which nature in this our age has caused her wonders to be placed before us by such men. ”

“ Great is the debt of gratitude which is due from the masters of our arts to Polidoro, seeing that by him painting has been enriched with a vast abundance of beautiful and fanciful vestments of all kinds, as well as with a profusion of singular and varied ornaments, not to mention the grace and excellence of which he has left us examples in all his works. ”

“ The chariots, some with two, others with four horses, which are here seen to be careering around the obelisks, are justly considered to be worthy of the highest commendation, seeing that they are executed in such a manner, whether as regards design or execution, that they place the spectacles they are intended to represent in all their reality before the eyes of the spectator. At the corner of the Chiavica, on that side Avhich leads to the Corte Savella, there is a façade by Polidoro and Maturino, which is divinely beautiful ”

“ The fame of our artists was so widely extended, by the many works thus beautifully executed by them in so large a number of public places, that they not only obtained the highest commendations during their lives, but have likewise secured infinite and perpetual glory after death, by the number of their imitators and copyists. [12] On the Piazza, whereon stands the palace of the Medici, and on the front of a house behind the Naona, [13] Polidoro and Maturino painted the Triumph of Paulus Emilius, with many other representations from the history of Rome. ”

“ He was then condemned to the gallows, and being first tormented with red hot pincers on his way to execution, was afterwards quartered. [22]
All this was nevertheless insufficient to restore Polidoro to life, nor could it bring back to painting that extraordinary and varied genius which had so long surpassed all that the world had for many ages possessed, in his branch of art. If invention, grace, and force in the delineation of figures, could have been rendered mortal and subject to death, they would have died with him. ”

“ Polidoro and Maturino were, nevertheless, not thereby cured of their ill-placed confidence in their own ability to execute such works, and undertook certain figures of Children in colours for the altar of the Martelli family, in the church of Sant’ Agostino, in Rome, where Jacopo Sansovino erected a Madonna in marble, as the completion of the fabric; but these Children could never be supposed to be the wOrk of illustrious artists; on the contrary, they have all the appearance of having been painted by persons utterly incapable, and but just beginning to acquire the rudiments of their art. ”

“ Men from whom a totally different result might have been expected, she permits suddenly to attain the summit of excellence in some profession, to the no small discomfiture of many who have vainly toiled for many years in the same art ”

“ But there were at that time many painters in Rome who held much higher rank in art than themselves, and who merited, as they possessed, the reputation of giving to their works a more life-like and animated colouring, with a more noble and chastened manner, than had been acquired by our two artists ”

“ It was not the will of God, nevertheless, that nature and virtue should be thus aggrieved by the hand of Fortune, and hence it happened that one who had no interest in the matter declared it to be impossible that any but the youth himself could have committed the deed. ”

“ In these works there are certain parts of the landscapes which give proof of extraordinary ability, and exhibit a grace which is most attractive: indeed Polidoro executed landscapes, groups of trees, and rocks, better than any other master, and it is to him that art is indebted for the facility wherewith painters now execute that part of their works. ”

“ A further testimony to the value of their labours is in the frequency with which they have been and are copied and imitated by foreign masters, wherefore it may safely be averred that by the fine manner they have displayed, and by the admirable facility of their execution, these artists have rendered more important services to art than have been performed by all the other masters from Cimabue downwards. ”

“ Above these pictures are others, wherein there are vases of gold imitated with infinite exactitude, and other fanciful decorations of such extraordinary ingenuity, that mortal thought could not conceive nor could mortal eye behold any thing more singular or more beautiful ”

“ Andofa truth these artists had no equals in richness of invention, whereof we have ample proof in all their works, which exhibit a surprising variety of habiliments and decorations for every part of the person, with the most singular fancies of every kind, all executed in a very careful and most admirable manner. ”

“ The report of liis abilities did nevertheless become bruited abroad, and he received a commission from the Count —————— to paint a ceiling in tempera, with other pictures on various walls of a palace, all of which are esteemed to be very beautiful. He likewise painted the court-yard of the Signor —————— in chiaro-scuro, with certain loggie which are very rich in ornaments, and are well and finely done. For the Church of Sant’ Angelo which is near the Pescheria, in the city of Naples, Polidoro undertook a small picture in oil ”

“ Finding his abilities to be but poorly appreciated in Naples, Polidoro determined to depart and leave people who made more account of a horse that could leap than of a master wdio could give life to the paintings depicted by his hands. ”

“ Here, findingmore sympathy and more regard, he set himself to work, and labouring without intermission, he acquired considerable skill and good practice even in the use of colours, producing numerous works, which are dispersed about in different places. ”

“ Near the Torre di Nona, likewise, on the side towards the bridge of Sant’ Angelo, there is a small fagade of their work, representing the Triumph of Camillus, with a Sacrifice after the antique. [5] In the road which leads to the Madonna del Ponte there is also an exceedingly beautiful fa9ade by these masters, with the story of Perillus, who is represented when about to be shut up in the brazen bull which he had fabricated ”