Giorgio Vasari

“ Higher dignities and honours, or a more exalted distinction, he could not have obtained in this life, seeing that by so great a monarch as is the King of France, he was valued and regarded beyond any other man exercising his vocation. But of a truth, the merits of this artist were such that Fortune would have done him a very great injustice had she offered him anything less.
In addition to his gifts as a painter. Rosso was endowed with great personal advantages; he was graceful and impressive in discourse, was an excellent musician, and possessed extensive acquirements in philosophy. ”

“ The Intendant meanwhile approached with uplifted stick, and the monkey, shaking the trellis mightily, tore the staves and rods loose from their fastenings, and brought the whole down with the vine and himself, all falling together on the monk. The latter instantly set up loud outcries, calling for mercy with all the force of his lungs, while Battistino and the others drawing the rope, enabled the monkey to ascend in safety to the room whence he had departed. ”

“ Whoever shall examine the paintings of Rosso with due care, will acknowledge that what I have here said is strictly true; more particularly let him remark the nude figures, and he cannot but perceive the admirable manner in which they are rendered, and the careful attention given by this master to all the details of the anatomy. His women also are singularly beautiful, their draperies are graceful, and the decorations of every part are fanciful and appropriate. ”

“ Having completed his labours in Florence, Rosso set off for Rome with Battistino and the ape. Much expectation had been awakened respecting him in that city, and his works were earnestly sought for, some of the drawings made by him having already been seen and acknowledged to be most beautiful, as they doubtless were, seeing that Rosso drew to admiration. ”

“ When able men devote themselves to some particular study, and pursue the same with all the power of their minds, they are sometimes, and at a moment when it was least expected, exalted before the eyes of all men, and called to distinguished honours, as was exemplified, after many labours endured in his vocation, in the case of the Florentine painter, Rosso. ”

“ Rosso had always expressed a desire to end his days in France, in order to deliver himself, as he said, from a certain poverty and need of condition to which those men are so frequently subjected who pass their lives labouring in Tuscany, or in whatsoever country it may be wherein they were born. ”

“ Among other things is a Satyr who is raising one side of a tent or pavilion, and the head of which, notwithstanding its goat-like character, is of marvellous beauty, the radiance of the smiles and the pleasure which he seems to feel at the sight of so beautiful a youth, being particularly remarkable. ”

“ But in the year 1530, when the city of Florence was closely besieged, the people of Arezzo, being freed from all restraint, in consequence of the want of prudence betrayed by Papo Altoviti, invested the citadel, and razed it to the ground. Our artist, therefore, knowing that the people of Arezzo were by no means friendly to the Florentines, would not confide his safety to the former, and departed to Borgo-a -San Sepolcro, leaving his cartoons and designs for the works above-named stowed away in the citadel. ”

“ There he had apartments in the palace, and lived in the manner of a gentleman, the King having made him chief and superintendent over all the buildings, paintings, and other decorations of that place, where Rosso commenced the construction of a gallery over the lower court. This he did not finish with a vaulting, but with a ceiling, or rather wood-work, very beautifully divided into compartments. The side-walls of the gallery he decorated entirely in stucco-work, with new and fanciful methods of dividing the spaces, and with cornices richly and variously carved. ”

“ The parts which are most in relief, and those whereon the high lights are brought out most clearly, blend gradually with the parts which are more in shadow, with so much softness and harmony as they sink into the deepest shades, and the degrees of light are managed so judiciously, and with so much knowledge of art, while the intermediate shadows are brought in with such good effect, that every figure stands well out from the rest, and each assists in imparting relief to the other. ”

“ Then the monkey, perceiving well that if he attempted to ascend to his home, the Intendant would reach him, while if he remained still he would be equally in danger of the stick, began to spring about and destroy the vine, making at the same time as though he would throw himself upon the monk, and holding fast by his hands to the external bars of the trellis. ”

“ The painters also whom Rosso employed in the works at Fontainebleau were Luca Penni, brother of Giovanni Francesco, called the Fattore, and who was a disciple of Raffaello da Urbino; the Fleming Leonard, who was a very able painter, and who rendered admirably with his colours the designs prepared by Rosso; the Florentine Bartolommeo Miniati, Francesco Caccianimici, and Giovanni Battista da Bagnacavallo ”

“ This work has, indeed, so much force that we may truly affirm it to have been conceived as well as executed with more judgment and mastery than any other that has ever been painted by any master, however judicious. ”

“ Nor can I conceive whence this has proceeded, unless we are to conclude that in his case, as in that of many others, we have an instance of a fact which appears to me to be a very extraordinary thing, and one of the secret wonders of nature, that many persons, namely, when they change their country and place, appear to change their character, talents, habits and modes of life also, insomuch that they sometimes no more appear like themselves, but like some others, nay, not unfrequently are as people bewildered and stultified. ”

“ Bottari. In our own times certain traces of paintings by Rosso have been discovered beneath the whitewash which had covered them, in the portico called Porte Dorfee. They were restored by the painter Picot, by order of the late King Louis Philippe, and present mythological representations: Aurora and Cephalus, the Battle with the Titans, Diana and Endymion, the Argonautic Expedition, Tithon and Axirora, and Paris wounded by Pyrrhus. There are two other paintings ”

“ But the greater number of the apartments which this master decorated at Fontainebleau were altered, and the works he had executed in them destroyed after his death, by the above-named Francesco Primaticcio, who has replaced them by new and larger fabrics. [31]
Among the artists who laboured with Rosso in the abovementioned works of stucco and relief, were the Florentine, Lorenzo Naldino, Maestro Francesco d’Orleans, Maestro Simon of Paris, and Maestro Claude, also a Parisian, with IMaestro Laurence of Picardy, all of whom were highly acceptable to him; and many others whom I do not name. ”

“ His fame and credit increasing, Rosso undertook to complete the picture which had been commenced by Raffaello da XJrbino for the Dei family, but which had been abandoned by that master when he repaired to Rome. This work was executed with exceeding grace and beauty of design by Rosso, and exhibits also a very pleasing animation in the colouring; [9] nor need any one expect to discover more power or greater beauty in any work, than may be found in this when viewed from the projDer distance ”

“ It is true that the figures of the Apostles which he has painted there are too heavily loaded with draperies, and these last are too ample in their folds, [5] but the attributes and some of the heads are more than beautiful. [6]
Having received a commission for a picture from the Director of the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, Rosso commenced the sketch accordingly ”

“ There is also a small picture in that collection by the same master, and which exhibits a little graceful figure of Love playing on a lute. ↑ Still to be seen in the church; according to Bottari, it is a work of some merit, and one which does not wholly justify the censure of Vasari, ↑ A youth admitted as a grinder of colours by Raphael, who afterwards employed him in many other offices. ”