Agnolo Bronzino

“ For Bartolommeo Panciatichi, Bronzino painted two large pictures of the Madonna, with other figures, and these are beautiful to a marvel; he also took the portraits of Bartolommeo and his wife, both so natural that they appear to be living, and want nothing but the breath of life. For the same person Agnolo painted a picture of Christ on the Cross; and this is executed in a manner which proves that the artist really drew from a dead body fixed to a cross, so complete is the perfection of every part. ”

“ After Giovan Battista Cavalcanti had caused a chapel to be built in S. Spirito, at Florence, with most beautiful variegated marbles conveyed from beyond the sea at very great cost, and had laid there the remains of his father Tommaso, he had the head and bust of the father executed by Fra Giovanni Agnolo Montorsoli, and the altar-piece Bronzino painted, depicting in it Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the form of a gardener, and more distant two other Maries, all figures executed with incredible diligence. ”

“ What had Andrea to do with the altered state of things? How could his home-coming affect the little governess, the humblest member of that stately household?
There in the glow of the fading sunlight hung the Bronzino, its eyes—so like some other eyes—gazing [Pg 88] steadily at me from the canvas. "Beautiful eyes," I thought; "honest eyes, good eyes! There was never anything very bad in that person's life. I think he was good and happy, and that every one was fond of him." ”

“ 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 lived, nay, still do live together, in all the love which is usually found to exist between a good parent and his child. ”

“ It is a notable thing that whereas many are wont in their last years to do less well than they have done in the past, Bronzino does as well and even better now than when he was in the flower of his manhood, as the works demonstrate that he is executing every day. Not long ago he painted for Don Silvano Razzi, a Camaldolite monk in the Monastery of the Angeli at Florence, who is much his friend, a picture about one braccio and a half high of a S. Catharine, so beautiful and well executed, that it is [Pg 11] not inferior to any other picture by the hand of this noble craftsman ”

“ Nor did Bronzino depart from Pisa before there was allotted to him at the instance of Martini, by Raffaello del Setaiuolo, the Warden of Works of the Duomo, the altar-picture for one of the chapels in that Duomo, wherein he painted a nude Christ with the Cross, and about Him many Saints, among whom is a S. Bartholomew flayed, which has the appearance of a true anatomical subject and of a man flayed in reality, so natural it is and imitated with such diligence from an anatomical subject. ”

“ One picture was still wanting to complete the whole, and this was executed by Bronzino, who painted a nude Christ and eight saints. And in this manner were those chapels brought to completion, all of which Giovanni Antonio could have done with his own hand if he had not been so slow. ”

“ Whereupon he executed fourteen pieces with the excellence and perfection which everyone knows who has seen them; but since this was an excessive labour for Bronzino, who was losing too much time thereby, he availed himself in the greater part of these cartoons, himself making the designs, of Raffaello dal Colle, the painter of Borgo a San Sepolcro, who acquitted himself excellently well. ”

“ In the midst, the Visconti, the ragged light streaming over his tattered armor, and Isotta d'Este, guarded between two soldiers, swaying on her black horse, and above all the shouts of the frenzied triumph of the Milanese.... Ah!"
Agnolo paused now for want of breath, and glanced at his companion.
But Francisco offered no response. His face was turned away, and his hands were clenched. The little painter had a vague sense of having allowed a mere [Pg 45] artist's enthusiasm to carry him too far into a dangerous theme. ”

“ After the death of Tasso the whole work was confided to Vasari, whose task was rendered easier as the Court moved into the Palazzo Pitti. Bronzino was called in to decorate the Duchess’s former apartments on the second floor of the old palace. In the chapel he painted three episodes from the life of Moses and an altarpiece, which was considered so fine that the Duke sent it as a present to Granvela in Flanders, and another was painted by Bronzino, now in the Gallery of the Uffizi. ”

“ The best works from her hand are those that she has copied from others, wherein she shows that she would have done marvellous things if she had enjoyed, as men do, advantages for studying, devoting herself to drawing, and copying living and natural objects. And that this is true is seen clearly from a picture of the Nativity of Christ, copied from one which Bronzino once painted for Filippo Salviati. ”

“ Another picture similar to that described above he painted for Carlo Neroni, but only with the Battle of the Martyrs and the Angel baptizing them; and then the portrait of Carlo himself. He also executed a portrait, at the time of the siege of Florence, of Francesco Guardi in [Pg 171] the habit of a soldier, which was a very beautiful work; and on the cover of this picture Bronzino afterwards painted Pygmalion praying to Venus that his statue, receiving breath, might spring to life and become—as, according to the fables of the poets, it did—flesh and blood. ”

“ At length and after having always remained such a person as we have described, Giuliano died at the age of seventyfive years, and was buried in the church of San Marco at Florence in the year 1556. [8] Giuliano was once relating to Bronzino the circumstance of his having seen a most beautiful woman, and after Bugiardini had extolled this lady to the skies, Bronzino inquired if he knew who she was; “No,” replied Giuliano, “but she is exquisitely beautiful; figure to yourself, in short, that she is a picture executed by my hand, and then you will have the truth, that will be enough.” ”

“ As it is, Lorenzo's studies in verse produce the same impression as Bronzino's in painting. They are brilliant, but hard, cold, calculated, never fused by the final charm of poetry or music into a delightful vision. What is lacking is less technical skill or invention than feeling in the artist, the glow of passion, or the charm of spiritual harmony. Here is a picture of Hope's attendant train:
His Ambra is another poem in the same style as the Selve. ”

“ Michael Angelo, who died in 1563, was destined to have a longer career; but it was only to become a witness of the rapid decadence of the great movement he had helped to call forth. After Daniele di Volterra, the painter of the “Descent from the Cross,” which is classed among the three most beautiful works that Rome possesses; after Vasari, who possessed a double title to celebrity as a skilful painter and the historian of the Italian schools; after Rosso, whose renown subsequently suffered at the court of France; and Bronzino, who sought success in taste and delicacy ”

“ In that whole work he demonstrated that he had executed his paintings in that place with much better judgment than his master Pontormo had shown in his pictures [Pg 10] in the work; the portrait of which Pontormo Bronzino painted with his own hand in a corner of that chapel, on the right hand of the S. Laurence. ”

“ Federigo Baroccio (1528-1612) is one of the later painters for whom I, at any rate, cannot feel any enthusiasm. His position in the Uffizi is due rather to the circumstance that he was a protégé of the Cardinal della Rovere at Rome, whose collection came here, than to his genius. This room again is of interest rather historically than artistically. Here, for example, are some good Medici portraits by Bronzino, among them the famous Eleanora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, in a rich brocade (in which she was buried) , with the little staring Ferdinand I beside her. ”

“ For two years following, Bronzino likewise made the scenic decorations for dramatic representations given in the Palace at the Carnival, and which were considered very beautiful; he also painted a picture which was sent into France to the King Francesco. This represented a nude figure of Venus embraced by her son Cupid; the Pleasures, Loves, and Sports are on one side ”

“ FIRENZUOLA, AGNOLO (1493–c. 1545) , Italian poet and littérateur, was born at Florence on the 28th of September 1493. The family name was taken from the town of Firenzuola, situated at the foot of the Apennines, its original home. The grandfather of Agnolo had obtained the citizenship of Florence and transmitted it to his family. Agnolo was destined for the profession of the law, and pursued his studies first at Siena and afterwards at Perugia. There he became the associate of the notorious Pietro Aretino, whose foul life he was not ashamed to make the model of his own. ”

“ Agnolo Vistarnini stood in front of the secret door, with shining eyes. The spring had just slipped back behind Tomaso, the last arrangements had been made; to-night Della Scala should enter Milan—and he, Agnolo, would be the means.
Agnolo looked across the courtyard now in shadow to where a soldier kept his guard. The guard was the Duke's orders, and to the painter's face the soldiery showed all respect; yet well Agnolo knew they laughed at Visconti's whim, and shrugged their shoulders at the pale-faced girl who was to be Duchess of Milan. ”

“ And Ambrogio, seating himself near one of the large easels, turned to Agnolo, the while he drew Graziosa gently down beside him.
"What has the Duke of Milan to fear from Della Scala?" he asked.
"Everything," cried Vistarnini excitedly, for keenly did the little painter love to air his views. "Everything. Mark me, Ambrogio, if the Duke of Verona do not suddenly fall on one of Visconti's towns."
"He has no army," said the student. "He cannot rouse the d'Estes."
"He will!" cried Agnolo. "He will—he and Count Conrad. Didst thou not rejoice, Ambrogio, when Count Conrad escaped? ”

“ When the June heats came, husband and wife both declared for Ancona, the picturesque little town which dreams out upon the Adriatic. But though so close to the sea, Ancona is in summer time almost insufferably hot. Instead of finding it cooler than Florence, it was as though they had leapt right into a cauldron. Alluding to it months later, Mrs. Browning wrote to Horne, "The heat was just the fiercest fire of your imagination, and I seethe to think of it at this distance." ”

“ Beyond the sacristy, in the ambulatory, is a copy of the sacred painting of the Annunciation, in the SS. Annunziata in Florence. It is said to have been painted by Bronzino, and given by Francesco I. de’ Medici to 243Cardinal Borromeo. The Madonna del Parto further on is apparently a restoration of an ancient painting, and the object of a very special devotion. A bare inscription beneath it records that Niccolò Piccinino is buried with his son Francesco in this spot. ”

“ All the while I was at Florence, I studied the noble manner of Michel Agnolo, and from this I have never deviated. About that time I contracted a close and familiar friendship with an amiable lad of my own age, who was also in the goldsmith’s trade. He was called Francesco, son of Filippo, and grandson of Fra Lippo Lippi, that most excellent painter. [3] Through intercourse together, such love grew up between us that, day or night, we never stayed apart. ”

“ Allori, (1) Angiolo di Cosimo, called Il Bronzino, an exceptionally able painter and a poet, b. at Ponticello, near Florence, in 1502; d. at Florence in 1572. He was a pupil of Raffaelino del Garbo and later of Jacopo da Pontormo, whom he assisted, and some of whose unfinished works he completed. Allori, who was the friend of Vasari, became court painter to the Medicean tyrant Cosimo I, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Among his brilliant series of portraits are those of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. A great admirer of Michael Angelo, his work shows that master's grandiose influence. ”

“ This opinion is probably not erroneous; for the example of a painter employed by the court was [Pg 237] sufficient to seduce the rising generation from pristine diligence, to a more careless manner. After all, the Florentines who assisted him were chiefly the scholars of Bronzino, and, except two or three, they did not adopt the style of Vasari: some others also may have done so for a little time. Francesco Morandini, called Poppi, from his native place, was his disciple and imitator ”

“ Having arrived there, he made the models of the work that he was to execute for that lord, which pleased him vastly; and then he set his hand to it, with a good allowance of money and a good number of masters. And thus, dwelling in Genoa, the Frate made many friendships with noblemen and men of distinction, and in particular with some physicians, who were of much assistance to him; for, helping one another, they made anatomical studies of many human bodies, and [Pg 144] gave their attention to architecture and perspective, and so Fra Giovanni Agnolo attained to the greatest excellence. ”

“ Duke Alessandro being then dead and Cosimo elected, Bronzino assisted the same Pontormo in the work of the Loggia of Castello. For the nuptials of the most illustrious Lady, Leonora di Toledo, the wife of Duke Cosimo, he painted two scenes in chiaroscuro in the court of the Medici Palace, and on the base that supported the horse made by Tribolo, as was related, some stories of the actions of Signor Giovanni de' Medici, in imitation of bronze ”