to learn the art, according to Sandro's own desire. Thereupon, devoting
himself heart and soul to that art, Sandro followed and imitated his
master so well that Fra Filippo, growing to love him, taught him very
thoroughly, so that he soon rose to such a rank as none would have
expected for him.

While still quite young, he painted a figure of Fortitude in the
Mercatanzia of Florence, among the pictures of Virtues that were wrought
by Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo. For the Chapel of the Bardi in S.
Spirito at Florence he painted a panel, wrought with diligence and
brought to a fine completion, which contains certain olive-trees and
palms executed with consummate lovingness. He painted a panel for the
Convertite Nuns, and another for those of S. Barnaba. In the
tramezzo[26] of the Ognissanti, by the door that leads into the choir,
he painted for the Vespucci a S. Augustine in fresco, with which he took
very great pains, seeking to surpass all the painters of his time, and
particularly Domenico Ghirlandajo, who had made a S. Jerome on the other
side; and this work won very great praise, for in the head of that Saint
he depicted the profound meditation and acute subtlety that are found in
men of wisdom who are ever concentrated on the investigation of the
highest and most difficult matters. This picture, as was said in the
Life of Ghirlandajo, has this year (1564) been removed safe and sound
from its original position.

Having thus come into credit and reputation, he was commissioned by the
Guild of Porta Santa Maria to paint in S. Marco a panel with the
Coronation of Our Lady and a choir of angels, which he designed and
executed very well. He made many works in the house of the Medici for
the elder Lorenzo, particularly a Pallas on a device of great branches,
which spouted forth fire: this he painted of the size of life, as he did
a S. Sebastian. In S. Maria Maggiore in Florence, beside the Chapel of
the Panciatichi, there is a very beautiful Pietà with little figures.
For various houses throughout the city he painted round pictures, and
many female nudes, of which there are still two at Castello, a villa of
Duke Cosimo's; one representing the birth of Venus, with those Winds and
Zephyrs that bring her to the earth, with the Cupids; and likewise
another Venus, whom the Graces are covering with flowers, as a symbol of
spring; and all this he is seen to have expressed very gracefully. Round
an apartment of the house of Giovanni Vespucci, now belonging to Piero
Salviati, in the Via de' Servi, he made many pictures which were
enclosed by frames of walnut-wood, by way of ornament and panelling,
with many most lively and beautiful figures. In the house of the Pucci,
likewise, he painted with little figures Boccaccio's tale of Nastagio
degli Onesti in four square pictures of most charming and beautiful
workmanship, and the Epiphany in a round picture. For a chapel in the
Monastery of Cestello he painted an Annunciation on a panel. Near the
side-door of S. Pietro Maggiore, for Matteo Palmieri, he painted a panel
with an infinite number of figures--namely, the Assumption of Our Lady,
with the zones of Heaven as they are represented, and the Patriarchs,
the Prophets, the Apostles, the Evangelists, the Martyrs, the
Confessors, the Doctors, the Virgins, and the Hierarchies; all from the
design given to him by Matteo, who was a learned and able man. This work
he painted with mastery and consummate diligence; and at the foot is a
portrait of Matteo on his knees, with that of his wife. But for all that
the work is most beautiful, and should have silenced envy, nevertheless
there were certain malignant slanderers who, not being able to do it any
other damage, said that both Matteo and Sandro had committed therein the
grievous sin of heresy. As to whether this be true or false, I cannot be
expected to judge; it is enough that the figures painted therein by
Sandro are truly worthy of praise, by reason of the pains that he took
in drawing the zones of Heaven and in the distribution of figures,
angels, foreshortenings, and views, all varied in diverse ways, the
whole being executed with good design.

[Illustration: SANDRO BOTTICELLI: PALLAS AND THE CENTAUR

(_Florence: Pitti Palace, Panel_)]

[Illustration: SANDRO BOTTICELLI: GIOVANNA TORNABUONI AND THE GRACES

(_Paris: Louvre, 1297. Fresco_)]

At this time Sandro was commissioned to paint a little panel with
figures three-quarters of a braccio in length, which was placed between
two doors in the principal façade of S. Maria Novella, on the left as
one enters the church by the door in the centre. It contains the
Adoration of the Magi, and wonderful feeling is seen in the first old
man, who, kissing the foot of Our Lord, and melting with tenderness,
shows very clearly that he has achieved the end of his long journey. The
figure of this King is an actual portrait of the elder Cosimo de'
Medici, the most lifelike and most natural that is to be found of him in
our own day. The second, who is Giuliano de' Medici, father of Pope
Clement VII, is seen devoutly doing reverence to the Child with a most
intent expression, and presenting Him with his offering. The third,
also on his knees, appears to be adoring Him and giving Him thanks,
while confessing that He is the true Messiah; this is Giovanni, son of
Cosimo.

It is not possible to describe the beauty that Sandro depicted in the
heads that are therein seen, which are drawn in various attitudes, some
in full face, some in profile, some in three-quarter face, others
bending down, and others, again, in various manners; with different
expressions for the young and the old, and with all the bizarre effects
that reveal to us the perfection of his skill; and he distinguished the
Courts of the three Kings one from another, insomuch that one can see
which are the retainers of each. This is truly a most admirable work,
and executed so beautifully, whether in colouring, drawing, or
composition, that every craftsman at the present day stands in a marvel
thereat. And at that time it brought him such great fame, both in
Florence and abroad, that Pope Sixtus IV, having accomplished the
building of the chapel of his palace in Rome, and wishing to have it
painted, ordained that he should be made head of that work; whereupon he
painted therein with his own hand the following scenes--namely, the
Temptation of Christ by the Devil, Moses slaying the Egyptian, Moses
receiving drink from the daughters of Jethro the Midianite, and likewise
fire descending from Heaven on the sacrifice of the sons of Aaron, with
certain Sanctified Popes in the niches above the scenes. Having
therefore acquired still greater fame and reputation among the great
number of competitors who worked with him, both Florentines and men of
other cities, he received from the Pope a good sum of money, the whole
of which he consumed and squandered in a moment during his residence in
Rome, where he lived in haphazard fashion, as was his wont.

Having at the same time finished and unveiled the part that had been
assigned to him, he returned immediately to Florence, where, being a man
of inquiring mind, he made a commentary on part of Dante, illustrated
the Inferno, and printed it; on which he wasted much of his time,
bringing infinite disorder into his life by neglecting his work. He also
printed many of the drawings that he had made, but in a bad manner, for
the engraving was poorly done. The best of these that is to be seen
by his hand is the Triumph of the Faith effected by Fra Girolamo
Savonarola of Ferrara, of whose sect he was so ardent a partisan that he
was thereby induced to desert his painting, and, having no income to
live on, fell into very great distress. For this reason, persisting in
his attachment to that party, and becoming a Piagnone[27] (as the
members of the sect were then called), he abandoned his work; wherefore
he ended in his old age by finding himself so poor, that, if Lorenzo de'
Medici, for whom, besides many other things, he had done some work at
the little hospital in the district of Volterra, had not succoured him
the while that he lived, as did afterwards his friends and many
excellent men who loved him for his talent, he would have almost died of
hunger.

[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI

(_After the panel by =Sandro Botticelli=. Florence: Uffizi, 1286_)

_M. S._]

In S. Francesco, without the Porta a San Miniato, there is a Madonna in
a round picture by the hand of Sandro, with some angels of the size of
life, which was held a very beautiful work. Sandro was a man of very
pleasant humour, often playing tricks on his disciples and his friends;
wherefore it is related that once, when a pupil of his who was called
Biagio had made a round picture exactly like the one mentioned above, in
order to sell it, Sandro sold it for six florins of gold to a citizen;
then, finding Biagio, he said to him, "At last I have sold this thy
picture; so this evening it must be hung on high, where it will be seen
better, and in the morning thou must go to the house of the citizen who
has bought it, and bring him here, that he may see it in a good light in
its proper place; and then he will pay thee the money." "O, my master,"
said Biagio, "how well you have done." Then, going into the shop, he
hung the picture at a good height, and went off. Meanwhile Sandro and
Jacopo, who was another of his disciples, made eight caps of paper, like
those worn by citizens, and fixed them with white wax on the heads of
the eight angels that surrounded the Madonna in the said picture. Now,
in the morning, up comes Biagio with his citizen, who had bought the
picture and was in the secret. They entered the shop, and Biagio,
looking up, saw his Madonna seated, not among his angels, but among the
Signoria of Florence, with all those caps. Thereupon he was just about
to begin to make an outcry and to excuse himself to the man who had
bought it, when, seeing that the other, instead of complaining, was
actually praising the picture, he kept silent himself. Finally, going
with the citizen to his house, Biagio received his payment of six
florins, the price for which his master had sold the picture; and then,
returning to the shop just as Sandro and Jacopo had removed the paper
caps, he saw his angels as true angels, and not as citizens in their
caps. All in a maze, and not knowing what to say, he turned at last to
Sandro and said: "Master, I know not whether I am dreaming, or whether
this is true. When I came here before, these angels had red caps on
their heads, and now they have not; what does it mean?" "Thou art out of
thy wits, Biagio," said Sandro; "this money has turned thy head. If it
were so, thinkest thou that the citizen would have bought the picture?"
"It is true," replied Biagio, "that he said nothing to me about it, but
for all that it seemed to me strange." Finally, all the other lads
gathered round him and wrought on him to believe that it had been a fit
of giddiness.

Another time a cloth-weaver came to live in a house next to Sandro's,
and erected no less than eight looms, which, when at work, not only
deafened poor Sandro with the noise of the treadles and the movement of
the frames, but shook his whole house, the walls of which were no
stronger than they should be, so that what with the one thing and the
other he could not work or even stay at home. Time after time he
besought his neighbour to put an end to this annoyance, but the other
said that he both would and could do what he pleased in his own house;
whereupon Sandro, in disdain, balanced on the top of his own wall, which
was higher than his neighbour's and not very strong, an enormous stone,
more than enough to fill a wagon, which threatened to fall at the
slightest shaking of the wall and to shatter the roof, ceilings, webs,
and looms of his neighbour, who, terrified by this danger, ran to
Sandro, but was answered in his very own words--namely, that he both
could and would do whatever he pleased in his own house. Nor could he
get any other answer out of him, so that he was forced to come to a
reasonable agreement and to be a good neighbour to Sandro.

[Illustration: SANDRO BOTTICELLI: THE MADONNA OF THE POMEGRANATE

(_Florence: Uffizi, 1289. Panel_)]

It is also related that Sandro, for a jest, accused a friend of his own
of heresy before his vicar, and the friend, on appearing, asked who
the accuser was and what the accusation; and having been told that it
was Sandro, who had charged him with holding the opinion of the
Epicureans, and believing that the soul dies with the body, he insisted
on being confronted with the accuser before the judge. Sandro therefore
appeared, and the other said: "It is true that I hold this opinion with
regard to this man's soul, for he is an animal. Nay, does it not seem to
you that he is the heretic, since without a scrap of learning, and
scarcely knowing how to read, he plays the commentator to Dante and
takes his name in vain?"

It is also said that he had a surpassing love for all whom he saw to be
zealous students of art; and that he earned much, but wasted everything
through negligence and lack of management. Finally, having grown old and
useless, and being forced to walk with crutches, without which he could
not stand upright, he died, infirm and decrepit, at the age of
seventy-eight, and was buried in Ognissanti at Florence in the year
1515.

In the guardaroba of the Lord Duke Cosimo there are two very beautiful
heads of women in profile by his hand, one of which is said to be the
mistress of Giuliano de' Medici, brother of Lorenzo, and the other
Madonna Lucrezia de' Tornabuoni, wife of the said Lorenzo. In the same
place, likewise by the hand of Sandro, is a Bacchus who is raising a
cask with both his hands, and putting it to his mouth--a very graceful
figure. And in the Duomo of Pisa he began an Assumption, with a choir of
angels, in the Chapel of the Impagliata; but afterwards, being
displeased with it, he left it unfinished. In S. Francesco at
Montevarchi he painted the panel of the high-altar; and in the Pieve of
Empoli, on the same side as the S. Sebastian of Rossellino, he made two
angels. He was among the first to discover the method of decorating
standards and other sorts of hangings with the so-called inlaid work, to
the end that the colours might not fade and might show the tint of the
cloth on either side. By his hand, and made thus, is the baldacchino of
Orsanmichele, covered with beautiful and varied figures of Our Lady;
which proves how much better such a method preserves the cloth than does
the use of mordants, which eat it away and make its life but short,
although, being less costly, mordants are now used more than anything
else.

Sandro's drawings were extraordinarily good, and so many, that for some
time after his death all the craftsmen strove to obtain some of them;
and we have some in our book, made with great mastery and judgment. His
scenes abounded with figures, as may be seen from the embroidered border
of the Cross that the Friars of S. Maria Novella carry in processions,
all made from his design. Great was the praise, then, that Sandro
deserved for all the pictures that he chose to make with diligence and
love, as he did the aforesaid panel of the Magi in S. Maria Novella,
which is marvellous. Very beautiful, too, is a little round picture by
his hand that is seen in the apartment of the Prior of the Angeli in
Florence, in which the figures are small but very graceful and wrought
with beautiful consideration. Of the same size as the aforesaid panel of
the Magi, and by the same man's hand, is a picture in the possession of
Messer Fabio Segni, a gentlemen of Florence, in which there is painted
the Calumny of Apelles, as beautiful as any picture could be. Under this
panel, which Sandro himself presented to Antonio Segni, who was much his
friend, there may now be read the following verses, written by the said
Messer Fabio:

   INDICIO QUEMQUAM NE FALSO LÆDERE TENTENT
       TERRARUM REGES, PARVA TABELLA MONET.
   HUIC SIMILEM ÆGYPTI REGI DONAVIT APELLES;
       REX FUIT ET DIGNUS MUNERE, MUNUS EO.

[Illustration: THE CALUMNY OF APELLES

(_After the panel by =Sandro Botticelli=. Florence: Uffizi, 1182_)

_M. S._]

FOOTNOTES:

[26] See note on p. 57, Vol. 1.

[27] Mourner, or Weeper.

BENEDETTO DA MAIANO

LIFE OF BENEDETTO DA MAIANO

SCULPTOR AND ARCHITECT

Benedetto da Maiano, a sculptor of Florence, who was in his earliest
years a wood-carver, was held the most able master of all who were then
handling the tools of that profession; and he was particularly excellent
as a craftsman in that form of work which, as has been said elsewhere,
was introduced at the time of Filippo Brunelleschi and Paolo
Uccello--namely, the inlaying of pieces of wood tinted with various
colours, in order to make views in perspective, foliage, and many other
diverse things of fancy. In this craft, then, Benedetto da Maiano was in
his youth the best master that there was to be found, as is clearly
demonstrated by many works of his that are to be seen in various parts
of Florence, particularly by all the presses in the Sacristy of S. Maria
del Fiore, the greater part of which he finished after the death of his
uncle Giuliano; these are full of figures executed in inlaid work,
foliage, and other devices, all wrought with great expense and
craftsmanship. Having gained a very great name through the novelty of
this art, he made many works, which were sent to diverse places and to
various Princes; and among others King Alfonso of Naples had the
furniture for a study, made under the direction of Giuliano, uncle of
Benedetto, who was serving that King as architect. Benedetto himself
went to join him there; but, being displeased with the position, he
returned to Florence, where, no long time after, he made for Matthias
Corvinus, King of Hungary, who had many Florentines in his Court and
took delight in all rare works, a pair of coffers inlaid in wood with
difficult and most beautiful craftsmanship. He then determined, being
invited with great favour by that King, to consent to go thither at all
costs; and so, having packed up his coffers and embarked with them on
board ship, he set off for Hungary. There, after doing obeisance to that
King, by whom he was received most graciously, he sent for the said
coffers and had them unpacked in the presence of the monarch, who was
very eager to see them; whereupon he saw that the damp from the water
and the exhalations from the sea had so softened the glue, that, on the
opening of the waxed cloths, almost all the pieces which had been
attached to the coffers fell to the ground. Whether Benedetto,
therefore, in the presence of so many nobles, stood in dumb amazement,
everyone may judge for himself. However, putting the work together as
well as he was able, he contrived to leave the King well enough
satisfied; but in spite of this he took an aversion to that craft and
could no longer endure it, through the shame that it had brought upon
him.

And so, casting off all timidity, he devoted himself to sculpture, in
which art he had already worked at Loreto while living with his uncle
Giuliano, making a lavatory with certain angels of marble for the
sacristy. Labouring at this art, before he left Hungary he gave that
King to know that if he had been put to shame at the beginning, the
fault had lain with that craft, which was a mean one, and not with his
intellect, which was rare and exalted. Having therefore made in those
parts certain works both in clay and in marble, which gave great
pleasure to that King, he returned to Florence; and he had no sooner
arrived there than he was commissioned by the Signori to make the marble
ornament for the door of their Audience Chamber. For this he made some
boys supporting with their arms certain festoons, all very beautiful;
but the most beautiful part of the work was the figure in the middle,
two braccia in height, of a young S. John, which is held to be a thing
of rare excellence. And to the end that the whole work might be by his
own hand, he made by himself the wood-work that closes the said door,
and executed a figure with inlaid woods on either part of it, that is,
Dante on one and Petrarca on the other; which two figures are enough to
show to any man who may have seen no other work of that kind by the hand
of Benedetto, how rare and excellent a master he was of that craft. This
Audience Chamber has been painted in our own day by Francesco Salviati
at the command of the Lord Duke Cosimo, as will be told in the proper
place.

[Illustration: PULPIT IN S. CROCE, FLORENCE

(_After =Benedetto da Maiano=. Florence_)

_Alinari_]

In S. Maria Novella at Florence, where Filippino painted the chapel,
Benedetto afterwards made a tomb of black marble, with a Madonna and
certain angels in a medallion, with much diligence, for the elder
Filippo Strozzi, whose portrait, which he made there in marble, is now
in the Strozzi Palace. The same Benedetto was commissioned by the elder
Lorenzo de' Medici to make in S. Maria del Fiore a portrait of the
Florentine painter Giotto, which he placed over the epitaph, of which
enough has been said above in the Life of Giotto himself. This piece of
marble sculpture is held to be passing good. Having afterwards gone to
Naples by reason of the death of his uncle Giuliano, whose heir he was,
Benedetto, besides certain works that he executed for that King, made a
marble panel for the Count of Terranuova in the Monastery of the Monks
of Monte Oliveto, containing an Annunciation with certain saints, and
surrounded by very beautiful boys, who are supporting some festoons; and
in the predella of the said work he made many low-reliefs in a good
manner. In Faenza he made a very beautiful tomb of marble for the body
of S. Savino, and on this he wrought six scenes in low-relief from the
life of that Saint, with much invention and design both in the buildings
and in the figures; insomuch that both from this work and from others by
his hand he was recognized as a man excellent in sculpture. Wherefore,
before he left Romagna, he was commissioned to make a portrait of
Galeotto Malatesta. He also made one, I know not whether before this or
after, of Henry VII, King of England, after a drawing on paper that he
had received from some Florentine merchants. The studies for these two
portraits, together with many other things, were found in his house
after his death.

Having finally returned to Florence, he made in S. Croce, for Pietro
Mellini, a citizen of Florence and a very rich merchant at that time,
the marble pulpit that is seen there, which is held to be a very rare
thing and more beautiful than any other that has ever been executed in
that manner, since the marble figures that are to be seen therein, in
the stories of S. Francis, are wrought with so great excellence and
diligence that nothing more could be looked for in marble. For with
great art Benedetto carved there trees, rocks, houses, views in
perspective, and certain things in marvellously bold relief; not to
mention a projection on the ground below the said pulpit, which serves
as a tombstone, wrought with so much design that it is not possible to
praise it enough. It is said that in making this work he had some
difficulty with the Wardens of Works of S. Croce, because, while he
wished to erect the said pulpit against a column that sustains some of
the arches which support the roof, and to perforate that column in order
to accommodate the steps and the entrance to the pulpit, they would not
consent, fearing lest it might be so weakened by the hollow required for
the steps as to collapse under the weight above, with great damage to a
part of that church. But Mellini having guaranteed that the work would
be finished without any injury to the church, they finally consented.
Having, therefore, bound the outer side of the column with bands of
bronze (the part, namely, from the pulpit downwards, which is covered
with hard stone), Benedetto made within it the steps for ascending to
the pulpit, and in proportion as he hollowed it out within, so did he
strengthen the outer side with the said hard stone, in the manner that
is still to be seen. And he brought this work to perfection to the
amazement of all who see it, showing in each part and in the whole
together the utmost excellence that could be desired in such a work.

Many declare that the elder Filippo Strozzi, when intending to build his
palace, sought the advice of Benedetto, who made him a model, according
to which it was begun, although it was afterwards carried on and
finished by Cronaca on the death of Benedetto. The latter, having
acquired enough to live upon, would do no more works in marble after
those described above, save that he finished in S. Trinita the S. Mary
Magdalene begun by Desiderio da Settignano, and made the Crucifix that
is over the altar of S. Maria del Fiore, with certain others like it.

As for architecture, although he put his hand to but few works, yet in
these he showed no less judgment than in sculpture; particularly in
three ceilings which were made at very great expense, under his guidance
and direction, in the Palace of the Signoria at Florence. The first of
these was the ceiling of the hall that is now called the Sala de'
Dugento, over which it was proposed to make, not a similar hall, but two
apartments, that is, a hall and an audience chamber, so that it was
necessary to make a wall, and no light one either, containing a marble
door of reasonable thickness; wherefore, for the execution of such a
work, there was need of intelligence and judgment no less than those
possessed by Benedetto.

Benedetto, then, in order not to diminish the said hall and yet divide
the space above into two, went to work in the following manner. On a
beam one braccio in thickness, and as long as the whole breadth of the
hall, he laid another consisting of two pieces, in such a manner that it
projected with its thickness to the height of two-thirds of a braccio.
At the ends, these two beams, bound and secured together very firmly,
gave a height of two braccia at the edge of the wall on each side; and
the said two ends were grooved with a claw-shaped cut, in such a way
that there could be laid upon them an arch of half a braccio in
thickness, made of two layers of bricks, with its flanks resting on the
principal walls. These two beams, then, were dove-tailed together with
tenon and mortise, and so firmly bound and united with good bands of
iron, that out of two there was made one single beam. Besides this,
having made the said arch, and wishing that these timbers of the ceiling
should have nothing more to sustain than the wall under the arch, and
that the arch itself should sustain the rest, he also attached to this
arch two great supports of iron, which, being firmly bolted to the said
beams below, upheld and still uphold them; while, even if they were not
to suffice by themselves, the arch would be able--by means of the said
supports which encircle the beams, one on one side of the marble door
and one on the other--to support a weight much greater than that of the
partition wall, which is made of bricks and half a braccio in thickness.
What is more, he had the bricks in the said wall laid on edge and in the
manner of an arch, so that the pressure came against the solid part, at
the corners, and the whole was thus more stable. In this manner, by
means of the good judgment of Benedetto, the said Sala de' Dugento
remained as large as before, and over the same space, with a partition
wall between, were made the hall that is called the Sala dell'
Orivolo[28] and the Audience Chamber wherein is the Triumph of Camillus,
painted by the hand of Salviati. The soffit of this ceiling was richly
wrought and carved by Marco del Tasso and his brothers, Domenico and
Giuliano, who likewise executed that of the Sala dell' Orivolo and that
of the Audience Chamber. And since the said marble door had been made
double by Benedetto, on the arch of the inner door--we have already
spoken of the outer one--he wrought a seated figure of Justice in
marble, with the globe of the world in one hand and a sword in the
other; and round the arch run the following words:

   DILIGITE JUSTITIAM QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM.

The whole of this work was executed with marvellous diligence and art.

For the Church of the Madonna delle Grazie, which is a little distance
without the city of Arezzo, the same man made a portico with a flight of
steps in front of the door. In making the portico he placed the arches
on the columns, and right round alongside the roof he made an
architrave, frieze, and great cornice; and in the latter, by way of
drip, he placed a garland of rosettes carved in grey-stone, which jut
out to the extent of one braccio and a third, insomuch that between the
projection of the front of the cyma above to the dentils and ovoli below
the drip there is a space of two braccia and a half, which, with the
half braccio added by the tiles, makes a projecting roof all round of
three braccia in width, beautiful, rich, useful, and ingenious. In this
work there is a contrivance worthy to be well considered by craftsmen,
for, wishing to give this roof all that projection without modillions or
corbels to support it, he made the slabs, on which the rosettes are
carved, so large that only the half of their length projected, and the
other half was built into the solid wall; wherefore, being thus
counterpoised, they were able to support the rest and all that was laid
upon them, as they have done up to the present day, without any danger
to that building. And since he did not wish this roof to appear to be
made, as it was, of pieces, he surrounded it all, piece by piece, with a
moulding made of sections well dove-tailed and let into one another,
which served as a ground to the garland of rosettes; and this united the
whole work together in such a manner that all who see it judge it to be
of one piece. In the same place he had a flat ceiling made of gilded
rosettes, which is much extolled.

Now Benedetto had bought a farm without Prato, on the road from the
Porta Fiorentina in the direction of Florence, and no more than half a
mile from that place. On the main road, beside the gate, he built a most
beautiful little chapel, with a niche wherein he placed a Madonna with
the Child in her arms, so well wrought in terra-cotta, that even as it
is, with no other colour, it is as beautiful as if it were of marble. So
are two angels that are above by way of ornament, each with a
candelabrum in his hand. On the predella of the altar there is a Pietà
with Our Lady and S. John, made of marble and very beautiful. At his
death he left in his house many things begun both in clay and in marble.
Benedetto was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in certain
drawings in our book. Finally he died in 1498, at the age of fifty-four,
and was honourably buried in S. Lorenzo; and he left directions that all
his property, after the death of certain of his relatives, should go to
the Company of the Bigallo.

While Benedetto in his youth was working as a joiner and at the inlaying
of wood, he had among his rivals Baccio Cellini, piper to the Signoria
of Florence, who made many very beautiful inlaid works in ivory, and
among others an octagon of figures in ivory, outlined in black and
marvellously beautiful, which is in the guardaroba of the Duke. In like
manner, Girolamo della Cecca, a pupil of Baccio and likewise piper to
the Signoria, also executed many inlaid works at that same time. A
contemporary of these was David Pistoiese, who made a S. John the
Evangelist of inlaid work at the entrance to the choir of S. Giovanni
Evangelista in Pistoia--a work more notable for great diligence in
execution than for any great design. There was also Geri Aretino, who
wrought the choir and the pulpit of S. Agostino at Arezzo with figures
and views in perspective, likewise of inlaid wood. This Geri was a very
fanciful man, and he made with wooden pipes an organ most perfect in
sweetness and softness, which is still at the present day over the door
of the Sacristy of the Vescovado at Arezzo, with its original goodness
as sound as ever--a work worthy of marvel, and first put into execution
by him. But not one of these men, nor any other, was as excellent by a
great measure as was Benedetto; wherefore he deserves to be ever
numbered with praise among the best craftsmen of his professions.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] _I.e._, clock.

ANDREA VERROCCHIO

[Illustration: DAVID

(_After the bronze by =Andrea Verrocchio=. Florence: Bargello_)

_Anderson_]

LIFE OF ANDREA VERROCCHIO

PAINTER, SCULPTOR, AND ARCHITECT OF FLORENCE

Andrea del Verrocchio, a Florentine, was in his day a goldsmith, a
master of perspective, a sculptor, a wood-carver, a painter, and a
musician; but in the arts of sculpture and painting, to tell the truth,
he had a manner somewhat hard and crude, as one who acquired it rather
by infinite study than by the facility of a natural gift. Even if he had
been as poor in this facility as he was rich in the study and diligence
that exalted him, he would have been most excellent in those arts,
which, for their highest perfection, require a union of study and
natural power. If either of these is wanting, a man rarely attains to
the first rank; but study will do a great deal, and thus Andrea, who had
it in greater abundance than any other craftsman whatsoever, is counted
among the rare and excellent masters of our arts.

In his youth he applied himself to the sciences, particularly to
geometry. Among many other things that he made while working at the
goldsmith's art were certain buttons for copes, which are in S. Maria
del Fiore at Florence; and he also made larger works, particularly a
cup, full of animals, foliage, and other bizarre fancies, which is known
to all goldsmiths, and casts are taken of it; and likewise another, on
which there is a very beautiful dance of little children. Having given a
proof of his powers in these two works, he was commissioned by the Guild
of Merchants to make two scenes in silver for the ends of the altar of
S. Giovanni, from which, when put into execution, he acquired very great
praise and fame.

There were wanting at this time in Rome some of those large figures of
the Apostles which generally stood on the altar of the Chapel of the
Pope, as well as certain other works in silver that had been destroyed;
wherefore Pope Sixtus sent for Andrea and with great favour commissioned
him to do all that was necessary in this matter, and he brought the
whole to perfection with much diligence and judgment. Meanwhile,
perceiving that the many antique statues and other things that were
being found in Rome were held in very great esteem, insomuch that the
famous bronze horse was set up by the Pope at S. Giovanni Laterano, and
that even the fragments--not to speak of complete works--which were
being discovered every day, were prized, Andrea determined to devote
himself to sculpture. And so, completely abandoning the goldsmith's art,
he set himself to cast some little figures in bronze, which were greatly
extolled. Thereupon, growing in courage, he began to work in marble. Now
in those days the wife of Francesco Tornabuoni had died in childbirth,
and her husband, who had loved her much, and wished to honour her in
death to the utmost of his power, entrusted the making of a tomb for her
to Andrea, who carved on a slab over a sarcophagus of marble the lady
herself, her delivery, and her passing to the other life; and beside
this he made three figures of Virtues, which were held very beautiful,
for the first work that he had executed in marble; and this tomb was set
up in the Minerva.

Having then returned to Florence with money, fame, and honour, he was
commissioned to make a David of bronze, two braccia and a half in
height, which, when finished, was placed in the Palace, with great
credit to himself, at the head of the staircase, where the Catena was.
The while that he was executing the said statue, he also made that
Madonna of marble which is over the tomb of Messer Lionardo Bruni of
Arezzo in S. Croce; this he wrought, when still quite young, for
Bernardo Rossellino, architect and sculptor, who executed the whole of
that work in marble, as has been said. The same Andrea made a
half-length Madonna in half-relief, with the Child in her arms, in a
marble panel, which was formerly in the house of the Medici, and is now
placed, as a very beautiful thing, over a door in the apartment of the
Duchess of Florence. He also made two heads of metal, likewise in
half-relief; one of Alexander the Great, in profile, and the other a
fanciful portrait of Darius; each being a separate work by itself, with
variety in the crests, armour, and everything else. Both these heads
were sent to Hungary by the elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent,
to King Matthias Corvinus, together with many other things, as will be
told in the proper place.

Having acquired the name of an excellent master by means of these works,
above all through many works in metal, in which he took much delight, he
made a tomb of bronze in S. Lorenzo, wholly in the round, for Giovanni
and Pietro di Cosimo de' Medici, with a sarcophagus of porphyry
supported by four corner-pieces of bronze, with twisted foliage very
well wrought and finished with the greatest diligence. This tomb stands
between the Chapel of the Sacrament and the Sacristy, and no work could
be better done, whether wrought in bronze or cast; above all since at
the same time he showed therein his talent in architecture, for he
placed the said tomb within the embrasure of a window which is about
five braccia in breadth and ten in height, and set it on a base that
divides the said Chapel of the Sacrament from the old Sacristy. And over
the sarcophagus, to fill up the embrasure right up to the vaulting, he
made a grating of bronze ropes in a pattern of mandorle, most natural,
and adorned in certain places with festoons and other beautiful things
of fancy, all remarkable and executed with much mastery, judgment, and
invention.

Now Donatello had made for the Tribunal of Six of the Mercanzia that
marble shrine which is now opposite to S. Michael, in the Oratory of
Orsanmichele, and for this there was to have been made a S. Thomas in
bronze, feeling for the wound in the side of Christ; but at that time
nothing more was done, for some of the men who had the charge of this
wished to have it made by Donatello, and others favoured Lorenzo
Ghiberti. Matters stood thus as long as Donatello and Ghiberti were
alive; but finally the said two statues were entrusted to Andrea, who,
having made the models and moulds, cast them; and they came out so
solid, complete, and well made, that it was a most beautiful casting.
Thereupon, setting himself to polish and finish them, he brought them
to that perfection which is seen at the present day, which could not be
greater than it is, for in S. Thomas we see incredulity and a too great
anxiety to assure himself of the truth, and at the same time the love
that makes him lay his hand in a most beautiful manner on the side of
Christ; and in Christ Himself, who is raising one arm and opening His
raiment with a most spontaneous gesture, and dispelling the doubts of
His incredulous disciple, there are all the grace and divinity, so to
speak, that art can give to any figure. Andrea clothed both these
figures in most beautiful and well-arranged draperies, which give us to
know that he understood that art no less than did Donato, Lorenzo, and
the others who had lived before him; wherefore this work well deserved
to be set up in a shrine made by Donatello, and to be ever afterwards
held in the greatest price and esteem.

Now the fame of Andrea could not go further or grow greater in that
profession, and he, as a man who was not content with being excellent in
one thing only, but desired to become the same in others as well by
means of study, turned his mind to painting, and so made the cartoons
for a battle of nude figures, very well drawn with the pen, to be
afterwards painted in colours on a wall. He also made the cartoons for
some historical pictures, and afterwards began to put them into
execution in colours; but for some reason, whatever it may have been,
they remained unfinished. There are some drawings by his hand in our
book, made with much patience and very great judgment, among which are
certain heads of women, beautiful in expression and in the adornment of
the hair, which Leonardo da Vinci was ever imitating for their beauty.
In our book, also, are two horses with the due measures and protractors
for reproducing them on a larger scale from a smaller, so that there may
be no errors in their proportions; and there is in my possession a
horse's head of terra-cotta in relief, copied from the antique, which is
a rare work. The Very Reverend Don Vincenzio Borghini has some of his
drawings in his book, of which we have spoken above; among others, a
design for a tomb made by him in Venice for a Doge, a scene of the
Adoration of Christ by the Magi, and the head of a woman painted on
paper with the utmost delicacy. He also made for Lorenzo de' Medici,
for the fountain of his Villa at Careggi, a boy of bronze squeezing a
fish, which the Lord Duke Cosimo has caused to be placed, as may be seen
at the present day, on the fountain that is in the courtyard of his
Palace; which boy is truly marvellous.

[Illustration: CORNER AND FOOT OF THE MEDICI SARCOPHAGUS

(_Detail, after =Andrea Verrocchio=. Florence: S. Lorenzo_)

_Alinari_]

Afterwards, the building of the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore having been
finished, it was resolved, after much discussion, that there should be
made the copper ball which, according to the instructions left by
Filippo Brunelleschi, was to be placed on the summit of that edifice.
Whereupon the task was given to Andrea, who made the ball four braccia
high, and, placing it on a knob, secured it in such a manner that
afterwards the cross could be safely erected upon it; and the whole
work, when finished, was put into position with very great rejoicing and
delight among the people. Truly great were the ingenuity and diligence
that had to be used in making it, to the end that it might be possible,
as it is, to enter it from below, and also in securing it with good
fastenings, lest the winds might do it damage.

Andrea was never at rest, but was ever labouring at some work either in
painting or in sculpture; and sometimes he would change from one to
another, in order to avoid growing weary of working always at the same
thing, as many do. Wherefore, although he did not put the aforesaid
cartoons into execution, yet he did paint certain pictures; among
others, a panel for the Nuns of S. Domenico in Florence, wherein it
appeared to him that he had acquitted himself very well; whence, no long
time after, he painted another in S. Salvi for the Monks of Vallombrosa,
containing the Baptism of Christ by S. John. In this work he was
assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, his disciple, then quite young, who
painted therein an angel with his own hand, which was much better than
the other parts of the work; and for that reason Andrea resolved never
again to touch a brush, since Leonardo, young as he was, had acquitted
himself in that art much better than he had done.

Now Cosimo de' Medici, having received many antiquities from Rome, had
caused to be set up within the door of his garden, or rather, courtyard,
which opens on the Via de' Ginori, a very beautiful Marsyas of white
marble, bound to a tree-trunk and ready to be flayed; and his grandson
Lorenzo, into whose hands there had come the torso and head of another
Marsyas, made of red stone, very ancient, and much more beautiful than
the first, wished to set it beside the other, but could not, because it
was so imperfect. Thereupon he gave it to Andrea to be restored and
completed, and he made the legs, thighs, and arms that were lacking in
this figure out of pieces of red marble, so well that Lorenzo was highly
satisfied and had it placed opposite to the other, on the other side of
the door. This ancient torso, made to represent a flayed Marsyas, was
wrought with such care and judgment that certain delicate white veins,
which were in the red stone, were carved by the craftsman exactly in the
right places, so as to appear to be little nerves, such as are seen in
real bodies when they have been flayed; which must have given to that
work, when it had its original finish, a most life-like appearance.

The Venetians, meanwhile, wishing to honour the great valour of
Bartolommeo da Bergamo, thanks to whom they had gained many victories,
in order to encourage others, and having heard the fame of Andrea,
summoned him to Venice, where he was commissioned to make an equestrian
statue of that captain in bronze, to be placed on the Piazza di SS.
Giovanni e Polo. Andrea, then, having made the model of the horse, had
already begun to get it ready for casting in bronze, when, thanks to the
favour of certain gentlemen, it was determined that Vellano da Padova
should make the figure and Andrea the horse. Having heard this, Andrea
broke the legs and head of his model and returned in great disdain to
Florence, without saying a word. The Signoria, receiving news of this,
gave him to understand that he should never be bold enough to return to
Venice, for they would cut his head off; to which he wrote in answer
that he would take good care not to, because, once they had cut a man's
head off, it was not in their power to put it on again, and certainly
not one like his own, whereas he could have replaced the head that he
had knocked off his horse with one even more beautiful. After this
answer, which did not displease those Signori, his payment was doubled
and he was persuaded to return to Venice, where he restored his first
model and cast it in bronze; but even then he did not finish it
entirely, for he caught a chill by overheating himself during the
casting, and died in that city within a few days; leaving unfinished
not only that work (although there was only a little polishing to be
done), which was set up in the place for which it was destined, but also
another which he was making in Pistoia, that is, the tomb of Cardinal
Forteguerra, with the three Theological Virtues, and a God the Father
above; which work was afterwards finished by Lorenzetto, a sculptor of
Florence.

[Illustration: STATUE OF BARTOLOMMEO COLLEONI

(_After the bronze by =Andrea Verrocchio=. Venice: Campo SS. Giovanni e
Paolo_)

_Anderson_]

Andrea was fifty-six years of age when he died. His death caused
infinite grief to his friends and to his disciples, who were not few;
above all to the sculptor Nanni Grosso, a most eccentric person both in
his art and in his life. This man, it is said, would not have worked
outside his shop, particularly for monks or friars, if he had not had
free access to the door of the vault, or rather, wine-cellar, so that he
might go and drink whenever he pleased, without having to ask leave. It
is also told of him that once, having returned from S. Maria Nuova
completely cured of some sickness, I know not what, he was visited by
his friends, who asked him how it went with him. "Ill," he answered.
"But thou art cured," they replied. "That is why it goes ill with me,"
said he, "for I would dearly love a little fever, so that I might lie
there in the hospital, well attended and at my ease." As he lay dying,
again in the hospital, there was placed before him a wooden Crucifix,
very rude and clumsily wrought; whereupon he prayed them to take it out
of his sight and to bring him one by the hand of Donato, declaring that
if they did not take it away he would die in misery, so greatly did he
detest badly wrought works in his own art.

Disciples of the same Andrea were Pietro Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci,
of whom we will speak in the proper place, and Francesco di Simone of
Florence, who made a tomb of marble in the Church of S. Domenico in
Bologna, with many little figures, which appear from the manner to be by
the hand of Andrea, for Messer Alessandro Tartaglia, a doctor of Imola,
and another in S. Pancrazio at Florence, facing the sacristy and one of
the chapels of the church, for the Chevalier Messer Pietro Minerbetti.
Another pupil of Andrea was Agnolo di Polo, who worked with great
mastery in clay, filling the city with works by his hand; and if he had
deigned to apply himself properly to his art, he would have made very
beautiful things. But the one whom he loved more than all the others was
Lorenzo di Credi, who brought his remains from Venice and laid them in
the Church of S. Ambrogio, in the tomb of Ser Michele di Cione, on the
stone of which there are carved the following words:

   SER MICHÆLIS DE CIONIS, ET SUORUM.

And beside them:

   HIC OSSA JACENT ANDREÆ VERROCHII, QUI OBIIT
   VENETIIS, MCCCCLXXXVIII.

Andrea took much delight in casting in a kind of plaster which would set
hard--that is, the kind that is made of a soft stone which is quarried
in the districts of Volterra and of Siena and in many other parts of
Italy. This stone, when burnt in the fire, and then pounded and mixed
with tepid water, becomes so soft that men can make whatever they please
with it; but afterwards it solidifies and becomes so hard, that it can
be used for moulds for casting whole figures. Andrea, then, was wont to
cast in moulds of this material such natural objects as hands, feet,
knees, legs, arms, and torsi, in order to have them before him and
imitate them with greater convenience. Afterwards, in his time, men
began to cast the heads of those who died--a cheap method; wherefore
there are seen in every house in Florence, over the chimney-pieces,
doors, windows, and cornices, infinite numbers of such portraits, so
well made and so natural that they appear alive. And from that time up
to the present the said custom has been continued, and it still
continues, with great convenience to ourselves, for it has given us
portraits of many who have been included in the stories in the Palace of
Duke Cosimo. And for this we should certainly acknowledge a very great
obligation to the talent of Andrea, who was one of the first to begin to
bring the custom into use.

From this men came to make more perfect images, not only in Florence,
but in all the places in which there is devoutness, and to which people
flock to offer votive images, or, as they are called, "miracoli," in
return for some favour received. For whereas they were previously made
small and of silver, or only in the form of little panels, or rather of
wax, and very clumsy, in the time of Andrea they began to be made in a
much better manner, since Andrea, having a very strait friendship with
Orsino, a Florentine worker in wax, who had no little judgment in that
art, began to show him how he could become excellent therein. Now the
due occasion arrived in the form of the death of Giuliano de' Medici and
the danger incurred by his brother Lorenzo, who was wounded in S. Maria
del Fiore, when it was ordained by the friends and relatives of Lorenzo
that images of him should be set up in many places, to render thanks to
God for his deliverance. Wherefore Orsino, among others that he made,
executed three life-size figures of wax with the aid and direction of
Andrea, making the skeleton within of wood, after the method described
elsewhere, interwoven with split reeds, which were then covered with
waxed cloths folded and arranged so beautifully that nothing better or
more true to nature could be seen. Then he made the heads, hands, and
feet with wax of greater thickness, but hollow within, portrayed from
life, and painted in oils with all the ornaments of hair and everything
else that was necessary, so lifelike and so well wrought that they
seemed no mere images of wax, but actual living men, as may be seen in
each of the said three, one of which is in the Church of the Nuns of
Chiarito in the Via di S. Gallo, opposite to the Crucifix that works
miracles. This figure is clothed exactly as Lorenzo was, when, with his
wounded throat bandaged, he showed himself at the window of his house
before the eyes of the people, who had flocked thither to see whether he
were alive, as they hoped, or to avenge him if he were dead. The second
figure of the same man is in the lucco, the gown peculiar to the
citizens of Florence; and it stands in the Servite Church of the
Nunziata, over the lesser door, which is beside the counter where
candles are sold. The third was sent to S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi,
and set up before the Madonna of that place, where the same Lorenzo de'
Medici, as has been already related, caused the road to be paved with
bricks all the way from S. Maria to that gate of Assisi which leads to
S. Francesco, besides restoring the fountains that his grandfather
Cosimo had caused to be made in that place. But to return to the images
of wax: all those in the said Servite Church are by the hand of Orsino,
which have a large O in the base as a mark, with an R within it and a
cross above; and they are all so beautiful that there are few since his
day who have equalled him. This art, although it has remained alive up
to our own time, is nevertheless rather on the decline than otherwise,
either because men's devoutness has diminished, or for some other
reason, whatever it may be.

And to return to Verrocchio; besides the aforesaid works, he made
Crucifixes of wood, with certain things of clay, in which he was
excellent, as may be seen from the models for the scenes that he
executed for the altar of S. Giovanni, from certain very beautiful boys,
and from a head of S. Jerome, which is held to be marvellous. By the
hand of the same man is the boy on the clock of the Mercato Nuovo, who
has his arms working free, in such a manner that he can raise them to
strike the hours with a hammer that he holds in his hands; which was
held in those times to be something very beautiful and fanciful. And let
this be the end of the Life of that most excellent sculptor, Andrea
Verrocchio.

There lived in the time of Andrea one Benedetto Buglioni, who received
the secret of glazed terra-cotta work from a woman related to the house
of Andrea della Robbia; wherefore he made many works in that manner both
in Florence and abroad, particularly a Christ rising from the dead, with
certain angels, which, for a work in glazed terra-cotta, is beautiful
enough, in the Church of the Servi, near the Chapel of S. Barbara. He
made a Dead Christ in a chapel in S. Pancrazio, and the lunette that is
seen over the principal door of the Church of S. Pietro Maggiore. From
Benedetto the secret descended to Santi Buglioni, the only man who now
knows how to work at this sort of sculpture.

ANDREA MANTEGNA

[Illustration: THE MARTYRDOM OF S. JAMES

(_After the fresco by =Andrea Mantegna=. Padua: Eremitani_)

_Anderson_]

LIFE OF ANDREA MANTEGNA

PAINTER OF MANTUA

How great is the effect of reward on talent is known to him who labours
valiantly and receives a certain measure of recompense, for he feels
neither discomfort, nor hardship, nor fatigue, when he expects honour
and reward for them; nay, what is more, they render his talent every day
more renowned and illustrious. It is true, indeed, that there is not
always found one to recognize, esteem, and remunerate it as that of
Andrea Mantegna was recognized. This man was born from very humble stock
in the district of Mantua; and, although as a boy he was occupied in
grazing herds, he was so greatly exalted by destiny and by his merit
that he attained to the honourable rank of Chevalier, as will be told in
the proper place. When almost full grown he was taken to the city, where
he applied himself to painting under Jacopo Squarcione, a painter of
Padua, who--as it is written in a Latin letter from Messer Girolamo
Campagnola to Messer Leonico Timeo, a Greek philosopher, wherein he
gives him information about certain old painters who served the family
of Carrara, Lords of Padua--took him into his house, and a little time
afterwards, having recognized the beauty of his intelligence, adopted
him as his son. Now this Squarcione knew that he himself was not the
most able painter in the world; wherefore, to the end that Andrea might
learn more than he himself knew, he made him practise much on casts
taken from ancient statues and on pictures painted upon canvas which he
caused to be brought from diverse places, particularly from Tuscany and
from Rome. By these and other methods, therefore, Andrea learnt not a
little in his youth; and the competition of Marco Zoppo of Bologna,
Darlo da Treviso, and Niccolò Pizzolo of Padua, disciples of his master
and adoptive father, was of no small assistance to him, and a stimulus
to his studies.

Now after Andrea, who was then no more than seventeen years of age, had
painted the panel of the high-altar of S. Sofia in Padua, which appears
wrought by a mature and well-practised master, and not by a youth,
Squarcione was commissioned to paint the Chapel of S. Cristofano, which
is in the Church of the Eremite Friars of S. Agostino in Padua; and he
gave the work to the said Niccolò Pizzolo and to Andrea. Niccolò made
therein a God the Father seated in Majesty between the Doctors of the
Church, and these paintings were afterwards held to be in no way
inferior to those that Andrea executed there. And in truth, if Niccolò,
whose works were few, but all good, had taken as much delight in
painting as he did in arms, he would have become excellent, and might
perchance have lived much longer than he did; for he was ever under arms
and had many enemies, and one day, when returning from work, he was
attacked and slain by treachery. Niccolò left no other works that I know
of, save another God the Father in the Chapel of Urbano Perfetto.[29]

[Illustration: ANDREA MANTEGNA: THE MADONNA OF THE ROCKS

(_Florence: Uffizi, 1025. Panel_)]

Andrea, thus left alone in the said chapel, painted the four
Evangelists, which were held very beautiful. By reason of this and other
works Andrea began to be watched with great expectation, and with hopes
that he would attain to that success to which he actually did attain;
wherefore Jacopo Bellini, the Venetian painter, father of Gentile and
Giovanni, and rival of Squarcione, contrived to get him to marry his
daughter, the sister of Gentile. Hearing this, Squarcione fell into such
disdain against Andrea that they were enemies ever afterwards; and in
proportion as Squarcione had formerly been ever praising the works of
Andrea, so from that day onward did he ever decry them in public. Above
all did he censure without reserve the pictures that Andrea had made in
the said Chapel of S. Cristofano, saying that they were worthless,
because in making them he had imitated the ancient works in marble, from
which it is not possible to learn painting perfectly, for the reason
that stone is ever from its very essence hard, and never has that
tender softness that is found in flesh and in things of nature, which
are pliant and move in various ways; adding that Andrea would have made
those figures much better, and that they would have been more perfect,
if he had given them the colour of marble and not such a quantity of
colours, because his pictures resembled not living figures but ancient
statues of marble or other suchlike things. This censure piqued the mind
of Andrea; but, on the other hand, it was of great service to him, for,
recognizing that Squarcione was in great measure speaking the truth, he
set himself to portray living people, and made so much progress in this
art, that, in a scene which still remained to be painted in the said
chapel, he showed that he could wrest the good from living and natural
objects no less than from those wrought by art. But for all this Andrea
was ever of the opinion that the good ancient statues were more perfect
and had greater beauty in their various parts than is shown by nature,
since, as he judged and seemed to see from those statues, the excellent
masters of old had wrested from living people all the perfection of
nature, which rarely assembles and unites all possible beauty into one
single body, so that it is necessary to take one part from one body and
another part from another. In addition to this, it appeared to him that
the statues were more complete and more thorough in the muscles, veins,
nerves, and other particulars, which nature, covering their sharpness
somewhat with the tenderness and softness of flesh, sometimes makes less
evident, save perchance in the body of an old man or in one greatly
emaciated; but such bodies, for other reasons, are avoided by craftsmen.
And that he was greatly enamoured of this opinion is recognized from his
works, in which, in truth, the manner is seen to be somewhat hard and
sometimes suggesting stone rather than living flesh. Be this as it may,
in this last scene, which gave infinite satisfaction, Andrea portrayed
Squarcione in an ugly and corpulent figure, lance and sword in hand. In
the same work he portrayed the Florentine Noferi, son of Messer Palla
Strozzi, Messer Girolamo della Valle, a most excellent physician, Messer
Bonifazio Fuzimeliga, Doctor of Laws, Niccolò, goldsmith to Pope
Innocent VIII, and Baldassarre da Leccio, all very much his friends,
whom he represented clad in white armour, burnished and resplendent, as
real armour is, and truly with a beautiful manner. He also portrayed
there the Chevalier Messer Bonramino, and a certain Bishop of Hungary, a
man wholly witless, who would wander about Rome all day, and then at
night would lie down to sleep like a beast in a stable; and he made a
portrait of Marsilio Pazzo in the person of the executioner who is
cutting off the head of S. James, together with one of himself. This
work, in short, by reason of its excellence, brought him a very great
name.

The while that he was working on this chapel, he also painted a panel,
which was placed on the altar of S. Luca in S. Justina, and afterwards
he wrought in fresco the arch that is over the door of S. Antonino, on
which he wrote his name. In Verona he painted a panel for the altar of
S. Cristofano and S. Antonio, and he made some figures at the corner of
the Piazza della Paglía. In S. Maria in Organo, for the Monks of Monte
Oliveto, he painted the panel of the high-altar, which is most
beautiful, and likewise that of S. Zeno. And among other things that he
wrought while living in Verona and sent to various places, one, which
came into the hands of an Abbot of the Abbey of Fiesole, his friend and
relative, was a picture containing a half-length Madonna with the Child
in her arms, and certain heads of angels singing, wrought with admirable
grace; which picture, now to be seen in the library of that place, has
been held from that time to our own to be a rare thing.

Now, the while that he lived in Mantua, he had laboured much in the
service of the Marquis Lodovico Gonzaga, and that lord, who always
showed no little esteem and favour towards the talent of Andrea, caused
him to paint a little panel for the Chapel of the Castle of Mantua; in
which panel there are scenes with figures not very large but most
beautiful. In the same place are many figures foreshortened from below
upwards, which are greatly extolled, for although his treatment of the
draperies was somewhat hard and precise, and his manner rather dry, yet
everything there is seen to have been wrought with much art and
diligence. For the same Marquis, in a hall of the Palace of S.
Sebastiano in Mantua, he painted the Triumph of Cæsar, which is the best
thing that he ever executed. In this work we see, grouped with most
beautiful design in the triumph, the ornate and lovely car, the man
who is vituperating the triumphant Cæsar, and the relatives, the
perfumes, the incense, the sacrifices, the priests, the bulls crowned
for the sacrifice, the prisoners, the booty won by the soldiers, the
ranks of the squadrons, the elephants, the spoils, the victories, the
cities and fortresses counterfeited in various cars, with an infinity of
trophies borne on spears, and a variety of helmets and body-armour,
head-dresses, and ornaments and vases innumerable; and in the multitude
of spectators is a woman holding the hand of a boy, who, having pierced
his foot with a thorn, is showing it, weeping, to his mother, in a
graceful and very lifelike manner. Andrea, as I may have pointed out
elsewhere, had a good and beautiful idea in this scene, for, having set
the plane on which the figures stood higher than the level of the eye,
he placed the feet of the foremost on the outer edge and outline of that
plane, making the others recede inwards little by little, so that their
feet and legs were lost to sight in the proportion required by the point
of view; and so, too, with the spoils, vases, and other instruments and
ornaments, of which he showed only the lower part, concealing the upper,
as was required by the rules of perspective; which same consideration
was also observed with much diligence by Andrea degli Impiccati[30] in
the Last Supper, which is in the Refectory of S. Maria Nuova. Wherefore
it is seen that in that age these able masters set about investigating
with much subtlety, and imitating with great labour, the true properties
of natural objects. And this whole work, to put it briefly, is as
beautiful and as well wrought as it could be; so that if the Marquis
loved Andrea before, he loved and honoured him much more ever
afterwards.

[Illustration: MADONNA AND ANGELS

(_After the panel by =Andrea Mantegna=. Milan: Brera, 198_)

_Alinari_]

What is more, he became so famous thereby that Pope Innocent VIII,
hearing of his excellence in painting and of the other good qualities
wherewith he was so marvellously endowed, sent for him, even as he was
sending for many others, to the end that he might adorn with his
pictures the walls of the Belvedere, the building of which had just been
finished. Having gone to Rome, then, greatly favoured and recommended by
the Marquis, who made him a Chevalier in order to honour him the more,
he was received lovingly by that Pontiff and straightway commissioned to
paint a little chapel that is in the said place. This he executed with
diligence and love, and with such minuteness that the vaulting and the
walls appear rather illuminated than painted; and the largest figures
that are therein, which he painted in fresco like the others, are over
the altar, representing the Baptism of Christ by S. John, with many
people around, who are showing by taking off their clothes that they
wish to be baptized. Among these is one who, seeking to draw off a
stocking that has stuck to his leg through sweat, has crossed that leg
over the other and is drawing the stocking off inside out, with such
great effort and difficulty, that both are seen clearly in his face;
which bizarre fancy caused marvel to all who saw it in those times. It
is said that this Pope, by reason of his many affairs, did not pay
Mantegna as often as he would have liked, and that therefore, while
painting certain Virtues in terretta in that work, he made a figure of
Discretion among the rest, whereupon the Pope, having gone one day to
see the work, asked Andrea what figure that was; to which Andrea
answered that it was Discretion; and the Pope added: "If thou wouldst
have her suitably accompanied, put Patience beside her." The painter
understood what the meaning of the Holy Father was, and he never said
another word. The work finished, the Pope sent him back to the Duke with
much favour and honourable rewards.

The while that Andrea was working in Rome, he painted, besides the said
chapel, a little picture of the Madonna with the Child sleeping in her
arms; and within certain caverns in the landscape, which is a mountain,
he made some stone-cutters quarrying stone for various purposes, all
wrought with such delicacy and such great patience, that it does not
seem possible for such good work to be done with the thin point of a
brush. This picture is now in the possession of the most Illustrious
Lord, Don Francesco Medici, Prince of Florence, who holds it among his
dearest treasures.

In our book is a drawing by the hand of Andrea on a half-sheet of royal
folio, finished in chiaroscuro, wherein is a Judith who is putting the
head of Holofernes into the wallet of her Moorish slave-girl; which
chiaroscuro is executed in a manner no longer used, for he left the
paper white to serve for the light in place of white lead, and that so
delicately that the separate hairs and other minute details are seen
therein, no less than if they had been wrought with much diligence by
the brush; wherefore in a certain sense this may be called rather a work
in colour than a drawing. The same man, like Pollaiuolo, delighted in
engraving on copper; and, among other things, he made engravings of his
own Triumphs, which were then held in great account, since nothing
better had been seen.

One of the last works that he executed was a panel-picture for S. Maria
della Vittoria, a church built after the direction and design of Andrea
by the Marquis Francesco, in memory of the victory that he gained on the
River Taro, when he was General of the Venetian forces against the
French. In this panel, which was wrought in distemper and placed on the
high-altar, there is painted the Madonna with the Child seated on a
pedestal; and below are S. Michelagnolo, S. Anna, and Joachim, who are
presenting the Marquis--who is portrayed from life so well that he
appears alive--to the Madonna, who is offering him her hand. Which
picture, even as it gave and still continues to give universal pleasure,
also satisfied the Marquis so well that he rewarded most liberally the
talent and labour of Andrea, who, having been remunerated by Princes for
all his works, was able to maintain his rank of Chevalier most
honourably up to the end of his life.

Andrea had competitors in Lorenzo da Lendinara--who was held in Padua to
be an excellent painter, and who also wrought some things in terra-cotta
for the Church of S. Antonio--and in certain others of no great worth.
He was ever the friend of Dario da Treviso and Marco Zoppo of Bologna,
since he had been brought up with them under the discipline of
Squarcione. For the Friars Minor of Padua this Marco painted a loggia
which serves as their chapter-house; and at Pesaro he painted a panel
that is now in the new Church of S. Giovanni Evangelista; besides
portraying in a picture Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, at the time when he
was Captain of the Florentines. A friend of Mantegna's, likewise, was
Stefano, a painter of Ferrara, whose works were few but passing good;
and by his hand is the adornment of the sarcophagus of S. Anthony to be
seen in Padua, with the Virgin Mary, that is called the Vergine del
Pilastro.

But to return to Andrea himself; he built a very beautiful house in
Mantua for his own use, which he adorned with paintings and enjoyed
while he lived. Finally he died in 1517, at the age of sixty-six, and
was buried with honourable obsequies in S. Andrea; and on his tomb, over
which stands his portrait in bronze, there was placed the following
epitaph:

   ESSE PAREM HUNC NORIS, SI NON PRÆPONIS, APELLI;
   ÆNEA MANTINEÆ QUI SIMULACRA VIDES.

Andrea was so kindly and praiseworthy in all his actions, that his
memory will ever live, not only in his own country, but in the whole
world; wherefore he well deserved, no less for the sweetness of his ways
than for his excellence in painting, to be celebrated by Ariosto at the
beginning of his thirty-third canto, where he numbers him among the most
illustrious painters of his time, saying:

   Leonardo, Andrea Mantegna, Gian Bellino.

This master showed painters a much better method of foreshortening
figures from below upwards, which was truly a difficult and ingenious
invention; and he also took delight, as has been said, in engraving
figures on copper for printing, a method of truly rare value, by means
of which the world has been able to see not only the Bacchanalia, the
Battle of Marine Monsters, the Deposition from the Cross, the Burial of
Christ, and His Resurrection, with Longinus and S. Andrew, works by
Mantegna himself, but also the manners of all the craftsmen who have
ever lived.

[Illustration: JUDITH WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES

(_After the painting by =Andrea Mantegna=. Dublin: National Gallery_)

_Mansell_]

FOOTNOTES:

[29] This seems to be a printer's or copyist's error for Prefetto.

[30] Andrea dal Castagno.

INDEX OF NAMES OF THE CRAFTSMEN MENTIONED IN VOLUME III

   Abbot of S. Clemente (Don Bartolommeo della Gatta), _Life_, 203-209. 188

   Agnolo, Baccio d', 12

   Agnolo di Donnino, 189, 190

   Agnolo di Lorenzo (Angelo di Lorentino), 209

   Agnolo di Polo, 273, 274

   Alberti, Leon Batista, _Life_, 43-48

   Albrecht Dürer, 214

   Alessandro Filipepi (Sandro Botticelli, or Sandro di Botticello), _Life_, 247-254. 86, 87, 188, 222, 247-254

   Alesso Baldovinetti, _Life_, 67-70. 59, 67-70, 101, 225

   Andrea Contucci (Andrea Sansovino, or Andrea dal Monte Sansovino), 243

   Andrea dal Castagno (Andrea degli' Impiccati), _Life_, 97-105. 109, 117, 173, 237, 239, 283

   Andrea della Robbia, 276

   Andrea di Cione Orcagna, 223

   Andrea di Cosimo, 189

   Andrea Mantegna, _Life_, 279-286. 162

   Andrea Riccio, 64

   Andrea Sansovino (Andrea Contucci, or Andrea dal Monte Sansovino), 243

   Andrea Tafi, 69

   Andrea Verrocchio, _Life_, 267-276. 75, 223

   Angelico, Fra (Fra Giovanni da Fiesole), _Life_, 27-39. 121

   Angelo, Lorentino d'. 22, 23

   Angelo di Lorentino (Agnolo di Lorenzo), 209

   Antonello da Messina, _Life_, 59-64

   Antonio di Salvi, 239

   Antonio Filarete, _Life_, 3-7. 47, 92

   Antonio (or Vittore) Pisanello, _Life_, 109-113. 105

   Antonio Pollaiuolo, _Life_, 237-243. 248, 285

   Antonio Rossellino (Rossellino dal Proconsolo), _Life_, 139-144. 44, 253

   Antonio Viniziano, 176

   Apelles, 36, 254, 286

   Aretino, Geri, 263, 264

   Attavante (or Vante), 36-39, 209, 214, 215

   Ausse (Hans Memling), 61

   Baccio Cellini, 92, 263

   Baccio d' Agnolo, 12

   Baccio da Montelupo, 148

   Baccio Pintelli, 93-94

   Baldinelli, Baldino, 233

   Baldovinetti, Alesso, _Life_, 67-70. 59, 67-70, 101, 225

   Banco, Nanni d' Antonio di, 28

   Bartolommeo Coda, 184

   Bartolommeo della Gatta, Don (Abbot of S. Clemente), _Life_, 203-209. 188

   Bartoluccio Ghiberti, 237, 238

   Bastiano Mainardi (Bastiano da San Gimignano), 225, 230-233

   Batista del Cervelliera, 12

   Bellini, Gentile, _Life_, 173-184. 280

   Bellini, Giovanni, _Life_, 173-184. 280, 286

   Bellini, Jacopo, _Life_, 173-175. 280

   Benedetto Buglioni, 276

   Benedetto Coda, 184

   Benedetto da Maiano, _Life_, 257-264. 13, 14, 149. 257-264

   Benedetto Ghirlandajo, 222, 229, 233

   Benozzo Gozzoli, _Life_, 121-125. 35, 161

   Bernardo Ciuffagni, 7

   Bernardo Rossellino, _Life_, 139-144. 44, 268

   Bernardo Vasari, 55

   Berto Linaiuolo, 92

   Biagio (pupil of Botticelli), 251, 252

   Bicci, Lorenzo di, 20, 213

   Boccardino, the elder, 215

   Bolognese, Guido, 170

   Borghese, Piero (Piero della Francesca, or Piero dal Borgo a San Sepolcro), _Life_, 17-23. 51, 52, 101, 135

   Botticelli, Sandro (Sandro di Botticello, or Alessandro Filipepi), _Life_, 247-254. 86, 87, 188, 222, 247-254

   Botticello, 247

   Bramante da Milano, 18

   Bramante da Urbino, 155

   Bramantino, 18, 19

   Brini, Francesco, 214

   Bruges, Johann of (Jan van Eyck), 60-62, 64

   Bruges, Roger of (Roger van der Weyden), 61

   Brunelleschi, Filippo (Filippo di Ser Brunellesco), 3, 12, 130, 196, 257, 271

   Buglioni, Benedetto, 276

   Buglioni, Santi, 276

   Buonarroti, Michelagnolo, 86, 110, 140, 233

   Cadore, Tiziano da (Tiziano Vecelli), 179, 183

   Callicrates, 55

   Camicia, Chimenti, _Life_, 92-93

   Campagnola, Girolamo, 279

   Capanna (of Siena), 208

   Castagno, Andrea dal (Andrea degl' Impiccati), _Life_, 97-105. 109, 117, 173, 237, 239, 283

   Castel della Pieve, Pietro da (Pietro Perugino, or Pietro Vannucci), 23, 188, 204, 273

   Castelfranco, Giorgione da, 184

   Cecca, _Life_, 193-200. 69

   Cecca, Girolamo della, 263

   Cellini, Baccio, 92, 263

   Cervelliera, Batista del, 12

   Chimenti Camicia, _Life_, 92-93

   Cieco, Niccolò, 233

   Cimabue, Giovanni, 59

   Ciuffagni, Bernardo, 7

   Coda, Bartolommeo, 184

   Coda, Benedetto, 184

   Contucci, Andrea (Andrea Sansovino, or Andrea dal Monte Sansovino), 243

   Corso, Jacopo del, 105

   Cortona, Luca da (Luca Signorelli), 20, 23, 31, 52, 188, 204

   Cosimo, Andrea di, 189

   Cosimo, Piero di, 189

   Cosimo Rosselli, _Life_, 187-190

   Cosmè, 136

   Costa, Lorenzo, _Life_, 161-164. 167

   Cozzerello, Jacopo, 130

   Credi, Lorenzo di, 274

   Cronaca, Il, 260

   Dario da Treviso, 280, 285

   David Ghirlandajo, 222, 225, 229-231, 233

   David Pistoiese, 263

   Desiderio da Settignano, _Life_, 147-149. 154, 156, 260

   Diamante, Fra, 83, 85-87

   Domenico del Tasso, 200, 262

   Domenico di Mariotto, 12

   Domenico di Michelino, 35

   Domenico Ghirlandajo, _Life_, 219-233. 69, 70, 188, 213, 215, 219-233, 248

   Domenico Pecori, 207-209

   Domenico Viniziano (Domenico da Venezia), _Life_, 97-105. 19, 63, 97-105, 173

   Don Bartolommeo della Gatta (Abbot of S. Clemente), _Life_, 203-209. 188

   Don Lorenzo Monaco, 203

   Donato (Donatello), 3, 6, 73, 74, 117, 131, 144, 147, 148, 269, 270, 273

   Donnino, Agnolo di, 189, 190

   Donzello, Piero del, 13

   Donzello, Polito del, 13, 14

   Dosso, the elder (Dosso Dossi), 164

   Duca Tagliapietra, 169

   Duccio, 6

   Dürer, Albrecht, 214

   Ercole Ferrarese (Ercole da Ferrara), Life, 167-170. 164

   Eyck, Jan van (Johann of Bruges), 60-62, 64

   Fabiano Sassoli, 54

   Fabriano, Gentile da, _Life_, 109-113. 35, 173

   Facchino, Giuliano del, 239

   Fancelli, Luca, 47

   Fancelli, Salvestro, 47

   Fermo Ghisoni, 164

   Ferrara, Ercole da (Ercole Ferrarese), _Life_, 167-170. 164

   Ferrara, Stefano da, 285, 286

   Ferrarese, Ercole (Ercole da Ferrara), _Life_, 167-170. 164

   Ferrarese, Galasso (Galasse Galassi), _Life_ 135-136

   Fiesole, Fra Giovanni da (Fra Angelico), _Life_, 27-39. 121

   Fiesole, Mino da (Mino di Giovanni), _Life_, 153-157

   Filarete, Antonio, _Life_, 3-7. 47, 92

   Filipepi, Alessandro (Sandro Botticelli, or Sandro di Botticello), _Life_, 247-254. 86, 87, 188, 222, 247-254

   Filippino Lippi (Filippo Lippi), 83, 87, 259

   Filippo Brunelleschi (Filippo di Ser Brunellesco), 3, 12, 130, 196, 257, 271

   Filippo Lippi (Filippino Lippi), 83, 87, 259

   Filippo Lippi, Fra, _Life_, 79-88. 117, 118, 161, 247

   Finiguerra, Maso, 238

   Foccora, Giovanni, 7

   Fonte, Jacopo della (Jacopo della Quercia), 131, 188

   Forlì, Melozzo da, 124

   Fra Angelico (Fra Giovanni da Fiesole), _Life_, 27-39. 121

   Fra Diamante, 83, 85-87

   Fra Filippo Lippi, _Life_, 79-88. 117, 118, 161, 247

   Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Fra Angelico), _Life_, 27-39. 121

   Francesca, Piero della (Piero Borghese, or Piero dal Borgo a San Sepolcro), _Life_, 17-23. 51, 52, 101, 135

   Francesco Brini, 214

   Francesco di Giorgio, _Life_, 129-131

   Francesco di Monsignore, 63

   Francesco di Simone, 273

   Francesco Granacci (Il Granaccio), 233

   Francesco Peselli (Francesco di Pesello, or Pesellino), _Life_, 117-118. 86

   Francesco Salviati, 258, 262

   Galasso Ferrarese (Galasso Galassi), _Life_, 135-136

   Gatta, Don Bartolommeo della (Abbot of S. Clemente), _Life_, 203-209. 188

   Gentile Bellini, _Life_, 173-184. 280

   Gentile da Fabriano, _Life_, 109-113. 35, 173

   Geri Aretino, 263, 264

   Gherardo, _Life_, 213-215. 209, 232

   Ghiberti, Bartoluccio, 237, 238

   Ghiberti, Lorenzo (Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti, or Lorenzo di Bartoluccio Ghiberti), 3, 237, 238, 269, 270

   Ghirlandajo, Benedetto, 222, 229, 233

   Ghirlandajo, David, 222, 225, 229-231, 233

   Ghirlandajo, Domenico, _Life_, 219-233. 69, 70, 188, 213, 215, 219-233, 248

   Ghirlandajo, Ridolfo, 233

   Ghirlandajo, Tommaso, 219

   Ghisoni, Fermo, 164

   Giacomo Marzone, 184

   Gian Cristoforo, 92

   Giorgio, Francesco di, _Life_, 129-131

   Giorgio Vasari, see Vasari (Giorgio)

   Giorgio Vasari (son of Lazzaro Vasari, the elder), 52, 54-56

   Giorgione da Castelfranco, 184

   Giotto, 59, 259

   Giovanni, Mino di (Mino da Fiesole), _Life_, 153-157

   Giovanni Bellini, _Life_, 173-184. 280, 286

   Giovanni Cimabue, 59

   Giovanni da Rovezzano, 105

   Giovanni Foccora, 7

   Giovanni Turini, 239

   Girolamo Campagnola, 279

   Girolamo della Cecca, 263

   Girolamo Moretto (or Mocetto), 180

   Girolamo Padovano, 209

   Giuliano da Maiano, _Life_, 11-14. 74, 257-259

   Giuliano del Facchino, 239

   Giuliano del Tasso, 200, 262

   Giulio Romano, 19

   Giusto, 11

   Gozzoli, Benozzo, _Life_, 121-125. 35, 161

   Graffione, 70

   Granacci, Francesco (Il Granaccio), 233

   Grosso, Nanni, 273

   Guardia, Niccolò della, 92

   Guglielmo da Marcilla (Guillaume de Marcillac, or the French Prior), 53

   Guido Bolognese, 170

   Guido del Servellino, 12

   Hans Memling (Ausse), 61

   Il Cronaca, 260

   Il Granaccio (Francesco Granacci), 233

   Impiccati, Andrea degl' (Andrea dal Castagno), _Life_, 97-105. 109, 117, 173, 237, 239, 283

   Indaco, Jacopo dell', 233

   Jacopo (pupil of Botticelli), 251, 252

   Jacopo Bellini, _Life_, 173-175. 280

   Jacopo Cozzerello, 130

   Jacopo da Montagna, 183

   Jacopo del Corso, 105

   Jacopo del Sellaio, 86

   Jacopo del Tedesco, 233

   Jacopo della Quercia (Jacopo della Fonte), 131, 188

   Jacopo dell' Indaco, 233

   Jacopo Squarcione, 279-281, 285

   Johann of Bruges (Jan van Eyck), 60-62, 64

   Lappoli, Matteo, 206, 207

   Laurati, Pietro (Pietro Lorenzetti), 55

   Lazzaro Vasari (the elder), _Life_, 51-56

   Lazzaro Vasari (the younger), 55

   Lendinara, Lorenzo da, 285

   Leon Batista Alberti, _Life_, 43-48

   Leonardo da Vinci, 270, 271, 273, 286

   Linaiuolo, Berto, 92

   Lippi, Filippo (Filippino Lippi), 83, 87, 259

   Lippi, Fra Filippo, _Life_, 79-88. 117, 118, 161, 247

   Lodovico Malino (Lodovico Mazzolini), 164

   Lorentino, Angelo di (Agnolo di Lorenzo), 209

   Lorentino d'Angelo, 22, 23

   Lorenzetti, Pietro (Pietro Laurati), 55

   Lorenzetto, 273

   Lorenzo, Agnolo di (Angelo di Lorentino), 209

   Lorenzo Costa, _Life_, 161-164. 167

   Lorenzo da Lendinara, 285

   Lorenzo di Bicci, 20, 213

   Lorenzo di Credi, 274

   Lorenzo Ghiberti (Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti, or Lorenzo di Bartoluccio Ghiberti), 3, 237, 238, 269, 270

   Lorenzo Monaco, Don, 203

   Lorenzo Vecchietto, _Life_, 129-131

   Luca Fancelli, 47

   Luca Signorelli (Luca da Cortona), 20, 23, 31, 52, 188, 204

   Luigi Vivarino, 178, 179

   Macchiavelli, Zanobi, 125

   Maestro Mino (Mino del Regno, or Mino del Reame). _Life_, 91-92. 155

   Maiano, Benedetto da, _Life_, 257-264. 13, 14, 149, 257-264

   Maiano, Giuliano da, _Life_, 11-14. 74, 257-259

   Mainardi, Bastiano (Bastiano da San Gimignano), 225, 230-233

   Malino, Lodovico (Lodovico Mazzolini), 164

   Mantegna, Andrea, _Life_, 279-286. 162

   Marchino, 105

   Marcilla, Guglielmo da (Guillaume de Marcillac, or the French Prior), 53

   Marco del Tasso, 200, 262

   Marco Zoppo, 279, 280, 285

   Mariotto, Domenico di, 12

   Martin Schongauer, 214

   Martini, Simone (Simone Sanese or Memmi), 183

   Marzone, Giacomo, 184

   Masaccio, 79, 80

   Maso Finiguerra, 238

   Matteo Lappoli, 206, 207

   Mazzingo, 239

   Mazzolini, Lodovico (Lodovico Malino), 164

   Melozzo da Forlì, 124

   Memling, Hans (Ausse), 61

   Memmi, Simone (Simone Sanese or Martini), 183

   Messina, Antonello da, _Life_, 59-64

   Michelagnolo Buonarroti, 86, 110, 140, 233

   Michele San Michele, 111

   Michelino, Domenico di, 35

   Milano, Bramante da, 18

   Mino, Maestro (Mino del Regno, or Mino del Reame), _Life_, 91-92. 155

   Mino da Fiesole (Mino di Giovanni), _Life_, 153-157

   Minore, 11

   Modanino da Modena, 14

   Monaco, Don Lorenzo, 203

   Monsignore, Francesco di, 63

   Montagna, Jacopo da, 183

   Montelupo, Baccio da, 148

   Montepulciano, Pasquino da, 7

   Moretto (or Mocetto), Girolamo, 180

   Myrmecides, 55

   Nanni d' Antonio di Banco, 28

   Nanni Grosso, 273

   Niccolò (goldsmith to Pope Innocent VIII), 281

   Niccolò (of Florence), 7

   Niccolò Cieco, 233

   Niccolò della Guardia, 92

   Niccolò Pizzolo, 280

   Nicon, 209

   Orcagna, Andrea di Cione, 223

   Orsino, 275, 276

   Padova, Vellano da, _Life_, 73-75. 272

   Padovano, Girolamo, 209

   Paolo da Verona, 243

   Paolo Romano, _Life_, 91-92

   Paolo Uccello, 257

   Parri Spinelli, 54

   Pasquino da Montepulciano, 7

   Pecori, Domenico, 207-209

   Perugino, Pietro (Pietro Vannucci, or Pietro da Castel della Pieve), 23, 188, 204, 273

   Pesellino (Francesco Peselli, or Francesco di Pesello), _Life_, 117-118. 86

   Pesello, _Life_, 117-118. 59

   Piero del Donzello, 13

   Piero della Francesca (Piero Borghese, or Piero dal Borgo a San Sepolcro), _Life_, 17-23. 51, 52, 101, 135

   Piero di Cosimo, 189

   Piero Pollaiuolo, _Life_, 237-243. 105, 248

   Pietro Laurati (Pietro Lorenzetti), 55

   Pietro Paolo da Todi, 92

   Pietro Perugino (Pietro Vannucci, or Pietro da Castel della Pieve), 23, 188, 204, 273

   Pintelli, Baccio, 93-94

   Pisanello, Vittore (or Antonio), _Life_, 109-113. 105

   Pistoiese, David, 263

   Pizzolo, Niccolò, 280

   Polito del Donzello, 13, 14

   Pollaiuolo, Antonio, _Life_, 237-243. 248, 285

   Pollaiuolo, Piero, _Life_, 237-243. 105, 248

   Polo, Agnolo di, 273, 274

   Proconsolo, Rossellino dal (Antonio Rossellino), _Life_, 139-144. 44, 253

   Quercia, Jacopo della (Jacopo della Fonte), 131, 188

   Raffaello Sanzio (Raffaello da Urbino), 18, 19

   Ravenna, Rondinello da, 183, 184

   Regno, Mino del (Maestro Mino, or Mino del Reame), _Life_, 91-92. 155

   Riccio, Andrea, 64

   Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, 233

   Robbia, Andrea della, 276

   Roger of Bruges (Roger van der Weyden), 61

   Romano, Giulio, 19

   Romano, Paolo, _Life_, 91-92

   Rondinello da Ravenna, 183, 184

   Rosselli, Cosimo, _Life_, 187-190

   Rossellino, Antonio (Rossellino dal Proconsolo), _Life_, 139-144. 44, 253

   Rossellino, Bernardo, _Life_, 139-144. 44, 268

   Rovezzano, Giovanni da, 105

   Salvestro Fancelli, 47

   Salvi, Antonio di, 239

   Salviati, Francesco, 258, 262

   S. Clemente, Abbot of (Don Bartolommeo della Gatta), _Life_, 203-209. 188

   San Gimignano, Bastiano da (Bastiano Mainardi), 225, 230-233

   Sandro Botticelli (Sandro di Botticello, or Alessandro Filipepi), _Life_, 247-254. 86, 87, 188, 222, 247-254

   Sanese, Simone (Simone Martini or Memmi), 183

   Sansovino, Andrea (Andrea Contucci, or Andrea dal Monte Sansovino), 243

   Santi Buglioni, 276

   Sanzio, Raffaello (Raffaello da Urbino), 18, 19

   Sassoli, Fabiano, 54

   Schongauer, Martin, 214

   Sellaio, Jacopo del, 86

   Servellino, Guido del, 12

   Settignano, Desiderio da, _Life_, 147-149. 154, 156, 260

   Signorelli, Luca (Luca da Cortona), 20, 23, 31, 52, 188, 204

   Simone (brother of Donatello), _Life_, 3-7

   Simone, Francesco di, 273

   Simone Sanese (Simone Martini or Memmi), 183

   Spinelli, Parri, 54

   Squarcione, Jacopo, 279-281, 285

   Stefano (of Florence), 215

   Stefano da Ferrara, 285, 286

   Strozzi, Zanobi, 35

   Tafi, Andrea, 69

   Tagliapietra, Duca, 169

   Tasso, Domenico del, 200, 262

   Tasso, Giuliano del, 200, 262

   Tasso, Marco del, 200, 262

   Tedesco, Jacopo del, 233

   Tiziano Vecelli (Tiziano da Cadore), 179, 183

   Todi, Pietro Paolo da, 92

   Tommaso Ghirlandajo, 219

   Treviso, Dario da, 280, 285

   Turini, Giovanni, 239

   Uccello, Paolo, 257

   Urbino, Bramante da, 155

   Urbino, Raffaello da (Raffaello Sanzio), 18, 19

   Vannucci, Pietro (Pietro Perugino, or Pietro da Castel della Pieve), 23, 188, 204, 273

   Vante (or Attavante), 36-39, 209, 214, 215

   Varrone (of Florence), 7

   Vasari, Bernardo, 55

   Vasari, Giorgio--
     as art-collector, 12, 48, 52, 54, 68, 88, 113, 124, 140, 149, 157, 164, 170, 189, 198, 209, 214, 221, 238, 242, 254, 263, 270, 284
     as author, 5, 6, 14, 18, 19, 30, 33, 34, 36, 39, 48, 51-56, 59, 64, 74, 75, 91-93, 97, 110, 112, 113, 123, 136, 142-144, 149, 157, 163, 164, 174, 175, 178-180, 198, 199, 209, 215, 221, 225, 242, 249, 259, 262, 273, 280, 283
     as painter, 56, 209
     as architect, 55

   Vasari, Giorgio (son of Lazzaro Vasari, the elder), 52, 54-56

   Vasari, Lazzaro (the elder), _Life_, 51-56

   Vasari, Lazzaro (the younger), 55

   Vecchietto, Lorenzo, _Life_, 129-131

   Vecelli, Tiziano (Tiziano da Cadore), 179, 183

   Vellano da Padova, _Life_, 73-75. 272

   Venezia, Domenico da (Domenico Viniziano), _Life_, 97-105. 19, 63, 97-105, 173

   Verona, Paolo da, 243

   Verrocchio, Andrea, _Life_, 267-276. 75, 223

   Vincenzio di Zoppa, 5

   Vinci, Leonardo da, 270, 271, 273, 286

   Viniziano, Antonio, 176

   Viniziano, Domenico (Domenico da Venezia), _Life_, 97-105. 19, 63, 97-105, 173

   Vittore (or Antonio) Pisanello, _Life_, 109-113. 105

   Vivarino, Luigi, 178, 179

   Weyden, Roger van der (Roger of Bruges), 61

   Zanobi Macchiavelli, 125

   Zanobi Strozzi, 35

   Zeuxis, 209

   Zoppa, Vincenzio di, 5

   Zoppo, Marco, 279, 280, 285

END OF VOL. III.

   PRINTED UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF CHAS. T. JACOBI
   OF THE CHISWICK PRESS, LONDON. THE COLOURED
   REPRODUCTIONS ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY
   HENRY STONE AND SON, LTD., BANBURY