Tomb of Gian Jacopo Medici.TOMB OF GIAN JACOPO MEDICI(AfterLeone Lioni.Milan: Duomo)AlinariView larger image
TOMB OF GIAN JACOPO MEDICI(AfterLeone Lioni.Milan: Duomo)AlinariView larger image
For the Duke of Alva Leone has executed a head of the Duke, one of Charles V, and another of King Philip. For the very reverend Bishop of Arras, now Grand Cardinal, called Granvella, he has made some pieces in bronze of an oval form, each of two braccia, with rich borders, and containing half-length statues; in one is Charles V, in another King Philip, and in the third the Cardinal himself, portrayed from life, and all have bases with little figures of much grace. For Signor VespasianoGonzaga he has made in a great bust of bronze the portrait of Alva, which Gonzaga has placed in his house at Sabbionetto. For Signor Cesare Gonzaga he has executed, likewise in metal, a statue of four braccia, which has beneath it another figure that is entwined with a Hydra, in order to denote his father Don Ferrante, who by his worth and valour overcame the vicious envy that had sought to bring him into disgrace with Charles V in the matter of the government of Milan. This statue, which is clad in a toga and armed partly in the ancient and partly in the modern fashion, is to be taken to Guastalla and placed there in memory of that Don Ferrante, a most valorous captain.
The same Leone has made, as has been told in another place, the tomb of Signor Giovanni Jacopo Medici, Marquis of Marignano and brother of Pope Pius IV, which stands in the Duomo of Milan, about twenty-eight palms in length and forty in height. This tomb is all of Carrara marble, and adorned with four columns, two of them black and white, which were sent by the Pope as rare things from Rome to Milan, and two others, larger, which are of a spotted stone similar to jasper; which are all accommodated under one and the same cornice, an unusual contrivance, by the desire of that Pope, who caused the whole work to be executed after the directions of Michelagnolo, excepting only the five figures of bronze that are there, which are by the hand of Leone. The first of these, the largest of them all, is the statue of the Marquis himself, standing upright and larger than life, which has in the right hand the baton of a General, and the left hand resting on a helmet that is on a very richly adorned trunk. On the left of this is a smaller statue, representing Peace, and on the right another signifying Military Virtue; and these are seated, and in aspect all sad and sorrowing. Of the other two, which are on high, one is Providence and the other Fame; and between them, on the same level, is a most beautiful Nativity of Christ in bronze, in low-relief. At the summit of the whole work are two figures of marble, which support that lord's escutcheon of balls. For this work seven thousand and eight hundred crowns were paid, according to the agreement made in Rome by the most illustrious Cardinal Morone and Signor Agabrio Scierbellone.
The same master has made for Signor Giovan Battista Castaldo a statue likewise in bronze, which is to be placed in I know not what monastery, with some ornaments. For the above-named Catholic King he has executed a Christ in marble, more than three braccia high, with the Cross and with other Mysteries of the Passion, which is much extolled. Finally, he has in hand the statue of Signor Alfonso Davalos, the Marchese del Vasto of famous memory, which was entrusted to him by the Marchese di Pescara, his son; four braccia high, and likely to prove an excellent figure when cast, by reason of the diligence that he is devoting to its execution, and the good fortune that Leone has always had in his castings.
Leone, in order to display the greatness of his mind, the beautiful genius that he has received from Nature, and the favour of Fortune, has built at great expense and with most beautiful architecture a house in the Contrada de' Moroni, so full of fantastic inventions, that there is perhaps no other like it in all Milan. In the distribution of the façade there are upon pilasters six captives each of six braccia and all of pietra viva, and between these, in certain niches, Fates in imitation of the antique, with little terminal figures, windows, and cornices all different from the common use and very graceful; and all the parts below correspond with beautiful order to those above, and the frieze-ornaments are all of various instruments of the arts of design. From the principal door one enters by a passage into a courtyard, in the centre of which, upon four columns, is the horse with the statue of Marcus Aurelius, cast in gesso from the original which is in the Campidoglio. By means of that statue he has intended that his house should be dedicated to Marcus Aurelius; and as for the captives, that fancy is interpreted by various persons in various ways. Besides the horse, he has in that beautiful and most commodious habitation, as has been told in another place, as many casts in gesso as he has been able to obtain of famous works in sculpture and casting, both ancient and modern.
A son of Leone, called Pompeo, who is now in the service of King Philip of Spain, is in no way inferior to his father in executing dies of steel for medals and in casting figures that are marvellous. Wherefore at that Court he has been a competitor of Giovan Paolo Poggini, aFlorentine, who also works in the service of that King and has made most beautiful medals. But Pompeo, having served that King many years, intends to return to Milan in order to enjoy his Aurelian house and the other labours of his excellent father, the loving friend of every man of talent.
And now to say something of medals, and of the steel dies with which they are made. I believe that it may be affirmed with truth that our modern intellects have achieved as much as the ancient Romans once did in the excellence of the figures, and that in the lettering and in other parts they have surpassed them. Which may be seen clearly in twelve reverses—besides many others—that Pietro Paolo Galeotto has executed recently in the medals of Duke Cosimo, and they are these; Pisa restored almost to her pristine condition by means of the Duke, he having drained the country round and dried the marshy places, and having made many other improvements; the waters conducted to Florence from various places, the ornate and magnificent building of the Magistrates erected for the public convenience, the union of the States of Florence and Siena, the building of a city and two fortresses in Elba, the column conveyed from Rome and placed on the Piazza di S. Trinita in Florence, the preservation, completion and enlargement of the Library of S. Lorenzo for the public good, the foundation of the Order of the Knights of S. Stephen, the resignation of the government to the Prince, the fortifying of the State, the militia or trained companies of his dominion, and the Pitti Palace with its gardens, waters, and buildings, a work of such regal magnificence; of which reverses I do not give here either the lettering that they have around them, or their explanation, having to treat of them in another place. All these twelve reverses are beautiful to a marvel and executed with much diligence and grace, as is also the head of the Duke, which is of perfect beauty; and medals and other works in stucco, likewise, as I have said on another occasion, are being made of absolute perfection at the present day. And recently Mario Capocaccia of Ancona has executed with coloured stucco, in little cases, heads and portraits that are truly most beautiful; such as a portrait of Pope Pius V, which I saw not long since, and that of Cardinal Alessandrino.I have seen, also, portraits of the same kind by the hands of the sons of Polidoro, a painter of Perugia, which are very beautiful.
But to return to Milan; looking again a year ago over the works of the sculptor Gobbo, of whom mention has been made in another place, I did not see anything that was otherwise than ordinary, excepting an Adam and Eve, a Judith, and a S. Helena, in marble, which are about the Duomo; with two other statues of dead persons, representing Lodovico, called Il Moro, and Beatrice his wife, which were to be placed upon a tomb by the hand of Giovan Jacomo della Porta, sculptor and architect to the Duomo of Milan, who in his youth executed many works under the said Gobbo; and those named above, which were to go on that tomb, are wrought with a high finish. The same Giovan Jacomo has executed many beautiful works for the Certosa of Pavia, and in particular on the tomb of the Conte di Virtù and on the façade of the church. From him one his nephew learned his art, by name Guglielmo, who in Milan, about the year 1530, applied himself with much study to copying the works of Leonardo da Vinci, which gave him very great assistance. Whereupon he went with Giovan Jacomo to Genoa, when in the year 1531 the latter was invited to execute the sepulchre of S. John the Baptist, and he devoted himself with great study to design under Perino del Vaga; and, not therefore abandoning sculpture, he made one of the sixteen pedestals that are in that sepulchre, on which account, it being seen that he was acquitting himself very well, he was commissioned to make all the others. Next, he executed two Angels in marble, which are in the Company of S. Giovanni; and for the Bishop of Servega he made two portraits in marble, and a Moses larger than life, which was placed in the Church of S. Lorenzo. And then, after he had made a Ceres of marble that was placed over the door of the house of Ansaldo Grimaldi, he executed for placing over the Gate of the Cazzuola, in that city, a statue of S. Catharine of the size of life; and after that the three Graces, with four little boys, of marble, which were sent into Flanders to the Grand Equerry of the Emperor Charles V, together with another Ceres of the size of life.
Eve.EVE(AfterCristofano Solari.Milan: Duomo)BrogiView larger image
EVE(AfterCristofano Solari.Milan: Duomo)BrogiView larger image
Having executed these works in six years, Guglielmo in the year 1537 made his way to Rome, where he was much recommended by his uncleGiovan Jacomo to the painter Fra Sebastiano Viniziano, his friend, to the end that he might recommend him, as he did, to Michelagnolo Buonarroti. Which Michelagnolo, seeing Guglielmo to be spirited and very assiduous in labouring, began to conceive an affection for him, and, before any other thing, caused him to restore some antique things in the Farnese Palace, in which he acquitted himself in such a manner, that Michelagnolo put him into the service of the Pope. Another proof of his powers had been seen already in a tomb that he had executed at the Botteghe Scure, for the most part of metal, for Bishop Sulisse, with many figures and scenes in low-relief—namely, the Cardinal Virtues and others, wrought with much grace, and besides these the figure of the Bishop himself, which afterwards went to Salamanca in Spain. Now, while Guglielmo was engaged in restoring the statues, which are now in the loggia that is before the upper hall in the Farnese Palace, there took place in the year 1547 the death of Fra Sebastiano Viniziano, who, as has been told, had administered the office of the Piombo. Whereupon Guglielmo, with the favour of Michelagnolo and of others, so wrought upon the Pope, that he obtained the said office of the Piombo, with the charge of executing the tomb of Pope Paul III, which was to be placed in S. Pietro. For this he availed himself in the model, with better design, of the scenes and figures of the Theological and Cardinal Virtues that he had made for the above-named Bishop Sulisse, placing at the corners four children in four partitions, and four cartouches, and making in addition a bronze statue of the said Pontiff seated, giving the benediction; which statue was seventeen palms high. But doubting, on account of the size of the casting, lest the metal might grow cold and the work therefore not succeed, he placed the metal in the vessel below, in such a way that it might be gradually sucked upwards. And with this unusual method that casting came out very well, and as clean as the wax, so that the very surface that came from the fire had no need at all to be polished, as may be seen from the statue itself, which was placed below the first arches that support the tribune of the new S. Pietro. On this tomb, which according to a design by his hand was to be isolated, were to be placed four figures, which he executed in marble with beautiful inventionsaccording as he was directed by M. Annibale Caro, who had the charge of this from the Pope and Cardinal Farnese. One was Justice, which is a nude figure lying upon some draperies, with the belt of the sword across the breast, and the sword hidden; in one hand she has the fasces of consular jurisdiction, and in the other a flame of fire, and she is young in countenance, and has the hair plaited, the nose aquiline, and the aspect full of expression. The second was Prudence in the form of a matron, young in aspect, with a mirror in the hand, and a closed book, and partly nude, partly draped. The third was Abundance, a young woman crowned with ears of corn, with a horn of plenty in one hand and the ancient corn-measure in the other, and clothed in such a manner as to show the nude beneath the draperies. The fourth and last was Peace, who is a matron with a boy that has lost his eyes, and with the Caduceus of Mercury. He made, likewise, a scene also of metal and after the directions of the above-named Caro, which was to be placed in the work, with two River Gods, one representing a lake and the other a river that is in the domains of the Farnesi; and, besides all these things, there was to be there a mount covered with lilies, and with the rainbow of Iris. But the whole was not afterwards carried into execution, for the reasons that have been given in the Life of Michelagnolo. It may be believed that even as these parts are in themselves beautiful and wrought with much judgment, so they would have succeeded as a whole together; and yet it is the air of the piazza[15]which gives the true light and enables us to form a correct judgment of a work.
Tomb of Pope Paul III.TOMB OF POPE PAUL III(AfterGuglielmo della Porta.Rome: S. Peter's)AlinariView larger image
TOMB OF POPE PAUL III(AfterGuglielmo della Porta.Rome: S. Peter's)AlinariView larger image
The same Fra Guglielmo has executed during a period of many years fourteen stories of the life of Christ, for casting in bronze; each of which is four palms in breadth and six in height, excepting only one, which is twelve palms high and six broad, wherein is the Nativity of Jesus Christ, with most beautiful fantasies of figures. In the other thirteen are, Mary going with the Infant Christ on the ass to Jerusalem, with two figures in strong relief, and many in half-relief and low-relief; the Last Supper, with thirteen figures well composed, and a very rich building; the Washing of the Disciples' feet; the Prayer in the Garden,with five figures, and at the foot a multitude of great variety; Christ led before Annas, with six large figures, many lower down, and one in the distance; the Scourging at the Column, the Crowning with Thorns, the "Ecce Homo," Pilate washing his hands; Christ bearing the Cross, with fifteen figures, and others in the distance, going to Mount Calvary; Christ Crucified, with eighteen figures; and Christ taken down from the Cross. All which scenes, if they were cast, would form a very rare work, seeing that they have been wrought with much study and labour. Pope Pius IV had intended to have them executed for one of the doors of S. Pietro, but he had not time, being overtaken by death. Recently Fra Guglielmo has executed models in wax for three altars in S. Pietro; Christ taken down from the Cross, Peter receiving the Keys of the Church, and the Coming of the Holy Spirit, which would all be beautiful scenes.
In short, this man has had, and still has, the greatest opportunities to exert himself and to execute works, seeing that the office of the Piombo gives such a revenue that the holder can study and labour for glory, which he who has not such advantages is not able to do; and yet Fra Guglielmo has executed no finished work between 1547 and this year of 1567. But it is the characteristic of those who hold that office to become sluggish and indolent; and that this is true, a proof is that this Guglielmo, before he became Friar of the Piombo, executed many heads in marble and other works, besides those that we have mentioned. It is true, indeed, that he has made four great Prophets in stucco, which are in the niches between the pilasters of the first great arch of S. Pietro. He also occupied himself much with the cars for the feast of Testaccio and other masquerades, which were held now many years ago in Rome.
A pupil of this master has been one Guglielmo Tedesco, who, among other works, has executed a very rich and beautiful ornamentation of little statues in bronze, imitated from the best antiques, for a cabinet of wood (so it is called) which the Count of Pitigliano presented to the Lord Duke Cosimo. Which little figures are these; the horse of the Campidoglio, those of Monte Cavallo, the Farnese figures of Hercules, the Antinous and the Apollo of the Belvedere, and the heads of the Twelve Emperors, with others, all well wrought and very similar to the originals.
Milan has also had another sculptor, dead this year, called Tommaso Porta, who worked marble excellently well, and in particular counterfeited antique heads in marble, which have been sold as antiques; and masks he made so well that in them no one has equalled him, of which I have one in marble by his hand, placed on the chimney-piece of my house at Arezzo, which everyone takes for an antique. This Tommaso made the heads of the Twelve Emperors in marble, the size of life, which were the rarest things. These Pope Julius III took, making him a present of an office of a hundred crowns a year in the Segnatura; and he kept the heads I know not how many months in his chamber, as choice things. But by the agency (so it is believed) of the above-named Fra Guglielmo and others who were jealous of him, such measures were taken against him, that, with no regard for the dignity of the gift bestowed upon him by that Pontiff, they were sent back to his house; where they were afterwards bought from him on better terms by merchants, and then sent to Spain. Not one of our imitators of antiques was superior to this Tommaso, of whom it has seemed to me right that record should be made, and the rather as he has passed to a better life, leaving name and fame for his ability.
Many works, likewise, have been executed in Rome by one Leonardo, a Milanese, who has made recently two statues of marble, S. Peter and S. Paul, for the Chapel of Cardinal Giovanni Riccio da Montepulciano, which are much extolled and held to be good and beautiful figures. And the sculptors Jacopo and Tommaso Casignuola have made in the Chapel of the Caraffi, in the Church of the Minerva, the tomb of Pope Paul IV, and, besides other ornaments, a statue formed of pieces which represents that Pope, with a mantle of veined brocatello marble, and the trimming and other things of veined marbles of various colours, which render it marvellous. And so we see added to the other industries of our modern intellects this new one, and that sculptors proceed with colours in their sculpture to imitate painting. Which tomb has been executed by means of the great saintliness, goodness and gratitude of Pope Pius V, a Pontiff and Holy Father truly most saintly, most blessed, and most worthy of long life.
Of Nanni di Baccio Bigio, a Florentine sculptor, besides what has been said of him in other places, I have to record that in his youth, under Raffaello da Montelupo, he applied himself in such a manner to sculpture, that in some little things that he did in marble he gave great promise that he would prove to be an able man. And having gone to Rome, under the sculptor Lorenzetto, while he gave his attention as his father had done also to architecture, he executed the statue of Pope Clement VII, which is in the choir of the Minerva, and a Pietà of marble, copied from that of Michelagnolo, which was placed in S. Maria de Anima, the Church of the Germans, as a work that is truly very beautiful. Another like it he made not long afterwards for Luigi del Riccio, a Florentine merchant, which is now in S. Spirito at Florence, in a chapel of that Luigi, who is no less extolled for such piety towards his native city than is Nanni for having executed the statue with much diligence and love. Nanni then applied himself under Antonio da San Gallo with more study to architecture, and gave his attention, while Antonio was alive, to the fabric of S. Pietro; where, falling from a staging sixty braccia high, and shattering himself, he escaped with his life by a miracle. Nanni has erected many edifices in Rome and in the country round, and has sought to obtain even more, and greater, as has been told in the Life of Michelagnolo. His work, also, is the Palace of Cardinal Montepulciano on the Strada Giulia, and a gate at Monte Sansovino built by order of Julius III, with a reservoir for water that is not finished, and a loggia and other apartments of the palace formerly built by the old Cardinal di Monte. And a work of Nanni, likewise, is the house of the Mattei, with many other buildings that have been erected or are still being constructed in Rome.
A famous and most celebrated architect, also, among others of the present day, is Galeazzo Alessi of Perugia, who, serving in his youth the Cardinal of Rimini, whose chamberlain he became, executed among his first works, at the desire of that lord, the rebuilding of the apartments in the Fortress of Perugia, with so many conveniences and such beauty, that for a place so small it was a marvel, and many times already they have accommodated the Pope with all his Court. Then, after manyother works that he executed for the said Cardinal, he was invited by the Genoese with much honour into the service of that Republic, for which the first work that he did was to restore and fortify the port and the mole; nay rather, to make it almost entirely different from what it was before. For, reaching out over a good space into the sea, he caused to be constructed a great and most beautiful port, which lies in a semicircle, very ornate with rustic columns and with niches about them, at the extremities of which semicircle there meet two little bastions, which defend that great port. On the piazza, then, above the mole and at the back of the great port, towards the city, he made a very large portico of the Doric Order, which accommodates the Guard, and over it, comprising all the space that it covers and likewise the two bastions and the gate, there is left a platform arranged for the operations of artillery, which commands the mole in the manner of a cavalier and defends the port both within and without. And besides this, which is finished, arrangements are being made for the enlargement of the city after his design, and his model has already been approved by the Signoria; and all with much praise for Galeazzo, who in these and other works has shown himself to be a most ingenious architect. The same Galeazzo has executed the new street of Genoa, with so many palaces built in the modern manner after his designs, that many declare that in no other city of Italy is there to be found a street more magnificent and grand than that one, nor one more full of the richest palaces, all built by those Signori with the persuasion and directions of Galeazzo, to whom all confess that they owe a very great obligation, in that he has been the inventor and executor of works which render their city, with regard to edifices, incomparably more grand and magnificent than it was before. The same master has built other streets without Genoa, and among others that which starts from Ponte Decimo on the way to Lombardy. He has restored the walls of the city towards the sea, and the fabric of the Duomo, making therein the tribune and the cupola; and he has built, also, many private edifices, such as the country palace of Messer Luca Giustiniano, that of Signor Ottaviano Grimaldi, the Palaces of two Doges, one for Signor Battista Grimaldi, and many others of which there is no need to speak.
Palazzo Grimaldi.PALAZZO GRIMALDI(AfterGaleazzo Alessi.Genoa)AlinariView larger image
PALAZZO GRIMALDI(AfterGaleazzo Alessi.Genoa)AlinariView larger image
Now I will not omit to say that he has made the lake and island of Signor Adamo Centurioni, abounding in waters and fountains contrived in various beautiful and fantastic ways, and also the fountain of the Captain Larcaro, near the city, which is a most remarkable work; but beyond all the different kinds of fountains that he has made for many persons, most beautiful is the bath that he has made in the house of Signor Giovan Battista Grimaldi at Bisagno. This bath, which in form is round, has in the centre a little basin wherein eight or ten persons can bathe without inconvenience; which basin has hot water from four heads of sea-monsters that appear as if issuing from it, and cold water from as many frogs that are over those heads of monsters. Around that basin, to which one descends by three circular steps, there curves a space wide enough for two persons to walk in comfort. The circular wall of the whole bath is divided into eight spaces, in four of which are four great niches, each of which contains a round basin that is raised a little from the ground, half being within the niche and half remaining without; and in the centre of each basin a man can bathe, hot and cold water coming from a great mask that pours it through the horns and draws it in again when necessary by the mouth. In one of the other four spaces is the door, and in the other three are windows and places to sit; and all the eight spaces are separated by terminal figures, which support the cornice upon which rests the round vaulting of the whole bath. From the centre of that vaulting hangs a great ball of crystal-glass, on which is painted the sphere of the heavens, and within it the globe of the earth, from certain parts of which, when one uses the bath at night, comes a brilliant light that renders the place as light as if it were mid-day. I forbear to speak of the anteroom, the dressing-room, and the small bath, which are full of stucco-ornaments, and of the pictures that adorn the place, so as not to be longer than is needful; let it suffice to say that they are in no way unworthy of so great a work.
In Milan, under the direction of the same Galeazzo, has been built the Palace of Signor Tommaso Marini, Duke of Terranuova; and also, possibly, the façade of the fabric of S. Celso that is now being built, the auditorium of the Cambio, which is round in form, the already begunChurch of S. Vittore, and many other edifices. He has also sent designs over all Italy and abroad, wherever he has not been able to be in person, of many edifices, palaces, and temples, of which I shall say no more; this much being enough to make him known as a talented and most excellent architect.
I will not omit—seeing that he is one of our Italians, although I do not know any particulars of his works—that in France, so I am informed, a most excellent architect, and particularly in the work of fortification, is Rocco Guerrini of Marradi, who in the recent wars of that kingdom, to his great profit and honour, has executed many ingenious and laudable works.
And so in this last part, in order not to defraud any man of the proper credit of his talent, I have discoursed of some sculptors and architects now living, of whom hitherto I had not had a convenient occasion to speak.
There has never been, nor perhaps will there ever be for many centuries, a more rare or more excellent miniaturist, or we would rather say painter of little things, than Don Giulio Clovio, in that he has surpassed by a great measure all others who have ever been engaged in that kind of painting. This master was born in the province of Sclavonia, or rather, Croatia, at a place called Grisone, in the diocese of Madrucci, although his elders, of the family of the Clovi, had come from Macedonia; and the name given to him at baptism was Giorgio Giulio. As a child he gave his attention to letters; and then, by a natural instinct, to design. And having come to the age of eighteen, being desirous to make proficience, he came to Italy and placed himself in the service of Cardinal Marino Grimani, with whom for a period of three years he applied himself in such a manner to drawing, that he achieved a much better result than perhaps up to that time had been expected of him; as was seen in some designs of medals and their reverses that he made for that lord, drawn with the pen most minutely, with extreme and almost incredible diligence. Whereupon, having seen that he was more assisted by nature in little things than in great, he resolved, and wisely, that he would give his attention to miniature, since his works in that field were full of grace and beautiful to a marvel; being urged to this, also, by many friends, and in particular by Giulio Romano, a painter of bright renown, who was the man who before any other taught him the method of using tints and colours in gum and in distemper.
The Deposition.THE DEPOSITION(After the painting upon parchment byGiulio Clovio.Florence: Pitti, No. 241)MansellView larger image
THE DEPOSITION(After the painting upon parchment byGiulio Clovio.Florence: Pitti, No. 241)MansellView larger image
Among the first works that Clovio coloured was a Madonna, which, as a man of ingenious and beautiful spirit, he copied from the book ofthe Life of the Virgin; which Madonna was printed in wood-engraving among the first sheets of Albrecht Dürer. Whereupon, having acquitted himself well in that his first work, he made his way by means of Signor Alberto da Carpi, who was then serving in Hungary, into the service of King Louis and of Queen Maria, the sister of Charles V; for which King he executed a Judgment of Paris in chiaroscuro, which much pleased him, and for the Queen the Roman Lucretia killing herself, with some other things, which were held to be very beautiful. The death of that King then ensuing, and the ruin of everything in Hungary, Giorgio Giulio was forced to return to Italy; where he had no sooner arrived than the old Cardinal Campeggio took him into his service. Thereupon, being settled to his liking, he executed a Madonna in miniature for that lord, and some other little things, and disposed himself to attend at all costs with greater study to the matters of art; and so he set himself to draw, and to seek with every effort to imitate the works of Michelagnolo. But this fine resolution was interrupted by the unhappy sack of Rome in the year 1527, when the poor man, finding himself the prisoner of the Spaniards and maltreated, in his great misery had recourse to divine assistance, making a vow that if he escaped safely from that miserable ruin and out of the hands of those new Pharisees, he would straightway become a friar. Wherefore, having escaped by the grace of God and made his way to Mantua, he became a monk in the Monastery of S. Ruffino, a seat of the Order of Canons Regular of Scopeto; having been promised, besides peace and quiet of mind and tranquil leisure in the service of God, that he would have facilities for attending at times, as it were by way of pastime, to the work of miniature. Having thus taken the habit and the name of Don Giulio, at the end of a year he made his profession; and then for a period of three years he stayed peacefully enough among those fathers, changing from one monastery to another according to his pleasure, as has been related elsewhere, and always working at something. During that time he completed a great choir-book with delicate illuminations and most beautiful borderings, making in it, among other things, a Christ appearing to the Magdalene in the form of a gardener, which was held to be a rare thing. Wherefore,growing in courage, he depicted—but in figures much larger—the Adulterous Woman accused by the Jews before Christ, with a good number of figures; all which he copied from a picture that had been executed in those days by Tiziano Vecelli, that most excellent painter.
Not long afterwards it happened that Don Giulio, in transferring himself from one monastery to another, as monks or friars do, by misfortune broke a leg. Being therefore conveyed by those fathers to the Monastery of Candiana, that he might be better attended, he lay there some time without recovering, perhaps having been wrongly treated, as is common, no less by the fathers than by the physicians. Which hearing, Cardinal Grimani, who much loved him for his excellence, obtained from the Pope the power to keep him in his service and to have him cured. Whereupon Don Giulio, having thrown off the habit, and his leg being healed, went to Perugia with the Cardinal, who was Legate there; and, setting to work, he executed for him in miniature these works; an Office of Our Lady, with four most beautiful stories, and in an Epistolar three large stories of S. Paul the Apostle, one of which was sent not long afterwards to Spain. He also made for him a very beautiful Pietà, and a Christ Crucified, which after the death of Grimani came into the hands of Messer Giovanni Gaddi, Clerk of the Chamber.
All these works caused Don Giulio to become known in Rome as an excellent craftsman, and were the reason that Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, who has always assisted, favoured, and desired to have about him rare and gifted men, having heard his fame and seen his works, took him into his service, in which he has remained ever since and still remains, old as he is. For that lord, I say, he has executed an infinite number of the rarest miniatures, of which I shall mention here only a part, because to mention them all is almost impossible. In a little picture he has painted Our Lady with her Son in her arms, with many Saints and figures around, and Pope Paul III kneeling, portrayed from life so well, that for all the smallness of that miniature he seems as if alive; and all the other figures, likewise, appear to lack nothing save breath and speech. That little picture, as a thing truly of the rarest, was sent to Spain to the Emperor Charles V, who was amazed by it. After thatwork the Cardinal caused him to set his hand to executing in miniature the stories in an Office of Our Lady, written in lettering shaped by Monterchi, who is a rare master in such work. Whereupon Don Giulio, resolving that this work should be the highest flight of his powers, applied himself to it with so much study and diligence, that no other was ever executed with more; wherefore he has achieved with the brush things so stupendous, that it does not appear possible to go so far with the eye or with the hand. Don Giulio has divided this labour into twenty-six little scenes, each two sheets being next to one another, the figure and the prefiguration, and every little scene has around it an ornament different from the other, with figures and fantasies appropriate to the story that it represents. Nor do I wish to grudge the labour of describing them briefly, for the reason that everyone is not able to see them. On the first page, where Matins begin, is the Angel bringing the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, and in the ornament a border full of little children that are marvellous; and in the other scene Isaiah speaking with King Ahaz. In the second, for Lauds, is the Visitation of the Virgin to Elizabeth, which has an ornament in imitation of metal; and in the opposite scene are Justice and Peace embracing one another. For Prime is the Nativity of Christ, and opposite, in the Earthly Paradise, Adam and Eve eating the Fruit; both the one and the other with ornaments full of nudes and other figures and animals, portrayed from nature. For Terce he has painted the Shepherds with the Angel appearing to them, and in the opposite scene the Tiburtine Sibyl showing to the Emperor Octavian the Virgin with Christ her Son in Heaven; both the one and the other with ornaments of various borders and figures, all coloured, and containing the portrait of Alexander the Great and of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. For Sext there is the Circumcision of Christ, where Pope Paul III is portrayed for Simeon, and in the scene are portraits of Mancina and Settimia, gentlewomen of Rome, who were of surpassing beauty; and around it a border well adorned, which likewise encloses with the same design the other story that is beside it, wherein is S. John the Baptist baptizing Christ, a scene full of nudes. For Nones he has made there the Magi adoring Christ, and opposite tothat Solomon adored by the Queen of Sheba, both one and the other with borders rich and varied, and at the foot of this the whole Feast of Testaccio executed with figures smaller than ants, which is a marvellous thing to see, that a work so small should have been executed to perfection with the point of a brush; this is one of the greatest things that mortal hand could do or mortal eye could behold, and in it are all the liveries that Cardinal Farnese devised at that time. For Vespers there is Our Lady flying with Christ into Egypt, and opposite is the Submersion of Pharaoh in the Red Sea; with varied borders at the sides. For Complines there is the Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven, with a multitude of Angels, and in the other scene opposite is Ahasuerus crowning Esther; with appropriate borders. For the Mass of the Madonna he has placed first, in a border in imitation of cameos, the Angel Gabriel announcing the Word to the Virgin; and the two scenes are Our Lady with Jesus Christ in her arms and God the Father creating Heaven and Earth. Before the Penitential Psalms is the Battle in which Uriah the Hittite was done to death by command of King David, wherein are horses and warriors wounded or dead, all marvellous; and opposite, in the other scene, David in Penitence; with ornaments and also little grotesques. But he who would sate himself with marvelling, let him look at the Litanies, where Don Giulio has woven a maze with the letters of the names of the Saints; and there in the margin above is a Heaven filled with Angels around the most holy Trinity, and one by one the Apostles and the other Saints; and on the other side the Heaven continues with Our Lady and all the Virgin Saints. On the margin below he has depicted with the most minute figures the procession that Rome holds for the solemn office of the Corpus Christi, thronged with officers with their torches, Bishops, and Cardinals, and the most Holy Sacrament borne by the Pope, with the rest of the Court and the Guard of Halberdiers, and finally Castel S. Angelo firing artillery; all such as to cause every acutest wit to marvel with amazement. At the beginning of the Office for the Dead are two scenes; Death triumphing over all mortals, mighty rulers of States and Kingdoms and the common herd alike, and opposite, in the other scene, the Resurrection of Lazarus, and also Death in combatwith some on horseback. For the Office of the Cross he has made Christ Crucified, and opposite is Moses with the rain of serpents, and the same Moses placing on high the serpent of brass. For that of the Holy Spirit is that same Holy Spirit descending upon the Apostles, and opposite is the Building of the Tower of Nimrod.
That work was executed by Don Giulio in a period of nine years with so much study and labour, that in a manner of speaking it would never be possible to pay for the work with no matter what price; nor is one able to see any more strange and beautiful variety than there is in all the scenes, of bizarre ornaments and various movements and postures of nudes both male and female, studied and well detailed in every part, and placed appropriately all around in those borders, in order to enrich the work. Which diversity of things infuses such beauty into that whole work, that it appears a thing divine and not human, and above all because with his colours and his manner of painting he has made the figures, the buildings and the landscapes recede and fade into the distance with all those considerations that perspective requires, and with the greatest perfection that is possible, insomuch that, whether near or far, they cause everyone to marvel; not to speak of the thousand different kinds of trees, wrought so well that they appear as if grown in Paradise. In the stories and inventions may be seen design, in the composition order and variety, and richness in the vestments, which are executed with such beauty and grace of manner, that it seems impossible that they could have been fashioned by the hand of man. Wherefore we may say, as we said at the beginning, that Don Giulio has surpassed in this field both ancients and moderns, and that he has been in our times a new, if smaller, Michelagnolo.
The same master once executed a small picture with little figures for the Cardinal of Trent, so pleasing and so beautiful, that that lord made a present of it to the Emperor Charles V; and afterwards, for the same lord, he painted another of Our Lady, and with it the portrait of King Philip, which were very beautiful and therefore presented to the said Catholic King. For the above-named Cardinal Farnese he painted a little picture of Our Lady with her Son in her arms, S. Elizabeth, ayoung S. John, and other figures, which was sent to Ruy Gomez in Spain. In another, which the above-named Cardinal now has, he painted S. John the Baptist in the Desert, with landscapes and animals of great beauty, and another like it he executed afterwards for the same lord, for sending to King Philip; and a Pietà, which he painted with the Madonna and many other figures, was presented by the same Farnese to Pope Paul IV, who as long as he lived would always have it beside him. And a scene in which David is cutting off the head of the giant Goliath, was presented by the same Cardinal to Madama Margherita of Austria, who sent it to King Philip, her brother, together with another which that most illustrious lady caused Don Giulio to execute as a companion to it, wherein was Judith severing the head of Holofernes.
Many years ago Don Giulio stayed many months with Duke Cosimo, and during that time executed some works for him, part of which were sent to the Emperor and other lords, and part remained with his most illustrious Excellency, who, among other things, caused him to copy a little head of Christ from one of great antiquity that his Excellency himself possesses, which once belonged to Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem; which head, they say, is more like the true image of the Saviour than any other that there may be. Don Giulio painted for the said Lord Duke a Christ on the Cross with the Magdalene at the foot, which is a marvellous thing, and a little picture of a Pietà, of which we have the design in our book together with another, also by the hand of Don Giulio, of Our Lady standing with her Son in her arms, dressed in the Jewish manner, with a choir of Angels about her, and many nude souls in the act of commending themselves to her. But to return to the Lord Duke; he has always loved dearly the excellence of Don Giulio, and sought to obtain works by his hand; and if it had not been for the regard that he felt for Farnese, he would not have let him go when he stayed some months, as I have said, in his service in Florence. The Duke, then, besides the works mentioned, has a little picture by the hand of Don Giulio, wherein is Ganymede borne to Heaven by Jove transformed into an Eagle, copied from the one that Michelagnolo once drew, which is now in the possession of Tommaso de' Cavalieri, as has beentold elsewhere. In like manner, the Duke has in his study a S. John the Baptist seated upon a rock, and some portraits by the same hand, which are admirable.
Don Giulio once executed a picture of a Pietà, with the Maries and other figures around, for the Marchioness of Pescara, and another like it in every part for Cardinal Farnese, who sent it to the Empress, who is now the wife of Maximilian and sister of King Philip; and another little picture by the same master's hand he sent to his Imperial Majesty, in which, in a most beautiful little landscape, is S. George killing the Serpent, executed with supreme diligence. But this was surpassed in beauty and design by a larger picture that Don Giulio painted for a Spanish gentleman, in which is the Emperor Trajan as he is seen in medals with the Province of Judæa on the reverse; which picture was sent to the above-named Maximilian, now Emperor.
For the same Cardinal Farnese he has executed two other little pictures; in one is Jesus Christ nude, with the Cross in His hands, and in the other is Christ led by the Jews and accompanied by a vast multitude to Mount Calvary, with the Cross on His shoulder, and behind Him Our Lady and the other Maries in attitudes full of grace, such as might move to pity a heart of stone. And in two large sheets for a Missal, he has painted for that Cardinal Jesus Christ instructing the Apostles in the doctrine of the Holy Evangel, and the Universal Judgment—a work so beautiful, nay, so marvellous, so stupendous, that I am confounded at the thought of it; and I hold it as certain that it is not possible, I do not say to execute, but to see or even imagine anything in miniature more beautiful.
It is a notable thing that in many of these works, and particularly in the Office of the Madonna described above, Don Giulio has made some little figures not larger than very small ants, with all the members so depicted and distinguished, that more could not have been done in figures of the size of life; and that everywhere there are dispersed portraits from nature of men and women, not less like the reality than if they had been executed, large as life and very natural, by Tiziano or Bronzino. Besides which, in some ornaments of the borders there maybe seen little figures both nude and in other manners, painted in the likeness of cameos, which, marvellously small as they are, resemble in those proportions the most colossal giants; such is the art and surpassing diligence that Don Giulio uses in his work. Of him I have wished to give to the world this information, to the end that those may know something of him who are not or will not be able to see any of his works, from their being almost all in the hands of great lords and personages. I say almost all, because I know that some private persons have in little cases most beautiful portraits by his hand, of various lords, their friends, or ladies loved by them. But, however that may be, it is certain that the works of men such as Don Giulio are not public, nor in places where they can be seen by everyone, like the pictures, sculptures, and buildings of the other masters of these our arts.
At the present day Don Giulio, although he is old and does not study or attend to anything save to seeking the salvation of his soul by good and holy works and by a life wholly apart from the things of the world, and is in every way an old man, yet continues constantly to work at something, there where he lives well attended and in perfect peace in the Palace of the Farnesi, where he is most courteous in showing his work with much willingness to all who go to visit and see him, as they