Lives of the Artists

by Giorgio Vasari

  But what a waste of time this is! For there has been hardly a single lord of great name, or prince or great lady who has not been portrayed by Titian, a painter of extraordinary talent in this branch of art. He painted portraits of King Francis I of France (as was said), of Francesco Sforza, duke of Milan, the marquis of Pescara, Antonio da Leva, Massimiano Stampa, Giovanbattista Castaldo, and countless other lords besides. And as well as all the works I mentioned earlier he did many others at various times.

  For example, in Venice, by command of Charles V, he painted a great altarpiece showing the Trinity enthroned: Our Lady and the infant Christ; the Dove over him, against a background of fire, to signify love; and the God-the-Father surrounded by fiery cherubim. To one side is Charles V himself and on the other the empress, both swaddled in linen with their hands joined in prayer, and surrounded by many saints. He painted the scene as commanded by his imperial Majesty, who at that time, when he was at the height of his victories, was beginning to show an inclination to withdraw from worldly things (as he subsequently did) and to the as a true Christian in fear of God and intent on salvation. The emperor told Titian that he wanted to place this picture in the monastery in which he subsequently ended his life. (As it is an outstanding work it is expected that it may shortly be published in engravings.) Titian also painted for Queen Maria a picture showing Prometheus bound to Mount Caucasus and torn by the eagle of Jove, a Sisyphus in hell burdened by his stone, and a Tityus devoured by the vulture. All these, except for the Prometheus, were sent to her Majesty, as well as a Tantalus (life-size like the others) painted in oils on canvas. Titian also did a Venus and Adonis that are really marvellous, showing Venus in a swoon on the ground while the youth is about to leave her, and some very lifelike dogs. On a panel of the same size he depicted Andromeda, bound to the rock, being liberated from the sea-monster by Perseus; and nothing could be more enchanting than this picture. Equally lovely is the painting of Diana, bathing in a stream with her nymphs, who transforms Actaeon into a stag. He also painted a picture showing Europa carried out to sea on the back of the bull. All these paintings are in the possession of the Catholic king, and are held very precious for the vivacity that Titian’s colouring has lent to the figures, which seem truly real and alive. It is certainly true that the method used by Titian for painting these last pictures is very different from the way he worked in his youth. For the early works are executed with incredible delicacy and diligence, and they may be viewed either at a distance or close at hand; on the other hand, these last works are executed with bold, sweeping strokes, and in patches of colour, with the result that they cannot be viewed from near by, but appear perfect at a distance. This method of painting is the reason for the clumsy pictures painted by the many artists who have tried to imitate Titian and show themselves practised masters; for although Titian’s works seem to many to have been created without much effort, this is far from the truth and those who think so are deceiving themselves. In fact, it is clear that Titian has retouched his pictures, going over them with his colours several times, so that he must obviously have taken great pains. The method he used is judicious, beautiful, and astonishing, for it makes pictures appear alive and painted with great art, but it conceals the labour that has gone into them.

  Recently, in a picture six feet high and eight feet broad, Titian painted Jesus Christ as a Child in the lap of Our Lady, being adored by the Magi, with a good number of other figures, each about two feet. This is a very lovely work, as is another picture copied from it which Titian gave to the old cardinal of Ferrara. Another extremely beautiful panel picture, in which he depicted Christ being mocked by the Jews, was placed in a chapel of the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan. For the queen of Portugal he painted another fine picture, slightly under life-size, showing Christ being scourged by the Jews at the column. For the high altar of San Domenico in Ancona he painted an altarpiece with Christ on the cross, and at the foot the beautifully executed figures of Our Lady, St John, and St Dominic; this work was in his later style, painted as I described with patches of colour.

  In the church of the Crocicchieri at Venice, there is a panel picture on the altar of St Lawrence in which Titian depicted the martyrdom of the saint and a building which is full of figures. St Lawrence is shown, in foreshortening, lying half on the gridiron over a great fire which is being kindled by some men standing about. Since Titian was representing the effect of night, there are two servants holding torches which light up the areas where the reflection of the fire burning thickly and fiercely below the gridiron does not reach. He also depicted a flash of lightning, springing down from heaven and cleaving the clouds to subdue the light of the fire and the torches, shining over the saint and the other principal figures. And as well as these three sources of light, the figures he painted in the distance at the windows of the building are bathed in the glow of the nearby lamps and candles. All this work, in short, is executed with beautiful art, genius, and judgement.

  In the church of San Sebastiano at the altar of St Nicholas there is a little panel picture by Titian showing St Nicholas, who seems truly alive, seated in a chair painted to look like stone, with an angel holding his mitre. This work was commissioned by the advocate, Niccolò Crasso. Afterwards, for sending to the Catholic king, Titian painted a St Mary Magdalen, whom he showed down to the middle of the thighs, and all dishevelled, that is to say, with her hair falling over her shoulders and throat and breast; raising her head, with her eyes fixed on heaven, she reveals remorse in the redness of her eyes and sorrow for her sins in the tears she is shedding. This picture profoundly stirs the emotions of all who look at it; and, moreover, although the figure of Mary Magdalen is extremely lovely it moves one to thoughts of pity rather than desire. After it had been finished this picture appealed so greatly to a Venetian nobleman called Silvio that he gave Titian a hundred crowns to have it, as he was an enthusiastic lover of painting. As a result Titian had to paint another, which was no less beautiful, to send to the Catholic king.

  Among the portraits by Titian is one of a Venetian citizen called Sinistri, a great friend of the artist’s, and another of Paolo da Ponte, whose beautiful young daughter Giulia (who was a confidante of his) Titian also portrayed, as he did the lovely Signora Irene, a young woman well versed in literature and music who was studying design. (When she died about seven years ago she was honoured by nearly every Italian writer.) Titian also painted the portrait of Francesco Filetto, the orator of happy memory, with one of his sons, who seems truly alive, standing in front of him in the same picture. (This painting is in the possession of Matteo Giustiniano, a lover of the arts, who has had his own portrait painted by Jacopo da Bassano. This is a fine work, as are the many others executed by Bassano, notably the small pictures and the paintings of animals of all kinds which are dispersed throughout Venice, where they are very highly regarded.)

  Titian also did a second portrait of Bembo (after he had been made a cardinal), one of Fracastoro, and one of Cardinal Accolti of Ravenna, which Duke Cosimo has in his wardrobe. And our own Danese, the sculptor, has in his house in Venice a portrait by Titian of a gentleman of the Delfini family.1 In addition, Niccolò Zono has seen a portrait by Titian of Rossa, the wife of the Grand Turk, a lady of sixteen, with that of her daughter Cameria, both of whom are depicted wearing lovely clothes and ornaments. In the house of the lawyer Francesco Sonica, a crony of Titian’s, there is a portrait by Titian of Francesco himself, along with a large picture of Our Lady on the journey into Egypt. The Blessed Virgin has dismounted from the ass and is seated on a rock by the wayside; near at hand is St Joseph and the little St John, who is offering the Infant Christ some flowers gathered by an angel from the branches of a tree, which is in a wood full of animals; and in the distance the ass is grazing. All this forms a most graceful picture, which has been placed by the gentleman I mentioned in the palace he has built near Santa Justina in Padua.

  In the house of a gentleman of the Pisani family, near San Marco, there i
s a marvellous portrait of a lady from the hand of Titian. For the Florentine, Monsignore Giovanni della Casa, a great contemporary figure distinguished both by blood and by learning, Titian painted a very beautiful portrait of a lady whom that nobleman loved when he was in Venice. In return, he honoured Titian with the superb sonnet beginning:

  Titian, now I clearly see in a new guise

  My belovèd idol, opening her eyes…

  Recently this eminent painter sent to the Catholic king a picture of the Last Supper with Christ and the apostles, which was fourteen feet long and a work of exceptional beauty.

  In addition to the work mentioned above and many other pictures of less worth, which are ignored for the sake of brevity, Titian has in his house, sketched in and begun, the following works: the martyrdom of St Lawrence, a picture similar to the one described above, which he intends to send to the Catholic king; a large canvas showing Christ on the cross between the two thieves, and the executioners below, which he is painting for Giovanni d’Anna; a picture which was started for the Doge Grimani, father of the patriarch of Aquileia. Then for the hall of the Great Palace at Brescia Titian has begun three big pictures which are to form part of the decorations of the ceiling, as we mentioned when discussing the Brescian painter, Cristofano, and his brother.

  Titian also, many years ago, began work for Duke Alfonso I of Ferrara on a picture showing the nude figure of a young woman bowing before the goddess Minerva; there is another figure close by, and in the distance a stretch of sea with Neptune in his chariot in the centre. However, because of the death of this ruler, whose ideas Titian was following, it was never finished and it is still in Titian’s hands. Titian has also nearly but not quite finished a picture of Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen in the garden under the appearance of a gardener. The figures in this work are life-size, as are those in another picture of the same size of the entombment of Christ in the presence of Our Lady and the other Marys. Among the good things to be seen in Titian’s house there is also a picture of the Madonna, with, as was said, a self-portrait finished four years ago, a very lifelike and beautiful painting. Finally, there is a painting of St Paul reading, a half-length figure so well portrayed that it seems to be the very St Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit. All these works, as I say, Titian has executed, with many others which I leave out to avoid becoming wearisome, up to his present age of seventy-six years. Titian has always been in sound health and as fortunate as any man of his kind has ever been; from heaven he has received only favours and blessings. His house at Venice has been visited by all the princes, men of letters and distinguished people staying or living in Venice in his time; for, apart from his eminence as a painter, Titian is a gentleman of distinguished family and most courteous ways and manners. He has had some rivals in Venice, though none of any great worth. So he has easily surpassed them through the excellence of his work and his ability to mix with and win the friendship of men of quality. He has earned a great deal of money because his paintings have always commanded high prices; but during these last few years he would have done well not to have worked save to amuse himself, for then he would have avoided damaging with inferior work the reputation won during his best years before his natural powers started to decline. When Vasari, the author of this history, was at Venice in 1566 he went to visit his dear friend Titian, and he found him, despite his great age, busy about his painting, with his brushes in his hand. On that occasion Vasari took great pleasure in conversing with Titian and looking at his works. And Titian introduced to him his talented young Venetian friend, Giovan Maria Verdezzotti, a competent draughtsman and painter, as he has demonstrated in some very fine landscapes from his own hand. This young gentleman has had from Titian, whom he loves and honours as a father, two figures within two niches painted in oils, namely, an Apollo and a Diana.1

  Titian, therefore, who has adorned with great pictures the city of Venice, or rather all Italy and other parts of the world, deserves the love and respect of all craftsmen, who ought to admire and imitate him in many things. For he is a painter who has produced and is still producing works which command unstinted praise and which will live as long as the memory of illustrious men endures.

  NOTES ON THE ARTISTS

  by Peter Murray

  CIMABUE

  The only surviving work by Cimabue which is known to be his from documents is the figure of St John in the mosaic in the apse of Pisa Cathedral, of 1301. This is almost certainly Cimabue’s last work and is not very suitable as a means of judging his style in painting. Nevertheless, several pictures are recorded by Vasari which correspond fairly closely in style, and these form the basis for all modern attributions to Cimabue.

  Two of them are the Crucifix in Santa Croce, Florence, and the very large Madonna and Child, formerly in Santa Trinita in Florence and now in the Uffizi. Vasari mentions these quite specifically and he also mentions some frescoes in the basilica of St Francis at Assisi, perhaps including the famous Madonna with St Fronds in the Lower Church. The frescoes in the Upper Church still exist, though in a very damaged condition. They were restored in the 1950s, but there is still room for argument about their style.

  The most important surviving picture which can reasonably be attributed to Cimabue is, therefore, the Santa Trinita Madonna in the Uffizi, and, on the basis of the style of this work, several other pictures have been attributed to him, including a Crucifix in Arezzo and Madonna panels in Bologna and Paris, as well as several pictures now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The Washington pictures, however, are not generally accepted as Cimabue’s work.

  The Rucellai Madonna, described by Vasari as carried to the church to the sound of trumpets, is now generally thought to be the work of Duccio.

  GIOTTO

  There exist a fairly large number of paintings, both in fresco and on panel, which are certainly by Giotto and which therefore serve as the core of his work. As several of these are described explicitly by Vasari, it should not be difficult to arrive at a reasonably consistent picture of Giotto’s art. However, the question is greatly complicated by the frescoes in the basilica of St Francis at Assisi. The chief of these are twenty-eight scenes, in the nave of the Upper Church, of the Life of St Francis together with several frescoes in the Lower Church, of which those in the Magdalen Chapel and the Franciscan Virtues arc perhaps the most important. Modern critical opinion is sharply divided on the question of Giotto’s authorship of the St Francis cycle, although the traditional attribution of these scenes to Giotto (which can be traced back for at least one hundred years before Vasari wrote) is still maintained by many scholars.

  Vasari mentions several other pictures which can be attributed with some certainty to Giotto. The most important are the large fresco cycle in the Arena Chapel at Padua and the series of frescoes in the church of Santa Croce in Florence. The Arena Chapel frescoes are certainly by Giotto; and those scholars who reject the attribution of the St Francis frescoes do so on the grounds that they are not painted in the same style as the Paduan cycle. Vasari records that Giotto painted four chapels and several altarpieces in Santa Croce in Florence, and he also mentions two works in the church of Ognissanti in Florence, a large Madonna and a small panel of the Dormition of the Virgin. The Madonna is accepted as being the one now in the Uffizi in Florence and it is generally received as a touchstone of Giotto’s style. The small panel must be identified with the picture now in Berlin, but for inscrutable reasons some scholars who accept the Ognissanti Madonna reject the Berlin panel.

  During the late 1950s and early 1960s the two surviving fresco cycles – of the four mentioned by Vasari – in Santa Croce, Florence, have been cleaned with surprising results. The scenes from the Life of St Francis, though badly damaged, now show Giotto’s late style. The scenes from the Lives of the two SS. John have proved to be painted in a different technique, and are much less well preserved; nevertheless, the style of the parts that have been preserved is clearly Giotto’s and it is necessary to reassess the developm
ent of his style in comparison with the St Francis cycle in the same church. Vasari records several other pictures by Giotto, such as the two crucifixes in Santa Maria Novella, in Florence, and in Rimini, both of which are usually accepted as Giotto’s work by those who believe him to be the author of the St Francis cycle at Assisi. The great mosaic in St Peter’s described by Vasari was very largely remodelled in the seventeenth century, so that it no longer gives a true idea of Giotto’s design. There are, however, two fragments from the original mosaic, one of which is preserved in the Museum of St Peter’s.

  There are also several altarpieces which are tentatively identified with those recorded by Vasari, the most important of them being the two in Washington (some panels of which are in the Home Museum in Florence and in Chaâlis in France), and the altarpiece now in the museum of Santa Croce in Florence which has recently been identified as the one recorded by Vasari in the Badia (the Abbey). Finally, there is the altarpiece in the Louvre of St Francis, which is signed by Giotto and recorded by Vasari. This, however, in spite of its credentials, is very generally regarded as a product of Giotto’s workshop rather than a work of his own hand; and the same is usually said of the altarpiece now in the Vatican Museum, although research following a recent cleaning now shows that the picture, commissioned by Cardinal Stefaneschi for St Peter’s, is of much greater importance than was formerly believed.

  Several other pictures recorded by Vasari are either rejected by a majority of scholars or can be shown with certainty to be by some other painter. Thus, the frescoes in Naples are generally regarded as works of a follower of Giotto, but the panels on the doors of the sacristy of Santa Croce, which are now in the Accademia, Florence, Berlin, and Munich, are known to have been painted by Giotto’s follower and assistant, Taddeo Gaddi.