Fra Bartolommeo Part 8

[Footnote: Eastlake's _Materials for History of Oil Fainting_.] He did not place shades one over the other, and fuse them together glaze by glaze as Leonardo did, but used an opaque dead colouring which allowed of correction; the system was rapid, but deficient in depth and mellowness; "the lights are fused and bright," but "the shadows, owing to their viscous consistency, imperfectly fill the outlines." [Footnote: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. in. chap. xvii. p. 670.] In a _Holy Family_ in the Louvre, S. Elizabeth's hand is painted across S. John, and shows the shadow underneath it, being grey at that part. Though more solid, he could not paint light over dark without injuring his brilliance of colour.

Albertinelli, on the contrary, when he painted and repainted his _Annunciation_, washed out the under layer with essential oil before making his "pentimenti" or corrections, and in this way the thinness was kept.

In Andrea's early style this thinness is apparent, especially in the Joseph series, painted for Pier Frances...o...b..rgherini.

Biadi cla.s.ses Andrea's works in three styles. The first showing the influence of Piero di Cosimo, the second--to which the best works in the Servi cloisters belong--is a larger and more natural style, after the study of Michelangelo and Leonardo.

The third is the natural development in his own practice of a perfect knowledge of art, and a just appreciation of nature. The _Birth of the Baptist_ and the _Cenacolo_, of San Salvi, belong to his last and greatest manner. In 1515 the Florentine artists were employed on more perishable works than frescoes. Leo X., the Medici Pope who had been elected in 1513, made his triumphal entry into Florence on the 3rd of September, 1515, on his way to meet Francis I. of France at Bologna.

All the guilds and ranks of Florence vied with each other to make his reception as artistic as possible. He and his suite were obliged to stay three days in the Villa Gianfigliazzi at Marignolle while the triumphal preparations were being completed. The churches had temporary _facades_ of splendid architecture in fresco; arches were erected at the Porta Romana and Piazza San Felice, covered with historical paintings; Giuliano del Ta.s.so adorned the Ponte Santa Trinita with statues; Antonio San Gallo made a temple on the Piazza della Signoria, and Baccio Bandinelli prepared a colossus in the Loggia dei Lanzi. Various decorations adorned other streets, and Andrea del Sarto surpa.s.sed them all with a _facade_ to the Duomo, painted in monochrome on wood. His friend Sansovino designed the architecture, and he painted the sculpture and adornments with such effect that the Pope declared no work in marble could have been finer.

Andrea lent his talent to another kind of decorative art. The guild of merchants were desirous of inaugurating a festa for the day of S.

Giovanni, and had ten chariots made from the model of the ancient Roman ones, to inst.i.tute chariot races in the piazza. Andrea painted several of these with historical subjects, but they have long been lost. The chariot races were revived under the Grand Dukes, but not with any success.

CHAPTER V.

GOING TO FRANCE. A.D. 1518-1519.

Meanwhile fate was working Andrea del Sarto on to what might have been the culminating point of his fame, had not his weakness rendered it a blot on his honour; i.e. his journey to France. His fame was rising high; a picture of the _Dead Christ surrounded by Angels_, weeping over the body they support, having been sent to France, [Footnote: It was engraved by the Venetian, Agostino, before it went to France; the engraving is signed 1516. It did not please Andrea, who never allowed any others to be engraved.] the king was so pleased with it that he wished another work by the same artist. Andrea painted a very beautiful _Madonna_, for which, however, he only obtained a quarter of the price which the king paid to the merchants. The king was so delighted with it that he sent the artist an invitation to come to Paris in his employ, promising to pay all his expenses. In the Pitti Palace there is a portrait of Andrea and his wife, in which he has commemorated the reception of this letter. He is looking very interested over it, while his wife has the blankest expression possible.

In the summer of 1518 he started with his pupil, Andrea Sguazzella, called Nanoccio. Such a journey was in those days considered as little less than a parting for life. It is plain that Lucrezia's family looked on her as almost a widow, for they made him sign a deed of acknowledgement for the 150 florins of her _dote_. Some authors have taken this doc.u.ment as a proof of their marriage in that year, but it was merely a precaution against loss by her family; the Italian law being that the husband is obliged to render the portion obtained with his wife to her family if she dies without issue, and in case of his own death, the widow is ent.i.tled to it.

He was well received in Paris, and employed immediately on a likeness of the infant Dauphin Henri II., then only a few months old. For this he obtained 300 scudi: and a monthly salary was allowed him. What a mine of gold the French court must have seemed to him after working for years at large frescoes for ten scudi each!

He did no less than fifty works of art while there, most of which have been engraved by the best French artists.[Footnote: See _Catalogue of Royal Pictures in France_, by M. Lepiscie.] The _Carita_ is signed 1518, and is in Andrea's best style--perhaps with a leaning towards Michelangelo. The _S. Jerome in Penitence_, which he painted for the king's mother, and obtained a large price for, cannot be traced. His life in Paris was a new revelation, and not without its effect on his character, always alive to substantial pleasure.

The king and his courtiers frequented his atelier, and delighted to watch him paint, vieing with each other in the richness of their gifts, among which were splendid brocade dresses and beautiful ornaments and jewels, in which he longed to adorn his wife. While he was engaged in painting the _S. Jerome_ for the queen-mother, a letter from Lucrezia aroused his longings for home to the uttermost; she--the wife who has been branded by the name of faithless--wrote that she was disconsolate in his absence, and that if he did not soon return he would find her dead with grief.

Vasari, quoting this exaggerated letter, says in his first edition that she only wanted money to give her friends, but this also he retracts in the second. Whether it expressed her feelings truly or not, the letter had such an effect on Andrea's mind that he decided to return home at any cost.

During Andrea's absence the house in Via S. Sebastiano, behind the Annunziata, was being prepared under her superintendence and with his sanction. His scholars had decorated the walls and ceilings with frescoes, and no doubt Lucrezia was as anxious for him to see the new house as he was to adorn her with Parisian brocades and jewellery.

Being able to satisfy her ambitious soul, Andrea too readily flung away all his brilliant prospects to return, and willingly take again the yoke of the burden of his wife and her family. He made promises that he would bring her back to Paris with him, and the king in all faith allowed him to depart, confiding to him large sums of money for the purchase of works of art to be sent to France.

Sguazzella, wiser than his master, preferred to stay in Paris under the patronage of Cardinal de Tournon. He painted a great many works, much in the style of Andrea, but with less excellence. It is possible that some of M. Lepiscie's long list are, in fact, the work of the pupil rather than the master. When Benvenuto Cellini went to France in 1537 he lodged in Sguazzella's house, with his three servants and three horses, at a weekly rate of payment (_a tanto la settimana_).

But to return to Andrea: this is an episode in his life which we would gladly pa.s.s over if it were possible, for it forms the moral blot on a great artistic career.

Returning home he fell once more under the strong will of his wife, but with his principles weakened by the effect of a luxury and prosperity which has always a greater deteriorating effect on a nature such as his than on a finer mind. Bringing grand ideas from the palaces of the French n.o.bles, he not only fell in with Lucrezia's plans for beautifying the new house, but even surpa.s.sed her wildest schemes. The staircase was embellished with rich oaken bal.u.s.trades, the rooms were all frescoed.

Cupids hide in the Raphaelesque scrolls on the arches, cla.s.sic divinities rest on the ceilings, but in the dining room the homely nature of the man who did his own marketing, creeps out. It is a charming room, the windows opening on a garden courtyard, where a vine trellis leads round to what used to be the side door of his studio which has its entrance in another street.

The roof is vaulted and covered with exquisite decorative frescoes, but in the lunettes of the two largest arches are the domestic scenes of cooking and laying the cloth, spoken of at page 90. Two or three of the up stairs rooms are very fine, especially the one in which Andrea is said to have died. [Footnote: This description is due to the kindness of the present resident in the house, who kindly showed it to the writer, pointing out all the unrestored portions.] It is probable the furniture matched the style of the rooms, and that much money was spent on carved chairs and _ca.s.soni_. Certain it is that the King of France's commissions were unfulfilled, and his money misappropriated.

Andrea would have returned to France, but his wife, who had an Italian woman's dread of leaving her own country, put every obstacle in his way, adding entreaties to tears which the uxorious Andrea could not resist.

As usual he tried to please her, and she only cared to please herself.

He fell greatly in the estimation of the King, who was justly angry; albeit the artist salved his own too easy conscience by sending a few of his own paintings to Francis I., one of which, the _Sacrifice of Abraham_, still remains in France, and another a half length figure of _S. John the Baptist_. The place of this picture is much disputed; it is said to be at present in the Pitti Palace. Argenville speaks of it among the French pictures as if it had returned subsequently to Florence, while Vasari a.s.serts that it never went there, but was sold to Ottaviano de' Medici. [Footnote: _Life of Andrea, del Sarto_, vol. in. p. 212.]

As Andrea painted no less than five pictures of this subject, of which Argenville mentions that there were two in France, one of which was sold to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, it is probable that the Pitti one is not that painted for Francis I.

CHAPTER VI.

ANDREA AND OTTAVIANO DE' MEDICI. A.D. 1521-1523.

The Medici, always patrons of art, did not neglect to enrich their palaces with the works of Andrea del Sarto. Ottaviano de' Medici, a cousin of the reigning branch, was an especial friend of his, from the time that Andrea began the fresco of _Caesar receiving tribute of animals_ in the Hall of Poggio a Cajano. The commission came really from Pope Leo X., who deputed Cardinal Giulio, his cousin, to have the hall of the favourite family villa adorned with frescoes. He in turn handed over the direction to Ottaviano, who was a great amateur of art. It was designed that Andrea del Sarto should cover a third of the Hall, the other two-thirds being given to Pontormo and Francia Bigio. The payment of thirty scudi a month was arranged. In this Andrea has shown his genius in a style entirely new, the composition being crowded, the perspective intricate, the background a building adorned with statues.

The subject being allegorical, he has given the reins to his fancy and produced a wonderful a.s.semblage of strange beasts and stranger human beings, Moors, Indians, and dwarfs. There are giraffes, lions, and all kinds of animals, which he had an opportunity of studying in the Serraglio of Florence. The drawing is true and free, the figures and animals full of life, the colouring as usual well harmonised and bright.

The Pope died about this time in 1522, and the picture was left to be finished by Allori in 1580.

Ottaviano de' Medici, being a great lover of art, was often a patron on his own account; for him Andrea painted the _Holy Family_ now in the Pitti Palace. It is a most charmingly natural group: the Virgin seated on the ground dances the divine child astride on her knee, he is turning his head to the infant S. John who struggles to escape from his mother's arms to get to him. The fresh youth of the Virgin and the saintly age of S. Elizabeth are well contrasted. By the time this picture was finished the siege of Florence had begun, and when the painter took it to Ottaviano, he, having other claims on his means, excused himself from buying it, and recommended Andrea to offer it elsewhere. But the artist replied, "I have laboured for you, and the work shall be always yours."

"Sell it and get what you can for it," again replied Ottaviano. Andrea carried the painting home again and would never sell it to any one. A few years after, the siege being over, and the Medici re-instated, he again took the _Holy Family_ to Ottaviano, who was so delighted that he paid him double the price for it.

Ottaviano also bought from Carlo Ginori a _Madonna_ and _S. Job_, a nude half figure, which were by Andrea's hand. He it was who commissioned him to paint the portrait of Cardinal Giulio, afterwards Pope Clement VII., and it was also at his instance that the imitation Raphael was painted for the Duke of Mantua. The Duke had set his heart on obtaining the picture painted by Raphael representing _Leo X. between the Cardinals Giulio and Rossi_, and got a promise of it as a gift from Pope Clement.

His Holiness wrote to Ottaviano desiring him to have it sent to Mantua.

But Ottaviano, appreciating the treasure as much as the Duke of Mantua, determined to secure it to the house of Medici. Under the pretence of having a new frame made he gained time, and meanwhile employing Andrea del Sarto secretly to make an exact copy of it, he sent that to the Duke instead of the original. So well had Andrea imitated the great master's style that every one in Mantua, even Giulio Romano, Raphael's own scholar, was deceived, and it was only some years later that George Vasari divulged the secret and showed Andrea's monogram on the side of the panel beneath the frame. This copy is now at Naples.

The fresco at Poggio a Cajano abandoned, Andrea returned to the Scalzo, where he painted the _Dance of Herodias, Martyrdom of S. John Baptist, Presentation of the Head, Allegory of Hope_, and the _Apparition of the Angel to Zacharias_. The last was paid for August 22nd, 1523.

About this time there was a great wedding in Florence. Pier Frances...o...b..rgherini espoused Margherita Accajuoli, and Salvi, the bridegroom's father, determined to prepare for his son's bride a wedding chamber which should be famous in all ages.

Baccio d' Agnolo had carved wonderful coffers, chairs, and bedsteads in walnut wood. Pontormo painted beautiful cabinets and _ca.s.soni_, and Granacci, Francesco d' Ubertini Verdi, called Bacchiacca, and Andrea were all employed on the walls. Andrea furnished two pictures; the one tells the story of Joseph in Canaan, the other gives his life in Egypt.

The style is that of Piero di Cosimo, but with greater excellence and more dignified figures. The landscape is highly finished and minute, and has a part of the story in every nook of it.

The centre group, where Joseph leaves his father and mother to go to his brethren, is very dignified, although fine enough to be a miniature. In the second Pharaoh's palace is [Footnote: Reumont (_Life of Andrea del Sarto_, p. 134) dates these works 1523; the style, which is very much that of Piero di Cosimo, would seem to place them earlier.] represented as a medieval Italian castle, the dresses are all Italian, and as an instance of Andrea's versatility of talent they are very interesting paintings.

During the siege of Florence, Borgherini was absent, and the picture dealer, Giovanni Battista della Palla, who prowled like a harpy to carry off treasures for the King of France, made an effort to obtain these paintings by inducing the government to confiscate them and sell them to him. But Margherita was equal to the occasion, and meeting the despoiler at her door, she poured out such a torrent of indignation, exhortation, and defiance as drove the broker away crestfallen.

On the Medici's return della Palla was imprisoned as a traitor, and beheaded at Pisa. The paintings pa.s.sed into the possession of the Medici, by purchase, during Andrea's life. [Footnote: Biadi, _Notizie_, &c., p. 146, note 2.]

CHAPTER VII.

THE PLAGUE AND THE SIEGE. A.D. 1525-1531.

From 1524 to 1528 the plague desolated Italy, never entirely leaving it.

During this time Andrea obtained a commission through Antonio Brancacci, to paint some pictures in the convent of S. Piero at Luco in Mugello, where he retired with his wife and her relations, and his pupil Raffaelo. They spent a very pleasant summer: the nuns made much of his wife and her sisters, and he pa.s.sed his time in earnest painting. The fruits of his labour are a _Pieta_, a _Visitation_, and a _Head of Christ_--almost a replica of the one in the SS. Annunziata.

The _Pieta_ is full of expression and feeling, but more realistic and less dignified than that of Fra Bartolommeo, which now hangs on the same wall of the Hall of Apollo at the Pitti.

In colouring also there is a great contrast between the two, that of Fra Bartolommeo being deep, rich, and mellow, while Andrea's is more profuse, diffused, and wanting in depth of shadow.