Renaissance in Italy Volume III Part 6

This shrine, now in the Duomo, was made for the sacristy of S. Pietro in Cielo d'Oro, where it stood until the year 1832.

[76] Bonino da Campione, the Milanese, who may have had a hand in the Arca di S. Agostino, carved the tomb of Can Signorio. That of Mastino II.

was executed by another Milanese, Perino.

[77] See Trucchi, _Poesie Italiane inedite_, vol. ii.

[78] See the Ill.u.s.trated work, _Il Tabernacolo della Madonna d'Or sammichele_, Firenze, 1851.

[79] The weighty chapter in Alberti's _Treatise on Painting_, lib. iii.

cap. 5, might be used to support this paragraph.

[80] Quercia, born 1374; Ghiberti, 1378; Brunelleschi, 1379; Donatello, 1386.

[81] They are engraved in the work cited above, _Le Tre Porte, seconda Porta_, Tavole i. ii.

[82] The bas-reliefs of S. Petronio were executed between 1425 and 1435.

Those of the font in the chapel of S. John (not the lower church of S.

John), at Siena, are ascribed to Quercia, and are in his manner; but when they were finished I do not know. They set forth six subjects from the story of Adam and Eve, with a compartment devoted to Hercules killing the Centaur Nessus, and another to Samson or Hercules and the Lion. The choice of subjects, affording scope for treatment of the nude, is characteristic; so is the energy of handling, though rude in detail. It may be worth while to notice here a similar series of reliefs upon the facade of the Colleoni Chapel at Bergamo, representing scenes from the story of Adam in conjunction with the labours of Hercules.

[83] Ruskin's _Modern Painters_, vol. ii. chap, vii., Repose.

[84] See Flaxman's _Lectures on Sculpture_, p. 310.

[85] This criticism of the "Gate of Paradise" sounds even to the writer of it profane, and demands a palinode. Who, indeed, can affirm that he would wish the floating figure of Eve, or the three angels at Abraham's tent-door, other than they are?

[86] See the _Commentaries of Ghiberti_, printed in vol. i. of Vasari (Lemonnier, 1846).

[87] The patera is at South Kensington, the frieze at Florence.

[88] As also the wooden Baptist in the Frari at Venice.

[89] There is another "David," by Donatello, in marble; also in the Bargello, scarcely less stiff and ugly than the "Baptist."

[90] The cast was published by the Arundel Society. The original belongs to Lord Elcho.

[91] It has been suggested, with good show of reason, that Mantegna was largely indebted to these bas-reliefs for his lofty style.

[92] This omits the statues of the Scaligers: but no mediaeval work aimed at equal animation. The antique bronze horses at Venice and the statue of Marcus Aurelius must have been in Donatello's mind.

[93] The sculptor of a beautiful tomb erected for the Countess of Montorio and her infant daughter in the church of S. Bernardino at Aquila was probably Andrea dell' Aquila, a pupil of Donatello. See Perkins's _Italian Sculptors_, pp. 46, 47.

[94] _Istoria della Vita e Fatti dell' eccellentissimo Capitano di guerra Bartolommeo Colleoni_, scritta per Pietro Spino. Republished, 1859.

[95] See Vol. I., _Age of the Despots_, p. 310, note 2.

[96] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. chap, xvi., may be consulted as to the several claims of the two brothers.

[97] His bas-reliefs on Giotto's campanile of Grammar, Astronomy, Geometry, Plato, Aristotle, &c., are anterior to 1445; and even about this date there is uncertainty, some authorities fixing it at 1435.

[98] _Purg._ x. 37, and xi. 68.

[99] Among the very best works of the later Robbian school may be cited the frieze upon the facade of the Ospedale del Ceppo at Pistoja, representing in varied colour, and with graceful vivacity, the Seven Acts of Mercy. Date about 1525.

[100] He calls himself Agostinus Florentine Lapicida on his facade of the Oratory of S. Bernardino.

[101] See especially a roundel in the Bargello, and the altar-piece in the church of Monte Oliveto at Naples. Those who wish to understand Rossellino should study him in the latter place.

[102] In the church of Samminiato, near Florence.

[103] _Vite di Uomini Ill.u.s.tri_, pp. 152-157.

[104] These tombs in the Badia were erected for Count Ugo, Governor of Tuscany under Otho II., and for Messer Bernardo Giugni. Mino also made the tomb for Pope Paul II., parts of which are preserved in the Grotte of S. Peter's. At Rome he carved a tabernacle for S. Maria in Trastevere, and at Volterra a ciborium for the Baptistery--one of his most sympathetic productions. The altars in the Baglioni Chapel of S. Pietro Ca.s.sinense at Perugia, in S. Ambrogio at Florence, and in the cathedral of Fiesole, and the pulpit in the Duomo at Prato, may be mentioned among his best works.

[105] Besides Civitali's altar of S. Regulus, and the tomb of Pietro da Noceto already mentioned, Bernardo Rossellino's monument to Lionardo Bruni, and Desiderio's monument to Carlo Marsuppini in S. Croce at Florence, may be cited as eminent examples of Tuscan sepulchres.

[106] The wooden statue of the Magdalen in Santa Trinita at Florence shows Desiderio's approximation to the style of his master. She is a careworn and ascetic saint, with the pathetic traces of great beauty in her emaciated face.

[107] This bust is in the Palazzo Strozzi at Florence.

[108] So Giovanni Santi, Raphael's father, described Desiderio da Settignano.

[109] The following story is told about Benedetto's youth. He made two large inlaid chests or _ca.s.soni_, adorned with all the skill of a worker in tarsia, or wood-mosaic, and carried these with him to King Matthias Corvinus, of Hungary. Part of his journey was performed by sea. On arriving and unpacking his chests, he found that the sea-damp had unglued the fragile wood-mosaic, and all his work was spoiled. This determined him to practise the more permanent art of sculpture. See Perkins, vol. i.

p. 228.

[110] For further description of the sculpture at Rimini, I may refer to my _Sketches in Italy and Greece_, pp. 250-252. For the student of Italian art, who has no opportunity of visiting Rimini, it is greatly to be regretted that these reliefs have never yet even in photography been reproduced. The palace of Duke Frederick at Urbino was designed by Luziano, a Dalmatian architect, and continued by Baccio Pontelli, a Florentine. The reliefs of dancing Cupids, white on blue ground, with wings and hair gilt, and the children holding pots of roses and gilly-flowers, in one of its great rooms, may be selected for special mention. Ambrogio or Ambrogino da Milano, none of whose handiwork is found in his native district, and who may therefore be supposed to have learned and practised his art elsewhere, was the sculptor of these truly genial reliefs.

[111] See, for example, the remarkable bas-relief of the Doge Lionardo Loredano engraved by Perkins, _Italian Sculptors_, p. 201.

[112] Another Modenese, Antonio Begarelli, born in 1479, developed this art of the _plasticatore_, with quite as much pictorial impressiveness, and in a style of stricter science, than his predecessor Il Modanino. His masterpieces are the "Deposition from the Cross" in S. Francesco, and the "Pieta" in S. Pietro, of his native city.

[113] The name of this great master is variously written--Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, or Omodeo, or degli Amadei, or de' Madeo, or a Madeo--pointing possibly to the town Madeo as his native place. Through a long life he worked upon the fabric of the Milanese Duomo, the Certosa of Pavia, and the Chapel of Colleoni at Bergamo. To him we owe the general design of the facade of the Certosa and the cupola of the Duomo of Milan.

For the details of his work and an estimate of his capacity, see Perkins, _Italian Sculptors_, pp. 127-137.

[114] This statue was originally intended for a chapel built and endowed by Colleoni at Basella, near Bergamo. When he determined to erect his chapel in S. Maria Maggiore at Bergamo, he entrusted the execution of this new work to Amadeo, and the monument of Medea was subsequently placed there.

[115] See above, p. 113. I have spelt the name _Sansovino_, when applied to Jacopo Tatti, in accordance with time-honoured usage.

[116] To multiply instances is tedious; but notice in this connection the Hermaphroditic statue of S. Sebastian at Orvieto, near the western door.

It is a fair work of Lo Scalza.

[117] This brief allusion to Cellini must suffice for the moment, as I intend to treat of him in a separate chapter.

CHAPTER IV

PAINTING