[57] It was a very ancient practice of Christian worship to place the silver, or ivory dittici, upon the altars during the service of the mass, and when the sacred ceremony was over, they were folded up in the manner of a book, and taken elsewhere. The same figure was retained, even in the introduction of the largest altar pieces, which likewise consisted of two wings, and were portable. This custom, of which I have seen few remnants in Italy, has been long preserved in the Greek church. At length, by degrees, artists began to paint upon one whole panel. (See Buonarroti Vetri Antichi, p. 258, &c.)
[58] In Torrello, one of the Venetian isles, there is an ancient image of St. Hadrian, which is tolerably carved, and around it the history of the saint is depicted: the style is feeble, but not Grecian.
[59] I notice this peculiarity, because the histories, either painted or engraved, belonging to those early times, are apt to perplex us; nor can they be cleared up without having recourse to books of fiction, which were, in those less civilized periods, believed. In the acts of our Saviour, and of the Virgin, it may be useful to consult Gio. Alberto Fabrizio, in the collection entitled "Codex Apocr. Novi Testamenti;" in the acts of the apostles and martyrs, it is not so much their real history, as the legends, either manifestly false or suspected, as recounted by the Bollandisti, that will throw light upon the subject.
[60] See Vasari in the life of Spinello Aretino: "Simone Cini, a Florentine, carved it, it was gilt by Gabriello Saracini, and Spinello di Luca of Arezzo, painted it in the year 1385." A similar signature may be seen in Pittura Veneziana, page 15.
FLORENTINE SCHOOL.
EPOCH I.
Florentine Painters who lived after Giotto to the end of the fifteenth century.
SECT. II.
It is worthy of remark, that Vasari, in the life of Jacopo di Casentino, quotes the manuscript records of the society of St. Luke, afterwards printed by Baldinucci, and mentions fourteen painters who were formerly its captains, counsellors, or chamberlains; yet he takes no notice of them in his Lives, and of but very few of the great number named in that manuscript. The same selection was employed by Baldinucci, in whose Veglia we are informed that many painters flourished about 1300, the names of whom he has refused to insert in his anecdotes. It clearly appears from his writings that he omitted about a hundred, all belonging to that age.[61] It is therefore incorrect to say, that those two historians have commemorated many artists of mediocrity, merely because they were natives of Florence, an accusation alleged against them by foreigners. The artists of their country whom they have transmitted to posterity, are not less worthy of record than those ancient ones of Venice, of Bologna, and of Lombardy, whom we are accustomed to praise in their respective schools. Among this number I include Buffalmacco, the wit whose jests, as recorded in Boccaccio and Sacchetti, render him more celebrated than his pictures. His real name was Buonamico di Cristofano. He had been the scholar of Tafi, but by living long in the time of Giotto, he had an opportunity of correcting his own style. He displayed a most lively fancy, "and when he chose to exert himself (which rarely happened) was not inferior to any of his contemporaries."[62] It is unfortunate that his best works, which were in the Abbey and in Ognisanti, have perished, and there only remain some less carefully executed at Arezzo and at Pisa. The best preserved are in the Campo Santo; viz. the Creation of the World, in which there is a figure of the Deity, five cubits high, sustaining the mighty frame of the heavens and the elements, and three other historical pictures of Adam, of his children, and of Noah. A crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of the Redeemer, may be seen at the same place. Good symmetry is not to be looked for in them; he knew but little of design, and he drew his figures by other rules than the roundness and facility seen in the disciples of Giotto. His heads are deficient in beauty and variety. The pious women near the cross all have the same mean and vulgar features, in which the mouths are opened even to deformity. Some of the heads of the men, especially that of Cain, possess, however, a physiognomical expression which arrests the eye of the spectator. The air of nature too in the action, as in the man, who, full of horror, flies from Mount Calvary, is highly praiseworthy. His draperies are greatly varied, are distinguished by the difference of stuffs and linings, and are laboriously ornamented with flowers and with fringes. Before he was employed in the Campo Santo, he painted in the church of St. Paul, Ripa d'Arno, where he was associated with one Bruno di Giovanni, formerly his fellow student, and believed to be the painter of a St. Ursula in a piece which still exists in the Commenda. Unable to attain the expression of Buffalmacco, he tried to atone for the defect by the aid of sentences proceeding from the mouths of his figures, which expressed what their features and attitudes were incapable of explaining, a practice in which he was preceded by Cimabue, and followed by the eccentric Orcagna and several others. This Bruno, together with Nello di Dino, was associated with Buffalmacco in the jests contrived for the simple Calandrino. They all owe their fame to Boccaccio, who introduces them in the eighth day of his Decamerone; and a similar favour was conferred by Sacchetti on a Bartolo Gioggi, a house-painter, whom he introduced into his one hundred and seventieth tale. Giovanni da Ponte, the scholar of Buffalmacco, had some merit, but he was not at all solicitous to increase it by his diligence. Some remains of his pictures exist on the walls of the church of St. Francis, at Arezzo.