After the time of the five great masters above mentioned, the Florentines were so rich in fine specimens of art that they had no occasion to apply to foreign schools for improvement. They had only to select the best specimens from the works of native artists; as, for instance, grandeur from Michelangiolo, grace from Andrea, and spirit from Rossi; they could learn colouring and casting of draperies from Porta, and chiaroscuro from Vinci. They appear, however, to have assiduously applied to design, but to have paid little attention to the other branches of painting. Even in that branch they imagined that every thing was to be found in Bonarruoti; and imitated him alone. Their choice was influenced by the celebrity,[181] the success, and very long life of this artist, who, having survived all his eminent fellow citizens, naturally recommended to employment the followers of his maxims, and the adherents of his manner; hence it has been observed by some, that Raffaello lived too short a time for the progress of the fine arts, Michelangiolo too long. But artists ought to keep in mind the opinion, or rather prophecy of Bonarruoti—that his style would be productive of inept artists, which has invariably been the character of those who have imitated him without judgment.
Their study and constant practice has been to design from his statues: for the cartoon on which so many eminent men formed their style, had already perished; and his paintings were not to be seen in Florence but in Rome. They transferred into their compositions that statue-like rigidity, that strength of limb, and those markings of the origin and insertion of muscles, that severity of countenance, and those positions of the hands and figures, which characterized his sublimely awful style; but without comprehending the principles of this extraordinary man, without thoroughly understanding the play of the softer parts of the human figure, either by inserting them in wrong situations, or by representing, in the same manner, those in action and at rest; those of a slender stripling, and of the full-grown man. Contented with what they imagined grandeur of style, they neglected all the rest. In some of their pictures we may observe a multitude of figures arranged one above the other, with a total disregard of their relative situations; features that express no passion, and half naked figures that do nothing, except pompously exhibit, like the Entellus of Virgil, magna ossa lacertosque. Instead of the beautiful azure and green formerly employed, they substituted a languid yellowish hue; the full body of colour gave place to superficial tints; and, above all, the bold relief, so much studied till the time of Andrea, went wholly into disuse.
In several passages Baldinucci confesses this decline, which, however, scarcely extended to two or three generations, and seems to have commenced about 1540. During this unfortunate era the Florentines did not degenerate as much as some other schools. The churches are full of pictures of this era, which, if they are not to be admired like those of the preceding, are, at least, respectable. Whoever sees the church of S. Croce, S. Maria Novella, and other places, where the best artists of this era painted, will undoubtedly find more to praise than to condemn. Few of them were eminent as colourists, but many in design; few were entirely free from the mannerism above noticed; many, however, by progressive improvement, at length attained gracefulness. We shall proceed to consider them, chiefly following the steps of Vincenzio Borghini, their contemporary; the author of Il Reposo, a dialogue worthy of perusal, both for the matter and the style. We shall commence with Vasari, who not only belongs to this epoch, but has ever been charged with being one of the chief authors of the decline of the art.[182]
Giorgio Vasari, of Arezzo, was descended from a family attached to the fine arts; being the great grandson of Lazzaro, who was the intimate friend of Pietro della Francesca, and the imitator of his paintings; the nephew of another Giorgio, who, in modelling vases in plaster, revived the forms of the antique, in their basso-relievos, and their brilliant colours; specimens of whose art exist in the royal gallery at Florence. Michelangiolo, Andrea, and some other masters, instructed him in design; Guglielmo da Marcilla, called the Prior, and Rosso, initiated him in painting: but he chiefly studied at Rome, whither he was brought by Ippolito, Cardinal de' Medici, the person to whom he owed his success; for by his means Giorgio was introduced to this family that loaded him with riches and with honour. After having designed all the works of his first master, and of Raffaello, at Rome, and likewise much after other schools and antique marbles, he formed a style in which we may recognise traces of his studies; but his predilection for Bonarruoti is apparent. After acquiring skill in painting figures, he became one of the most excellent architects of the age; and united in himself the various branches which were known to Perino, Giulio, and their scholars, who followed the example of Raffaello. He could unaided direct the construction of a grand fabric, adorn it with figures, with grotesques, with landscapes, with stuccos, with gilding, and whatever else was required to ornament it in a princely style. By this means he began to be known in Italy; and was employed as a painter in several places, and even in Rome. He was much employed in the hermitage of the Camaldules, and in several monasteries of the Olivets. In their monastery at Rimino he executed a picture of the Magi, and various frescos for the church; in that at Bologna three pieces from sacred history, with some ornaments in the refectory; but still more in that at Naples, where he not only reduced the refectory to the rules of true architecture, but splendidly adorned it with stuccos and pictures of every description. Assisted by many young men he spent a year in this work; and, as he himself says, was the first who gave an idea of the modern style to that city. Some of his pictures are to be seen in the Classe di Ravenna, in the church of S. Peter at Perugia, at Bosco, near Alessandria, in Venice, at Pisa, in Florence, and at Rome, where the largest part of them are in various places of the Vatican, and in the hall of the Chancery. These pictures are historical frescos of the life of Paul III. undertaken at the desire of Cardinal Farnese; with whom originated the idea of writing the lives of the painters, afterwards published at Florence. Brought into notice by these works, honoured by the esteem and friendship of Bonarruoti, and recommended by his multifarious abilities, he was invited to the court of Cosmo I. He went there with his family in 1553; at which time the artists above alluded to were either dead or very old, and, therefore, he had little to fear from competitors. He superintended the magnificent works executed by that prince; among which it would be wrong not to distinguish the edifice for the public offices, which is esteemed among the finest in Italy; and the old palace, with its several sub-divisions, which were all painted and decorated by Vasari and his pupils for the use of government. In one part of it, each chamber bears the name of some distinguished member of the family, and represents his exploits. This is one of his best works; and here the chamber of Clement VII. is chiefly conspicuous, on the ceiling of which he represented the Pontiff in the act of crowning Charles V., and all around disposed the emblems of his virtues, his victories, and his most remarkable exploits. In this work the magnificence of the prince is rivalled by the judgment and taste of the artist. The reader may find notices of his other works, which are either in churches or in private houses, and of his temporary decorations for funerals or festivals, by consulting his life written by himself down to 1567, and the continuation of it to 1574, the year of Giorgio's decease.
It remains for us to discuss the merits of this artist, who has been praised by some and condemned by other authors that have treated of the fine arts, especially in Italy. I shall consider him first as a painter, and next as a writer. Had all his works perished but some of those in the old palace, the Conception, in S. Apostolo at Florence, which Borghini commends as his finest production, the Decollation of S. John, in the church of the Baptist at Rome, which is adorned by exquisite perspective, the Feast of Ahasuerus, in the possession of the Benedictines at Arezzo, some of his portraits, which Bottari scruples not to compare with those of Giorgione, and some of his other pictures that demonstrate his ability, his reputation would have been much greater than it is. But he aimed at too much; and for the most part preferred expedition to accuracy. Hence, though a good designer, his figures are not always correct; and his painting often appears languid, from his meagre and superficial colouring.[183] The habit of careless execution is usually the companion of some maxim that may serve to excuse it to others, as well as to our own self-love: Vasari has recommended in his writings the acquirement of compendious methods,[184] and "the expedition of practice;" in other words, to make use of former exercises and studies in painting. This method is highly advantageous to the artist, because it increases his profits; but is prejudicial to the art, which thus degenerates into mannerism, or, in other words, departs from nature: Vasari fell into this error in many of his works, especially in his hasty productions, or where he borrowed the hand of others; apologies which he frequently offers to the readers of his "Lives." He was principally induced, I believe, to offer such apologies for his practice, from the strictures on his paintings contained in the hall of the Chancery, which were finished in a hundred days, according to their author, in order to please the cardinal: but he ought then rather to have excused himself to Farnese, and to have requested him to employ some other artist, than to make his apology to posterity, and to intreat us to excuse his faults. He ought to have listened to the admonitions of his friends; among whom Caro did not fail to remind him of the injury his reputation might sustain by such hasty productions.[185] As he long superintended the decorations of the capital, ordered by Cosmo I. and Prince D. Francesco, and was assisted in them by many young men, Baldinucci affirms that he chiefly contributed to that dry manner which prevailed in Florence.[186]
This opinion is probably not erroneous; for the example of a painter employed by the court was sufficient to seduce the rising generation from pristine diligence, to a more careless manner. After all, the Florentines who assisted him were chiefly the scholars of Bronzino, and, except two or three, they did not adopt the style of Vasari: some others also may have done so for a little time. Francesco Morandini, called Poppi, from his native place, was his disciple and imitator; and in his picture of the Conception, at S. Michelino, in the superior one of the Visitation, at S. Nicholas, and in his many other works, he appears a follower of Giorgio; except that he was more minute, and attended more to gay and cheerful composition. Giovanni Stradano Fiammingo, for ten years a dependant of Vasari, adopted his colouring, but imitated the design of Salviati; with whom and also with Daniele di Volterra he had lived in Rome. There is a Christ on the Cross, by him, at the Serviti, which is preferred to any other he painted at Florence, where he executed many designs for tapestry, and many prints. He had a fertile invention; he is praised by Vasari as highly as any other artist then in the service of the court, and is considered by Borghini among the eminent masters. Vasari after him retained Jacopo Zucchi, whose works exhibit none of the carelessness of Giorgio. He sometimes imitated him; but his style is better and more refined. He lived long at Rome, under the protection of Ferdinando, Cardinal de' Medici, in whose house, and more especially in the Rucellai palace, he painted in fresco with incredible diligence. His picture of the Birth of the Baptist, in S. Giovanni Decollato, is esteemed the best in that church; and in this piece he appears more a follower of Andrea, than of any other master. He usually introduced real portraits of distinguished characters and men of letters in his compositions, and he shewed a peculiar grace in the figures of children and of young people. Baglioni praises both this artist and his brother Francesco, who was a good artist in mosaic, and an excellent painter of fruit and flowers.
In considering Giorgio as a writer, I shall not consume much time; having so frequently to notice him in the course of my work. He wrote precepts of art and lives of the painters, as is well known; and he added to them some dissertations on his own occupations,[187] and his pictures.[188] He entered on this work at the instigation of Cardinal Farnese, as well as of Monsig. Giovio; and he was encouraged in it by Caro, Molza, Tolomei, and other literary men belonging to that court. His first intention was to collect anecdotes of artists, to be extended by Giovio. They wished him to commence with Cimabue; with which, perhaps, he ought not to have complied; but this circumstance diminishes the fault of Vasari in passing over the older masters in silence, and raises the glory of Cimabue far above all his contemporaries. When it was discovered that Vasari could write well,[189] and was capable of extending the anecdotes in even more appropriate language than Giovio himself, the whole task devolved on him; but in order to render the work more worthy of the public, he had the assistance afforded him of men of letters. In 1547, on finishing the book, he went to Rimino; and whilst he was employed in painting for the fraternity of Olivets, Father D. Gio. Matteo Faetani, abbot of the monastery, corrected his work and caused it to be wholly transcribed; about the end of that year it was sent to Caro for perusal. He signified his approbation of it, "as written in a fine style, and with great care;"[190] except that in some passages a less artificial style was desirable. After being corrected in this respect, it was printed in two volumes by Torrentino, at Florence, in the year 1550; in this edition he received considerable aid from Father D. Miniato Pitti, then an Olivetine friar.[191] Vasari complained that "many things were there inserted he knew not how, and were altered without his knowledge or consent;"[192] but I cannot agree with Bottari,[193] that these alterations were made by Pitti or any other monk. If Vasari could not discover their author, we are much less likely to find him out; and there is some ground for believing that Vasari had offended many persons by certain invidious anecdotes, and thus endeavoured to excuse himself as well as he could. Who can believe that the many things cancelled in the second edition, which seems almost a new work, were all liberties taken by other persons, "he did not know how" and not mistakes, at least for the most part, made by himself?
In whatever way it happened, he had an opportunity of correcting his lives, of augmenting them, and again printing them, accompanied by portraits of the artists. After publication of the first edition he had availed himself of the manuscripts of Ghiberti, of Domenico Ghirlandaio, of Raffaello d'Urbino; and had himself collected a number of anecdotes in his different journeys through Italy. He undertook a new tour in 1566, to prepare for the new edition, as he informs us in the life of Benvenuto Garofolo; he again examined the works of different masters, and obtained new information from his friends, some of whom he mentions by name, when treating of the artists of Forli and Verona. He would have been still more full of anecdote in his Lives, had his success corresponded with his diligence. On this account, in the beginning and at the end of the Life of Carpaccio, he laments that "he was not able to obtain every particular of many artists;" nor to possess their portraits; and he "entreats us to accept what he is able to offer, although he cannot give all he might desire." He republished his Lives in 1568, and affirmed in the Dedication to Cosmo I. that "as for himself he wished for nothing more in them." The new edition issued from the press of the Giunti; of the additions, consisting of fine observations upon philosophy and Christian morality, which cannot be ascribed to Giorgio, part was supplied by Borghini, and still more by Father D. Silvano Razzi, a Camalduline monk, as Bottari conjectures in his Preface,[194] but it does not follow that they assisted in correcting the work. It is full of errors; sometimes in the grammatical construction, often in the names, and frequently in the dates; and though it was reprinted at Bologna, in 1648; at Rome, with the notes and corrections of Bottari, in 1759; in Leghorn and Florence, in 1767, with fresh notes and additions by the same; and lastly, in Siena, with those of P. della Valle; it still remains not so much a judicious selection of facts, as a mass of chronological emendations, some of which shall be noticed in the sequel.[195]
This, if I am not deceived, is the objection that can be most frequently, and almost continually urged against the work. The other strictures to be met with in authors are, for the most part, exaggerations of writers, offended at Vasari for his silence or his criticisms, on the works of the artists of their country. There is nothing so flattering to the vanity of an author, as defending the character of his native place, and of those citizens who have rendered her illustrious. In whatever manner he writes, all his countrymen, who are all the world to him, think him in the right; and in the coffeehouses he frequents, in the shops of the booksellers, and in all public places, they hail him as the public advocate. Hence we need not be surprised that such an author writes as if his country had appointed him her champion, assumes a spirit of hostility, and then the transition is easy from a just defence to an injurious attack. From such causes some writers appear to me actuated by unbecoming enmity to Vasari. The passages of the first edition, cancelled in the second, have been quoted against him; he has incurred odium for some deformed portraits, as if he was accountable for the defects of nature; his most innocent expressions have been tortured into a sinister meaning; his enemies would have us believe that, intending to exalt his darling Florentines, he neglected the other Italian artists, as if, in order to do justice to these, he had not travelled and sought for information, although often in vain, as I before mentioned. The historians of all the other schools have used him as the commentators of Virgil treated Servius; all have abused him, and all have availed themselves of his labours. For if all the information collected by Vasari concerning the old masters of the Venetian, Bolognese, and Lombard schools be taken away, how imperfect does their history remain? In my opinion, therefore, he deserves our best thanks for what he has done, and much forbearance for what he has omitted.
If his judgment appears less accurate on some artists of a different school, he ought not, on that account, to be taxed with malignity and envy, as is well observed by Lomazzo. He has protested that he has done his best to adhere to truth, or to what he believed to be true,[196] and it is sufficient to read him without prejudice to give him credit for such justification. He seems a man who writes as he thinks. Thus, he bestows commendations upon Baldinelli and upon Zuccaro, his enemies,[197] as well as upon his friends: he distributes censure and praise with an equal hand to Tuscan and other artists. If he discovers painters of little merit in other schools, he finds them also in that of Florence; if he relates the jealousies of foreign artists, he does not conceal those of the Florentines, of which he speaks with a playful freedom in the Life of Donatello, in his own, and more especially in that of Pietro Perugino. His partial criticisms therefore on certain artists arose less from his nationality, than from other causes. It is certain that he saw but little of some masters; his opinion of others was formed upon incorrect information; and he could not attain the same certainty that we now boast, on what related to a number of artists then living, who, as usually happens, were then more censured than admired. Some allowance too should be made for his other avocations; by the multiplicity of which he doubtless wrote as he painted, with the expedition of his mode of practice. A proof of this is afforded by the repetitions that occur, as we have before observed, in successive passages, and the contradictory characters he sometimes gives of the same picture, pronouncing it good in one sentence, and in another allowing it scarcely the praise of mediocrity. This was particularly the case in regard to Razzi, towards whom he seems to have entertained ill will; arising, however, more from the bad reputation of the man than from prejudice against the school of the artist. For the incorrectness of such censures, in which he, however, was sincere, I blame his maxims of art, and the age in which he lived. He reckoned Bonarruoti the greatest painter that had ever existed;[198] and exalted him above the ancient Greeks,[199] and, from his practice, held a bold and vigorous design as the summit of perfection in painting; compared to which, beauty and colouring were nothing.[200] From such fundamental principles proceeded some of his obnoxious criticisms on Bassano, Tiziano, and on Raffaello himself. But is this the effect of his malignity, or of his education? Does it not happen in philosophy as in painting, that every one gives a decided preference to those of his own sect. Has not Petrarca generalized the observation, when he asks,