Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10): Cimabue to Agnolo GaddiVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10): Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
While Bruno was making this work, a peasant desiring that Buonamico
should make him a S. Christopher, they came to an agreement in Florence
and arranged a contract in this fashion, that the price should be eight
florins and that the figure should be twelve braccia high. Buonamico,
then, having gone to the church where he was to make the S. Christopher,
found that by reason of its not being more than nine braccia either in
height or in length, he could not, either without or within, accommodate
the figure in a manner that it might stand well; wherefore he made up
his mind, since it would not go in upright, to make it within the church
lying down. But since, even so, the whole length would not go in, he was
forced to bend it from the knees downwards on to the wall at the head of
the church. The work finished, the peasant would by no means pay for it;
nay, he made an outcry and said he had been cozened. The matter,
therefore, going before the Justices, it was judged, according to the
contract, that Buonamico was in the right.
In S. Giovanni fra l'Arcore was a very beautiful Passion of Christ by
the hand of Buonamico, and among other things that were much praised
therein was a Judas hanging from a tree, made with much judgment and
beautiful manner. An old man, likewise, who was blowing his nose, was
most natural, and the Maries, broken with weeping, had expressions and
aspects so sad, that they deserved to be greatly praised, since that age
had not as yet much facility in the method of representing the emotions
of the soul with the brush. On the same wall there was a good figure in
a S. Ivo of Brittany, who had many widows and orphans at his feet, and
two angels in the sky, who were crowning him, were made with the
sweetest manner. This edifice and the pictures together were thrown to
the ground in the year of the war of 1529.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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