Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10): Berna to Michelozzo MichelozziVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10): Berna to Michelozzo Michelozzi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Having afterwards wrought many works in Bologna, and a panel in Pistoia
which was passing good, he returned to Florence, where, in the year
1383, he painted the stories of S. John the Evangelist in the Chapel of
the Beccuti, in S. Maria Maggiore. On the wall of the church beside this
chapel, which is on the left hand of the principal chapel, there follow
six stories of the same Saint by the same man's hand, very well composed
and ingeniously ordered, wherein, among other things, there is very
vividly depicted a S. John who is causing his own garment to be placed
by S. Dionysius the Areopagite over some corpses, which are returning to
life in the name of Jesus Christ, to the great marvel of some who, being
present at this deed, can scarce believe their own eyes. In the figures
of the dead, likewise, there is seen very great mastery in some
foreshortenings, whereby it is clearly demonstrated that Lippo knew, and
in part grappled with, certain difficulties of the art of painting. It
was Lippo, likewise, who painted the folding leaves in the Church of S.
Giovanni--namely, those of the shrine wherein are the angels and the S.
John in relief by the hand of Andrea; and on them he wrought very
diligently in distemper stories of S. John the Baptist. And because he
also delighted in working in mosaic, in the said S. Giovanni, over the
door that leads to the Misericordia, between the windows, he made a
beginning, which was held very beautiful and the best work in mosaic
which had been made in that place up to that time; and he also restored
some works in that church, likewise in mosaic, which were spoilt.
Without Florence, too, in S. Giovanni fra l'Arcora without the Porta a
Faenza, a church which was destroyed in the siege of the said city, he
painted in fresco, beside a Passion of Christ wrought by Buffalmacco,
many figures which were held very beautiful by all who saw them. In
like manner, in certain little hospitals at the Porta a Faenza, and in
S. Antonio within the said gate, near the hospital, he painted certain
beggars in fresco, in diverse beautiful manners and attitudes; and
within the cloisters, with beautiful and new invention, he painted a
vision wherein he represented S. Anthony gazing on the snares of the
world, and beside these the will and the desires of men, who are drawn
by both the first and the second to the diverse things of this world;
and all this he painted with much thought and judgment. Lippo also
wrought works in mosaic in many parts of Italy, and in the Palace of the
Guelph party in Florence he made a figure with the head glazed; and in
Pisa, also, there are many of his works. But none the less it can be
said that he was truly unfortunate, not only because the greater part of
his labours are now thrown down, having gone to ruin in the havoc of the
siege of Florence, but also because he ended the course of his life very
unhappily; for Lippo being a litigious person and fonder of discord than
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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