Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to Mantegna — John Shaqi
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to MantegnaVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to Mantegna
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
[Illustration: FRA GIOVANNI DA FIESOLE (FRA ANGELICO): THE ANNUNCIATION
(_Cortona: Gesu Gallery. Panel_)]
He died in 1455 at the age of sixty-eight, and left disciples in
Benozzo, a Florentine, who ever imitated his manner, and Zanobi Strozzi,
who painted pictures and panels throughout all Florence for the houses
of citizens, and particularly a panel that is now in the tramezzo[8] of
S. Maria Novella, beside that by Fra Giovanni, and one in S. Benedetto,
a monastery of the Monks of Camaldoli without the Porta a Pinti, now in
ruins. The latter panel is at present in the little Church of S. Michele
in the Monastery of the Angeli, before one enters the principal church,
set up against the wall on the right as one approaches the altar. There
is also a panel in the Chapel of the Nasi in S. Lucia, and another in S.
Romeo; and in the guardaroba of the Duke there is the portrait of
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, with that of Bartolommeo Valori, in one
and the same picture by the hand of the same man. Another disciple of
Fra Giovanni was Gentile da Fabriano, as was also Domenico di Michelino,
who painted the panel for the altar of S. Zanobi in S. Apollinare at
Florence, and many other pictures.
Fra Giovanni was buried by his fellow-friars in the Minerva in Rome,
near the lateral door beside the sacristy, in a round tomb of marble,
with himself, portrayed from nature, lying thereon. The following
epitaph may be read, carved in the marble:
NON MIHI SIT LAUDI, QUOD ERAM VELUT ALTER APELLES,
SED QUOD LUCRA TUIS OMNIA, CHRISTE, DABAM;
ALTERA NAM TERRIS OPERA EXTANT, ALTERA C[OE]LO.
URBS ME JOANNEM FLOS TULIT ETRURIAE.
In S. Maria del Fiore are two very large books illuminated divinely well
by the hand of Fra Giovanni, which are held in great veneration and
richly adorned, nor are they ever seen save on days of the highest
solemnity.
A celebrated and famous illuminator at the same time as Fra Giovanni was
one Attavante, a Florentine, of whom I know no other name. This man,
among many other works, illuminated a Silius Italicus, which is now in
S. Giovanni e Polo in Venice; of which work I will not withhold certain
particulars, both because they are worthy of the attention of craftsmen,
and because, to my knowledge, no other work by this master is to be
found; nor should I know even of this one, had it not been for the
affection borne to these noble arts by the Very Reverend Maestro Cosimo
Bartoli, a gentleman of Florence, who gave me information about it, to
the end that the talent of Attavante might not remain, as it were,
buried out of sight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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