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
In S. Domenico, in the aforesaid Prato, there are two of his panels; and
in the tramezzo[12] of the Church of S. Francesco there is a Madonna, in
the removing of which from the place where it was at first, it was cut
out from the wall on which it was painted, in order not to spoil it, and
bound round with wood, and then transported to that wall of the church
where it is still to be seen to-day. In a courtyard of the Ceppo of
Francesco di Marco, over a well, there is a little panel by the hand of
the same man, containing the portrait of the said Francesco di Marco,
the creator and founder of that holy place. In the Pieve of the said
township, on a little panel over the side-door as one ascends the steps,
he painted the Death of S. Bernard, by the touch of whose bier many
cripples are being restored to health. In this picture are friars
bewailing the death of their master, and it is a marvellous thing to see
the beautiful expression of the sadness of lamentation in the heads,
counterfeited with great art and resemblance to nature. Here there are
draperies in the form of friars' gowns with most beautiful folds, which
deserve infinite praise for their good design, colouring, and
composition; not to mention the grace and proportion that are seen in
the said work, which was executed with the greatest delicacy by the hand
of Fra Filippo. The Wardens of Works for the said Pieve, in order to
have some memorial of him, commissioned him to paint the Chapel of the
High-Altar in that place; and he gave great proof of his worth in that
work, which, besides its general excellence and masterliness, contains
most admirable draperies and heads. He made the figures therein larger
than life, thus introducing to our modern craftsmen the method of giving
grandeur to the manner of our own day. There are certain figures with
garments little used in those times, whereby he began to incite the
minds of men to depart from that simplicity which should be called
rather old-fashioned than ancient. In the same work are the stories of
S. Stephen (the titular Saint of the said Pieve), distributed over the
wall on the right hand--namely, the Disputation, the Stoning, and the
Death of that Protomartyr, in whose face, as he disputes with the Jews,
Filippo depicted so much zeal and so much fervour, that it is a
difficult thing to imagine it, and much more to express it; and in the
faces and the various attitudes of the Jews he revealed their hatred,
disdain, and anger at seeing themselves overcome by him. Even more
clearly did he make manifest the brutality and rage of those who are
slaying him with stones, which they have grasped, some large, some
small, with a horrible gnashing of teeth, and with gestures wholly cruel
and enraged. None the less, amid so terrible an onslaught, S. Stephen,
raising his countenance with great calmness to Heaven, is seen making
supplication to the Eternal Father with the warmest love and fervour for
the very men who are slaying him.
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