Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 04 (of 10): Filippino Lippi to Domenico PuligoVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 04 (of 10): Filippino Lippi to Domenico Puligo
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
prelates, who are lamenting the death of so great a man and so rare
and holy a Pontiff. The whole of this work is full of portraits from
the life, so numerous that it would be a long story to recount their
names; and it is all painted with the finest and most lively
colours, and wrought with various ornaments of gold, and with very
well designed partitions in the ceiling. Below each scene is a Latin
inscription, which describes what is contained therein. In the
centre of this library the said Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini,
nephew of the Pope, placed the three Graces of marble, ancient and
most beautiful, which are still there, and which were the first
antiquities to be held in price in those times. This library,
wherein are all the books left by the said Pius II, was scarcely
finished, when the same Cardinal Francesco, nephew of the aforesaid
Pontiff, Pius II, was created Pope, choosing the name of Pius III in
memory of his uncle. Over the door of that library, which opens into
the Duomo, the same Pinturicchio painted in a very large scene,
occupying the whole extent of the wall, the Coronation of the said
Pope Pius III, with many portraits from life; and beneath it may be
read these words:
PIUS III SENENSIS, PII SECUNDI NEPOS, MDIII, SEPTEMBRIS XXI,
APERTIS ELECTUS SUFFRAGIIS, OCTAVO OCTOBRIS CORONATUS EST.
When Pinturicchio was working with Pietro Perugino and painting at
Rome in the time of Pope Sixtus, he had also been in the service of
Domenico della Rovere, Cardinal of San Clemente; wherefore the said
Cardinal, having built a very beautiful palace in the Borgo Vecchio,
charged Pinturicchio to paint the whole of it, and to make on the
facade the coat of arms of Pope Sixtus, with two little boys as
supporters. The same master executed certain works for Sciarra Colonna
in the Palace of S. Apostolo; and no long time after--namely, in the
year 1484--Innocent VIII, the Genoese, caused him to paint certain
halls and loggie in the Palace of the Belvedere, where, among other
things, by order of that Pope, he painted a loggia full of landscapes,
depicting therein Rome, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and Naples,
after the manner of the Flemings; and this, being a thing not
customary at that time, gave no little satisfaction. In the same
place, over the principal door of entrance, he painted a Madonna in
fresco. In S. Pietro, in the chapel that contains the Lance which
pierced the side of Christ, he painted a panel in distemper, with the
Madonna larger than life, for the said Innocent VIII; and he painted
two chapels in the Church of S. Maria del Popolo, one for the
aforesaid Domenico della Rovere, Cardinal of San Clemente, who was
afterwards buried therein, and the other for Cardinal Innocenzio Cibo,
wherein he also was afterwards buried; and in each of these chapels he
portrayed the Cardinal who had caused him to paint it. In the Palace
of the Pope he painted certain rooms that look out upon the courtyard
of S.
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