Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo LottoVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 05 (of 10): Andrea da Fiesole to Lorenzo Lotto
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Another disciple of Pellegrino was Francesco Floriani of Udine, who is
still alive and is a very good painter and architect, like his younger
brother, Antonio Floriani, who, thanks to his rare abilities in his
profession, is now in the service of his glorious Majesty the Emperor
Maximilian. Some of the pictures of that same Francesco were to be seen
two years ago in the possession of the Emperor, who was then a King; one
of these being a Judith who has cut off the head of Holofernes, painted
with admirable judgment and diligence. And in the collection of that
monarch there is a book of pen-drawings by the same master, full of
lovely inventions, buildings, theatres, arches, porticoes, bridges,
palaces, and many other works of architecture, all useful and very
beautiful.
Gensio Liberale was also a disciple of Pellegrino, and in his pictures,
among other things, he imitated every sort of fish excellently well.
This master is now in the service of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria,
a splendid position, which he deserves, for he is a very good painter.
But among the most illustrious and renowned painters of the territory of
Friuli, the rarest and most famous in our day--since he has surpassed
those mentioned above by a great measure in the invention of scenes, in
draughtsmanship, in boldness, in mastery over colour, in fresco work, in
swiftness of execution, in strength of relief, and in every other
department of our arts--is Giovanni Antonio Licinio, called by some
Cuticello. This master was born at Pordenone, a township in Friuli,
twenty-five miles from Udine; and since he was endowed by nature with a
beautiful genius and an inclination for painting, he devoted himself
without any teacher to the study of natural objects, imitating the style
of Giorgione da Castelfranco, because that manner, seen by him many
times in Venice, had pleased him much. Now, having learnt the rudiments
of art, he was forced, in order to save his life from a pestilence that
had fallen upon his native place, to take to flight; and thus, passing
many months in the surrounding country, he executed various works in
fresco for a number of peasants, gaining at their expense experience of
using colour on plaster. Wherefore, since the surest and best method of
learning is practice and a sufficiency of work, it came to pass that he
became a well-practised and judicious master of that kind of painting,
and learned to make colours produce the desired effect when used in a
fluid state, which is done on account of the white, which dries the
plaster and produces a brightness that ruins all softness. And so,
having mastered the nature of colours, and having learnt by long
practice to work very well in fresco, he returned to Udine, where he
painted for the altar of the Nunziata, in the Convent of S. Pietro
Martire, a panel-picture in oils containing the Madonna at the moment of
receiving the Salutation from the Angel Gabriel; and in the sky he made
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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