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
a God the Father surrounded by many little boys, who is sending down the
Holy Spirit. This work, which is executed with good drawing, grace,
vivacity, and relief, is held by all craftsmen of judgment to be the
best that he ever painted.
In the Duomo of the same city, on the balustrade of the organ, below the
doors already painted by Pellegrino, he painted a story of S. Ermacora
and Fortunatus, also in oils, graceful and well designed. In the same
city, in order to gain the friendship of the Signori Tinghi, he painted
in fresco the facade of their palace; in which work, wishing to make
himself known and to prove what a master he was of architectural
invention and of working in fresco, he made a series of compartments and
groups of varied ornaments full of figures in niches; and in three great
spaces in the centre of the work he painted scenes with figures in
colours, two spaces, high and narrow, being on either side, and one
square in shape in the middle; and in the latter he painted a Corinthian
column planted with its base in the sea, with a Siren on the right hand,
holding the column upright, and a nude Neptune on the left supporting it
on the other side; while above the capital of the column there is a
Cardinal's hat, the device, so it is said, of Pompeo Colonna, who was
much the friend of the owners of that palace. In one of the two other
spaces are the Giants being slain with thunderbolts by Jove, with some
dead bodies on the ground very well painted and most beautifully
foreshortened. On the other side is a Heaven full of Gods, and on the
earth two Giants who, club in hand, are in the act of striking at Diana,
who, defending herself in a bold and spirited attitude, is brandishing a
blazing torch as if to burn the arms of one of them.
[Illustration: THE DISPUTATION OF S. CATHARINE
(_After the fresco by =Giovanni Antonio Licinio of Pordenone=. Piacenza:
S. Maria di Campagna_)
_Alinari_]
At Spelimbergo, a large place fifteen miles above Udine, the balustrade
and the doors of the organ in the great church are painted by the hand
of the same master; on the outer side of one door is the Assumption
of Our Lady, and on the inner side S. Peter and S. Paul before Nero,
gazing at Simon Magus in the air above; while on the other door there is
the Conversion of S. Paul, and on the balustrade the Nativity of Christ.
Through this work, which is very beautiful, and many others, Pordenone
came into repute and fame, and was summoned to Vicenza, whence, after
having executed some works there, he made his way to Mantua, where he
coloured a facade in fresco with marvellous grace for M. Paris, a
gentleman of that city. Among other beautiful inventions which are in
that work, much praise is due to a frieze of antique letters, one
braccio and a half in height, at the top, below the cornice, among
which, passing in and out of them, are many little children in various
attitudes, all most beautiful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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