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
For these reasons, then, he was commissioned by the Wardens of S. Rocco
to paint in fresco the chapel of that church, with all the tribune.
Setting his hand, therefore, to this work, he painted a God the Father
in the tribune, with a vast number of children in various beautiful
attitudes, radiating from Him. In the frieze of the same tribune he
painted eight figures from the Old Testament, with the four Evangelists
in the angles, and the Transfiguration of Christ over the high-altar;
and in the two lunettes at the sides are the four Doctors of the Church.
By the hand of the same master are two large pictures in the middle of
the church: in one is Christ healing an endless number of the sick, all
very well painted, and in the other is S. Christopher carrying Jesus
Christ on his shoulders. On the wooden tabernacle of the same church,
wherein the vessels of silver are kept, he painted a S. Martin on
horseback, with many beggars who are bringing votive offerings, in a
building in perspective.
[Illustration: THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI
(_After the fresco by =Giovanni Antonio Licinio of Pordenone=. Treviso:
Duomo_)
_Alinari_]
This work, which was much extolled and brought him honour and profit,
was the reason that M. Jacopo Soranzo, having become his intimate
friend, caused him to be commissioned to paint the Sala de' Pregai in
competition with Tiziano; and there he executed many pictures with
figures seen foreshortened from below, which are very beautiful,
together with a frieze of marine monsters painted in oils round that
hall. These works made him so dear to the Senate, that as long as he
lived he always received an honourable salary from them. And since, out
of rivalry, he always sought to do work in places where Tiziano had also
worked, he painted for S. Giovanni di Rialto a S. John, as Almoner,
giving alms to beggars, and also placed on an altar a picture of S.
Sebastian, S. Rocco, and other saints, which was very beautiful, but yet
not equal to the work of Tiziano, although many, more out of malignity
than out of a love for the truth, exalted that of Giovanni Antonio. The
same master painted in the cloister of S. Stefano many scenes in fresco
from the Old Testament, and one from the New, divided one from another
by various Virtues; and in these figures he displayed amazing
foreshortenings, in which method of painting he always delighted,
seeking to introduce them into his every composition with no fear of
difficulties, and making them more ornate than any other painter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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