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
Then, receiving a commission from Pope Clement to paint a panel-picture
like the one by Raffaello (which is in S. Pietro a Montorio), which was
to be sent to France, whither Raffaello had meant to send the first,
they began it; but soon afterwards, having fallen out with each other,
they divided their inheritance of drawings and everything else left
to them by Raffaello, and Giulio went off to Mantua, where he executed
an endless number of works for the Marquis. Thither, not long
afterwards, Giovan Francesco also made his way, drawn either by love of
Giulio or by the hope of finding work; but he received so cold a welcome
from Giulio that he soon departed, and, after travelling round Lombardy,
he returned to Rome. And from Rome he went to Naples by ship in the
train of the Marchese del Vasto, taking with him the now finished copy
of the panel-picture of S. Pietro a Montorio, with other works, which he
left in Ischia, an island belonging to the Marquis, while the panel was
placed where it is at the present day, in the Church of S. Spirito degli
Incurabili at Naples. Having thus settled in Naples, where he occupied
himself with drawing and painting, Giovan Francesco was entertained and
treated with great kindness by Tommaso Cambi, a Florentine merchant, who
managed the affairs of that nobleman. But he did not live there long,
because, being of a sickly habit of body, he fell ill and died, to the
great grief of the noble Marquis and of all who knew him.
He had a brother called Luca, likewise a painter, who worked in Genoa
with his brother-in-law Perino, as well as at Lucca and many other
places in Italy. In the end he went to England, where, after executing
certain works for the King and for some merchants, he finally devoted
himself to making designs for copper-plates for sending abroad, which he
had engraved by Flemings. Of such he sent abroad a great number, which
are known by his name as well as by the manner; and by his hand, among
others, is a print wherein are some women in a bath, the original of
which, by the hand of Luca himself, is in our book.
A disciple of Giovan Francesco was Leonardo, called Il Pistoia because
he came from that city, who executed some works at Lucca, and made many
portraits from life in Rome. At Naples, for Diomede Caraffa, Bishop of
Ariano, and now a Cardinal, he painted a panel-picture of the Stoning of
S. Stephen for his chapel in S. Domenico. And for Monte Oliveto he
painted another, which was placed on the high-altar, although it was
afterwards removed to make room for a new one, similar in subject, by
the hand of Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo. Leonardo earned large sums from
these Neapolitan nobles, but he accumulated little, for he squandered it
all as it came to his hand; and finally he died in Naples, leaving
behind him the reputation of having been a good colourist, but not of
having shown much excellence in draughtsmanship.
Giovan Francesco lived forty years, and his works date about 1528.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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