Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 06 (of 10): Fra Giocondo to Niccolo SoggiVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 06 (of 10): Fra Giocondo to Niccolo Soggi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
on an ass, and holding in his hand a banner, on which is a fountain; and
behind him Poverty and Blindness, bound, are led as prisoners. And in
the last of the six Triumphs is S. Stephen the Proto-martyr, who is
riding in triumph on an elephant, and has a standard with a figure of
Charity; and the prisoners behind him are his persecutors. All these
were inventions full of fancy, and very ingenious; and they were all
engraved by Hieronymus Cock, whose hand is very bold, sure, and
resolute.
The same master engraved a plate of Fraud and Avarice, fantastic and
beautiful, and another very lovely plate of a Feast of Bacchanals, with
children dancing. On another he represented Moses passing across the Red
Sea, according as it had been painted by Agnolo Bronzino, a painter of
Florence, in the upper chapel in the Palace of the Duke of Florence; and
in competition with him, also after the design of Bronzino, Giorgio
Mantovano engraved a Nativity of Jesus Christ, which was very beautiful.
After these works, Hieronymus engraved twelve plates of the victories,
battles, and deeds of arms of Charles V, for him who was the inventor of
the subjects; and for Verese, a painter and a great master of
perspective in those parts, twenty plates with various buildings. For
Hieronymus Bosch he executed a plate of S. Martin, with a barque full of
Devils in the most bizarre forms. And he made another of an alchemist
who loses all his possessions, distilling away his brains and consuming
all that he has in various ways, insomuch that in the end he takes
refuge in the hospital with his wife and children; which plate was
designed for him by a painter, who caused him to engrave the Seven
Mortal Sins, with Demons of various forms, which was a fantastic and
laughable work. He also engraved a Last Judgment; an old man who is
seeking with a lantern for peace among the wares of the world, and finds
it not; likewise a great fish that is devouring some little fishes; a
figure of Carnival enjoying the pleasures of the table with many others,
and driving Lent away, and another of Lent driving away Carnival; and so
many other whimsical and fantastic inventions, that it would be
wearisome to attempt to speak of them all.
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