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
Giovan Francesco was very sharp in his answers; and it is also related
of him that once, being told by a priest that his figures were too
seductive for altar-pieces, he replied: "A lusty fellow you must be, if
painted figures so move you. Think how much you are to be trusted in
places where there are living people for you to touch." At Isola, a
place on the Lake of Garda, he painted two panel-pictures for the Church
of the Zoccolanti; and at Malsessino, a township above that same lake,
he painted a very beautiful Madonna over the door of a church, and some
Saints within the church, at the request of Fracastoro, a very famous
poet, who was much his friend. For Count Giovan Francesco Giusti,
executing a subject conceived by that nobleman, he painted a young man
wholly naked except for the parts of shame, and in an attitude of
indecision as to whether he shall rise up or not; and on one side he had
a most beautiful young woman representing Minerva, who with one hand
was pointing out to him a figure of Fame on high, and with the other was
urging him to follow her; but Sloth and Idleness, who were behind the
young man, were striving to detain him. Below these was a figure with an
uncouth face, rather that of a slave and a plebeian than of one of noble
blood, who had two great snails clinging to his elbows and was seated on
a crab, and near him was another figure with the hands full of poppies.
This invention, in which are other beautiful details and fancies, was
executed by Giovan Francesco with supreme diligence and love; and it
serves as the head-board of a bedstead at that nobleman's lovely place
near Verona, which is called S. Maria in Stella.
The same master painted the whole of a little chamber with various
scenes in little figures, for Count Raimondo della Torre. And since he
delighted to work in relief, he executed not only models for his own
purposes and for the arrangement of draperies, but also other things of
his own fancy, of which there are some to be seen in the house of his
heirs, and in particular a scene in half-relief, which is not otherwise
than passing good. He also executed portraits on medallions, and some
are still to be seen, such as that of Guglielmo, Marquis of Montferrat,
which has on the reverse a Hercules slaying ..., with a motto that runs:
"Monstra domat." He painted portraits of Count Raimondo della Torre,
Messer Giulio his brother, and Messer Girolamo Fracastoro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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