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
That these words are true is proved by this, that if he had
undertaken to paint the Hall of Kings in the Palace on his own account,
and had worked at it together with his own assistants, he would have
saved several hundreds of crowns, which all went to the overseers who
had charge of the work and paid the daily wages to those who worked
there.
Thus, having undertaken a burden so heavy and so laborious, and being
infirm and enfeebled by catarrh, he was not able to endure such
discomforts, having to draw day and night and to meet the demands of the
Palace, and, among other things, to make the designs of embroideries, of
engravings for banner-makers, and of innumerable ornaments required by
the caprice of Farnese and other Cardinals and noblemen. In short,
having his mind incessantly occupied, and being always surrounded by
sculptors, masters in stucco, wood-carvers, seamsters, embroiderers,
painters, gilders, and other suchlike craftsmen, he had never an hour of
repose; and the only happiness and contentment that he knew in this life
was to find himself at times with some of his friends at a tavern, which
was his favourite haunt in all the places where it fell to his lot to
live, considering that this was the true blessedness and peace of this
world, and the only repose from his labours. And thus, having ruined his
constitution by the fatigues of his art and by his excesses in eating
and in love, he was attacked by asthma, which, sapping his strength
little by little, finally caused him to sink into consumption; and one
evening, while talking with a friend near his house, he fell dead of an
apoplectic seizure in his forty-seventh year. At this many craftsmen
felt infinite sorrow, it being a truly great loss that art suffered; and
he received honourable burial from his son-in-law, M. Gioseffo Cincio,
the physician of Madama, and from his wife, in the Chapel of S. Giuseppe
in the Ritonda at Rome, with the following epitaph:
PERINO BONACCURSIO VAGAE FLORENTINO, QUI INGENIO ET ARTE
SINGULARI EGREGIOS CUM PICTORES PERMULTOS, TUM PLASTAS OMNES
FACILE SUPERAVIT, CATHERINA PERINI CONJUGI, LAVINIA BONACCURSIA
PARENTI, JOSEPHUS CINCIUS SOCERO CARISSIMO ET OPTIMO FECERE.
VIXIT ANN. 46, MEN. 3, DIES 21. MORTUUS EST 14 CALEND. NOVEMB.
ANN. CHRIST. 1547.
The place of Perino was filled by Daniello of Volterra, who had worked
much with him, and who finished the two other Prophets that are in the
Chapel of the Crocifisso in S. Marcello. Daniello has also adorned a
chapel in S. Trinita most beautifully with stucco-work and painting, for
Signora Elena Orsina; with many other works, of which mention will be
made in the proper place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account