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
therefore having little wherewith to live or to maintain himself in
Rome, used to spend two or three days every week in assisting some
painter with his work; and with his earnings, since at that time masters
were well paid and living was cheap, he was able to live the other days
of the week, pursuing the studies of architecture. Thus, then, he drew
all those antiquities as if they were complete, reconstructing them in
his drawings from the parts and members that he saw, from which he
imagined all the other parts of the buildings in all their perfection
and integrity, and all with such true measurements and proportions,
that he could not make an error in a single detail.
Having returned to Verona, and finding no opportunity of exercising
himself in architecture, since his native city was in the throes of a
change of government, Giovan Maria gave his attention for the time to
painting, and executed many works. On the house of the Della Torre
family he painted a large escutcheon crowned by some trophies; and for
two German noblemen, counsellors of the Emperor Maximilian, he executed
in fresco some scenes from the Scriptures on a wall of the little Church
of S. Giorgio, and painted there life-size portraits of those two
Germans, one kneeling on one side and one on the other. He executed a
number of works at Mantua, for Signor Luigi Gonzaga; and some others at
Osimo, in the March of Ancona. And while the city of Verona was under
the Emperor, he painted the imperial arms on all the public buildings,
and received for this from the Emperor a good salary and a patent of
privilege, from which it may be seen that many favours and exemptions
were granted to him, both on account of his good service in matters of
art, and because he was a man of great spirit, brave and formidable in
the use of arms, with which he might likewise be expected to give
valiant and faithful service: and all the more because he drew after
him, on account of the great credit that he had with his neighbours, the
whole mass of the people who lived in the Borgo di San Zeno, a very
populous part of the city, in which he had been born and had taken a
wife from the family of the Provali. For these reasons, then, he had all
the inhabitants of his district as his following, and was called
throughout the city by no other name but that of the "Red-head of San
Zeno."
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account