Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il SodomaVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il Sodoma
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Meanwhile, that same Crispo having built in Perugia a new little
church known as S. Maria del Popolo, but first called Del Mercato,
Lattanzio had begun for it an altar-piece in oils, and in this
Cristofano painted with his own hand all the upper part, which is
indeed most beautiful and worthy of great praise. Then, Lattanzio
having been changed from a painter into the Constable of Perugia,
Cristofano returned to S. Giustino, where he stayed many months, again
working for the above-named Lord Abbot Bufolini.
After this, in the year 1543, Giorgio Vasari, having to execute a
panel-picture in oils for the Great Cancelleria by order of the most
illustrious Cardinal Farnese, and another for the Church of S.
Agostino at the commission of Galeotto da Girone, sent for Cristofano,
who went very willingly, as one who had a desire to see Rome. There he
stayed many months, doing little else but go about seeing everything;
but nevertheless he thus gained so much, that, after returning once
more to S. Giustino, he painted in a hall some figures after his own
fancy which were so beautiful, that it appeared that he must have
studied at them twenty years. Then, in the year 1545, Vasari had to go
to Naples to paint for the Monks of Monte Oliveto a refectory
involving much more work than that of S. Michele in Bosco at Bologna,
and he sent for Cristofano, Raffaello dal Colle, and Stefano, already
mentioned as his friends and pupils; and they all came together at the
appointed time in Naples, excepting Cristofano, who remained behind
because he was ill. However, being pressed by Vasari, he made his way
to Rome on his journey to Naples; but he was detained by his brother
Borgognone, who was likewise an exile, and who wished to take him to
France to enter the service of the Colonel Giovanni da Turrino, and so
that occasion was lost. But when Vasari returned from Naples to Rome
in the year 1546, in order to execute twenty-four pictures that were
afterwards sent to Naples and placed in the Sacristy of S. Giovanni
Carbonaro, in which he painted stories from the Old Testament, and
also from the life of S. John the Baptist, with figures of one braccio
or little more, and also in order to paint the doors of the organ of
the Piscopio, which were six braccia in height, he availed himself of
Cristofano, who was of great assistance to him and executed figures
and landscapes in those works excellently well. Giorgio had also
proposed to make use of him in the Hall of the Cancelleria, which was
painted after cartoons by his hand, and entirely finished in a hundred
days, for Cardinal Farnese, but in this he did not succeed, for
Cristofano fell ill and returned to S. Giustino as soon as he had
begun to mend. And Vasari finished the Hall without him, assisted by
Raffaello dal Colle, the Bolognese Giovan Battista Bagnacavallo, the
Spaniards Roviale and Bizzerra, and many others of his friends and
pupils.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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