Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero — John Shaqi
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo ZuccheroVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Then, hearing once much praise spoken of the facades executed by
Polidoro and Maturino at Rome, without anyone knowing about it he went
off to that city, where he stayed some months and made some copies,
gaining such proficience in matters of art, that he afterwards proved
himself in many works a passing good painter. Wherefore the Chevalier
Buondelmonte commissioned him to paint in chiaroscuro a house that he
had built opposite to S. Trinita, at the beginning of the Borgo S.
Apostolo; wherein Jacone painted stories from the life of Alexander the
Great, very beautiful in certain parts, and executed with so much grace
and design, that many believe that the designs for the whole work were
made for him by Andrea del Sarto. To tell the truth, from the proof of
his powers that Jacone gave in that work, it was thought that he was
likely to produce some great fruits. But, since he always had his mind
set more on giving himself a good time and every possible amusement,
living in a round of suppers and feastings with his friends, than on
studying and working, he was for ever forgetting rather than learning.
And that which was a thing to laugh at or to pity, I know not which, was
that he belonged to a company, or rather, gang, of friends who, under
the pretence of living like philosophers, lived like swine and
brute-beasts; they never washed their hands, or face, or head, or beard;
they did not sweep their houses, and never made their beds save only
once every two months; they laid their tables with the cartoons for
their pictures, and they drank only from the flask or the jug; and this
miserable existence of theirs, living, as the saying goes, from hand to
mouth, was held by them to be the finest life in the world. But, since
the outer man is wont to be a guide to the inner, and to reveal what our
minds are, I believe, as has been said before, that they were as filthy
and brutish in mind as their outward appearance suggested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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