Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the FlemingsVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the Flemings
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Liking the manner of this painter, and his procedure in every matter,
the King sent him in the year 1540 to Rome, to contrive to obtain
certain antique marbles; in which Primaticcio served him with such
diligence, that in a short time, what with heads, torsi, and figures,
he bought one hundred and twenty-five pieces. And at that same time he
caused to be moulded by Jacopo Barozzi of Vignuola, and by others, the
bronze horse that is on the Campidoglio, a great part of the scenes on
the Column, the statue of Commodus, the Venus, the Laocoon, the
Tiber, the Nile, and the statue of Cleopatra, which are in the
Belvedere; to the end that they might all be cast in bronze. Rosso
having meanwhile died in France, and a long gallery therefore
remaining unfinished which had been begun after his designs and in
great part adorned with stucco-work and pictures, Primaticcio was
recalled from Rome; whereupon he took ship with the above-mentioned
marbles and moulds of antique figures, and returned to France. There,
before any other thing, he cast according to those moulds and forms a
great part of those antique figures, which came out so well, that they
might be the originals; as may be seen in the Queen's garden at
Fontainebleau, where they were placed, to the vast satisfaction of
that King, who made in that place, one might say, another Rome. I will
not omit to say that Primaticcio, in executing those statues, employed
masters so excellent in the art of casting, that those works came out
not only light, but with a surface so smooth, that it was hardly
necessary to polish them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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