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
In the year after, 1508, Tiziano published in wood-engraving the
Triumph of Faith, with an infinity of figures; our first Parents, the
Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Sibyls, the Innocents, the Martyrs, the
Apostles, and Jesus Christ borne in Triumph by the four Evangelists
and the Four Doctors, with the Holy Confessors behind. In that work
Tiziano displayed boldness, a beautiful manner, and the power to work
with facility of hand; and I remember that Fra Sebastiano del Piombo,
conversing of this, said to me that if Tiziano had been in Rome at
that time, and had seen the works of Michelagnolo, those of Raffaello,
and the ancient statues, and had studied design, he would have done
things absolutely stupendous, considering the beautiful mastery that
he had in colouring, and that he deserved to be celebrated as the
finest and greatest imitator of Nature in the matter of colour in our
times, and with the foundation of the grand method of design he might
have equalled the Urbinate and Buonarroti. Afterwards, having gone to
Vicenza, Tiziano painted the Judgment of Solomon in fresco, which was
a beautiful work, under the little loggia where justice is
administered in public audience. He then returned to Venice, and
painted the façade of the Grimani. At Padua, in the Church of S.
Antonio, he executed likewise in fresco some stories of the actions of
that Saint, and for that of S. Spirito he painted a little altar-piece
with a S. Mark seated in the midst of certain Saints, in whose faces
are some portraits from life done in oils with the greatest diligence;
which picture many have believed to be by the hand of Giorgione. Then,
a scene having been left unfinished in the Hall of the Great Council
through the death of Giovanni Bellini, wherein Frederick Barbarossa is
kneeling at the door of the Church of S. Marco before Pope Alexander
IV, who places his foot on Barbarossa's neck, Tiziano finished it,
changing many things, and making there many portraits from life of
his friends and others; for which he was rewarded by receiving from
the Senate an office in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, called the Senseria,
which yields three hundred crowns a year. That office those Signori
are accustomed to give to the most excellent painter of their city, on
the condition that he shall be obliged from time to time to paint the
portrait of their Prince or Doge, at his election, for the price of
only eight crowns, which the Prince himself pays to him; which
portrait is afterwards kept, in memory of him, in a public place in
the Palace of S. Marco.
[Illustration: MADONNA WITH SAINTS AND DONOR
(_After the panel by =Tiziano da Cadore=. Ancona: S. Domenico_)
_Anderson_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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