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
For the Duke of Alva Leone has executed a head of the Duke, one of
Charles V, and another of King Philip. For the very reverend Bishop of
Arras, now Grand Cardinal, called Granvella, he has made some pieces
in bronze of an oval form, each of two braccia, with rich borders, and
containing half-length statues; in one is Charles V, in another King
Philip, and in the third the Cardinal himself, portrayed from life,
and all have bases with little figures of much grace. For Signor
Vespasiano Gonzaga he has made in a great bust of bronze the portrait
of Alva, which Gonzaga has placed in his house at Sabbionetto. For
Signor Cesare Gonzaga he has executed, likewise in metal, a statue of
four braccia, which has beneath it another figure that is entwined
with a Hydra, in order to denote his father Don Ferrante, who by his
worth and valour overcame the vicious envy that had sought to bring
him into disgrace with Charles V in the matter of the government of
Milan. This statue, which is clad in a toga and armed partly in the
ancient and partly in the modern fashion, is to be taken to Guastalla
and placed there in memory of that Don Ferrante, a most valorous
captain.
The same Leone has made, as has been told in another place, the tomb
of Signor Giovanni Jacopo Medici, Marquis of Marignano and brother of
Pope Pius IV, which stands in the Duomo of Milan, about twenty-eight
palms in length and forty in height. This tomb is all of Carrara
marble, and adorned with four columns, two of them black and white,
which were sent by the Pope as rare things from Rome to Milan, and two
others, larger, which are of a spotted stone similar to jasper; which
are all accommodated under one and the same cornice, an unusual
contrivance, by the desire of that Pope, who caused the whole work to
be executed after the directions of Michelagnolo, excepting only the
five figures of bronze that are there, which are by the hand of Leone.
The first of these, the largest of them all, is the statue of the
Marquis himself, standing upright and larger than life, which has in
the right hand the baton of a General, and the left hand resting on a
helmet that is on a very richly adorned trunk. On the left of this is
a smaller statue, representing Peace, and on the right another
signifying Military Virtue; and these are seated, and in aspect all
sad and sorrowing. Of the other two, which are on high, one is
Providence and the other Fame; and between them, on the same level, is
a most beautiful Nativity of Christ in bronze, in low-relief. At the
summit of the whole work are two figures of marble, which support that
lord's escutcheon of balls. For this work seven thousand and eight
hundred crowns were paid, according to the agreement made in Rome by
the most illustrious Cardinal Morone and Signor Agabrio Scierbellone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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