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
It is a notable thing that in many of these works, and particularly in
the Office of the Madonna described above, Don Giulio has made some
little figures not larger than very small ants, with all the members
so depicted and distinguished, that more could not have been done in
figures of the size of life; and that everywhere there are dispersed
portraits from nature of men and women, not less like the reality than
if they had been executed, large as life and very natural, by Tiziano
or Bronzino. Besides which, in some ornaments of the borders there
may be seen little figures both nude and in other manners, painted in
the likeness of cameos, which, marvellously small as they are,
resemble in those proportions the most colossal giants; such is the
art and surpassing diligence that Don Giulio uses in his work. Of him
I have wished to give to the world this information, to the end that
those may know something of him who are not or will not be able to see
any of his works, from their being almost all in the hands of great
lords and personages. I say almost all, because I know that some
private persons have in little cases most beautiful portraits by his
hand, of various lords, their friends, or ladies loved by them. But,
however that may be, it is certain that the works of men such as Don
Giulio are not public, nor in places where they can be seen by
everyone, like the pictures, sculptures, and buildings of the other
masters of these our arts.
At the present day Don Giulio, although he is old and does not study
or attend to anything save to seeking the salvation of his soul by
good and holy works and by a life wholly apart from the things of the
world, and is in every way an old man, yet continues constantly to
work at something, there where he lives well attended and in perfect
peace in the Palace of the Farnesi, where he is most courteous in
showing his work with much willingness to all who go to visit and see
him, as they visit the other marvels of Rome.
DIVERS ITALIAN CRAFTSMEN
OF DIVERS ITALIAN CRAFTSMEN STILL LIVING
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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