The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 1 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth CenturyLanzi, Luigi
History
The History of Painting in Italy, Vol. 1 (of 6): From the Period of the Revival of the Fine Arts to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Lanzi, Luigi
Painting -- Italy -- History
Vasari relates of Ugolino Senese, that he was a tenacious
follower of the Greek style, and inclined more to imitate Cimabue than
Giotto. He does not on this account, indeed, expressly say, that he had
been his scholar; he rather hints that he had other instructors at
Siena, for which reason it will be better to consider him under that
school, there being no reason to doubt that he belonged to it. In that
of Bologna we should also class Oderigo, who, as a miniature painter,
was more likely to employ some other master than a painter in fresco
like Cimabue. In the mean time it is useful to reflect, that were the
method of Baldinucci to be pursued, nothing authentic would remain in a
history of painting; and the schools of the early masters would increase
beyond all limits, were the scholars of each master to be confounded
with his friends, acquaintances, and contemporaries, who paid attention
to his maxims.
It is still more strange to peruse the account of the connexion between
the first and secondary branches of the tree, or if one may use the
expression, between the children and grandchildren of Cimabue. There is
nothing natural in their succession, and the labour is wholly useless
which derives the professors of every fine art, of whatever country,
past, present, and to come, from one individual. F. Ristoro and F. Sisto
were eminent architects, who rebuilt the grand bridges of the Carraja
and the Holy Trinity, about 1264, when Cimabue was twenty-four years of
age. Baldinucci writes of both, that they were, perhaps, disciples or
imitators of Arnolfo, from the state of their works. But how comes he to
found on a _perhaps_, what he, a little before, had vaunted as a _clear
demonstration_? And then, on what does this _perhaps_ rest? Is it not
more probable that Arnolfo, and Cimabue himself, imitated them? That Fra
Mino da Turrita should appear in his tree as a scholar of Tafi, and as
posterior to Cimabue, is no less absurd. In 1225, a date omitted by
Baldinucci, Mino wrought in mosaic at Florence, fifteen years before
Cimabue was born. In his old age he commenced a similar work in the
cathedral of Pisa, "in the same style in which he had executed his other
labours," says Vasari, who adds, that Tafi and Gaddi (both his inferiors
in age and reputation) assisted him. The work was "little more than
begun," from which we may infer that they were not long associated. It
seems to me extraordinary how Baldinucci could assert, "it appears that
Vasari imagined that Mino was the pupil of Andrea Tafi," which is
contrary to fact: instead of the "_clear demonstration_," which he
promised, he has amused us with "_it appears_," which is evident only to
himself. At length, wishing to make us believe that Giovanni Pisano the
sculptor is a _pupil_ of Giotto the painter, he again turns to Vasari,
from whom he brings evidence that Giovanni, having completed his work in
the cathedral of Arezzo, and being then established at Orvieto, came to
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