The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, Volume 1 (of 8)Vasari, Giorgio
History
The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors & Architects, Volume 1 (of 8)
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Maria Novella, signed with his name.
Simone afterwards did three sides of the chapter-house of S. Maria
Novella very successfully. On the first, that over the entrance door,
he did the life of St Domenic; on the next one towards the church he
represented the religious and order of that saint fighting against
the heretics, who are represented by wolves attacking some sheep,
these being defended by a number of dogs, spotted white and black,
the wolves being repulsed and slain. There are also some heretics who
have been convinced in the disputes and are tearing up their books,
and, having repented, they confess, and their souls pass to the gate
of Paradise, in which are many small figures doing various things. In
heaven is seen the glory of the saints and Jesus Christ. In the world
below the pleasures and delights are represented by human figures,
especially some ladies, seated among whom is Petrarch's Laura drawn
from life, clothed in green, with a small flame of fire between her
breast and her throat. There also is the Church of Christ, guarding
which are the Pope, the Emperor, the King, Cardinals, Bishops, and
all the Christian Princes, among them, beside a knight of Rhodes, M.
Francesco Petrarch, also drawn from life, which Simone did in order
to keep green the memory of the man who had made him immortal. For
the Church Universal he made the church of S. Maria del Fiore, not as
it stands to-day, but as he had taken it from the model and design
left by the architect Arnolfo in the Opera, as a guide to those who
were to continue the building after his death. As I have said
elsewhere, no memory of these models would have been preserved,
owing to the negligence of the wardens of S. Maria del Fiore, had not
Simone painted them in this work. On the third side, that of the
altar, he did the Passion of Christ, who is going up from Jerusalem
with the cross on His shoulder, and proceeds to Mount Calvary,
followed by a throng of people, where He is seen raised on the cross
between the thieves, together with the other incidents of that story.
I shall not attempt to describe the presence of a good number of
horses, the throwing of lots by the servants of the court for the
raiment of Christ, the release of the Holy Fathers from limbo, and
all the other clever inventions which would be most excellent in a
modern master and are remarkable in an ancient one. Here he occupies
the entire wall and carefully makes the different scenes, one above
the other, not dividing the separate subjects from one another by
ornaments, as the ancients used to do, and according to the
practice of many moderns, who put the earth above the air four or
five times. This has been done in the principal chapel of the same
church, and in the Campo Santo at Pisa, where Simone painted many
things in fresco, and was compelled against his will to make such
divisions, as the other painters who had worked there, such as Giotto
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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