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
subjects from the life of Christ, and the principal picture for the
sacristy, all of which were executed with great care, nothing in
tempera ever leaving his hands before it was perfectly finished; thus
he richly deserved the reward of 600 gold ducats which the delighted
Pope gave to him, bestowing many other favours upon him, so that it
became the talk of all Italy.
As I do not wish to omit a memorable circumstance concerning art, I
will notice here that there happened to be in Rome at this time a
great friend of Giotto named Oderigi d'Aggobbio, an excellent
illuminator of the day, who adorned many books for the Pope for the
palace library, though they are now mostly destroyed by time. In my
own book of old designs there are some remnants by his hand, and he
certainly was a clever artist. But a much better master than he was
Francis, an illuminator of Bologna, who did some very fair things for
the Pope for the same library at that very time, in a like style, as
may be seen in my book, where I have some designs by his hand, both
for painting and illuminations, among them an eagle, excellently
done, and a fine lion tearing up a tree. These two excellent
illuminators are referred to by Dante in the passage on the
vainglorious in the eleventh chapter of the Purgatorio, in these
lines:
"Oh, dissi lui, non se' tu Oderisi
L'onor d'Aggobbio e l'onor di quell' arte
Ch' alluminare e chimata in Parisi?
Frate, diss' egli, piu ridon le carte,
Che pennelleggia Franco Bolognese
L'onor e tutto or suo, e mio in parte."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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