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THERE ARE some unhappy men who, having striven by labour and study
to produce work profitable to others which will keep their names
in memory, are prevented by infirmity or death from bringing their
work to perfection. And often it happens that their works left
unfinished are appropriated by others, who seek thus to hide their
ass's hide under the lion's skin. So it befell Piero della Francesca
dal Borgo S. Sepolcro, a great master in perspective, arithmetic,
and geometry, who was prevented by blindness in his old age from
bringing to light the books he had written. And he who, having
learnt all he knew from him, ought to have used all his powers
to win for him glory and a great name, sought instead to conceal
the name of Piero his preceptor, and to usurp his honour, by publishing
the good old man's works under his own name, that of Fra Luca
dal Borgo.
Piero was born in Borgo S. Sepolcro, now a city, but not so at
that time, and he was called della Francesca after his mother,
because his father was dead before he was born, and it was she
who brought him up, and aided him to attain to the rank he reached.
Piero studied mathematics in his youth, and although from the
age of fifteen he became a painter, he never gave up his mathematical
studies, and his productions brought him so much credit that he
was employed by the Duke of Urbino, and left in that place many
of his writings on geometry and perspective, which are inferior
to none of his time.
Afterwards, being fetched to Rome by Nicholas V, he painted in
his palace two pictures, which were afterwards destroyed by Pope
Julius II, that Raffaello might paint there the imprisonment of
S. Peter. Thence ~e went to Loreto, and painted there in company
with Domenico Veneziano; but the plague breaking out, he left
his work unfinished, and it was afterwards completed by Luca of
Cortona his pupil. From Loreto he went to Arezzo, where he painted
the whole history of the Cross, from the time when the sons of
Adam, laying him in the tomb, placed under his tongue the seeds
of the tree from which the cross sprang, to the exaltation of
the Cross by the Emperor Heraclius.
Piero was, as we have said, most studious in his art, and had
a good knowledge of Euclid, so that Maestro Luca dal Borgo, who
wrote on geometry, was his pupil. Lorentino d'Angelo was also
his pupil, and finished the works that he left incomplete at his
death. There is a story told of this Lorentino that once when
the carnival was near his children kept begging him to kill a
pig, as the custom was in those parts. Then, remembering that
he had no money, they said, "What will father do to buy the
pig without money?" To which he replied "Some saint
will help us." But when he had said this many times and no
pig appeared, their hopes began to fail. But at last there came
a countryman who, to fulfil a vow, wanted a S. Martin painted,
but had nothing to give for the picture but a pig that was worth
five lire. When Lorentino heard this he said he would paint the
picture, and would take nothing but the pig for it. Lorentino
painted the saint, and the countryman brought the pig, and so
the saint provided the pig for the poor children.
Piero Perugino was also his pupil, but the one who did him most
honour was Luca Signorelli of Cortona. For Luca Signorelli was
in his time as famous a painter in Italy as any one has ever been.
While he worked in Arezzo with Piero, dwelling in the house of
Lazzaro Vasari his uncle, he imitated the manner of Piero his
master, so that one could be hardly known from the other. His
first works were in Arezzo, where he painted in many churches.
There is a S. Michael weighing souls, which is admirable, and
in which may be seen his power in painting the splendour of armour
with all the reflections of light. Having come to Florence to
see the works of the masters there, he painted on a canvas some
of the old gods, which were much admired, and a picture of our
Lady, and presented them both to Lorenzo, who would never be surpassed
by any one in magnificent liberality.
In the principal church of Orvieto he completed the chapel begun
by Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, painting the story of the end of the
world with a strange and fantastical imagination; with angels,
demons, earthquakes, fire, and ruin, together with many beautiful
figures, and essaying to represent the terror of the last tremendous
day. So that I do not marvel that Luca's works were always highly
praised by Michael Angelo, nor that some things in his own divine
Judgment were taken in part from Luca, such as angels, demons,
the order of the heavens, and other things in which he imitated
him, as any one can see.
It is told of him that when one of his sons whom he loved much
was killed at Cortona, being very beautiful in face and form,
Luca in the midst of his grief set himself with great constancy
to paint his portrait, shedding no tears, nor giving way to grief,
that he might always see through the work of his hands him whom
nature had given to him and adverse fortune taken from him.
At last, having produced works for almost all the princes of Italy,
he returned to Cortona, and in his last years worked rather for
pleasure than anything else. Thus in his old age he painted a
picture for the nuns of Santa Margherita in Arezzo, and another
for the company of S. Girolamo, which was borne from Cortona to
Arezzo on the shoulders of men of the company. Luca, old as he
was, came to put it up, desiring again also to see his friends
and relations. He lodged in the house of the Vasari; I was then
a little boy of eight years old, and I remember how the good old
man, who was very courteous and gracious, having heard from the
master who gave me my first instruction that I attended to nothing
at school but drawing figures, I remember, I say, how he turned
to Antonio, my father, and said, "Antonio, let Giorgino learn
to draw by all means, for even if later he takes to literature,
drawing will still be of use and honour and profit to him, as
it is to all men." Then turning to me, as I was standing
in front of him, he said, "Study, little kinsman," adding
many other things of which I will say nothing, because I know
I have not confirmed the opinion which the good old man had of
me. When he heard that I suffered from noscbleeding to such a
degree that I was often left half dead, he with great tenderness
hung a piece of jasper round my neck, and this remembrance of
Luca is for ever fixed in my mind.
So having put the picture in its place, he returned to Cortona,
accompanied for a great distance by many of the citizens and of
his friends and relatives.
Source. These texts were at http://ubmail.ubalt.edu/~pfitz/ART/REN/VASARI.HTM,but
vanished from the net, and so they have been restored here.
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors &
architects, by Giorgio Vasari: newly tr. by Gaston du C. de Vere. With five hundred
illustraiions, London, Macmillan and & The Medici society, 1912-15.
Other translations include:
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. The lives of the painters, sculptors and architects. London, J. M. Dent; New York, Dutton [1949-50]).
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the most eminent painters, sculptors,
and architects. Abridged from the translation by Gaston DuC. DeVere. Edited, with an
introd., by Robert N. Linscott. New York, Modern Library [1959].
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the artists. Selected and translated by
E.L. Seeley. Introd. by Alfred Werner. (New York, Noonday Press, [1965, c1957]).
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. Lives of the artists; a selection translated by
George Bull. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Eng. : Penguin Books, 1987.
Vasari, Giorgio, 1511-1574. The lives of the artists; translated with an
introduction and notes by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. (Oxford ; New
York : Oxford University Press, 1991.).
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