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IN the country of Prato, distant from Florence ten miles, at a
village called Savignano, was born Bartolommeo, whose name, according
to Tuscan use, was shortened into Baccio. Showing aptitude for
drawing in his childhood, through the mediation of Benedetto da
Maiano he was placed in Cosimo Rosselli's workshop, dwelling for
many years with some of his relatives near the gate of S. Piero
Gattolini, so that he was never known by any other name than Baccio
della Porta. In the same workshop was Mariotto Albertinelli, who
formed such a close intimacy with Baccio della Porta that they
were one soul and one body, and there was such a brotherly friendship
between them that, when Baccio left Cosimo to practise his art
by himself as a master, Mariotto went with him, and there at the
gate of S. Piero Gattolini they lived, producing manv works together.
But as Mariotto was not so well grounded in drawing as Baccio,
he gave himself to the study of the antiquities that were Florence,
the greater number and the which were in the house of the Medici.
garden there was full of antique fragments, the study not of Mariotto
alone, but of all the sculptors and painters of his time. Mariotto
profited greatly by the study of these antiquities, and took service
with Madonna Alfonsina, the mother of Duke Lorenzo, who assistance.
He drew Madonna life very well, and seemed to fortune by being
admitted to her friendship. But in the year 1494, Piero de' Medici
being banished, her aid failed him, and he returned to the house
of Baccio, where he set himself to study from nature, and to imitate
Baccio's works, until in a little while for Baccio's.
Baccio was much assiduous at work, quiet, goodhearted, and Godfearing.
A quiet life pleased him best; he avoided all vicious habits,
delighted in hearing preaching, and sought the company and grave
persons. At this time Fra Savonarola from Ferrara, the famous
of the order of Preaching Friars, was at and Baccio, constantly
frequenting his came into close intercourse with him, and almost
lived at the convent, being joined in friendship with the other
friars also. Fra Girolamo preaching constantly that evil pictures
and amorous books and music tempted men to evil deeds, the people
were heated by his words; and at the Carnival, when it was the
custom to make bonfires on the piazzas, and on the Tuesday evening
to dance round them, Fra Girolamo's influence prevailed so greatly
that they brought to that place pictures and sculpture, many even
from the hands of great masters; and also books, lutes, and songs,
and there was great destruction, especially of pictures. Baccio
brought all the studies and drawings that he had made from nude
figures, and Lorenzo di Credi imitated his example, and many others
also who were known as Piagnoni. Also from the affection he bore
to Fra Girolamo he painted his portrait, which was a most beautiful
work. Afterwards it happened that the contrary party rose against
Fra Girolamo to seize him and deliver him into the hands of justice.
The friends of the friar, being aware of it, assembled in S. Mark's
to the number of more than five hundred, and shut themselves up
there, Baccio being one of them. But being indeed a man of little
courage, or rather, very timid and cowardly, when he heard them
attack the convent, and saw some wounded and killed, he began
to be in great fear, and made a vow that if he escaped he would
assume the religious habit. So when the tumult was over, and the
friar was condemned to death, as historians have related, Baccio
went away to Prato, and made himself a friar of S. Domenic at
that place, as you will find written in the chronicles of the
convent, on the 26th day of July, 1500, to the great grief of
all his friends, who lamented his loss exceedingly, and chiefly
because they had heard that he had made up his mind not to have
anything more to do with painting.
Mariotto, losing his companion, was almost beside himself, and
so strange did it seem that he could take no pleasure in if he
had not always disliked friars, whom he constantly spoke against,
being of the party that was contrary to the faction of Fra Girolamo,
his love for Baccio would have operated so strongly that he would
himself have assumed the cowl in the same convent. But Gerozzo
Dini prayed him to finish a picture of the Judgment which Baccio
had left unfinished, and Fra Bartolommeo entrea$ed him also, having
received money for the picture, and his conscience therefore reproaching
him; so Mariotto applied himself to it, and completed it gence
and earnestness that many would think it was done by one hand
alone.
Afterwards Mariotto, with a his pupils, painted a picture of the
rucufuxion in the Certosa of Florence. But the friars not treating
them in the matter of food to their taste, some of the boys who
were studying with him, without Mariotto knowing anything about
it, contrived to counterfeit the keys of the windows through which
the friars received their pittance into their cells, and secretly,
sometimes from one and sometimes from another, they stole the
food. There were great complaints on the subject among the friars,
for in questions of eating they are as quick to feel as others;
but the boys doing it dexterously, and being supposed honest,
the blame was laid on some of the friars, until at last one day
the thing was found out. Then the friars, that the work might
be finished, consented to give double rations to Mariotto and
his scholars.
Mariotto was a restless person and fond of good living, and taking
a dislike to the mental exertion necessary to painting, being
also often stung by the tongues of other painters, as is their
way, he resolved to give himself to a less laborious and more
jovial profession, and so opened a hostelry outside the gate S.
Gallo, and the tavern of the Dragon at the old bridge. This life
he led for many months, saying that he had taken up an art that
was without muscles, foreshortening or perspective, and what was
better still, without f~ultfinding, and that the art that he had
given up imitated flesh and blood, but made flesh and blood; in
this if you had good wine you heard yourself praised, but
in that every day you were blamed. But at last the low life became
an annoyance to him, and, filled with remorse, he returned to
painting.
After Fra Bartolommeo had been many months at Prato, he was sent
by his superiors to S. Mark's at Florence, where the brethren
received him gladly. And in those days Bernardo del Bianco had
made a chapel in the ab, Florence, and desiring to put a picture
worthy of the ornament, it came into his that Fra Bartolommeo
would be the right and he set all his friends to work to obtain
him. Now Fra Bartolommeo was in the convent, thinking of nothing
but the holy services and his rule, although the prior had prayed
him earnestly, and the friends most dear to him besought him,
to paint something, and already four years had passed since he
had done anything; but now, being pressed by Bernardo del Bianco,
he at last began the picture of the Vision of S. Bernard.
Raffaello da Urbino came art at Florence, and taught the rules
of perspective to Fra Bartolommeo; for Raffaello, being desirous
to colour in the friar's manner, was always with him. Afterwards,
when he heard of the great things that the graceful Raffaello
and Michael Angelo were doing in Rome, Fra Bartolommeo obtained
leave to go there, and being entertained by Fra Mariano del Piombo,
he painted for him two pictures of S. Peter and S. Paul. But because
he could not succeed there as he had done at Florence, being,
as it were, overwhelmed by the ancient and modern works which
he saw in such abundance, he determined to depart, leaving Raffaello
to finish one of the pictures, the S. Peter, which was given to
Fra Mariano, entirely retouched by Raffaello's hand. So he came
back to Florence; and many having reproached him with not being
able to paint the human body, he set himself to work to show he
was as apt at it as any one else, and painted a S. Sebastian,
which received great praise from artists. But the friars removed
it from the church, and it was afterwards sent to the King of
France.
Fra Bartolommeo held that it was best when you were working to
have the things before you, and for the draperies and armour,
and such things, he made a model of wood as large as life, with
joints, and clothed it with garments, by which he accomplished
great things, being able at his pleasure to keep them without
being moved until he had finished his work.
While he was painting for Pietro Soderini, in the Council Hall,
it happened that he had to work under a window, and the light
striking upon him constantly, he was paralysed on that side, and
could not move himself. He was advised, therefore, to go to the
baths of S. Filippo, where he stayed a long time, but to little
purpose. Fra Bartolommeo was very fond of fruit, but it was hurtful
to him; and one morning, having eaten a great many figs, he was
taken with a violent fever, which cut short his life in four days,
at the age of fortyeight. His friends, and especially the friars,
mourned him much, and they gave him honourable burial in S. Mark's.
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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