Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects 1550 (2nd. ed. 1568) (Preface to the Second Part)
Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
WHEN FIRST I UNDERTOOK to write these Lives, it
was not my intention to make a list of the craftsmen, and an inventory, so
to speak, of their works, nor did I ever judge it a worthy end for these
my labors--I will not call them beautiful, but certainly long and
fatiguing--to discover their numbers, their names, and their countries,
and to tell in what cities, and in what places exactly in those cities,
their pictures, or sculptures, or buildings were now to be found; for this
I could have done with a simple table, without interposing my own judgment
in any part. But seeing that the writers of history--those of them who,
by common consent, are reputed to have written with the best
judgment--have not only refused to content themselves with the simple
narration of the succession of events, but, with all diligence and with
the greatest power of research at their disposal, have set about
investigating the methods, the means, and the ways that men of mark have
used in the management of their enterprises; and seeing that they have
striven to touch on their errors, and at the same time on their fine
achievements and on the expedients and resolutions sometimes wisely
adopted in their government of affairs, and on everything, in short, that
these men have effected therein, sagaciously or negligently, or with
prudence, or piety, or magnanimity; which these writers have done as men
who knew history to be truly the mirror of human life, not in order to
make a succinct narration of the events that befell a Prince or a
Republic, but in order to observe the judgments, the counsels, the
resolutions, and the intrigues of men, leading subsequently to fortunate
and unfortunate actions; for this is the true soul of history, and is that
which truly teaches men to live and makes them wise, and which, besides
the pleasure that comes from seeing past events as present, is the true
end of that art; for this reason, having undertaken to write the history
of the most noble craftsmen, in order to assist the arts in so far as my
powers permit, and besides that to honor them, I have held to the best of
my ability, in imitation of men so able, to the same method, and I have
striven not only to say what these craftsmen have done, but also, in
treating of them, to distinguish the better from the good and the best
from the better, and to note with no small diligence the methods, the
feeling, the manners, the characteristics, and the fantasies of the
painters and sculptors; seeking with the greatest diligence in my power to
make known, to those who do not know this for themselves, the causes and
origins of the various manners and of that amelioration and that
deterioration of the arts which have come to pass at diverse times and
through diverse persons. And because at the beginning of these Lives I
spoke of the nobility and antiquity of these arts, in so far as it was
then necessary for our subject, leaving on one side many things from Pliny
and other authors whereof I could have availed myself, had I not
wished--contrary, perhaps, to the judgment of many--to leave each man free
to see the fantasies of others in their proper sources; it appears to me
expedient to do at present that which, in avoidance of tedium and
prolixity (mortal enemies of attention), it was not permitted me to do
then--namely, to declare more diligently my mind and intention, and to
demonstrate to what end I have divided this book of the Lives into Three Parts.
Now it is true that greatness in the arts springs
in one man from diligence, in another from study, in this man from
imitation, in that man from knowledge of the sciences, which all render
assistance to the arts, and in some from all the aforesaid sources
together, or from the greater part of them; yet I, none the less, having
discoursed sufficiently, in the Lives of the individuals, of their methods
of art, their manners, and the causes of their good, better, and best
work, will discourse of this matter in general terms, and rather of the
characteristics of times than of persons; having made a distinction and
division, in order not to make too minute a research, into Three Parts, or
we would rather call them ages, from the second birth of these arts up to
the century wherein we live, by reason of that very manifest difference
that is seen between one and another of them. In the first and most
ancient age these three arts are seen to have been very distant from their
perfection, and, although they had something of the good, to have been
accompanied by so great imperfection that they certainly do not merit too
great praise; although, seeing that they gave a beginning and showed the
path and method to the better work that followed later, if for no other
reason, we cannot but speak well of them and give them a little more glory
than the works themselves have merited, were we to judge them by the
perfect standard of art.
Next, in the second, it is manifestly seen that
matters were much improved, both in the inventions and in the use of more
design, better manner, and greater diligence, in their execution; and
likewise that the rust of age and the rudeness and disproportion,
wherewith the grossness of that time had clothed them, were swept
away. But who will be bold enough to say that there was to be found at
that time one who was in every way perfect, and who brought his work,
whether in invention, or design, or coloring, to the standard of today,
and contrived the sweet gradation of his figures with the deep shades of
color, in a manner that the lights remained only on the parts in relief,
and likewise contrived those perforations and certain extraordinary
refinements in marble statuary that are seen in the statues of today? The
credit of this is certainly due to the third age, wherein it appears to me
that I can say surely that art has done everything that it is possible for
her, as an imitator of nature, to do, and that she has climbed so high
that she has rather to fear a fall to a lower height than to ever hope for
more advancement.
Having pondered over these things intently in my
own mind, I judge that it is the peculiar and particular nature of these
arts to go on improving little by little from a humble beginning, and
finally to arrive at the height of perfection; and of this I am persuaded
by seeing that almost the same thing came to pass in other faculties,
which is no small argument in favor of its truth, seeing that there is a
certain degree of kinship between all the liberal arts. Now this must
have happened to painting and sculpture in former times in such similar
fashion, that, if the names were changed round, their histories would be
exactly the same. For if we can put faith in those who lived near those
times and could see and judge the labors of the ancients, it is seen that
the statues of Canachus were very stiff and without any vivacity or move
ment, and therefore very distant from the truth; and the same is said of
those of Calamis, although they were somewhat softer than those
aforesaid. Then came Myron, who was no very close imitator of the truth
of nature, but gave so much proportion and grace to his works that they
could be reasonably called beautiful.
There followed in the third degree Polycletus and the other so famous masters, who, as it is
said and must be believed, made them entirely perfect. The same progress must have also
come about in painting, because it is said, and it is reasonable to
suppose that it was so, that in the works of those who painted with only
one color, and were therefore called Monochromatists, there was no great
perfection. Next, in the works of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, Timanthes, and the
others who used only four colors, there is nothing but praise for their
lineaments, outlines, and forms; yet without doubt, they must have left
something to be desired. But in Erion, Nicomachus, Protogenes, and
Apelles, everything is perfect and most beautiful, and nothing better can
be imagined, seeing that they painted most excellently not only the forms
and actions of bodies, but also the emotions and passions of the soul.
But, passing these men by, since for knowledge of
them we must refer to others, who very often do not agree in their
judgments on them, or even, what is worse, as to the dates, although in
this I have followed the best authorities; let us come to our own times,
wherein we have the help of the eye, a much better guide and judge than
the ear. Is it not clearly seen how great improvement was acquired by
architecture--to begin with one starting point--from the time of the Greek
Buschetto to that of the German Arnolfo and of Giotto? See the buildings
of those times, and the pilasters, the columns, the bases, the capitals,
and all the cornices, with their ill-formed members, such as there are in
Florence, in Santa Maria del Fiore, in the external incrustations of San
Giovanni, and in San Miniato sul Monte; in the Vescovado of Fiesole, in
the Duomo of Milan, in San Vitale at Ravenna, in Santa Maria Maggiore at
Rome, and in the Duomo Vecchio without Arezzo; wherein, excepting that
little of the good which survived in the ancient fragments, there is
nothing that has good order or form. But these men certainly improved it
not a little, and under their guidance it made no small progress, seeing
that they reduced it to better proportion, and made their buildings not
only stable and stout, but also in some measure ornate, although it is
true that their ornamentation was confused and very imperfect, and, so to
speak, not greatly ornamental. For they did not observe that measure and
proportion in the columns that the art required, or distinguish one Order
from another, whether Doric, Corinthian, Ionic, or Tuscan, but mixed them
all together with a rule of their own that was no rule, making them very
thick or very slender, as suited them best; and all their inventions came
partly from their own brains, and partly from the relics of the
antiquities that they saw; and they made their plans partly by copying the
good, and partly by adding thereunto their own fancies, which, when the
walls were raised, had a very different appearance. Nevertheless,
whosoever compares their works with those before them will see in them an
improvement in every respect, although he will also see some things that
give no little displeasure to our own times; as, for example, some little
temples of brick, wrought over with stucco, at San Giovanni Laterano in
Rome.
The same do I say of sculpture, which, in that
first age of its new birth, had no little of the good; for after the
extinction of the rude Greek manner, which was so uncouth that it was more
akin to the art of quarrying than to the genius of the craftsmen--their
statues being entirely without folds, or attitudes, or movement of any
kind, and truly worthy to be called stone images--when design was
afterwards improved by Giotto, many men also improved the figures in
marble and stone, as did Andrea Pisano and his son Nino and his other
disciples, who were much better than the early sculptors and gave their
statues more movement and much better attitudes; as also did those two
Sienese masters, Agostino and Agnolo, who made the tomb of Guido, Bishop
of Arezzo, as it has been said, and those Germans who made the facade at
Orvieto. It is seen, then, that during this time sculpture made a little
progress, and that there was given a somewhat better form to the figures,
with a more beautiful flow of folds in the draperies, and sometimes a
better air in the heads and certain attitudes not so stiff; and finally,
that it had begun to seek the good, but was nevertheless lacking in
innumerable respects, seeing that design was in no great perfection at
that time and there was little good work seen that could be
imitated. Wherefore those masters who lived at that time, and were put by
me in the First Part of the book, deserve to be thus praised and to be
held in that credit which the works made by them merit, if only one
considers--as is also true of the works of the architects and painters of
those times--that they had no help from the times before them, and had to
find the way by themselves; and a beginning, however small, is ever
worthy of no small praise.
Nor did painting encounter much better fortune in
those times, save that, being then more in vogue by reason of the devotion
of the people, it had more craftsmen and therefore made more evident
progress than the other two. Thus it is seen that the Greek manner, first
through the beginning made by Cimabue, and then with the aid of Giotto,
was wholly extinguished; and there arose a new one, which I would fain
call the manner of Giotto, seeing that it was discovered by him and by his
disciples, and then universally revered and imitated by all. By this
manner, as we see, there were swept away the outlines that wholly enclosed
the figures, and those staring eyes, and the feet stretched on tiptoe, and
the pointed hands, with the absence of shadow and the other monstrous
qualities of those Greeks; and good grace was given to the heads, and
softness to the coloring. And Giotto, in particular, gave better
attitudes to his figures, and revealed the first effort to give a certain
liveliness to the heads and folds to his draperies, which drew more
towards nature than those of the men before him; and he discovered, in
part, something of the gradation and foreshortening of figures. Besides
this, he made a beginning with the expression of emotions, so that fear,
hope, rage, and love could in some sort be recognized; and he reduced his
manner, which at first was harsh and rough, to a certain degree of
softness; and although he did not make the eyes with that beautiful
roundness that makes them lifelike, and with the tear-channels that
complete them, and the hair soft, and the beards feathery, and the hands
with their due joints and muscles, and the nudes true to life, let him
find excuse in the difficulty of the art and in the fact that he saw no
better painters than himself; and let all remember, amid the poverty of
art in those times, the excellence of judgment in his stories, the
observation of feeling, and the subordination of a very ready natural
gift, seeing that his figures were subordinate to the part that they had
to play. And thereby it is shown that he had a very good, if not a
perfect judgment; and the same is seen in the others after him, as in the
coloring of Taddeo Gaddi, who is both sweeter and stronger, giving better
tints to the flesh and better color to the draperies, and more boldness to
the movements of his figures. In Simone Sanese there is seen dignity in
the composition of stories; and Stefano the Ape and his son Tommaso
brought about great improvement and perfection in design, invention in
perspective, and harmony and unlty in coloring, ever maintaining the
manner of Giotto.
The same was done for mastery and dexterity of
handling by Spinello Aretino and his son Parri, Jacopo di Casentino,
Antonio Viniziano, Lippo, Gherardo Stamina, and the other painters who
labored after Giotto, following his feeling, lineaments, coloring, and
manner, and even improving them somewhat, but not so much as to make it
appear that they were aiming at another goal. Whosoever considers this my
discourse, therefore, will see that these three arts were up to this time,
so to speak, only sketched out, and lacking in much of that perfection
that was their due; and in truth, without further progress, this
improvement was of little use and not to be held in too great
account. Nor would I have anyone believe that I am so dull and so poor in
judgment that I do not know that the works of Giotto, of Andrea Pisano, of
Nino, and of all the others, whom I have put together in the First Part by
reason of their similarity of manner, if compared with those of the men
who labored after them, do not deserve extraordinary or even mediocre
praise; or that I did not see this when I praised them. But whosoever
considers the character of those times, the dearth of craftsmen, and the
difficulty of finding good assistance, will hold them not merely
beautiful, as I have called them, but miraculous, and will take infinite
pleasure in seeing the first beginnings and those sparks of excellence
that began to be rekindled in painting and sculpture.
The victory of Lucius Marcius in Spain was
certainly not so great that the Romans did not have many much greater; but
in consideration of the time, the place, the circumstances, the men, and
the numbers, it was held stupendous, and even today it is held worthy of
the infinite and most abundant praises that are given to it by
writers. To me, likewise, by reason of all the aforesaid considerations,
it has appeared that these masters deserve to be not only described by me
with all diligence, but praised with that love and confidence wherewith I
have done it. Nor do I think that it can have been wearisome to my
brother-craftsmen to read these their Lives, and to consider their manners
and methods, and from this, perchance, they will derive no little
profit; which will be right pleasing to me, and I will esteem it a good
reward for my labors, wherein I have sought to do nought else but give
them profit and delight to the best of my power.
And now that we have weaned these three arts, to
use such a fashion of speaking, and brought them through their childhood,
there comes their second age, wherein there will be seen infinite
improvement in everything; invention more abundant in figures, and richer
in ornament; more depth and more lifelike reality in design; some
finality, moreover, in the works, which are executed thoughtfully and with
diligence, al though with too little mastery of handling; with more grace
in manner and more loveliness in coloring, so that little is wanting for
the reduction of everything to perfection and for the exact imitation of
the truth of nature. Wherefore, with the study and the diligence of the
great Filippo Brunelleschi, architecture first recovered the measures and
proportions of the ancients, both in the round columns and in the square
pilasters, and in the cornerstones both rough and smooth; and then one
Order was distinguished from another, and it was shown what differences
there were between them. It was ordained that all works should proceed by
rule, should be pursued with better ordering, and should be distributed
with due measure. Design grew in strength and depth; good grace was given
to buildings; the excellence of that art made itself known; and the beauty
and variety of capitals and cornices were recovered in such a manner, that
the groundplans of his churches and of his other edifices are seen to have
been very well conceived, and the buildings themselves ornate,
magnificent, and beautifully proportioned, as it may be seen in the
stupendous mass of the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, and in
the beauty and grace of its lantern; in the ornate, varied, and graceful
Church of Santo Spirito, and in the no less beautiful edifice of San
Lorenzo; in the most bizarre invention of the octagonal Temple of the
Angeli; in the most fanciful Church and Convent of the Abbey of Fiesole,
and in the magnificent and vast beginning of the Pitti Palace; besides the
great and commodious edifice that Francesco di Giorgio made in the Palace
and Church of the Duomo at Urbino, and the very strong and rich Castle of
Naples, and the impregnable Castle of Milan, not to mention many other
notable buildings of that time.
And although there were not therein that delicacy
and a certain exquisite grace and finish in the moldings, and certain
refinements and beauties in the carving of the leaf age and in making
certain extremities in the foliage, and other points of perfection, which
all came later, as it will be seen in the Third Part, wherein there will
follow those who will attain to all that perfection, whether in grace, or
refinement, or abundance, or dexterity, to which the old architects did
not attain; none the less, they can be safely called beautiful and
good. I do not call them yet perfect, because later there was seen
something better in that art, and it appears to me that I can reasonably
affirm that there was something wanting in them. And although there are in
them some parts so miraculous that nothing better has yet been done in
our own times, nor will be, peradventure, in times to come, such as, for
example, the lantern of the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore, and, in point
of grandeur, the cupola itself, wherein Filippo was emboldened not only to
equal the ancients in the extent of their structures, but also to excel
them in the height of the walls; yet we are speaking generically and
universally, and we must not deduce the excellence of the whole from the
goodness and perfection of one thing alone.
This I can also say of painting and sculpture,
wherein very rare works of the masters of that second age may still be
seen today, such as those in the Carmine by Masaccio, who made a naked man
shivering with cold, and lively and spirited figures in other
pictures; but in general they did not attain to the perfection of the
third, whereof we will speak at the proper time, it being necessary now to
discourse of the second, whose craftsmen, to speak first of the sculptors,
advanced so far beyond the manner of the first and improved it so greatly,
that they left little to be done by the third. They had a manner of their
own, so much more graceful and more natural, and so much richer in order,
in design, and in proportion, that their statues began to appear almost
like living people, and no longer figures of stones, like those of the
first age; and to this those works bear witness that were wrought in that
new manner, as it will be seen in this Second Part, among which the
figures of Jacopo della Quercia have more movement, more grace, more design,
and more diligence; those of Filippo, a more beautiful knowledge of
muscles, better proportion, and more judgment; and so, too, those of their
disciples. But the greatest advance came from Lorenzo Ghiberti in the work
of the gates of San Giovanni, wherein he showed such invention, order,
manner, and design, that his figures appear to move and to have
souls. But as for Donato [Donatello], although he lived in their time, I
am not wholly sure whether I ought not to place him in the third age,
seeing that his works challenge comparison with the good works of the
ancients; but this I will say, that he can be called the pattern of the
others in this second age, having united in his own self all the qualities
that were divided singly among many, for he brought his figures to actual
motion, giving them such vivacity and liveliness that they can stand
beside the works of today, and, as I have said, beside the ancient as
well.
The same advance was made at this time by
painting, from which that most excellent Masaccio swept away completely
the manner of Giotto in the heads, the draperies, the buildings, the
nudes, the coloring, and the foreshortenings, all of which he made new,
bringing to light that modern manner which was followed in those times and
has been followed up to our own day by all our craftsmen, and enriched and
embellished from time to time with better grace, invention, and
ornament; as it will be seen more particularly in the Life of each master,
wherein there will appear a new manner of coloring, of foreshortenings,
and of natural attitudes, with much better expression for the emotions of
the soul and the gestures of the body, and an attempt to approach closer
to the truth of nature in draughtsmanship, and an effort to give to the
expressions of the faces so complete a resemblance to the living men, that
it might be known for whom they were intended. Thus they sought to
imitate that which they saw in nature, and no more, and thus their works
came to be better planned and better conceived; and this emboldened them
to give rules to their perspectives and to foreshorten them in a natural
and proper form, just as they did in relief; and thus, too, they were ever
observing lights and shades, the projection of shadows, and all the other
difficulties, and the composition of stories with more characteristic
resemblance , and attempted to give more reality to landscapes, trees,
herbs, flowers, skies, clouds, and other objects of nature, insomuch that
we may boldly say that these arts were not only reared but actually
carried to the flower of their youth, giving hope of that fruit which
afterwards appeared, and that, in short, they were about to arrive at
their most perfect age.
With the help of God, then, we will begin the Life
of Jacopo della Quercia of Siena, and afterwards those of the other
architects and sculptors, until we come to Masaccio, who, having been the
first to improve design in the art of painting, will show how great an
obligation is owed to him for the new birth that he gave to her. Having
chosen the aforesaid Jacopo for the honor of beginning this Second Part, I
will follow the order of the various manners, and proceed to lay open,
together with the Lives themselves, the difficulties of arts so beautiful,
so difficult, and so highly honored.
|
