Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Jacopo da Puntormo

by Giorgio Vasari

 

THE FLORENTINE PAINTER, JACOPO DA PUNTORMO.^[1]

[born 1494—died 1556.]

The ancestors or forefathers of Bartolommeo di Jacopo di Martino, the father of Jacopo da Puntormo, whose life we are now about to write, derive their origin, according to the assertions of certain authorities, from Ancisa, a fortified place in the Upper Val d’Arno, and which is of some celebrity from having been the birth-place of Messer Francesco Petrarca. But whether it were from that place or from some other that his forefathers came, the above-named Bartolommeo, who was a Florentine, and as I have been told, of the family of the Carucci,^[2] is reported to have been a disciple of Domenico Ghirlandajo, and being a painter of tolerably good repute in those times, he is affirmed to have executed numerous works in the Val d’ Arno.

Having been summoned to Empoli therefore, on a certain occasion, and being there employed in the execution of different works, he took up his abode for some time in that place and its neighbourhood, eventually choosing a wife from Puntormo, Alessandra namely, a virtuous and well-born maiden, the daughter of Pasquale di Zanobi and of Mona Brigida his wife.

To this Bartolommeo, then, there was born in the year 1493, a son, whom he called Jacopo, but the father dying in 1499, the mother in 1504, and the grandfather in 1506, the child was left to the care of Mona Brigida, his grandmother.

With her he resided accordingly for some years at Puntormo, where she caused him to be taught reading, writing, and the first principles of the Latin grammar; but at the age of thirteen, his grandmother took him to Florence, where she placed him under the care of the Court of Minors, to the end that his small property might be managed and preserved by that magistracy, as is the custom. The boy himself Mona Brigida placed in the house of a certain Battista, a cordwainer, who was some sort of distant connection of his family, and having done that she returned to Puntormo, taking with her a sister of Jacopo’s.

But no long time had elapsed before Mona Brigida herself also died, when Jacopo was compelled to take his sister to himself, and accordingly found an abode for her in the house of one of his relations called Niccolaio, who dwelt at Florence in the Via de’ Servi. But even this maiden did not survive to become a wife, she died like the rest of her family, and this happened in the year 1512.

Returning to the personal affairs of Jacopo himself however, I have to relate, that he had not been many months in Florence when he was placed by Bernardo Vettori with Leonardo da Vinci, and a short time afterwards with Mariotto Albertinelli, next with Piero di Cosimo, and finally with Andrea del Sarto, to whom he went in the year 1512. But neither did he stay very long with Andrea; and it would appear that after Jacopo had prepared the cartoons for the arch of the Servites, of which there will be further mention hereafter, he was never regarded with favourable eyes by Andrea del Sarto, whatever the cause may have been.

The first work undertaken by Jacopo at the time of which we are now speaking was a very small picture of the Annunciation, and this he painted for a tailor who was his friend, but the tailor having died before the completion of the painting it was left in the hands of Jacopo, who was then with Mariotto Albertinelli, by whom the picture, of which Mariotto was very proud, was displayed, as something marvellous, to all who entered his workshops.

Now it chanced that in those days Raffaello da TJrbino came to Florence, when he saw this work and the youth who had accomplished it, with infinite amazement, prophesying that Jacopo would ultimately become what he was in fact seen to be.^[3] No long time afterwards, Mariotto having left Florence and gone to Viterbo, there to execute the painting which had been commenced by Fra Bartolommeo, Jacopo, still but a youth, was left without a master. Alone and melancholy, he then went of his own accord to fix himself with Andrea del Sarto; this happened just at the time when the latter had completed those stories from the life of San Filippo which he painted in the court of the Servites, and these works pleased Jacopo, as indeed did all the productions of Andrea, as well as the manner and design of that master.

Devoting himself therefore with the utmost care to the imitation of his teacher, no long time had elapsed before Jacopo was perceived to have made astonishing progress, both in design and colouring, insomuch that the facility he had acquired might have made the observer suppose he had already passed many years in the practice of the art.

It happened about this time that Andrea del Sarto had finished a picture of the Annunciation, for the church of that name, which belongs to the monks of San Gallo, which church has since been destroyed,^[4] as we have related in the life of Andrea; and the predella of this work he gave to Jacopo, whom he directed to paint it in oil. This Jacopo did accordingly, depicting thereon a figure of Our Saviour Christ lying dead, with two little Angels standing beside him weeping, and holding torches in their hands; at each end of this predella, moreover, he painted the figure of a Prophet standing within a circular framework; and these are so ably executed, that they appear not to have been done by a youth but by an experienced master. It is however possible that II Rosso likewise worked at this predella, as II Bronzino assures us he remembers to have been told him by Jacopo da Puntormo himself. But Andrea was not only assisted by Jacopo as regarded the predella, that disciple took part in many other works also, carrying forward and helping to finish many of the panel pictures and paintings of other kinds, numbers of which Andrea continually had on hand.

About this time it was that the Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici was raised to the Supreme Pontificate, and took the name of Leo X, when escutcheons of the arms of that Pontiff were made in vast numbers by his friends and by the adherents of his House in Florence, some in marble or stone,, and others painted, either on cloth or in fresco. The Servite monks, among others, were desirous of having some sign made, whereby they also might give evidence of their service and devotion towards that House and Pontiff, wherefore they caused the arms of Pope Leo to be executed in stone; and this they placed in the centre of the arch over the principal, portico of their church, on that side namely which is turned towards the Piazza. Shortly afterwards, the same monks commissioned the painter Andrea di Cosimo to enrich the abovo-mentioned escutcheon with gilding, and furthermore commanded him to surround the same with decorations of grottesche, of which he was an excellent master, and with the devices of the house of Medici; there were besides to be figures on each side, that of Faith on the one hand namely, and that of Charity on the other.

But Andrea di Cosimo, perceiving well that he should not be able to execute all these things with his own hand, determined to have the figures done by some other artist, and having summoned Jacopo, who was then not more than nineteen years old, he commissioned him to paint those two figures. He had, however, no small difficulty in prevailing on Jacopo to undertake them. Conscious of his youth, the latter was unwilling to subject himself to such a trial, and to begin by a work which was to be exhibited in a place of so much importance: but taking courage at length, although not so well practised in fresco as in oil-painting, Jacopo finally accepted the charge of those figures, and withdrew to prepare the cartoons (he being still with Andrea del Sarto) at Sant’ Antonio, near the Gate of Faenza, where he had his abode.

In a short time he brought them to completion, and having done that, he one day took his master Andrea del Sarto, to see them; the master examined them, accordingly, to his great admiration, and even astonishment. He praised them also in the highest terms, but afterwards, as it is said, whether moved by envy, or from some other cause, he never again could look on Jacopo with a favourable eye, as I have before related; nay, when the youth went afterwards to his workshops, either he found them closed against him, or was so insolently jeered by Andrea’s boys, that he withdrew himself altogether, beginning to live in the most frugal manner, seeing that he was very poor, and to study with the utmost assiduity.

When Andrea di Cosimo had completed the gilding of the escutcheon and had decorated the whole arch, Jacopo set himself, without any assistance, to execute the remainder of the work, when, inspired by the wish to distinguish himself, and by his desire for occupation, being also well aided by Nature, which had endowed him with infinite grace, and an extraordinary fertility of genius, he brought the whole to> completion with remarkable promptitude, and to such perfection, that an old and experienced master, though one of great excellence, could hardly have done it better.

Taking courage from this successful experiment, and thinking he could produce a still better picture, Jacopo formed the resolution, but without saying a word to any one, of destroying all that he had done, and recommencing the work anew, after another design which he had in his thoughts. But the monks, meanwhile, seeing that the work was finished, and that Jacopo came to it no more, repaired to Andrea di Cosimo and urged him so pressingly, that he determined to have the painting uncovered.

Going to seek Jacopo, therefore, with the purpose of enquiring whether there were anything more that he proposed to do to it, but not finding him, because, absorbed in his new design, he had shut himself up, and would not reply to or be seen by any one, Andrea caused the enclosure, with its roof, to be removed, and gave the painting to view. But that same evening Jacopo left his house with the intention of repairing to the Servites and throwing down all that he had done, so soon as it should be night, intending then to begin the new work, when he found the scaffolding removed, the painting discovered, and a large crowd of people engaged in the examination thereof.

Much displeased, Jacopo sought out Andrea, and complained of his having permitted the work to be given to view without first asking his consent, describing at the same time what he had intended to do. To this Andrea replied, laughing, “You have but little cause to complain, Jacopo, since what you have done is so good that it could not, I am firmly persuaded, have been made better had you changed it as you proposed. Keep your design, therefore, for some other occasion, since it is certain that you will not want commissions.”

The work was indeed very beautiful, nay is, as may be seen:^[5] it was found to be new in manner moreover, and those two female heads exhibited so much softness and beauty, to say nothing of the loveliness distinguishing the graceful and exquisite children, that it was considered the most admirable work in fresco which had ever then been seen. Beside the children that are with the figure of Charity, there are two others floating in the air, and holding a drapery attached to the Papal Arms; these are so beautiful, that better could not be; but all the figures have indeed very extraordinary relief; the colouring and every other particular are such, in short, that they could not be sufficiently commended.^[6]

Michelagnolo Buonarroti was one day examining this work, and considering that he who had accomplished it was but a youth of nineteen, he said, “This youth will be such, to judge from what we here see, that if he lives, and should go on as he has begun, he will carry this art to the very skies.”

The fame and credit thus obtained, having reached to the men of Puntormo, they sent for Jacopo and caused him to paint the Arms of Pope Leo over that gate of the castle which looks upon the high road, with two boys which are very beautiful; but the work has unhappily been already much injured by the rain.

The Carnival of the next year found all Florence rejoicing and in great exultation, on account of the elevation to the Pontificate of Leo X.: many great festivals were commanded, and among them two very magnificent and costly ones, to be given by two companies or associations of nobles and gentlemen belonging to the city. The chief of one of these companies, which was called that of the Diamond, was the Signor Giuliano de’ Medici, brother of the Pope, and it had received that name because the diamond is one of the devices of Lorenzo the Elder,^[7] father of Giuliano and of Pope Leo. Of the other, the name and symbol of which was II Broncone, the Signor Lorenzo, son of Piero de’ Medici, was the head or chief; and this, I say, had for its device the Broncone, a dead branch of laurel, that is to say, with new leaves springing forth, to signify that he was to revive and restore the name of his grandfather.

Messer Andrea Dazzi, who was then Lecturer on Greek and Latin to the schools of learning in Florence, received charge of their festival from the company of the Diamond, and was required to invent a Triumph; he thereupon arranged one after the manner used by the Romans in their triumphal processions, consisting of three splendid chariots, beautifully carved in wood, and painted with the most exquisite art. In the first of the cars was Childhood, or more properly Boyhood, or Early Youth, represented by a range of most beautiful boys: in the second was Manhood, indicated by many persons who had distinguished themselves at that period of life, and in the third was Old Age, impersonated by men advanced in years, who had also performed great things at the close of their lives. All the personages of each chariot were most richly robed and adorned, insomuch that a finer show could scarcely be seen.

The architects of these chariots were Raffaello delle Vivole, the carver Carota, the painter Andrea di Cosimo, and Andrea del Sarto: those who prepared and arranged the dresses were Piero da Vinci, father of Leonardo, and Bernardino di Giordano, both men of great ability; while the painting of all the three cars was left entirely to Jacopo da Puntormo, who decorated the same with various scenes and stories in chiaro-scuro, the subjects taken from the transformations of the Gods: the designs for the same are now in the possession of the excellent goldsmith Pietro Paolo Galeotti.^[8] On the first chariot was inscribed in large letters the word Erimus, on the second Sumus, and on the third Fuimus; that is to say, “We shall be,” “We are,” and “We were.” The chant or song began with the following words: “The years fly on.”

The Signor Lorenzo, chief of the company of the Broncone or Branch, having seen these triumphal chariots, desired that those of his own society should surpass them; he gave charge of the whole to Jacopo Nardi,^[9]j a noble and most learned gentleman, by whom his native city of Florence was afterwards laid under great obligation, and this Jacopo invented six triumphal chariots, being double the number of those exhibited by the company of the Diamond.

The first of these cars was drawn by a pair of oxen, decorated with garlands, and was intended to represent the age of Saturn and Janus, called the Golden Age: it wa3 occupied by two figures, one of Saturn, holding his Scythe; the other of Janus, with his two heads, and bearing the key of the Temple of Peace in his hand; beneath his feet lies Anger, fettered and bound; while around the figure of Saturn were innumerable circumstances appropriate and pertaining to that god, all beautifully executed in divers colours by the hand of Pontormo. This chariot was accompanied by six couples of Shepherds, all nude except where partially covered with skins of the marten and sable; they wore sandals of various patterns after the antique manner, and had their shepherd’s scrips in their hands, with garlands of many kinds of leaves on their heads. The horses on which these shepherds were mounted had no saddles, but were covered with the skins of lions, tigers, and lynxes, the claws of wThich, gilt with gold, hung down at the sides with a very graceful effect. The stirrup-leathers and other parts of the housings were ornamented with gold cord, and the stirrups were formed of the heads of sheep, dogs, and other animals of similar character; the reins and bridles were of silver ribbon, twined with leaves of different kinds. Each shepherd was attended by four servants in the garb of herdsmen, they being simply dressed in the skins of animals; they bore torches in the form of dry boughs and branches of the pine, which made a most goodly show.

The second chariot was drawn by two pairs of oxen covered with very rich draperies of cloth, and bearing garlands on their heads, with large beads depending from their gilded horns: it was occupied by Numa Pompilius, second king of the Romans, who was surrounded by the books of religion, and by all things appertaining to the sacerdotal order, and to the offering of sacrifices, he being the founder and institutor of religious rites and sacrifices among the Romans. This chariot was accompanied by six Priests, riding on beautiful mules, their heads were covered with hoods of fine linen, embroidered with ivy leaves, in gold and silver, after a most masterly fashion; and on their shoulders they wore the sacerdotal vestments of antiquity, all richly surrounded with borders and fringes of gold: one bore in his hand a thurible, another a golden vase, and others carried other things of similar character. At their stirrups walked attendants in the manner of Levites, they bore torches in their hands, which were formed after the fashion of ancient candelabra, and made with the most judicious artifice.

The third chariot represented the Consulate of Titus Manlius Torquatus, who, having been made Consul after the close of the first Carthaginian war, had governed in such a manner, that during his time all the virtues and talents flourished in Rome, while the city enjoyed the utmost prosperity. This chariot, on which was a person representing Titus himself, was adorned with many ornaments made by Puntormo, and was drawn by eight magnificent horses; before it went twelve senators, wearing the toga, and riding two and two on horses covered with cloth of gold: they were attended by numerous servants, representing Lictors, and bearing the fasces, axes, and other things pertaining to the administration of justice.

The fourth chariot was drawn by four buffaloes accoutred after the fashion of elephants; and the story represented was the Triumph of Julius Caesar on the occasion of the victory obtained over Cleopatra; the most remarkable events of Caesar’s life being depicted by Jacopo Puntormo on the chariot, which was accompanied by twelve men, walking two and two, all dressed in rich and resplendent armour, finely decorated with gold; they bore lances in their hands, and the torches carried by their half-armed attendants had the form of trophies arranged in various fancies.

The fifth car was drawn by winged horses which had the forms of Griffins, and bore a personage representing Caesar Augustus, lord and master of the universe; he was accompanied by twelve poets, riding on horseback in double file, and all crowned with laurel, as was Caesar himself, they wore vestments suited to the different countries of which they were supposed to be natives, and these bards were chosen to be the followers of Caesar Augustus, because that Emperor was ever most favourable to the poets, who exalted him to the skies by their works; but to the end that they might be the more certainly known, each bore on his forehead a band, in the manner of a diadem, on which was inscribed his name.

On the sixth chariot, which had been very beautifully painted by Puntormo, and was drawn by four pairs of oxen richly arrayed, was the just and good Emperor Trajan; he was seated, and before him, on handsome and well caparisoned horses, went six couples of doctors of laws, wearing the toga reaching to the feet, and with capes of grey miniver, as it was the ancient custom for doctors of the law to be apparelled. The servants who bore their torches' and who were in vast numbers, were writers, copyists, and notaries, with books or writings in their hands.

After these six cars came the chariot or triumphal car of the period represented, the Age of Grold namely: it was constructed with the best and richest powers of art, Baccio Bandinelli having adorned it with beautiful figures in relief, while Puntormo had decorated the same with exquisite paintings, between which were figures of the four Cardinal virtues in relief, and these were more particularly extolled. In the midst of the car was a large sphere or ball, as it were the globe of the world, and on this was the prostrate figure of a man lying dead with his face to the earth, and wearing armour covered with rust. This armour was cleft, and from the fissure there proceeded the figure of a child entirely naked, and gilded all over, to represent the age of gold reviving, as the dead man represented that of iron come to an end; all which, the resuscitation and the restoration namely, it was hereby intimated would result from the elevation of Pope Leo X. to the papal chair, and the same thing was signified by the dry branch putting forth new leaves, although there are some who affirm that the dry branch reviving, alluded rather to Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino.

But I will not omit to mention that the gilded child, who was a baker’s boy, and who had been hired to perform the part for ten scudi, obtained that reward as the payment for his life, seeing that the sufferings which he endured in the course of the festival were so severe as to cause his death, and he expired shortly after the conclusion thereof.

The Canzone which was sung in that masquerade was composed by the above-mentioned Jacopo Nardi, and the first stanza ran thus:—

Colui che da le leggi alia Natura,
E i varj stati, e secoli dispone,
D^ogni bene e cagione:
E il mal, quanto permette, al Mondo dura:
Onde, questo figura
Contemplando si vede.
Come con certo piede
L'un secol dopo l'altro al Mondo viene,
E muta il bene in male, e ’l male in bene.^[10]

For the work performed by him on occasion of this festival Jacopo Puntormo obtained so much commendation in Florence, to say nothing of the profit, that perhaps few young men of his age ever acquired so much; wherefore, when Pope Leo afterwards visited Florence, Jacopo was much employed in the festive preparations then made. He associated himself with Baccio da Montelupo, a sculptor somewhat advanced in years, and the latter constructed an Arch in wood at the head of the Via del Palagio, which descends from the steps of the abbey; this arch Puntormo painted all over with beautiful stories, but the negligence of those who had charge of the place caused that work to come to an evil end, one of the stories only remaining, that namely in which Pallas is seen to be bringing with much grace a musical instrument, which she holds, into accord with the lyre of Apollo: but from the perfection of this story the observer may judge of the excellence of the rest.

On the same occasion, the care of arranging and adorning the Sala del Papa, which is attached to the convent of Santa Maria Novella, and was the ancient residence of the Pontiffs in Florence,—the care of embellishing this hall, I say, was given to Ridolfo Grhirlandajo; but he, being pressed for time, was compelled to avail himself in some parts of the assistance of others; when the greater portion of the rooms were all finished therefore, he gave a commission to Jacopo Puntormo for certain pictures in fresco to be executed in the chapel where his Holiness was to hear mass every morning. Putting hand to the work accordingly, Jacopo painted a figure of God the Father surrounded by numerous Children, with another representing Santa Yeronica, who has the portrait of Jesus Christ, impressed on the handkerchief; a work which, though performed by Jacopo in so much haste, was nevertheless greatly extolled.

In a chapel of the church of San Raffello,^nota which is situate behind the archiepiscopal palace in Florence, Jacopo then painted a fresco, the subject of which is Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms; she has the archangel Michael on one side, and Santa Lucia,^nota with two other Saints, kneeling, on the other. In the lunette of the chapel Puntormo furthermore depicted a figure of the Almighty Father, with Seraphim around him.

Having then received a commission which he had long desired, from the Servite monk, Maestro Jacopo, that oi painting a portion of the court of the Servites namely, Andrea del Sarto having then gone into France, and left that work unfinished, Puntormo set himself with great care and zeal to the preparation of the cartoons; as he was however very poorly provided with all things, and while working for the acquirement of honour had also to live, he undertook at the same time to paint two figures for the Nuns of Santa Caterina of Siena, who desired to have such executed in chiaro-scuro, over the door of the Hospital for Women, which is situate behind the church of the Hospital for Priests, between the Piazza di San Marco, and the Via di Sangallo, exactly opposite that is to say, to the convent wall of those Nuns of Santa Caterina.

The subject of this work, which is an exceedingly beautiful one, is Our Saviour Christ, in the guise of a pilgrim, awaiting the arrival of a certain poor woman, to whom he is about to offer hospitality, the ^[11]

^[12] painting was highly commended at the time, and by all who understand the subject is much admired in our own day.^[13]

About the same period, our artist executed various pictures and small stories in oil on that chariot which the masters of the Mint, from whom he received the commission, are accustomed to send every year to make part of the procession of San Griovanni, the chariot having been constructed by the hand of Marco del Tasso.^[14]

For the

company of Cecilia moreover, Jacopo likewise painted a fresco, a figure of that Saint namely, with roses in her hand: this also is an exceedingly beautiful thing, it stands over the portal of the Company’s house on the heights of Fiesole, and is so well suited to its position, that for a work of such a kind it may be considered among the best examples of fresco to be seen.^[15]

These works being made known to Maestro Jacopo, the Servite monk, his desire to have the paintings of the Court of the Servites finished by Puntormo was greatly increased, and he determined to ensure their completion by that artist without delay, persuaded that the emulation awakened by the works of the other masters who had laboured there would incite him to produce something extraordinarily beautiful in that which remained to be done. Having set hand to the work accordingly, Jacopo did indeed labour no less for the attainment of glory and honour, than from desire of gain, and executed a story, the subject of which was the Visitation of the Madonna, which he treated in a manner somewhat more animated and lively than it had previously been his wont to do, thereby adding an infinite amount of beauty to the many other excellencies presented by his works. The women, the children, the youths, and the old men, are painted in this fresco with a softness and harmony of colouring which is really wonderful. The flesh-tints, more especially in a child seated on a flight of steps, are incomparably soft and beautiful; but so indeed are those of all the other figures, which are such, at a word, that nothing in fresco could possibly be more effectively, or more delicately and softly executed.^[16]

This work, together with the others which Jacopo had produced, gave the artists, who could here compare his performance with those of Andrea del Sarto and of Franciabigio, the certainty that he would early attain to the perfection of his art. It was completed in the year 1516, and Puntormo received for it the payment of sixteen crowns, and no more.^[17]

Receiving a commission subsequently, from Francesco Pucci, if I remember rightly, for the Altar-piece of a chapel which Francesco had caused to be constructed in the church of San Michele Bisdomini, which is situate on the Via de’ Servi,—having received this commission, I say, Puntormo conducted the work with so beautiful a manner, and colouring so animated, that it is almost impossible to believe it a mere painting. In this picture, Our Lady, who is seated, presents the Divine Infant to St. Joseph, who regards the child with a smiling countenance, the animation and expression of which are astonishing. A child, representing St. John the Baptist, is equally beautiful, as are two other children who are upholding a Pavilion or Canopy. There is besides a figure of St. John the Evangelist in this work, a most beautiful old man,^[18] with one of St. Francis kneeling, which is absolutely alive. His hands are folded, the fingers of the one intertwined with those of the other; he remains with eyes and mind alike intent, contemplating the Virgin and Child, and does verily seem to breathe. Nor is the St. James beside him less beautiful, so that it is no marvel that this should be reputed the most admirable work ever executed by this extraordinary painter.^[19] I was at one time of opinion that it was after the execution of this picture, and not before, that Puntormo had depicted two most beautiful and graceful boys in fresco, supporting an Escutcheon of Arms over the door of a house belonging to Bartolommeo Lanfredini, and which is situate on the Arno, between the bridge of the Santa Trinità and that of the Carraja; but since II Bronzino, who must needs be supposed well acquainted with the truth of these matters,^[20] affirms that the work undertaken for Lanfredini was among the first executed by Puntormo, we cannot but believe that so it really was, and are bound to extol that artist all the more highly, seeing that, although thus shown to have been among the first of his productions, these boys are nevertheless incomparably beautiful that they cannot be equalled.

But to follow his pictures in their order as nearly as may be, after completing those above-named, Jacopo executed a painting for the men of Puntormo, and this was placed in their principal church, and in the chapel of the Madonna; the subject is the Archangel Michael with St. John the Evangelist.

At this time Jacopo had two young men with him, one of whom was Giovan-Maria Pichi, of the Borgo-a -San Sepolcro, who acquitted himself tolerably well, but afterwards became a Servite monk. He executed certain works at the Borgo and in the Deanery of San Stefano; and while still with Puntormo he painted a large picture of San Quintino, the Martyrdom of that Saint namely, who is represented nude. This picture, Jacopo, being desirous, out of the love which he bore to his disciple, that he should obtain honour for his work,—Jacopo, I say, set himself to retouch the painting, and not knowing where to stop, once he had laid his hands on it he could not take them off; so that touching the head to-day, the arm to-morrow, and the back the day after, the retouching was finally such as almost to justify the assertion that the picture was by his own hand. We are not to marvel, therefore, if this painting is a very beautiful one; it is now in the church of the Observantine Friars, at the Borgo.

The second of the two young men, of whom there is mention above, was the Aretine, Giovan-Antonio Lappoli, whose life we have already given. Being somewhat vain of his person, he had made a portrait of himself by the help of a mirror, even while still the disciple of Jacopo, but that portrait not appearing to the master to be a satisfactory likeness, he took it in hand himself, when he depicted the same so admirably well that it seems to be alive. This picture is now at Arezzo, in possession of the heirs of Giovan-Antonio Lappoli.^[21]

Puntormo subsequently painted the likenesses of two of his most intimate friends in the same picture; one of these was the son-in-law of the glass-maker Beccuccio: the name of the other I do not know, and it shall suffice to notify that the picture was by the hand of Puntormo. For the funeral solemnities of Bartolommeo Ginori, Jacopo prepared a range of banners, which it was the custom of the Florentines to use on such occasions; and in each of these he painted a figure of the Madonna with the Infant Christ, in the upper part of the white taffeta whereof that portion of the banner was composed; while in the lower part, and on the coloured surface of the edging, he depicted the Arms of the family, as was usual.

Now there were twenty-four of these banners, and in the centre of the coloured pendants Puntormo placed two which were entirely of white taffeta, without any edging of colours, and in each of these he painted a figure of San Bartolommeo, which was two braccia high. The great size of these banners, and the novelty of their manner, making all those which had been previously made appear mean and poor in the comparison, gave occasion to a change, and caused people to begin making them of a large size, as we have them in the present day, lighter and more graceful that is to say, and with a much more frugal use of gold in the decorations.

At the upper end of the garden and vineyard which belong to the monks of San Gallo, and are situate at a short distance from the city-gate named after that saint, there is a chapel, and opposite to the central door of this building Jacopo Puntormo painted the figure of Our Saviour lying dead, with the Virgin Mother weeping over him, and two Children hovering above, one holding the Chalice of the Passion, and the other supporting the sinking head of the Saviour; on one side stands St. John the Evangelist, weeping, and with extended arms; on the other is St. Augustine in his episcopal robes; he is supporting himself on his pastoral staff, and in an attitude of the deepest sadness, is contemplating the dead body of the Saviour.^[22] For Messer Spina, a friend of Giovanni Salviati, our artist painted the arms of that Giovanni, which Messer Spina desired to have depicted in the court-yard of his dwelling, and opposite to the principal door; Giovanni Salviati, having in those days been created Cardinal by Pope Leo X., the Cardinal’s red hat was painted above, with two beautiful boys standing upright: for a work in fresco this is a very fine one, and, as being by the hand of Puntormo is highly valued by Messer Filippo Spina.

Jacopo likewise took part in the decoration of those apartments which, as we have before related, were adorned with magnificent ornaments, in wood-work as well as painting, for Pier Francesco Borgherini; this Puntormo did in competition with other masters,^[23] and, to speak more particularly, he painted two large coffers, or cabinets, with stories from the life of Joseph, which he executed in minute figures of incomparable beauty.^[24]

But whoever shall desire to see the best work ever performed in his whole life by Jacopo da Puntormo, and who shall propose to himself to ascertain what the genius of that master was capable of effecting, whether as regards the power of invention displayed, the grouping of the figures, the animation of the heads, or the variety and beauty of the attitudes, let him examine one angle of those apartments of the before-mentionEd. Flor.ntine noble, Borgherini; that on the left namely as you enter the door, where there is a story of which the figures are small, although the work itself is of fair size, and this is indeed of admirable excellence. The subject chosen is the Reception by Joseph of his father Jacob and all his brothers, the sons of that Jacob, when Joseph himself has become a prince, and, as it were, the sovereign of the land of Egypt. The affection with which he greets them is admirably well expressed, and among the figures is one which is indeed singularly beautiful; this is the portrait of Jacopo’s disciple Bronzino, then but a boy, and whom he has represented seated on a flight of steps at the lower part of the picture; the youth holds a basket in his hand; a most animated figure it is, and beautiful to a marvel: nay, if this painting had been executed of adequate size (whereas it is but small), either on panel or on the wall, I could venture to affirm, that it could not be possible to behold one executed with more grace, or more completely excellent in all its parts, than is this work of Puntormo’s; it is therefore with perfect justice that this is esteemed among artists to be the most beautiful painting ever produced by that master. Nor is it by any means wonderful that Borgherini should prize it as he did; and we cannot be surprised to hear that he was repeatedly urged in vain by great and influential personages to dispose of the same, to the end that it might be presented to different princes and great nobles.^[25]

Now it chanced that during the siege of Florence, Pier Francesco Borgherini had retired to Lucca, when Giovan Battista Palla, who desired to get the decorations of this chamber, as well as other works, into his hands, with intention to transport them into France, where they were to be presented to the king Francis, in the name of the Signoria: Giovan Battista, I say, found means to procure so many abettors, and so contrived, both to do and to say, that the Gonfaloniere and the Signori furnished him with a commission, by virtue of which the whole were to be taken away, and the price thereof paid to the wife of Pier Francesco.

Thereupon Giovan Battista^[26] repaired with others to the house of Borgherini, for the purpose of causing the command of the Signori to be put in execution; but when they arrived there, the wife of Pier Francesco, who had remained at home, confronted the principal assailant with reproaches of such intolerable bitterness that the like had never before been hurled at man alive:—

“How then! dost thou, G-iovan Battista, thou, vile broker of frippery, miserable huckster of twopences, dost thou presume to come hither with intent to lay thy fingers on the ornaments which belong to the chambers of gentlemen? despoiling, as thou hast long done and as thou art for ever doing, this our City of her fairest and richest ornaments, to embellish strange lands therewith, and to adorn the Halls of our enemies. Not that I can marvel at thee, man of a base lineage, and traitor to thy country, however grovelling may be thy acts; but for the magistrates of our city, who have descended to abet these abominable proceedings, what shall be said? This bed, which thou, for thy own greediness of gain and sordid self-interest, wouldst now lay hands on, vainly seeking to veil thine evil purposes under a fair pretence,—• this bed was adorned with all the beauty which enriches it by my father-in-law Salvi, in honour of my nuptials; to which he held this magnificent and regal ornament but the fitting decoration; I, then, do prize this gift, both from reverence to his memory and out of the love I bear my husband; wherefore, I mean to defend it with my own blood, and will retain it while I have life. Depart from this house, then, Giovan Battista, thou and thy myrmidons; depart, and say to those who have permitted themselves to send thee hither, with command to remove these labours of art from their place, that I am here; I, who will not suffer that one iota shall be disturbed from where it stands. Tell them, moreover, that if it befit them to listen to the counsels of such as thou art, base creature of nothingness, and if they must needs make presents to the king, Francis of France, tell them, I say, that they may go to their own houses, and, despoiling their awn chambers of their ornaments, may send them to his Majesty.

“For thyself, if again thou shouldst be so bold as to come on a similar errand to this house, thou shalt be amply taught what is the respect due to the dwelling of a gentleman, from such as thou art, and that to thy serious discomfort; make thyself sure of it.’’^[27]

Thus spoke Madonna Margherita, wife of Pier-Francesco Borgherini, and daughter of Ruberto Acciaiuoli, a Florentine noble of great wisdom. She was in truth a woman entirely worthy to be the daughter of such a father; and by her noble daring and firmness of spirit she caused these gems of art to be respected, and kept them, where they still remain, to adorn the dwellings of her house.

About this same time Giovan-Maria Benintendi had decorated an antechamber in his palace with numerous paintings by the hands of divers able masters, and, hearing Jacopo da Puntormo extolled to infinity for the works which he had executed in the rooms of Borgherini, Giovan-Maria determined to add a painting by that artist to those he already possessed. The subject chosen for the picture was an Adoration of the Magi, who presented themselves to the Infant Christ in Bethlehem; and, having given much thought and care to the work, the master succeeded in rendering it varied and beautiful in the heads, as well as worthy of all praise in every other part.

He afterwards painted a picture for Messer Goro da Pistoja, who was then secretary to the Medici, a half-length portrait namely of the illustrious Cosimo de’ Medici the elder;^[28] this is a truly commendable work, and is now in the house of Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici, and in possession of Messer Alessandro his heir, a young man, who, to say nothing of the nobility and distinction of his race, is,remarkable for the propriety of his life, as well as honourable for his love of literature; he is the worthy son, in short, of the magnificent Ottaviano and of Madonna Francesca, daughter of Jacopo Salviati, and maternal aunt of the Signor Duke Cosimo.^[29] This work, but more particularly the head of Cosimo, procured for Puntormo the favour of Messer Ottaviano; and the great hall at Poggio-a -Cajano being then to be painted, the commission for the two ends of the same, wherein are the circular orifices which give light (the windows that is to say), was given to Jacopo, who was directed to execute the ornaments of that portion from the ceiling to the floor.^[30]

More than ever anxious to do himself honour on that occasion, from respect to the place as well as from the emulation awakened by the presence of the other masters who were employed there, Jacopo devoted so large an amount of care and study to this matter, that in his zeal he overstepped the due limit, doing over again to-day what he had completed yesterday, and so spoiling rather than improving his work; he racked his brains in this fashion until it was a pity to behold, and was incessantly labouring at new inventions, all which were to add to the beauty of the performance and to his own fame.

Among other parts of this work is a figure of Vertumnus with his husbandmen around him, and Puntormo has represented the god under the form of a peasant, seated and holding in his hand a gardener’s pruning knife, and this is so beautiful and so admirably executed that it may be truly considered wonderful, as may likewise the figures of certain children there portrayed, and which are indescribably natural and life-like. On the side opposite to this of the Vertumnus Puntormo painted figures of Pomona, Diana, and other deities, but these he has involved somewhat too closely in draperies; the whole work is nevertheless a very fine one and has been much commended.

These paintings were still in progress when Pope Leo died, the works of that hall were therefore left unfinished as were many others of like kind, not in Rome only but in Florence, Loretto, and many other places; nay, the whole world was rendered poor by that death, and all distinguished men were deprived of their true Maecenas.

Having returned to Florence, Jacopo painted a seated figure of Sant’ Agostino in the act of bestowing his benediction; while Angels, in the form of beautiful children, nude and hovering in the air, are seen above him. This picture has now been placed over an altar in the small church which belongs to the nuns of San Clemente, and is situate in the Via San Gallo.^[31] About the same time Puntormo finished a picture, the subject of which was a Pieta, and here too are angels represented by nude children, which are very beautiful, the entire picture is indeed a truly admirable one and was greatly prized by certain Ragusan merchants, for whom it was that Puntormo painted it. There is an exceedingly fine landscape in this work, taken for the most part from a print by Albert Dürer.

The same master produced a picture of Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, and surrounded by angels in the form, of children, this is now in the house of Alessandro Neroni; one of similar subject, the Madonna that is to say, but differing materially from the above-named, and in another manner, was executed by Jacopo for some Spaniards: many years afterwards it was on the point of being sold to a broker or picture dealer, but this becoming known to Bronzino he caused it to be purchased by Messer Bartolommeo Panciatichi.

In the year 1552 there was a slight attack of plague in Florence, when many persons left the city to avoid that most highly contagious disease, and to place their lives in security; our artist also found an opportunity for removing himself to a distance, and that happened on this wise. A certain Prior of the Certosa, which had been erected by the Acciaiuoli family at about three miles from Florence, was about to cause some pictures to be painted in the angles of a large and beautiful cloister surrounding a fine meadow, and these he placed in the hands of Puntormo; when sought for to undertake this work, therefore, Jacopo accepted the proposal most willingly, and departed at once for the Certosa, taking with him 11 Bronzino and no one else.

The manner of life here presented to him, that tranquillity, that silence, that solitude—all things, at a word, were found by Jacopo to be entirely in accord with his character and genius; they were indeed so pleasing to him that he resolved to seize that occasion for making an effort in his art, and hoped to prove to the world that he had acquired a more varied manner and higher perfection than his works had ever before displayed. No long time previously there had been brought from Germany to Florence, a large number of plates, very finely executed on wood and copper by the burin of Albert Diirer, a most excellent German painter, and very remarkable engraver, both on copper and wood. Among other subjects and stories, great and small, was the Passion of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, in which were exhibited all the excellence and perfection of engraving with the burin, that can possibly be attained.

Now Jacopo was to paint that portion of Our Saviour’s history in those angles of the cloister, and he determined to avail himself of these inventions of Albert Diirer, with the full persuasion that he should not only satisfy himself, but the greater part of the Florentine artists also; for they were all with one voice and of common consent extolling the ability of Albert and the perfection of these productions.

But devoting himself to the imitation of that manner and seeking to impart to his figures that vivacity in the air of the heads, and that variety which were the characteristics of Albert’s works, he proceeded to such an extremity, that all the softness and grace of his own manner, all the charm wherewith he had been endowed by Nature, was lost. The study of that new manner and the force of those German engravings, had thus so great an effect on the performance of Puntormo, that although this work is without doubt -a very beautiful one, there is but little of the grace which up to that time Jacopo Puntormo had always imparted to his figures.

At the entrance to the cloister in question, the master depicted Our Saviour Christ in the garden; the time is night, but the picture is so beautifully illuminated by the light of the Moon, that it appears almost as the day. Our Lord is kneeling in prayer and at no great distance from him are Peter, James, and John, lying asleep and executed in a manner so entirely similar to that of Diirer that it is a kind of marvel. Not far off is seen Judas Iscariot leading the Jews to the capture of his Master, and to this man as well as to those by whom he is accompanied, Puntormo has given a face of the strangest forms and most exaggerated expressions, all being entirely after the German type. It moves one to compassion indeed, as one remarks, on examining these works, the simplicity of the artist who would bestow so much labour and pains to acquire that which all others seek with so much care to avoid, or if they have it, to lose; and this is all the more extraordinary when it is considered, that Puntormo abandoned a manner which surpassed in excellence that of all others and gave infinite pleasure to every one merely to secure a defect. Did not Puntormo know that the Germans and Flemings come into these parts for the very purpose of learning that Italian manner which he with so much labour and pains was seekingto abandon as if it were a bad one?

Beside the picture just alluded to is one wherein Christ is led before Pilate, and here the face of the Redeemer gives evidence of all that humility which truly belongs to, or can be imagined to reside in, the person of Innocence betrayed to death by the sins of mankind. In the wife of Pilate is perceptible the compassion she feels, together with that dread by which those are wont to be possessed who fear the Divine justice; this woman, while recommending the cause of Christ to her husband, is contemplating the countenance of the Saviour with an expression of pitying wonder. Around the figure of Pilate are soldiers who are so completely German, in the character of their faces as well as in the manner of their habiliments, that whoever did not know by what hand the work was performed, would assuredly believe it to have been executed by foreigners, men from beyond the mountains. It is true that there is one exception in a cup-bearer of Pilate’s, who is seen in the distance, descending a flight of stairs with a basin and ewer in his hand, which he is carrying to his master, that he may wash his hands therewith; this figure, which is a very beautiful and lifelike one, has a certain something proper to the old manner of Puntormo.

Having next to execute in one of the other angles, a Resurrection of Our Saviour, the artist then took it into his head, as being one who, having no steadfastness in his character, was perpetually in search of some new whim, to change the manner of his colouring; and of a truth he did depict that Avhole work with a colouring in fresco which is so soft and so good, that if in that picture he had been proceeding after any other manner than the German, it would indubitably have proved to be an exceedingly beautiful one; there is indeed so much excellence in the heads of those soldiers lying so fast asleep that they are almost like dead men, so varied are their attitudes and so perfect is the whole work, that one could not believe it possible to do anything better.

Continuing these Stories of the Passion m other divisions of the Cloister, the master depicted Our Saviour Christ proceeding towards the Mount Calvary and bearing his Cross; behind him are the people of Jerusalem who follow his steps, while before him are led the two thieves, naked and surrounded by the ministers of justice. Some of the latter are on foot and some on horseback, some bear the ladders, one has the inscription for the Cross, others carry the nails, ropes, hammers, and other instruments of similar kind. In the uppermost part of the picture, and partly concealed behind a slight elevation of the ground, is Our Lady with the Maries, weeping and awaiting the arrival of the Saviour. In the centre of the painting is Christ himself, who has fallen to the earth, and is surrounded by certain of the Jews, by whom he is despitefully smitten; while Veronica is seen to offer him the handkerchief wherewith he wipes the drops from his brow. Veronica is accompanied by other women old and young, who are bewailing the cruelties which they behold inflicted on their Lord.

This story, either because Jacopo had been warned by his friends, or that he did himself at length perceive, although tardily, the great injury which his study of the German engravings had done to his own soft manner, this story, I say, is much better than the others executed by him in the same place. There are, indeed, certain nude figures of Jews, with some heads of old men, which are so well painted in fresco that better could not be, although it is obvious that Puntormo has adopted that same manner of the Germans, to a certain extent in them all.

The Crucifixion of Christ, with his Deposition from the Cross, were then to be executed in other parts of the Cloister, but these Puntormo determined to leave, with the intention of doing them the last of all, he therefore next proceeded to paint a picture of Our Lord when he has been removed from the Cross, adhering still to the same German manner, but imparting infinite harmony to the colouring of his work. In this part of the picture, beside the Magdalen who is kissing the feet of the Saviour, and is indeed a most exquisite figure, there are two old men, intended for Joseph of Arimatheaand Nicodemus, and these, although both in the German manner, have yet the most beautiful expressions (such as are suited, that is to say, to the heads of old persons), writh the most softly flowing beards, and the most perfectly harmonious colouring that can possibly be conceived.

Jacopo was somewhat slow in the execution of his pictures, and on this account, as also because the solitude of the Certosa was agreeable to him, he spent several years over the works which he executed in this place;^[32] nay, after the pestilence had ceased and he had returned to Florence, he frequented the convent continually, going constantly backward and forward from the Certosa to the city; proceeding in this manner he was enabled to do many things for those fathers, which was greatly to their satisfaction. Among other paintings for example, he executed one in the church and over one of the doors which give entrance into the chapels; this was the half-length portrait of a Monk, who had attained the age of 120 years; he was a lay brother in the Monastery of the Certosa, and was then living there. In that portrait there is so much life and force, it is executed with so much animation, and finished so admirably well, that this work alone, may suffice to form an excuse for all the eccentricity of Puntormo, and should secure him his pardon for the new and whimsical manner which he had taken it into his head to adopt, during his abode in that solitary place, and when far removed from the commerce of the world.

For the apartments of the Prior of the Certosa also, Puntormo painted a picture representing the Nativity of Christ; in this he has depicted Joseph giving light to the Divine Child in the obscurity of the night, by means of a lanthorn which he is holding; that too was done in pursuit of the same fancies and caprices which had been infused into his mind by those German prints.

Now I would have none to believe Jacopo blameable for having imitated Albert Diirer in his inventions, seeing that this is no error: it has been done and is continually being done by many painters, but Puntormo adopted the unmixed German manner in everything; in the dresses, the attitudes, and the expression of the heads: all which he ought to have avoided, and to have availed himself of the invention only, seeing that he was himself endowed most richly with the grace and beauty of the modern manner.

For the strangers’ apartments of the above-mentioned monastery, the same artist painted a very large picture in oil on cloth, and therein he did not in any way restrain himself, or do violence to his natural manner: the subject is Our Saviour Christ seated at table with Cleophas and Luke, all figures of the natural size, and as in this work Puntormo followed the bent of his genius, the picture turned out to be a very beautiful one. Among other particulars worthy of remark in this painting, are the portraits of certain lay brothers then in the convent, and whom I have myself seen there; they are represented as serving at table, and could not possibly be more life-like and animated than they are.^[33]

While Jacopo was occupied with these works at the Certosa, his disciple Bronzino was zealously pursuing the study of his art at the same place; and being encouraged by Puntormo, who was most friendly and even affectionate to his disciples, he undertook the execution of a picture of St.

Lawrence, which he painted within an arch over one of the doors which conduct from the cloister into the church, depicting it in oil, although he had never then seen the method of painting on the wall with that vehicle. The Saint is lying nude on his gridiron, and the attitude in which he is placed is good and appropriate, insomuch that Bronzino here began to give some intimation of that excellence to which he afterwards attained, as will be related in its proper place.^[34] This gave Jacopo, who already perceived the eminence which his disciple was eventually to acquire, the most lively satisfaction.

About the same time, or no long time afterwards, Ludovico di Gino Capponi returned to Florence from Rome, and having purchased that chapel in the church of Santa Felicita, which the Barbadori family had formerly caused to be constructed by Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, and which is situate near the entrance of the church on the right hand,—Ludovico, I say, determined to have all the ceiling covered with paintings; he furthermore resolved to have an altar-piece with a rich ornament or frame-work. Wherefore, having conferred respecting that matter with Messer Niccolò Vespucci, who was a Knight of Rhodes, and the most intimate friend of Capponi, the knight, as being also the very good friend of Puntormo, did and said so much respecting the worth and ability of that excellent man, that Ludovico was induced to give Jacopo the commission for the work. Having erected an enclosure accordingly, by which the chapel was kept closed during three years, the master commenced his operations. In the ceiling of the chapel he delineated a figure of God the Father, surrounded by those of four Patriarchs, all which are very fine.^[35] In the four medallions which decorate the corbels of the ceiling he then painted figures of the four Evangelists, executing three of these entirely with his own hand, but confiding the fourth to Bronzino. And here I will not neglect the opportunity of mentioning, that Puntormo would very rarely permit himself to be assisted by his young men, nor would he even suffer them to lay hands on a work which he intended to execute himself; but it was his custom, when he desired to avail himself of the aid of any one of them, or wished them to have the opportunity of learning any thing, to let them do the whole by themselves, as he here caused Bronzino to do.

Now in the works executed by Puntormo up to this time for the chapel of Santa Felicita, he appears to have almost entirely returned to his old manner, but he did not continue to maintain that manner for the altar-piece; on the contrary, his head running on new things, he painted the figures without shadow, and with so monotonous a tone of colouring, that one does but faintly distinguish the lights from the middle tints, or the middle tints from the shadows.

The subject of this altar-piece is Our Saviour Christ when removed from the Cross and on the point of being carried to the Sepulchre. The Madonna is seen to sink fainting to the earth; and that figure, as well as those of the other Maries, is executed in a manner so entirely different from the portion of the work before described, that one plainly perceives the master’s brain to have again set off in chase of novelties and unusual methods of proceeding, contenting himself steadily with nothing, and remaining fixed to no one manner; at a word, the composition of this picture is wholly different from that of the vaulting, as is also the colouring.^[36] The four Evangelists, too, which we have described as adorning the corbels of the ceiling, are in a much better manner than the altar-piece, and are greatly superior to that work.^[37]

On that wall of the chapel wherein is the window, there are two figures in fresco, Our Lady that is to say, on the one side, and on the other the Angel who brings her the Annunciation; but both are so strangely distorted, as to render it evident that the singular extravagance of Jacopo’s fancies caused him never to continue long satisfied with any thing. While engaged with this work in particular, he was so anxious to have all entirely his own way, and to avoid being molested by the remarks of any one, that he would never permit even the master of the chapel himself to see the pictures while they were in progress. It thus happened, that having completed all after his own fashion, without any one of his friends being suffered to have the opportunity of warning him on any point, the work, when given to public view, was regarded with much astonishment by all Florence.^[38] For an apartment in the house of the above-mentioned Ludovico di Gino Capponi, our artist painted a picture of the Virgin in the same manner, taking for the head of Mary Magdalen the portrait of a daughter of Ludovico, who was a very beautiful maiden.

Near the monastery of Boldrone, which is on the road leading from that place to Castello, and stands at the angle of another road which ascends the hill and conducts to Cercina, at the distance of about two miles from Florence that is to say, there is a tabernacle wherein Puntormo painted a Crucifix in fresco, with Our Lady weeping beside it; San Giovanni Evangelista, Sant’ Agostino, and San Giuliano, are also present.^[39] All these figures—his caprice for the German manner, which still pleased him greatly, not having been satisfied—are but slightly different from those of the Certosa. And the same may be affirmed of a picture painted by Jacopo for the nuns of Sant’ Anna, whose convent is situate at the gate of San Friano. The subject of that work is Our Lady with the Dead Christ in her arms; Sant’ Anna^[40] is behind her, with San Piero, San Benedetto, and other saints.^[41] In the predella is a story, the figures of which are small; this represents the Signoria of Florence advancing in procession, with trumpets and other musical instruments; they are attended by mace-bearers, ushers, doorkeepers, and other servants of the palace, that subject having been chosen by Jacopo because he had received his commission for the picture from the Captain of the palace, and the other persons employed as attendants there.

While Jacopo was occupied with this work, Pope Clement VII. had sent Alessandro and Ippolito de’ Medici, both then very young, to Florence, there to remain under the care of the Legate, Silvio Passerini, Cardinal of Cortona: when the magnificent Ottaviano de’ Medici, to whom they had been recommended by the Pontiff, caused the portraits of both to be taken by Puntormo, who acquitted himself exceedingly well, and made these pictures excellent resemblances, although he did not depart materially from that manner of his, which he had learned from the German. In the picture of Ippolito, Puntormo likewise painted a favourite dog, belonging to that noble, and which was called Rodon, making the animal so natural and so full of animation, that he might be supposed alive.^[42]

At a later period Puntormo took the portrait of the Bishop Ardinghelli, who was afterwards Cardinal, and for Pilippo del Migliore, who was his most intimate friend, he painted a fresco at his house in the Via Larga: in this work, which is opposite to the principal door of the house and represents a female figure in a niche, intended for Pomona, Jacopo Puntormo departed to a certain extent from his German manner, and seemed beginning to retrace his steps. Now Giovan Battista della Palla, perceiving that the numerous paintings of Jacopo were causing his name to become more and more celebrated, and not being able to procure such of his works and those of the other masters as were in the Casa Borgherini, for King Francis of France, as we have related,—Giovan Battista, I say, resolved that some painting from the hand of Puntormo should at all events be despatched to the French monarch, whom he knew to be desirous of such productions; whereupon he took measures to that effect, and finally succeeded in persuading Puntormo to paint for him a most beautiful picture: this was the Resurrection of Lazarus, and proved to be one of the best works ever produced by the master, or ever sent by that Palla (although he sent him vast numbers) to King Francis. For besides that the heads were singularly beautiful, the figure of Lazarus, whose spirit, returning to the dead body, might be almost seen to awaken the latter to life, was admirable to a degree which is beyond the power of words to describe; the process of decomposition, which had already begun to commence about the eyes, was permitted to leave certain of its vestiges, in that form which the spirit of life was entering once again; the hands and feet indeed, to which the vital forces had not yet penetrated, were suffered to remain wholly dead.

In a picture one braccio and a half high, which Jacopo executed for the Nuns belonging to the Hospital of the Innocents, he represented, by means of an infinite number of minute figures, the story of the eleven thousand martyrs, condemned to death by the Emperor Dioclesian, and all crucified in a wood. In this work the master has imagined a very finely executed combat of cavalry and nude figures; in the air above are beautiful children who shoot arrows at the executioners, while the latter are employing themselves with such details as belong to the crucifixion of the martyrs; near and around the Emperor by whom the latter are condemned are also many beautiful nude forms in the act of being led to death. This, in all parts highly to be commended picture, is now in the possession of Don Yincenzio Borghini, the director of that Hospital, and an intimate friend of Jacopo Puntormo.^[43]

Another work of a subject similar to this last, but giving only the Carnage of the Martyrs, with the angel who baptizes them, was executed by Jacopo for Carlo Neroni, as was also the portrait of the above-named Carlo.^[44] At the time of the Siege of Elorence, Puntormo also painted the likeness of Francesco Guardi, whom he has depicted in the dress of a soldier; a very admirable work it is, and on the cover of the same Bronzino delineated Pygmalion addressing his prayer to Yenus, to the end that the Statue which he had made might receive the breath of life, and, awakening to existence, according to the fable of the poets, might become flesh and blood.

About this time Jacopo obtained, but not without many labours, the fulfilment of a wish which he had long entertained; for, having ever desired to inhabit a house of his own, and not one merely hired, in order that he might make such arrangements as he thought proper, and live after his own fashion, he did ultimately succeed in buying one, which was situate in the Via della Colonna, nearly opposite to the dwelling of the Nuns of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

When the Siege of Florence was over, Pope Clement gave command to Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici that he should cause the hall of Poggio-a-Cajano to be finished, whereupon, Franciabigio and Andrea del Sarto being dead, the whole charge of the work was entrusted to Jacopo Puntormo, who having first ordered scaffolding and an enclosure to be erected, then began to prepare the cartoons, but suddenly falling into his whims and fantasies, he wasted his time in cogitations and proceeded no further in the work. This might not perhaps have been the result had Bronzino been in the country, but he was then absent, being employed at the Imperiale, a place belonging to the Duke of Urbino and situate near Pesaro. He was indeed daily urged by Puntormo to rejoin him at the Poggio-a-Cajano, but Bronzino could not leave the Imperiale at his own pleasure, seeing that, having painted an exceedingly beautiful Cupid, a nude figure, in a corbel of one of the ceilings, and prepared the cartoons for other parts of the work, the Prince Guidobaldo, who perceived the ability of that youth, commanded him to remain, intending to have his own likeness taken by him: but Guidobaldo desired to be portrayed in armour, a particular suit of which he was expecting from Lombardy, and as the arrival of this armour was delayed, Bronzino was compelled to remain at the Imperiale longer than he could have wished. In the interval also he painted for Guidobaldo the case of a harpsichord, which pleased that prince mightily; ultimately however the portrait was completed, and being an extremely beautiful one, it gave great satisfaction to the Duke.

Jacopo meanwhile had written so many letters, and was constantly making so many efforts to procure the return of Bronzino, that he finally succeeded; but notwithstanding the presence of his disciple, there was nothing that would prevail on that strange man Puntormo to get forward with the work beyond the preparation of the cartoons, although he was earnestly solicited to do so by the magnificent Ottaviano and the Duke Alessandro; these cartoons are now for the most part in the house of Ludovico Capponi, and in one of them is a Hercules strangling Antseus; another has Venus and Adonis; and on a third is a group of nude figures engaged in the game of football.^[45]

Now about this time the Signor Alfonso Davalo, Marchese di Guasto, had obtained a cartoon from Michelagnolo Buonarroti by the intervention of Fra Niccolò della Magna, the subject of the work being Our Saviour Christ appearing to the Magdalen in the garden; and the Marchese made a great point of having the picture executed by Puntormo, since Buonarroti had told him that none could serve him better than that artist. The commission oeing accepted by Jacopo, he completed the work accordingly, and that to such perfection, as to cause the painting to be esteemed a most rare performance, the grandeur of Michelagnolo’s design being added to the colouring of Jacopo da Puntormo; wherefore this picture having been seen by the Signor Alessandro Vitelli, who was then in Florence, where he held the office of Captain of the Guard, he caused a painting to be executed for himself by Jacopo from the same cartoon, and this he then sent to Citta di Castello, commanding that it should be placed in the dwelling which he possessed there.

The esteem in which Michelagnolo held Puntormo becoming known, and the care with which the latter had put the designs and cartoons of Michelagnolo into painting, with the excellence of those works, being much bruited abroad, Bartolommeo Bettini took much pains to procure for himself a cartoon from Buonarroti, who was his very intimate friend; and, finally succeeding, he obtained from that master a nude figure of Yenus, whom her son Cupid is caressing. This he had done with the intention of having the work made a picture by Jacopo Puntormo, and placed in the centre of one of his rooms, Bronzino having already begun to paint figures of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio in the lunettes of the same, and Bettini proposing eventually to have those of all the other poets, who, whether in verse or prose, have sung the triumphs of Love in Tuscan. Jacopo received the cartoon accordingly, and painted the picture at his leisure as will be related, but in that manner and to that perfection which is known to all the world, insomuch that I need not add my commendations.^[46]

Incited by these designs of Michelagnolo, and carefully considering the manner of that most noble artist, Puntormo to pursue Buonarrotis method by every means in his power; then it was that Jacopo perceived the injury he had done himself by suffering the works of the Poggio-a -Cajano to slip through his hands, although he still attributed the blame in great part to a long and troublesome illness which he had suffered, and finally to the death of Pope Clement, which had put an end to the whole undertaking.

After completing the works above described, Jacopo executed a picture wherein there was the portrait of Amerigo Antinori, a youth who was then much beloved in Florence; and this likeness being much extolled by every one, the Duke Alessandro caused it to be intimated to Jacopo that he desired to be portrayed by his hand in a large picture. For the greater convenience therefore, Jacopo depicted him, for that time, on a panel not larger than a sheet of paper of the ordinary size, but this he did with so much care and study, that the work of the miniature painters do not merit to be even put in comparison with it. To say nothing of the resemblance, which is excellent, there is in this head all that could be desired for the most perfect of pictures, and from this small painting, which is now in the cabinet of Duke Cosimo, Jacopo afterwards depicted the Duke Alessandro in a large work, representing him with a pencil in his hand, and in the act of designing a female head; this larger picture was subsequently presented by Duke Alessandro to the Signora Taddea Malespina, sister to the Marchesa di Massa.

The Duke, who desired to reward very liberally the ability which Puntormo had displayed in this picture, sent a message to him by his attendant, Niccolò da Montaguto, to the effect that he might ask whatever he pleased and should have his wish granted. But such was, I know not whether to say the timidity or the too great respect and modesty of this man, that he asked nothing better than just as much money as would enable him to redeem a cloak which he had hastily pledged. Hearing this, the Duke could not but laugh at the singular character of the artist, and commanded that he should receive fifty gold crowns, offering him at the same time a pension, but Niccolò had much trouble to make him accept it.

Puntormo had meanwhile completed that Venus, the cartooon for which had been preoared by Michelagnolo for Bartolommeo Bettino, and the work was one of marvellous beauty; but instead of being delivered to Bettino for the price which had been agreed to by Jacopo, it was seized on, almost by force, and taken from the hands of Puntormo by certain favour-seekers, who wished to do Bartolommeo a displeasure, and was given to the Duke Alessandro, the cartoon alone being restored to Bettino.^[47] When Michelagnolo heard of this he was much displeased, on account of the regard which he bore to the friend for whom he had made the cartoon, and was exceedingly angry with Jacopo. But although it is true that the latter did receive fifty crowns from the Duke for the picture, yet he can scarcely be said to have defrauded Bettino, seeing that he did but resign the work at the command of him who wras his Lord: some affirm indeed that Bettino was himself the cause of all the mischief, since he had asked too great a price for the painting.

These sums of money enabling Puntormo to commence certain alterations which he desired to make in his house, he set hand to the work and began to build accordingly, but did not effect anything of much importance. It is true that many say he had the intention of spending very largely, according to his means, for that fabric, intending to construct a very commodious dwelling, for which, it is added, that he had made a design of some merit; but from all that one sees done, the place, whether from Jacopo’s not having enough to spend thereon, or from some other cause, would rather appear to have been contrived by a whimsical and solitary being, than likely to become a wellarranged habitation. To the room wherein Puntormo slept, for example, and in which he sometimes worked also, it wrns necessary to ascend by a ladder of wood, which by means of pulleys he then drew up, so that none could approach his chamber without his knowledge and permission.

But that which most displeased his contemporaries in this artist, was that he would never work but at such moments as he pleased and for such persons as chanced to he agreeable to him, insomuch that he was frequently sought by gentlemen who desired to possess some work from his hand, but for whom he would do nothing, an occurrence which on one occasion happened to the magnificent Ottaviano de’ Medici, whom he refused to serve as was desired. Yet at that very time he would probably be employing himself zealously for some inferior and plebeian person, although receiving only the vilest price for his labour. To the mason Rossino for example, a person of no small ingenuity in his way, and who knew how to profit by his simplicity, Puntormo gave a most exquisite picture of Our Lady as the payment for constructing certain chambers and other mason-work, which the builder had done for him j nay, so well did the worthy Rossino know how to manage his matters that in addition to the above-named picture, he contrived to extract from the hands of Puntormo a truly admirable portrait of Giulio, Cardinal de’ Medici, which Jacopo had copied from one by the hand of Raffaello.

Rossino furthermore obtained a small picture of the crucified Saviour from our artist, and a very beautiful one it is; but although the mason sold it to the magnificent Ottaviano de’ Medici above-mentioned as a work of Puntormo’s, it is nevertheless known certainly to be by Bronzino, who did it entirely with his own hand, while working with his master Jacopo, at the Certosa: for what cause the work afterwards remained in the possession of Puntormo, I know not. These three pictures received for his labours by the mason from Jacopo Puntormo, are now in the house of Messer Alessandro de’ Medici,^[48] son of the before-mentioned Ottaviano.

But although the whimsical proceedings of Puntormo, his unsocial mode of life, and other eccentricities were but little liked, yet whoever shall be pleased to make his apology for the same may be well permitted to do so.

For we certainly owe him thanks for such works as he did perform, and for those which it did not please him to undertake, we are not called on either to censure or reproach him.^[49] No artist is compelled to labour except at such times and for such persons as he pleases; and if his interests be affected by whatever refusals he shall make, that is his affair. As to the solitude in which Jacopo delighted, I have ever heard that solitude is most favourable to the progress of study, but even though it were not so, I see no great reason that there is for censuring him, who, without offending the laws of God or his neighbour, is disposed to live after his own manner; dwelling in such fashion and arranging his hours after such sort as shall best accord with his disposition and character. But enough of these considerations, which we will now leave, and will return to the works of Jacopo Puntormo.

The villa Careggi, which had been erected by Cosimo deMedici the Elder, at the distance of about two miles from Florence, had been partially restored by the Duke Alessandro who had caused the decorations of the Fountains, with the labyrinth, to which the visitor is conducted through two Loggie, to be completed, and when that was done, his Excellency commanded that the Loggie should be painted by Jacopo, but that he should have company in the work, not only to the end that it might be more rapidly accomplished, but also that Puntormo, being kept cheerful and in good heart by conversation, should have the less temptation to running after whimsies, and might labour in peace without racking his brains to no purpose; nay, the Duke himself having sent for Jacopo, begged him to bring the work to conclusion as soon as he could possibly contrive to do so.

Puntormo thereupon summoned Bronzino and directed him to paint five figures in five compartments of the ceiling, these were Fortune, Justice, Victory, Peace, and Fame; but as there are six compartments in that ceiling Jacopo himself took the sixth, and there painted a figure of Love with his own hand. He next prepared designs for a group of children, to adorn the oviform centre of the same vaulting; these children are all holding animals of various kinds in their hands: there is much able foreshortening in this part of the work, which, with the exception of one figure, was painted entirely by Bronzino, wlio acquitted himself exceedingly weil on that occasion.

While Jacopo and Il Bronzino were occupied with these figures, the ornaments around them were in process of execution by Jaeone, Pier Francesco di Jacopo, and others, so that the whole work was completed in a very short time, to the no small satisfaction of the Signor Duke. And his Excellency would have had the second Loggia decorated in like manner, but he had not time to do so, for the first was not finished until the 13th of December, 1536, and on the sixth day of the January following, that most illustrious Signor was slain by his kinsman Lorenzino, an event which caused not this only, but many other works also, to be left unfinished, f The Signor Duke Cosimo having then succeeded, and the affair of Montemurlo being happily over, the works of Castello were commenced, as we have related in the life of Tribolo, when his most illustrious Excellency, willing to do a pleasure to the Signora Donna Maria his mother, commissioned Jacopo to paint the first Loggia, that on the right hand namely, and at the entrance to the palace of Castello. Wherefore, setting hand to the work, Puntormo first designed all the ornaments that were to be used there, and which, for the greater part, he made Bronzino execute, assisted by those who had worked at the same parts of the undertaking at Careggi. Jacopo then shut himself up in the Loggia by himself, and went on with the work in his own fashion, and at his good pleasure, studying with all diligence, in the hope of making it a much better performance than that of Careggi; which he had not executed entirely wij;h his own hand. And this he could do very commodiously, seeing that be had a stipend of eight crowns a month from his Excellency, whose portrait, as the youth he then was, with that of his mother Donna Maria, Puntormo placed in that part of the work which was first completed.

But when the Loggia had remained thus enclosed for the space of five years, while no one was permitted to see what he had done there, the lady above-named became very angry with him, and one day in her displeasure she commanded that the scaffolding and enclosure should be thrown to the earth. It is true that Jacopo found means to avoid the necessity for obeying on the instant, and afterwards obtained permission to let the enclosure remain some few days longer, during which time he retouched such parts of the work as appeared to him to require amendment; then, having caused a cloth of his own contriving to be made, for the purpose of covering the paintings when the Duke and the other Signori were not there, to the end that the air might not corrode the pictures, which were executed in oil on the dry intonaco, as it had done at Careggi;—having taken this precaution, I say, Jacopo Puntormo uncovered his work, amidst the much excited expectation of every one, all believing that he would be found to have surpassed himself in that performance, and would have produced something marvellous. But the effect produced was not altogether what had been expected, for although there are certain parts which are very good, the figures on the whole are very badly proportioned, while the contortions and strange attitudes given to some of them are singularly extravagant; nay, some of them appear to be out of all reason.

The excuse offered by Jacopo was to the effect that he had never worked very willingly in that place, because, being outside the city, it was constantly exposed to the fury of the soldiery, and to other accidents of similar kind. But he might have spared himself the trouble of anxiety on that point, seeing that his work (having been executed in the manner which we have said),^[50] is even now being gradually consumed by time and the air.^[51]

In the centre of the vaulting, then,—to describe what was done—Puntormo represented the God Saturn, with the Zodiacal sign of Capricorn and Mars Hermaphrodite, with those of the Lion, and the Virgin. He added Children floating in the air, as at Careggi, with female figures of enormous size, and almost entirely nude, representing Philosophy, Astrology, Geometry, Music, and Arithmetic; the Goddess Ceres being furthermore depicted in the same place, as were various medallions, with small historical representations, appropriate to the above-named figures, and painted with various shades of colour. This painful and laboured performance did nevertheless not give much satisfaction, or rather it pleased less than it had been expected to do; and although his Excellency would not withhold such marks of approval as he could justly confer, and continued to employ Puntormo on all occasions, this was principally because that painter was held in great veneration by the people, on account of the many beautiful and excellent works which he had executed at an earlier period.

The Duke had meanwhile invited two Flemish artists to Florence, Maestro Giovanni Rosso, and Maestro Niccolò, namely, both excellent masters in cloth of arras, his Excellency proposing that the Florentines should learn, and ultimately exercise, the art of preparing the same. He commanded that hangings of silk and gold should be prepared at a cost of 60,000 crowns, for the hall of the Council of Two Hundred; Jacopo and Bronzino being directed to make the Cartoons, the subject of which was the History of Joseph. But Puntormo having made two, they were not found satisfactory either to the Duke or to those masters who had to put them in execution. The subject of one was the Announcement brought to Jacob of the Death of his son Joseph, by laying before him the coat of many colours; the other was the Flight of Joseph from the wife of Potiphar, in whose hands he leaves his vestment. They did not, however, as I have said, appear to be well calculated for copying in woven cloth, nor likely to succeed as applied to the work in question. Puntormo did not therefore continue his labour of the Cartoons any further, but, returning to his accustomed occupations, he shortly afterwards executed a picture of Our Lady, which was presented by the Duke to the Signor Don —————, who took it into Spain.

Now his Excellency, pursuing the footsteps of his predecessors, has ever sought to benefit and embellish his native city; wherefore, proceeding with that intent, he determined to cause the principal chapel of the magnificent church of San Lorenzo, built aforetime by the great Cosimo de’ Medici the elder; he resolved, I say, to have that chapel adorned with paintings, and gave the charge of the work to Jacopo Puntormo. The artist was exceedingly rejoiced at receiving that favour, whether he owed it, as is said, to the intervention of Messer Pier Francesco Ricci, the Steward of the Household, or whether it was conferred by the Duke of his own accord. For although the magnitude of the work may have given him pause, or even perhaps alarmed him to a certain degree, he being then somewhat advanced in years, yet he perceived, on the other hand, how ample a field the importance of that undertaking would present to him, for giving evidence of the power and ability wherewith he was endowed, and was proportionately content with his appointment. It has been affirmed by some, that when Jacopo found himself commissioned to undertake this charge, he was heard to declare that he would show the world how a man should draw and paint, and work in fresco too; adding, moreover, that all the other artists were only such as one can pick up by the dozen, with other expressions of similar import, all most offensively insolent; and this, notwithstanding that Francesco Salviati, a painter of great name,^[52] was then in Florence, and had most happily completed the pictures in that hall of the palace wherein was formerly the audience chamber of the Signoria. But I, who know Puntormo to have always been a man of the utmost modesty, one who ever spoke honourably and respectfully of every one, and conducted himself towards all as became a well-intentioned and virtuous artist, which he truly was; I am persuaded that these words were attributed to him falsely; nor can I believe that such vauntings were ever suffered to proceed from his lips, seeing that they are rarely heard from any but vain, presumptuous men, who think a great deal too much of themselves; a sort of persons who have little for the most part, either of goodness, ability, or fair breeding.

Now I might have been silent respecting all these things, but Ihave not thought it desirable to be so; on the contrary, it appears to me that to relate these facts as I have done, is the duty of a faithful and veracious writer. With respect to these rumours, however, I am, for my own part, most fully convinced that although such discourses were spoken of— more especially among those of our vocation—they were the mere inventions of malignant persons, Jacopo having ever proved himself, in all the actions of his life, to be equally modest as regarded himself, and upright as concerned others.

Having completely enclosed the chapel within walls, planks, and curtains, Jacopo then shut himself up from all the world, and kept the place so exclusively sealed against every one, that for the space of eleven years no one person, himself only excepted, no friend, no other living soul, in short, ever entered within the enclosure. It is very true that some young men who were drawing in the Sacristy of Michelagnolo, did climb on the roof, after the manner of such youngsters, and having removed the screws and bolt from one of the great gilded rosettes of the ceiling, they thus contrived to see all that was therein. When Jacopo discovered this, he was much displeased, but took no further notice of the matter than was implied by his closing up every opening more diligently than ever, although there are not wanting those who have reported that he persecuted those young men relentlessly, and sought to do them all the mischief that he could.

Imagining that in this work he was about to surpass all other painters, nay, very possibly, as is said, Michelagnolo himself, Puntormo depicted numerous stories in the upper part, the subjects of ail being scenes from the Life of Adam and Eve; their creation namely, the eating of the forbidden fruit, and their expulsion from Paradise: then followed the tilling of the earth, the sacrifice of Abel, the death of Cain, the benediction bestowed on the descendants of Noah, with that Patriarch occupied with the planning and measurement of the ark. These were succeeded in the lower part by one which is not less than fifteen braccia in each direction, and the subject of this was the Deluge, amidst the waters of which are seen weltering vast numbers of drowned and dead bodies,^[53] with Noah himself, engaged in communication with the Almighty Father.

On the other side of the chapel is delineated the universal Resurrection of the dead, as it is to be at the last day, and here all the figures are so wonderfully commingled, so remarkable is the variety and confusion, that they can certainly not be greater at the last day, which will perhaps scarcely display so much movement as Puntormo has here displayed and attributed thereto. Opposite to the altar and between the windows, on the central wall that is to say, there is a range of nude figures, each of them clinging to the one above him with hands and feet, and so forming a kind ot ladder to ascend into paradise, the chain thus formed reaching from earth to heaven. Beneath lie numerous dead bodies and on each side are two dead corpses entirely draped, with the exception of the arms and feet, these two bodies holding a lighted torch in each hand. In the upper part of the central fa9ade, and above the windows Puntormo depicted Our Saviour Christ in his glory surrounded by innumerable spirits and angels, all nude; he is raising those dead from their graves that he may call them to judgment.

I cannot say that I have myself ever been able fully to comprehend all the meaning of this story, although I know that Jacopo was a sufficiently ingenious person himself, and was besides in close intercourse with many sage and learned men; I do not understand, that is to say, what he meant to signify in that part where he has exhibited Our Saviour Christ on high, recalling the dead to life, while beneath his feet is the figure of God the Pather engaged in the creation of Adam and Eve. In one of the lateral portions also, where stand the four Evangelists, nude figures with books in their hands, it does not appear to me that there is any order or measure observed; nay, of all parts indeed it may be affirmed, that there is but little merit in the arrangement or composition, nor do we find the order of time observed. There is an absence of all variety in the heads too, the colouring of the flesh is all of one tint, and at a word, there is neither rule nor proportion; even the laws of perspective have been neglected, and the work is crowded at all points with nude figures; the arrangement, design, composition, colouring, and the whole picture in short being entirely after his own fashion and of his own invention, but all so melancholy and giving so little pleasure to those who examine the performance, that I am determined, since I do not myself understand it, although I also am a painter, to let every one who shall see the work form his own judgment thereof. I believe indeed, that in doing otherwise, I should but incur the risk of becoming utterly bewildered, and involving my self in confusion, as I cannot but believe that Jacopo must have done in those eleven years that he spent thereon, and during which he half crazed himself, as he would certainly do every one else, who should give much attention to these pictures, with their unintelligible masses of figures.^[54]

It is true that there are portions of figures, some turning their backs, others the front to the spectator, which are well drawn, there are also certain figures in profile which have been executed by Puntormo with marvellous care and much labour; indeed he is said to have made models of clay in full relief, and finely finished for almost all of them, but as a whole, the work is nevertheless entirely out of his manner, and, as it appears to every one, devoid of all measure and proportion; the trunks of his figures, for example, are for the most part large, while the arms and legs are small, to say nothing of the heads, in which one cannot discern the slightest vestige of that perfect excellence and singular grace with which it had previously been the wont of this artist to adorn that portion of his works, to the great satisfaction of all who examine his earlier pictures. It would almost appear indeed, as if in these pictures he had bestowed his cares only on certain parts, and had made no account whatever of other, and very important portions of the story.^[54] At a word, in this undertaking, wherein Puntormo had hoped to surpass all that had been effected by art, he did not attain to a comparison even with his own works performed at an earlier period, whence it may be clearly seen, that he who ventures to do himself violence and seeks to force nature, does but ensure the ruin of those good qualities which had been imparted to him, and with which this artist had without doubt been largely endowed.

But what can or ought we here to do unless it be to have compassion on Puntormo? for the masters of our vocation are subject to the liability of error as well as other men. Even the good Homer sometimes falls asleep, as it is said, nor can it yet be affirmed that there is any one work by Jacopo da Puntormo which has not something of good and praiseworthy in it, however much he may have strained and done violence to his genius. But as our artist died a short time before the work had reached its completion,^[55] some assert that his death was caused by grief, seeing that he did himself become eventually very much dissatisfied with his performance on that occasion; but the truth is, that being old and having previously exhausted himself with heavy labour in the taking of portraits, making models of clay, and working in fresco, he fell into hydropsy, and this disease it was by which his life was ultimately destroyed, an event that happened when he had attained his sixty-fifth year.^[56]

After the death of Jacopo da Puntormo, numerous designs, cartoons, and models, were found in his house, with a picture by his hand of Our Lady, completed according to appearance many years before, and which was admirably well done, as well as in a very good manner: this work was sold by the heirs of Jacopo to Piero Salviati. Puntormo was buried in the first cloister of the church which belongs to the Servite monks, and beneath that picture of the Yisitation which he had himself painted there many years previously. He was honourably attended to his grave by all the painters, sculptors, and architects then in Florence.^[57]

Jacopo da Puntormo was a man of frugal habits and regular life: in his clothing and mode of existence he was rather sparing and poor than liberal or nice, and almost always lived alone, not choosing to have any one who should serve or even cook for him. In his last years however, he did receive into his house a young man of good understanding and character, Battista Naldini^[58] namely; and this person took as much care for the comfort of Jacopo, as the latter would permit him to take; and, at the same time, made no small progress under his discipline; nay, rather, he profited to such an extent by Jacopo’s instructions, that the best results are hoped for from him.

Among the friends of Puntormo, more especially towards the close of his life, were Pier Francesco Yernacci and Don Yincenzio Borghini: with them he would occasionally take some little recreation, and would sometimes dine with them, although very rarely. But above all others, he was always most especially attached to Bronzino, who returned his affection with equal love, grateful as he was for the advantages, and fully conscious of the benefits, which Puntormo had conferred on him.^[59]

Jacopo Puntormo was a man of the most kindly dispositions, and had exceedingly agreeable manners, although marked by some peculiarities; he was so grievously afraid of death, that he would not even hear the subject mentioned, and took great pains to avoid meeting a dead body: he would never go to festivals, or frequent any place where large masses of people assembled, abhorring the discomfort of 'being pressed in a crowd; he was indeed incredibly solitary in his habits of life. Sometimes, when about to commence his work, he would set himself to think so profoundly on what he was about to do, that at the end of the day he had to depart without having done any one thing beside thinking, through the whole course of those hours. And that this occurred to him very many times in the progress of that work of San Lorenzo, just described, may be easily believed, because when he had once determined on what he chose to do, being a most able and skilful painter, he made no loitering, but readily executed what he desired, and could at once accomplish whatever he had determined to perform.

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1. Puntormo, or as it is now called Pontormo, is on the road leading from Pisa to Florence, and is about seventeen miles distant from the lastnamed city.
2. The family name of Jacopo was Carrucci or Carucci. —Ed. Flor. 1832-8.
3. The unhappy manner in which Jacopo da Pontormo afterwards forsook the path on which he had entered with so much honour, has been already alluded to.
4. This was done in the year 1529, when Florence was menaced with a siege by the Prince of Orange, and the Church was demolished, lest it should afford shelter to his troops. Admirable instance of how things were managed in the “good old times!’’
5. There is scarcely anything now to be seen of this work, which has been grievously injured by the inclemencies of the weather. In the year 1831 it was examined by command of the authorities, but the artists {hwe|ployed|employed}} found the intonaco so frail as to forbid all hope of its restoration; the few vestiges still remaining must therefore soon perish.
6. Thirteen crowns was the sum which, according to the records of the Convent, was paid, at different times, to Jacopo Pontormo for this work.
7. Our readers have been reminded in a previous note that Vasari hereby means to distinguish between Lorenzo the Magnificent, father of Leo X., and Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino, the name of Lorenzo Vecchio being generally understood to mean the brother of Cosmo, Pater Patriae, who was the grand-uncle of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
8. And who prepared the dies for the Mint of the Duke. —Masselli.
9. The historian of Florence, and who also translated Livy.
10. 
    He who gives laws to nature, and disposes
    Of time and state, of every good is source,
    Nor comes aught ill, but as His word commands.
    Contemplate then this image, and behold
    How, with firm foot, one age pursues another.
    Now changing good to ill, now ill to good.
    
11. San Raffaello that is to say, hut popularly called San Ruffillo, or Ruffello. The church has been demolished, and the picture was some years since removed to the Chapel of the Painters in the Church of the Annunciation.
12. The English reader will find the legend of this Saint very agreeably related in the Sacred and Legendary Art of Mrs. Jameson.
13. This fresco was destroyed in the year 1688, when the building was reconstructed from the foundations.— Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
14. The carving of the Chariot was executed by Marco del Tasso that is to say.— Bottari. The Car was destroyed in the year 1810, under the French domination; the pictures by which it was adorned are now preserved in a Hall belonging to the municipality of Florence.
15. This work is believed to have been destroyed to make way for the construction of a new door.
16. It was much injured in the last century by re-touching. A print of the work will be found in Malvasia, Etruria Pittrice.
17. As appears from the before-mentioned Records of the Convent.
18. In the open book held in the hand of the Holy Evangelist we have the date “1518.” —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
19. This work was ably restored in 1823 by the painter Luigi Scotti.—Ibid.
20. Angiolo, called II Bronzino, was the principal disciple of Pontormo, and it was apparently from him that Vasari obtained a good part of his materials for the.life of that master.
21. The fate of this portrait is not known, no trace of it being now to be discovered in the abode of the heirs of Lappoli. —Bottari.
22. It was destroyed when the Convent and Church of San Gallo were demolished in the year 1529, see note, ante, p. 339.
23. Andrea del Sarto, Francesco, Ubertino, called II Bacchiacca, and II Granacci namely.
24. Two of these stories, and which do indeed merit to be considered beautiful, are now in the Florentine Gallery of the Uffizj, in the larger Hall of the Tuscan School. They have been engraved in outline in the Galleria di Firenze Illustrata.
25. “This work belonged for some time to. the well-known lyric poet and writer of comedy, Gio-Gherardi de’ Rossi,’’ remarks a commentator of our author, u but we have not been able to ascertain the hands into which it passed after his death.”
26. For the miserable fate which afterwards befell this man, see vol. iii. p. 226, note ‡. See also, for minute details respecting that event, and the causes thereof, the Storia of Varchi. lib xii. p. 447.
27. “The deportment of this incomparable woman,” exclaims an admiring compatriot of the eloquent dame above described, the Madonna Margherita, “might put to shame the numbers who since those days have made merchandize for the stranger of so many precious objects, the glory of their family and their country, despoiling their houses, not as compelled by necessity, but for the gratification of an absurd vanity; the supply of a frivolous and most ridiculous extravagance.” Alas, my sisters, can it be that the most commendable acquisition of our jewels and laces, is that which is thus irreverently designated by this profane? Alas, my sisters!
28. The portrait of Cosimo Pater Patrice, here in question, is now in the Florentine Gallery before-mentioned; it has been admirably engraved by Antonio Perfetti, and is given in outline in the Galleria, &c., cited above.
29. Alessandro was afterwards Pope, under the name of Leo XI.
30. These works still survive.
31. It was afterwards removed to the Refectory of the Convent, but the latter being afterwards suppressed, all trace of the work was then lost.
32. The paintings executed by Pontormo in the cloister of the Certosa have been destroyed by time, but there are some reduced copies, made by Jacopo da Empoli, still to be seen in the Florentine Academy of the Fine Arts.
33. Now in the before-mentioned Academy of the Fine Arts in Florence.
34. In the discourse relating “to the Academicians of Design then living,” namely.
35. The central picture of the ceiling in this chapel was destroyed in the year 1766, when the upper choir of the church was enlarged.
36. The figures of the Evangelists are still in their place. — Ed. Flor.t 1832-8.
37. This part of the work has now the appearance of a mere sketch, hut is believed to have been reduced to that state by an injudicious cleaning, which was inflicted on it in the year 1723.
38. It may still be seen, but has been grievously maltreated by cleaning and bold retouching.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
39. This work has disappeared.
40. The Florentines had a particular veneration for St. Anna, because it was on her festival in the year 1343 that they escaped the yoke in Gualtieri, Duke of Athens. On the 26th of July therefore, which is the Festival of Sant’ Anna, the magistrates of Florence went in procession of honour of that occasion, as described in the text.
41. These are San Giovanni and San Sebastiano. The- picture was taken to Paris in the year 1813, and is now in the Louvre.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
42. The portrait of Ippolito de’ Medici, armed, and with a dog, is now in the Pitti Palace, Hall of Saturn. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
43. This work also is in the Pitti Palace.
44. Now in the Florentine Gallery of the Uffizj.
45. These cartoons are believed to be destroyed.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
46. “Vasari has expressed himself thus,” remarks a compatriot of our author, “because the historian Varchi had just then been singing the praises of this work in one of his lectures which was much read at that time, and wherein he (Varchi) compares this Venus to that of Praxiteles, with which, according to Pliny, the men who beheld it fell in love.”
47. “This Venus,” says an Italian annotator, “is in the Guardaroba of the Grand Duke, but some painter of the seventeenth century has covered the nude form with drapery: the colouring is cold and the execution laboured, insomuch that it might be taken for a copy.” There is a picture in the Berlin Gallery, which is believed by certain German writers to be the original work, executed by Pontormo after Michael Angelo’s cartoon, as described in the text. It is said, moreover, to be still in admirable preservation. See the Kunstblatt for 1842, p. 42.
48. A small picture of the Crucifixion by Angelo Bronzino is now in the Pitti Palace. —Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
49. Much more is that like your pleasant and reasonable self, O Giorgio of our hearts, than the sort of half reproach that you were just before addressing to the poor Jacopo, for that he had been pleased to reward with his beautiful productions the labours of those rt inferior and plebeian” persons who had done him honest service.
50. In oil, on the dry intonaco, that is to say; a method which our author frequently describes as surrounded by many difficulties.
51. They are now wholly destroyed, and the wall has been white-washed.
52. Francesco Rossi, called Cecchin Salviati, from the fact that he had been protected by the Cardinal Giovanni Salviati—Ed. Flor., 1832-8,
53. It is related of Jacopo da Pontormo, that he kept dead bodies in troughs of water, to give them the proper degree of inflation for the time when he should desire to paint them, to the end that he might depict them in the swollen state proper to the drowned. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
54. These works were white-washed in the year 1738, and according to the compatriots of the master, i( without any great moan being made by the artist for their extinction.”
55. Moreni, Continuazione alia Sloria della Basilica di San Lorenzo, tom. ii. p. 119, has a passage from the Diario of Agostino Lupini, from which we learn that the work was completed by Bronzino, two years after the death of Pontormo.
56. According to an inscription copied from a wall of the choir of San Lorenzo, and which the authorities considered to be accurate, Pontormo died in his sixty-second year. This inscription, which existed until the destruction of the pictures, was as follows:— Jacobus Ponturmius Florentinus qui antequam tantum opus absolveret de medio in Caelum sublatus est, et vixit annos lxii. menses vii, dies vi., A. S. mdlvi.
57. His remains were afterwards removed, and were transferred to the place of sepulture obtained for the Professors of painting, sculpture, and the other arts of design by Fra Gio. Angelo Montorsoli, and intended to serve for himself as well as for them. This burial-place was in the Chapter House of the Servite Monks, now the Chapel of St. Luke (Cappella di San Luca). —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
58. “Battista Naldini became a good painter.” observes Bottari, “manj examples of his performance are to be found in Florence, and some few in Rome, more particularly in the church of San Giovanni Decollate).”
59. Bronzino introduced the portrait of his master into his large picture of the “Descent of our Saviour into the Limbo, or jaws of Hell.” The head of Pontormo is that of an old man looking upwards, and is situate at the foot of the picture, in the left-hand corner.