Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Giovan-Antonio Razzi, called Sodona, Sodone, or Sogdona

by Giorgio Vasari

 

GIOVAN-ANTONIO RAZZI, OF VERCELLI,^[1] CALLED SODONA,
SODONE, OR SOGDONA.^[2]

[born 1474—died 1549.]

Had men the foresight to consider well their position when fortune offers to them the opportunity of making themselves rich, by procuring for them the favour of great men, and if in their youth they would labour to bring their merits and deserts into harmony with their good fortune, how marvellous would then be the effects that might be seen to result from their activity. But the contrary is known to be too often the case; for as it is true that he who confides his destiny solely to fortune, is for the most part deceived, so is it also most evident and daily proved by experience that even good ability will not accomplish any great things, if wholly left to itself and not accompanied by good fortune. If Giovan Antonio of Verzelli^[3] had displayed excellence equal to his good fortune, as he might have done had he laboured to that effect, he would not have found himself miserably reduced at the end of his life, which was always an eccentric and illgoverned one, to an old age marred by deplorable want.

Giovan Antonio was invited to Siena by certain merchants, who were agents of the noble family of the Spannocchi, when, as his good fortune, or perhaps his evil destiny, would have it, he did not for a time find any competitors in that city. He therefore laboured there alone, and this, although it was for the moment a kind of advantage, became eventually injurious to him, since he thus suffered himself in a certain manner to fall asleep, and never gave himself the trouble to study, but executed the greater part of his works by mere facility of hand,^[4] or if at times he did resolve to betake himself to some little study, these efforts were principally confined to copying and imitating the works of Jacopo della Fonte,^[5] which were much admired in Siena, beyond this he did but little.

In the early days of his residence at Siena, GiovanAntonio executed numerous portraits from the life, with that glowing manner of colouring of his which he had brought from Lombardy, and he then also made many friends in Siena, but more because the inhabitants of that city are much inclined to favour foreigners than on account of his merits as a painter.^[6] He was besides a man of joyous life and cheerful manners, a lover of pleasure, and ever ready to contribute to the amusement of others, even though it were not always in the most creditable manner, for which cause he obtained more than one by-name, among others that of Mattaccio, or the arch-fool; whereat, instead of being displeased and resenting the same, he would laugh and glorify himself, nay, he would make sonnets and canzonets upon these opprobrious epithets, which songs he wrould then sing to the lute, and that without reserve.^[7]

Giovan-Antonio had a fancy for keeping all sorts of strange animals in his house, badgers, squirrels, apes, cat-a mountains, dwarf asses, horses and barbs to run races, magpies, dwarf chickens, tortoises, Indian doves, and other animals of similar kind, whatever he could get into his hands in short; he was always surrounded by children and young men, in whose society he took much pleasure;^[8] and besides the animals above-named, he had a raven, which he had so effectually taught to speak, that this creature counterfeited the voice of Giovan-Antonio exactly in some things, more especially in replying to any one who knocked at the door, nay, this last he did so perfectly, that he seemed to be the painter’s very self, as all the Sienese well know.

The other animals also were so tame that they were constantly assembled about his person, while he was in the house, and came round all who approached him, playing the strangest tricks, and performing the most extraordinary concerts ever seen or heard, insomuch that the dwelling of this man seemed like the very ark of Noah.

This unusual manner of living, the strangeness of his proceedings, with his works and pictures, some of which were certainly very good ones, caused Giovan-Antonio to have such a name among the Sienese (with the base and low that is to say, for those of higher condition judged him better), that he was held by many to be a great man. Wherefore Fra Domenico da Leccio, a Lombard, being made General of the monks of Monto Oliveto, and Giovan-Antonio, going to visit him at Monte Oliveto di Chiusuri, the principal abode of that Order, distant about fifteen miles from Siena, found so much to say and used so many persuasions, that he received commission to finish the stories which had been partly executed on a wall of that monastery by Luca Signorelli of Cortona.^[9] The subject which had been chosen was from the life of San Benedetto, and Razzi undertook the work for a very low price, with the addition of his expenses and that of certain boys, colour grinders and other assistants, by whom he was attended. But the amusement which those fathers found in his proceedings while he worked in that place is not to be told, nor could one easily describe the pranks which he played there,^[10] insomuch that the monks then bestowed on him that name of Mattaccio, before alluded to, in requital of his follies.^[11]

Returning to the work itself, however, Giovan-Antonio, having finished certain stories in a manner which showed more readiness of hand than care and thought, the General complained of that circumstance, when II Mattaccio replied, that he worked according to his humour, and that his pencil only danced in harmony with the sound of the coins, adding, that if the General would pay more, he was quite able to produce much better work. Thereupon Fra Domenico promised to pay him better for the future, when Giovan-Antonio painted three stories wdiich still remained to be executed in the angles, with so much more of thought and care than he had given to the others, that they proved to be much better works.

In the first of these pictures is seen San Benedetto departing from Norica, and leaving his parents to go and pursue his studies in Rome; in the second are San Mauro and San Placido brought to him as children, and dedicated by their parents to God: the third picture represents the Goths burning Monte Casino. Last of all, and to do despite to the General and those monks, Giovan-Antonio depicted the story of the Priest Fiorenzo, the enemy of San Benedetto, who brought a number of public dancing women to sing and frolic around the monastery of that holy man, thereby to tempt and disturb the devotions of those fathers. In this story II Mattaccio, who was as eccentric in painting as in the other actions of his life, exhibited a dance of nude figures, which was altogether offensive, and, as he knew that this would not be permitted, he refused to let any of the monks see his work while it was in progress. When this story was uncovered, the General at once commanded that it should be instantly destroyed and done away with, but Mattaccio, after much idle talk, and seeing that the father was in great anger, added draperies to all the figures in the picture, which is among the best of those to be found in the Monte Oliveto.^[12]

Under each of the stories above-mentioned, the same artist painted two medallions, in each of which is a Monk, the whole range presenting figures of all the Generals by whom that Congregation had been governed. Not having the portraits from the life, II Mattaccio executed most of these heads from fancy, but in some he placed the portraits of certain among the older monks then in the monastery, bringing down the series until he came to the above-named Era Domenico da Leccio, who was then General, as we have said, and from whom he had received his commission for the work. But some of these heads, having subsequently had their eyes put out, while others had been also injured in various parts, the Bolognese Fra Antonio Bentivogli caused them all, and for very good reasons, to be taken away.

While Giovan-Antonio was occupied with these paintings, a Milanese gentleman had gone to take the habit of a monk in that monastery; he was at the time wearing a yellow cloak, bordered and trimmed with black cords, as was the fashion of the period; and when the gentleman had taken the habit, this cloak was given by the General to Mattaceio, when the latter, putting it on his back, drew his own portrait, thus clothed, with the aid of a mirror, in the picture wherein San Benedetto, when little more than a child, miraculously mends and makes whole the pail or tub of his nurse, which she had broken. At the feet of his own portrait B Mattaceio painted those of his raven, with a baboon, and some other of his animals.^[13]

This work being finished, Giovan-Antonio painted a picture, the subject of which was the Miracle of the five loaves and two fishes, in the Refectory of Sant’ Anna, a house belonging to the same Order, and at the distance of about five miles from Monte Oliveto, with other figures in other parts of the monastery.^[14] When this work was finished, Bazzi returned to Siena, where he decorated in fresco the façade of the house of the Sienese Messer Agostino de’ Bardi, which is situate at the Pustierla: in this painting were many things worthy of praise, but much of it has been destroyed by time and the action of the air.

In the meantime Agostino Chigi, a very rich and most renowned Sienese merchant, visited his native city, and Giovan-Antonio was made known to him, as well by the follies he committed, as because he had the name of a good painter; wherefore Agostino conducted him to Rome, where Pope Julius II. was at that time causing the papal apartments in the Vatican, which had formerly been erected by Nicholas V., to be decorated with paintings, and Chigi so contrived that Giovan-Antonio was employed with other artists to work in those apartments.

Now Pietro Perugino was then painting the ceiling of one cf the rooms, that namely which is close beside the Torre Borgia, but he, being an old man, worked slowly, and, not being able to commence such other portions of the work as he had at first been commanded to execute, a room beside that which Pietro was painting was then given to Giovan-Antonio. He, therefore, putting hand to the same, painted the decorations of cornices, friezes, and foliage, which border the ceiling, and then proceeded to paint certain large circular compartments, wherein he executed stories in fresco, which are of very considerable merit. But as this animal, occupied as he was with his four-footed creatures and his follies, did not steadily continue and put forward the work, Raffaello da Urbino, who had been invited to Rome by the architect Bramante, and whose superiority to the other artists had become manifest to the Pontiff,—Raffaello, I say, received charge of the whole, and his Holiness commanded that neither Perugino nor Giovan-Antonio should work any more in those apartments, nay, furthermore, he gave orders that all which they had done should be destroyed.

But Raffaello, who was goodness and modesty itself permitted all the paintings that Pietro Perugino, who had formerly been his master, had accomplished, to retain their places, nor did he efface the work of the Mattaccio except so far as the figures of the medallions and the stories were concerned; all the decorations and ornaments which served as framework, he suffered to remain, and they still surround the figures executed by Raphael, that of Justice and Knowledge namely, with those of Poetry and Theology.

Then Agostino, who was a man of the utmost courtesy and kindness, without permitting himself to be deterred by the affront which had been put upon Giovan-Antonio, gave him ons of the principal rooms in his palace in the Trastevere to paint. This is the apartment which opens on the great hall, and the subject of the work was Alexander and Roxana in their bridal chamber. Among other figures Razzi here depicted Loves employed in various offices; some unfasten the cuirass of Alexander, others draw off his sandals or buskins, some carry away and lay aside his helmet and mantle, while others scatter flowers upon the bed or perform services of similar kind; near the chimney is a figure of Vulcan engaged in the forging of arrows.

This work was then considered a very good and praiseworthy performance,^[15] and if II Mattaccio, who had some very excellent parts, and was powerfully aided by nature, had profited by the mishap we have referred to above, and then devoted himself to his studies, as any other would have done, he might have become a very excellent painter; but he, whose thoughts were ever running on some absurdity, worked by fits and starts only, or when the fancy took him, caring for nothing more earnestly than the dressing himself pompously, wearing a doublet of brocade, a short cloak all covered over and decorated with cloth of gold, head-gear of the richest fashion, a gold chain and other fopperies of similar kind, best suited to Jack-puddings and Mountebanks, in all which Agostino, whom that humour of his diverted greatly, found the finest sport in the world.

Pope Julius II. having then died, and Leo X., whom all fantastic and light-minded creatures such as was this man pleased well; Leo X., I say, being created high Pontiff, II Mattaccio was suddenly raised to the very summit of delight, and the rather as he detested Julius, who had done him that scorn; wherefore, desiring to make his talents known to the new- Pontiff, he set himself to work, and executed a painting W'herein he depicted a nude figure of Lucretia stabbing herself with the poniard. And as fortune is favourable to fools and wall sometimes bring aid to thoughtless men, so GriovanAntonio succeeded in producing the most beautiful form of a woman that can be conceived, with a head that was breathing.

The work thus happily completed, Agostino Chigi, who stood in the closest relations of service with Leo X., caused it to be presented to his Holiness, by whom the artist was made a Cavalier or Knight and duly remunerated for so beautiful a picture.^[16] It now appeared to Giovan-Antonio that he had become a great man, and he began to refuse all labour unless when he was driven to work by actual want.

Agostino Chigi, being then called by certain of his affairs to Siena, took Giovan-Antonio with him, but while dwelling there, the artist, being a Knight without revenues, was compelled to set himself to work; he therefore painted a picture, the subject of which was Our Saviour Christ in the act of being taken from the cross; beneath is the Virgin in a swoon, with an armed warrior whose back is turned to the spectator, but the front of whose figure is shown as reflected from certain pieces of armour lying on the earth, and which armour is as clear as a mirror. This picture, which was and is considered one of the best of Razzi’s works, was placed in the church of San Francesco, on the right hand as one enters the church.^[17] In the cloister also, which is beside the said church of San Francesco, Giovan-Antonio executed a fresco of Christ scourged at the column, with numerous figures of Jews standing around Pilate, and a range of columns designed in perspective, forming a kind of vestibule. In this work Giovan-Antonio painted the portrait of himself without a beard, or rather with the beard shaven, and with long hair as they were worn at that time.^[18]

No long time afterwards, our artist painted certain pictures for the Signor Jacopo Sesto of Piombino; and, being with Signor Jacopo in that place, he furthermore depicted other works on cloth for the same Noble. Wherefore, besides many presents and marks of favour which were shown him by Signor Jacopo, Razzi also procured by his means a number of little animals from his Island of Elba, of the kind produced in that island, and all which Giovan-Antonio then took with him to Siena.

Repairing subsequently to Florence, he was commissioned by a monk of the Brandolini family, who was then Abbot of the monastery of Monte Oliveto, which is situate outside the gate of San Friano, to paint certain pictures in fresco on the wall of the Refectory. But negligent and thoughtless as he was, Giovan-Antonio executed these works without care or study, and they proved to be so worthless that he was utterly shamed and treated with scorn for his follies by those who had been led to expect that he would produce some extraordinary work.^[19]

While Razzi was occupied with this painting, he sent a Barbary horse, which he had brought with him to Florence, to run at the race of San Bernaba; and, as fortune would have it, his horse ran much better than the others, and won the prize. But when the boys, who, according to the usual custom, followed the trumpeters after the race, to call out the name of the master to whom the winning horse belonged, came to Razzi inquiring what name they were to call out, he replied II Mattaccio, and the boys so called out accordingly; when that disreputable name being heard by certain grave old men, they began to complain of it and to say: “What unbeseeming thing is this, and what boldness is here, that there should be called through our city so opprobrious a name as this?” in such sort that a clamour arose, and the poor Mattaccio was within an ace of being stoned by the boys and people, together with his horse and the ape which he had with him on the saddle.

Giovan-Antonio had indeed won many races in the course of years (which had been gained by his horses as described above), and displayed indescribable vain-glory in the matter of his accumulated prizes, he would exhibit them to every one who came into the house, nay, he would very frequently make a show of them at his windows.

But we return to his works. For the Brotherhood of San Bastiano in Camollia, whose place is behind the church of the Umiliati, Giovan-Antonio painted a Gonfalon on cloth and in oil, for the Brotherhood to carry in procession, the subject being San Sebastiano, nude and fastened to a tree. The figure supports itself on the right foot, the left leg being foreshortened, and the head raised towards an angel who is placing a crown on the head of the Saint. This work is a truly beautiful one, and is worthy of the highest commendation; on the reverse of the banner is Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, while beneath are San Gismondo and San Rocco, with some Flagellants who are kneeling on the earth. It is said that certain merchants of Lucca would have given the men of the Brotherhood three hundred gold crowns for the picture, but could not obtain it even for that sum, the Company not being willing to part with so admirable a work.^[20]

And of a truth II Mattaccio, whether by care, by favour of fortune, or by chance, did in some of his performances acquit himself exceedingly well, but of these works he produced very few; there is one of them in the Sacristy of the monks of Mount Carmel, a Nativity of Our Lady, with nurses variously occupied standing around, this is exceedingly beautiful. At the corner of the Piazza de Tolomei also 11 Mattaccio painted a fresco of the Madonna with the Divine Child in her arms, for the guild of the Shoemakers; San Giovanni, San Francesco, San Rocco, and San Crispino, who is the advocate of the men of that trade, are also depicted in that work, the last-mentioned Saint holding a shoe in his hand. In the heads of these figures, as well as in every other part of the picture, Giovan-Antonio has here also acquitted himself exceedingly well.^[21]

For the company of San Bernardino of Siena, whose house is beside the church of San Francesco, this master painted stories in fresco, which he executed in competition with the Sienese painter Girolamo del Pacchia,^[22] and with Domenico Beccafumi, in the chapel of the above-named Brotherhood. The subjects of these works are the Presentation of Our Lady in the temple, the Visitation of the Madonna to Sant’ Elizabetta, her Assumption, and her Coronation in heaven. In one of the angles of the same chapel he painted a Saint in the episcopal robes, with San Lodovico and Sant’ Antonio of Padua in the others, but the best figure of all is that of San Francesco, who, standing upright, is raising his head towards a little angel, who appears to be speaking to him: the head of San Francesco himself is truly admirable.^[23]

In the palace of the Signori a at Siena, Giovan Antonio painted numerous little tabernacles in one of the large halls, decorating the same with clusters of columns, angels in the form of little children, and other ornaments. Within these tabernacles also there are various figures; one of these is San Vittorio armed after the manner of the antique, and holding his sword in his hand: near him, and depicted in like manner is Sant’ Ansaldo baptizing certain catechumens; and in a third is San Benedetto, all very beautiful figures.

In the lower part of the same palace, and where the salt is sold,^[24] Giovan Antonio painted a picture the subject of which was Christ rising from the sepulchre, with soldiers standing around the tomb and two little Angels, the heads of which are considered exceedingly beautiful.^[25] Over a door in the same building is a figure of Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, and two Saints beside her,^[26] also painted in fresco by Giovan Antonio.^[27]

In the church of Santo Spirito, Razzi painted the chapel of San Jacopo, which he did by commission from men of the Spanish nation^[28] who had their place of burial in that chapel, the subject selected was the Madonna depicted after the ancient manner,^[29] and having on her right hand San Niccolò da Tolentino, with the archangel San Michele, who is slaying Lucifer, on the left. In the lunette above these figures is Our Lady clothing one of the saints in the sacerdotal habit, and surrounded by numerous angels. On the ceiling over these works, which are on panel and in oil, Giovan-Antonio painted in fresco a figure of San Jacopo, armed, and on a horse which is rapidly hastening forwards; the saint holds his sword boldly brandished in his hand, and beneath him are lying many Turks, some dead and others wounded.

Beneath these pictures and beside the altar of the same chapel, are Sant’ Antonio the abbot, and a figure of San Sebastiano bound naked to the column; they are in fresco, and are considered very good works.^[30]

In the cathedral of the same city of Siena, and on the right hand as you enter the church, there is an altar-piece, painted in oil by the hand of Razzi, in this we have the Madonna with the Divine Child on her knee; San Giuseppe is on one side, and San Calisto on the other; this work is also held to be a very beautiful one, and it is manifest that our artist gave much more attention to the colouring thereof than he usually bestowed on his paintings. For the Brotherhood of the Trinity he painted a very beautiful bier^[31] whereon they bear their dead to the burial, with one for the Company of Death, which is considered to be the handsomest bier in Siena:^[32] nay, I am even of opinion that it is the most beautiful one that can be found, not only because the work is one which of itself is truly admirable and worthy of praise, but also because things of that kind are rarely executed at much cost or with any great care.

In the chapel of Santa Caterina of Siena, in the church of San Domenico in that city, Giovan Antonio painted two stories, being one on each side of a tabernacle wherein is the head of the above-named Santa Caterina executed in silver. That on the right side of the tabernacle exhibits the saint when she is receiving the Stigmata from Our Saviour Christ, who is seen in the air above, she lying fainting in the arms of two of the Sisterhood who support her. The Sienese painter Baldassare Petrucci,^[33] examining this work, declared that he had never seen the figures of persons fainting depicted with more truth and perfection by any artist than by Giovan Antonio.^[34] And of a truth he had reason to say so, as may be seen not only in the painting itself, but also in the design for the same by the hand of Razzi, which we have in our book of drawings.

In the second story, that standing to the left of the abovementioned tabernacle, is depicted a certain event of the Saint’s life, the Angel of God namely bearing to her the host of the most holy communion; she, raising her head, beholds Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in the air above her, while two of the Sisterhood stand in attendance behind.

Another picture on the wall to the right is the story of a criminal in the act of being led to his decapitation; and this man, refusing to be converted and despairing of the mercy of God, will not recommend himself to his Creator, when that holy Saint praying for him on her knees, her orisons were so acceptable to God, that on the head of the criminal being struck ofif, his soul was seen to ascend into heaven. So greatly may avail with the mercy of God the prayers of those holy persons who are truly in his grace.

In this story there is a vast number of persons represented, but if they are not of the highest perfection, no man need marvel at that, since I have heard it affirmed as a fact, that the idleness and negligence of Giovan-Antonio had reached to such a point as to prevent him from ever making either designs or cartoons when he had a work of this kind to execute, he drawing with his pencil immediately on the fresh intonaco (a most extraordinary thing), and in this manner it is that he appears to have treated the picture in question. The same artist painted a figure of the Almighty Father in the arch which forms the entrance to the above-named chapel, but the remaining stories were not finished by himself, a circumstance principally attributable to his idleness, he not choosing to work except by fits and starts, but partly also to the fact that he could not obtain payment from those who had caused that chapel to be thus decorated. Beneath the stories above described is a picture by the same artist, representing God the Father; and in the lower part is a Madonna after the old manner, with San Domenico, San Gismondo, San Sebastiano, and Santa Caterina.

In the church of Sant’ Agostino, and to the right of the entrance, Giovan-Antonio painted an Adoration of the Magi, which has ever been considered a good work, as it well deserves to be.^[35] For, to say nothing of the figure of Our Lady, which is highly extolled, as are the first of the three Magi and certain of the horses, there is the head of a Shepherd, seen between two trees, which does truly appear to be alive.

Over that gate of the city called San Viene, our artist painted the Nativity of Jesus Christ, wfith angels in the air above: this is a fresco, and is depicted within a large tabernacle. Among the angels is one, a foreshortened figure of extraordinary beauty and relief, who is pointing to the Saviour as if he would show to all men the Word made Flesh.^[36] In this work Giovan-Antonio has placed his own portrait, wearing his beard, he having now become old; he has a pencil in his hand, the point of which is directed towards a scroll whereon is the word Feci.

In the chapel of the Commune, on the Piazza wdierein stands the Palazzo Publico at Siena, Giovan-Antonio painted a fresco, the subject of which is Our Lady, with the Divine Child in her arms, and surrounded by numerous angels; the Madonna is accompanied by Sant’ Ansano, San Yittorio, Sant’ Agostino, and San Jacopo; while in the lunette above, which is of a triangular form, is the figure of the Almighty Father, with angels around him, by the same hand. But in the work here in question it becomes apparent that this man had begun, even when he commenced it, to have scarcely any love for his art remaining, having lost a certain something of good and praiseworthy in manner which he had possessed in his younger days, and by means whereof he gave an air of grace to his heads, which made them lovely and attractive. And that this is true, may be proved by the examination of certain works which he executed long before the one now before us, at the Postierla, and which may still be seen: they are in fresco, on a wall over the door of the Captain Lorenzo Mariscotti, where there is a figure of the Dead Christ lying in the lap of his Virgin Mother, which has a grace, beauty, and divinity that are truly wonderful.^[37]

A picture of the Madonna, which Giovan-Antonio painted in oil for Messer Eneas Savini of the Costerella, presents further proof of what is here said, as does another on cloth, which he executed for Assuero Rettori, of San Martino, the subject of the last being the Roman Lucrezia, who inflicts on herself the mortal wound: ^[38] she is supported by her father and husband: this is a work wherein there is much grace in the attitudes, with infinite beauty in the heads.

Ultimately Giovan-Antonio perceived that the hearts of the Sienese were entirely turned to the excellence in art, and other admirable qualities of Domenico Beccafumi, and having neither house nor income at Siena, nay, having consumed almost all that he possessed, while he was then become old as well as poor, he departed from the city almost in despair, and betook himself to Volterra. There, as his good fortune would have it, he found Messer Lorenzo di Galeotto de’ Medici, a rich and much respected gentleman, with whom he took shelter, in the hope of remaining with him for a very long time. Thus dwelling in the house of Messer Lorenzo, he painted a picture on cloth for that noble, the subject selected being the Chariot of the Sun, which, having been unskilfully guided by Phaeton, falls into the River Po. But it is perfectly easy to see that the artist worked for his amusement only, and that the painting was executed by mere facility of hand, no thought having been given to any part of it; so insignificant and ill-considered is the whole performance.

Accustomed to a life of freedom, Giovan-Antonio became weary after a time of remaining in the house of Messer Lorenzo, and his abode in Yolterra having also become distasteful to him, he departed thence, and proceeded to Pisa, where he was commissioned to execute two pictures for the Duomo, by the intervention of Battista del Cervelliera with Messer Bastiano della Seta, Warden of that cathedral; these works were placed in the Apsis, behind the high altar, and beside those executed by Sogliani and Beccafumi.

The first of these pictures represents the Dead Christ, with Our Lady and the other Maries; and in the second is the Patriarch Abraham, proceeding to sacrifice his son Isaac.^[39] But as they were found to be of no great merit, the Warden, who had designed to entrust other pictures for the same church to Giovan-Antonio, dismissed him, knowing well that men who do not study, having once arrived at old age, are liable to lose that certain something of good wherewith they had been endowed by Nature, and when that is lost, the manner remaining, with such facility of hand as may be left to them, is for the most part but little to be commended.

About the same time Giovan-Antonio completed a picture in oil, which he had previously commenced for the church of Santa Maria della Spina, and here he depicted Our Lady, with the Infant Christ in her arms, Santa Maria Maddalena and Santa Caterina being on their knees before her, while San Giovanni, San Bastiano, and San Giuseppe stand upright and at each side of the Madonna. In all the figures of this work, Giovan-Antonio acquitted himself much more creditably than he had done in those of the Duomo.^[40]

Having then nothing more to do at Pisa, he left that city, repairing to Luca, and in San Ponziano, a monastery belonging to the monks of Monte Oliveto, he received a commission from the abbot, who was a person of his acquaintance, to paint a picture of Our Lady on a staircase which forms the ascent to the dormitory. That work being completed, Giovan-Antonio returned to Siena, weary, old, and poor; but he did not long survive his arrival in that city: falling sick, and having no one to take care of him, nor any means wherewith to procure needful attendance, he took refuge in the great hospital, where he finished the course of his life in a very few weeks.^[41]

While Giovan-Antonio was still young and in good repute, he had taken a wife in Siena, the young woman being the daughter of very honest and respectable parents. In the first year of his marriage he became the father of a little girl, but his wife, being weary of the follies committed by this man, at length refused to live with him. Withdrawing herself wholly from her husband therefore, she supported her child by her labour, and on the interest of her dowry,^[42] after having long borne with infinite patience the brutalities and absurdities of Giovan-Antonio, who was truly worthy of that name of Mattaccio, or Arch-fool, which was given to him, as we have said, by the fathers of Monte Oliveto.

The Sienese Riccio,^[43] a tolerably able and experienced painter, who was a disciple of Giovan-Antonio, took the daughter of his master, who had been very carefully and respectably brought up by her mother, for his wife, and became heir to^[44] all that his father-in-law had left in matters of art. This Riccio has produced many commendable works in Siena and elsewhere; in the cathedral for example there is a chapel to the left as you enter the church, decorated with paintings and stucco-work, by his hand. He is now in Lucca, where he has already executed many excellent works, and continues to do so.

There was also a disciple of Razzi who was called Giomo del Mattaccio, but as he died young and could give but slight evidence of his genius and acquirements, it does not need that I should speak of him further.^[45]

Giovan-Antonio died in the year 1554,^[46] when he had attained his seventy-fifth year.

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1. Rumohr, Italienische Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 385, et seq.} may be consulted with advantage in relation to the life of this painter. See also Della Valle, Sienese Edition of our author, and Tiraboschi, Storia della Litteratura Italiana, tomo ix. p. 193.
2. That this, which has been considered a by-name, was indeed a family name of Razzi, appears to be sufficiently proved by inscriptions, which are quoted by Della Valle, Gave, and others: that on the picture of the Council House of Siena, for example, where Razzi signs himself, Io Antonius Sodona, &c.; with those cited by Gaye, Carteggio inedito, &c., among others, a letter from the Signoria of Siena, wherein the painter is addressed as Maestro Giovannantonio Sodone Pittore; and those from the Prince of Piombino, who in his letters to the Signoria, calls the master the Cavalier Sogdona.
3. Authorities differ as to the birth-place of Razzi; Bottari, Baldinucci, and Ugurgieri maintain him to have been a native of Vergelle, a place in the Sienese territory; Della Valle, on the contrary, supports our author’s assertion that he was of Verzelli or Vercelli, in Piedmont. It is true that Gaye, Carteggio inedito d’Artisti, cites an inscription in which Giovan-Antonio calls himself “of Siena” (Senensis), but this may have reference to his right of citizenship, an honour which had been bestowed on him by the Sienese. Be this as it may, and whether he were Piedmontese or Sienese by birth, it is certain that by long residence, by adoption, and by affection, this master belongs to Siena.
4. In the Life of Domenico Beccafumi, Vasari has declared Razzi to have been a good designer.
5. For whose life see vol. i. of the present work.
6. The commentators remark, and with reason, that Vasari, disapproving the character of Razzi, has for once permitted himself to look with a biassed judgment on his works, which are now admitted on all hands to have great merit.
7. Della Valle labours much to defend Razzi against these charges brought against him, which he declares to be calumnious; and referring to the opprobrious names bestowed on the painter, he quotes an inscription by his own hand, on the picture in the Chapel of the Council House in Siena, and which is as follows:—Ad honorem Virginis Maries. Io. Antonius... Sodona Eques et Comes Palatinus faciebat. See ante, p. 452, notes ‡ and §.
8. In the Life of Beccafumi, this fancy has been alluded to, but there Vasari adds, that Giovan-Antonio was then young, and of some merit as a painter.
9. Luca Signorelli suffered them to remain unfinished, because he was summoned to Orvieto, there to paint the Chapel of the Madonna in San Brizio.— Note to the German Translation of Vasari.
10. The Abbate Perini, Lettera sull'Archicenobio di Monte Oliveto Maggiore, Florence, 1788, remarks that Vasari would make it appear that the works executed by Razzi at Monte Oliveto were “full of absurdities and offences, whereas they breathe the purest spirit of devotion;” but Vasari’s words bear no such interpretation, as our readers will clearly perceive; they refer to the absurdities and follies he perpetrated, and not to ridiculous or unbecoming subjects painted by him.
11. Della Valle excuses the painter for the follies here reproved, and quotes in his behalf the words of Seneca;—
    Nullum fuit magnum ingenium absque aliqua admiratione dementiae.
12. Rumohr praises these works greatly. There are still some twentysix paintings by Razzi in the Monastery, but since the suppression of the House under the French domination, they have unhappily suffered much injury. —Note, to the German Translation of Vasari.
13. In this picture the artist placed the portraits of his wife and daughter as well as his own.—German Translation of Vasari.
14. The large picture in the Refectory of Sant’ Anna is also in tolerably fair preservation, but the smaller paintings executed over the seats of the Monks have been scratched by piles of wood which have been reared against them, this Refectory having become the magazine or store-room of a wood-seller. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
15. The pictures of the Palazzo Chigi on the Langara, now called the Famesina, are still in existence, but late authorities do not consider the figure of Vulcan to be by Razzi.
16. This singularly beautiful picture, still in good preservation, is now in the possession of Herr Commendator Kestner, the Hanoverian Ambassador to Rome.— Note to German Edition of Vasari.
17. This picture, which was held in high estimation by Annibale Carracci, is still to be seen in the church.—Ed. Flor., 1832-8. It has been engraved on copper by Gio Paolo Lasinio.
18. This work has been transferred to canvas, and is now in the Academy of the Arts at Siena.
19. They were subsequently effaced.
20. ince the year 1784 this beautiful picture has adorned the Public Gallery of Florence, where it will be found in the larger Hall of the Tuscan School.— Masselli.
21. The picture called the Madonna of the Shoemakers has hitherto maintained its condition admirably well, but is now rapidly deteriorating from the effects of the smoke and other exhalations arising from the shop of a metal-founder, whose furnaces are immediately beneath it. — Ed. Flor. 1832-8.
22. Lanzi and other authorities consider the painter here meant to be probably Pacchierotto, but that artist was called Giacomo and not Girolamo.
23. These works still remain.
24. Our readers will not require to be reminded that the sale of salt has always been, and continues in many continental states still to be, a close monopoly of the government.
25. The pictures of the Palazzo Publico still remain.
26. This work has been engraved by Lasinio and Gecchi. See also Lastri, Etruria Pittrice.
27. Gaye, Carteggio, &c., informs us that Giovan Antonio was at this time, 1536, employed in various works for the Prince Giacomo of Piombino likewise. See Gaye’s work, as above cited, vol. ii. p. 266.
28. Armenini, in the first book of his Veri Precetti della Pittura, relates the following anecdote of Giovan Antonio Razzi. Our readers will take it for what it may be worth. Having been affronted by a Spanish soldier, then on guard at one of the city gates, the painter, unable to cope with the numbers by whom the man was surrounded, fixed his eyes on him attentively, and then, returning home, made a portrait of the soldier’s face; this he took to the Spanish Prince, demanding satisfaction for the affront received, and the aggressor being readily discovered by means of the portrait, was punished accordingly, Giovan Antonio himself obtaining at the same time the favour of the Prince, as Armenini assures us he was told by an old man who had been the friend of Razzi.
29. Vasari here probably means the Madonna with the Divine Child standing beside her, as she is depicted in the earliest paintings on that subject; or with her Son seated on her knee, as he describes Our Saviour Christ to be represented in a subsequent passage: the Infant in the arms of the Virgin being a mode of representation proper to a later age, as our readers will doubtless remember.
30. They are still to be seen in the place above-mentioned.— Ed. Flor. 1832-8.
31. This bier is preserved in the parish church of San Donato; some of the authorities consider it to be a work of Beccafumi or of Marco da Siena; but if it be by Razzi, it is not to be accounted among the happiest of his efforts. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
32. The bier here described is indeed truly beautiful, and may still be seen, in excellent preservation, in the Church of the Laical Brotherhood of San Giovanni and San Gennaro.
33. Baldassare Peruzzi that is to say, for whose life see vol. lii. of the present work, p. 157. The Saint Caterina fainting has been engraved by I. Bonajuti and P. Lasinio, in the Pitture di Siena.
34. An opinion still held by many. —Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
35. This work also is still in existence, and has been engraved by P. Lasinio. See the Pitture di Siena, as above cited.
36. This work is still visible. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
37. The fresco is still to be seen on the front of the Casa Bambagini.—Ibid.
38. A subject previously treated by Razzi, as our readers will remember, for Pope -Julius II.
39. The first of these pictures is still in its place; but the second, which was taken to Paris, and remained there three years, is of much greater merit. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
40. Still in the Church of Santa Maria della Spina.
41. Rumohr, Ital. Forsch., vol. ii. p. 385, remarks, and we fear with justice, that in this life—although in this only—Vasari has been unjust, and, in so much, unworthy of himself. But it is nevertheless clearly apparent that this injustice, if so it must be called, has not arisen from the mean motive of personal dislike, but rather from the author having suffered his disapproval of the painter’s ill-regulated life to prejudice his judgment and give, a perhaps, undue severity to his expressions. It is besides obvious that whenever Razzi did perform a truly conscientious and well-laboured work, our biographer, who had a particular respect for steady application, and greatly resented the desecration of art, was ever ready to acknowledge the merit of the artist, and give him due credit for it—of this the reader will have remarked numerous instances—more particularly towards the close of Razzi’s life. Vasari was, in short, offended by the negligent habits of Giovan-Antonio as an artist, and revolted by the evil repute which he had acquired as a man, and these things were without doubt suffered, in this one instance, to bias the judgment of the biographer.
42. A sum of 490 florins.
43. Bartolommeo Neroni, or Negroni, called Maestro Riccio the Sienese, was an architect as well as painter. His works have been engraved at Rome by Andrea Andreini of Mantua.— Bollari.
44. Giomo is a contraction for Girolamo. Orlandi, Abbecedario Piltoricc> has mistaken this Giomo, who died before he had given any evidence of his ability, for that Girolamo del Pacchia, who was capable of being the competitor of Razzi.
45. Michel Angelo Anselmi of Siena, Rustico, an excellent painter of grottesche, and Lo Scalabrino, who, according to Lanzi, was “a man of genius and a poet,” are likewise enumerated among the disciples of this master.
46. The Sienese, Signor Ettore Romagnoli, has discovered documents in his native city from which it would appear that Giovan Antonio Razzi died on the 14th of February, in the year 1549. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.