Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10)

Part 1

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LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO VASARI VOLUME I. CIMABUE TO AGNOLO GADDI 1912

LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS & ARCHITECTS

BY GIORGIO VASARI:

NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES

LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO. LD. & THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LD. 1912-14

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

PAGE

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THIS EDITION xi

DEDICATIONS TO COSIMO DE' MEDICI EDITION OF 1550 xiii EDITION OF 1568 xvii

IMPRIMATUR OF POPE PIUS V xxi

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE WHOLE WORK xxiii

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE LIVES xxxvii

GIOVANNI CIMABUE 1

ARNOLFO DI LAPO 11

NICCOLA AND GIOVANNI OF PISA [NICCOLA PISANO: GIOVANNI PISANO] 27

ANDREA TAFI 45

GADDO GADDI 53

MARGARITONE 61

GIOTTO 69

AGOSTINO AND AGNOLO OF SIENA 95

STEFANO AND UGOLINO SANESE [UGOLINO DA SIENA] 107

PIETRO LAURATI [PIETRO LORENZETTI] 115

ANDREA PISANO 121

BUONAMICO BUFFALMACCO 133

AMBROGIO LORENZETTI 153

PIETRO CAVALLINI 159

SIMONE SANESE [SIMONE MEMMI OR MARTINI] 165

Part 2

TADDEO GADDI 175

ANDREA DI CIONE ORCAGNA 187

TOMMASO, CALLED GIOTTINO 201

GIOVANNI DAL PONTE 209

AGNOLO GADDI 215

INDEX OF NAMES 225

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I

PLATES IN COLOUR

FACING PAGE

CIMABUE Madonna and Child Florence: Accademia, 102 10

GIOTTO Madonna and Child Florence: Accademia, 103 82

PIETRO LAURATI Madonna and Child, Assisi: Lower Church 118 with SS. Francis and John

AMBROGIO Madonna and Child, Siena: Pinacoteca, 77 156 LORENZETTI with SS. Mary Magdalen and Dorothy

SIMONE SANESE The Knighting of Assisi: Lower Church, S. Martin Chapel of S. Martin 168

LIPPO MEMMI Madonna and Child Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 1081A 172

TADDEO GADDI The Presentation Florence: Accademia, 107 182 in the Temple

ANDREA DI CIONE Christ Enthroned Florence: S. Maria ORCAGNA Novella, Strozzi Chapel 192

GIOTTINO The Descent from Florence: Uffizi, 27 206 the Cross

PLATES IN MONOCHROME

CIMABUE Madonna, Child, Paris: Louvre, 1260 2 and Angels

ROMAN SCHOOL Isaac's Blessing Assisi: Upper Church 6

ROMAN SCHOOL The Deposition Assisi: Upper Church 6 from the Cross

CIMABUE The Crucifixion Assisi: Upper Church 8

ARNOLFO DI LAPO Reclining Female Florence: (SCHOOL OF) Figure from a Tomb Collection Bardini 18

ARNOLFO DI LAPO Tomb of Adrian V Viterbo: S. Francesco 24 (SCHOOL OF)

NICCOLA PISANO Pulpit Pisa: The Baptistery 30

NICCOLA PISANO Detail: The Pisa: Relief from the Adoration of Pulpit of the Baptistery 32 the Magi

NICCOLA PISANO Detail: The Siena: Relief from Visitation and the Pulpit The Nativity of the Baptistery 34

Part 3

GIOVANNI PISANO Detail: A Sibyl Siena: Duomo (façade) 38

GIOVANNI PISANO Detail: The Massacre Pistoia: Relief from the of the Innocents Pulpit, S. Andrea 40

GIOVANNI PISANO Madonna and Child Padua: Arena Chapel 42

MARGARITONE The Virgin and Child, London: N.G., 5040 64 with Scenes from the Lives of the Saints

GIOTTO The Death of S. Francis Florence: S. Croce 70

ROMAN SCHOOL S. Francis Preaching Assisi: Upper Church 72 before Pope Honorius III

ROMAN SCHOOL The Body of S. Francis Assisi: Upper Church 74 before the Church of S. Damiano

GIOTTO AND HIS The Raising of Lazarus Assisi: Lower Church 78 PUPILS

GIOTTO The Flight into Egypt Padua: Arena Chapel 88

GIOTTO The Crucifixion Assisi: Lower Church 90 (SCHOOL OF)

UGOLINO SANESE SS. Paul, Peter, Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich and John the Baptist Museum, 1635 112

PIETRO LAURATI The Madonna Enthroned Arezzo: S. Maria della Pieve 116

PIETRO LAURATI The Deposition from the Assisi: Lower Church 120 Cross

ANDREA PISANO Details: Salome and The Florence: Gates of the Beheading of S. John the Baptistery 126 Baptist

ANDREA PISANO The Creation of Man Florence: Relief on the Campanile 128

NINO PISANO Madonna and Child Orvieto: Museo dell'Opera 130

AMBROGIO Madonna and Child Milan: Cagnola Collection 154 LORENZETTI

AMBROGIO Central Panel of Massa Marittima: Municipio LORENZETTI Polyptych: Madonna 158 and Child

PIETRO Detail from The Last Rome: Convent of S. Cecilia CAVALLINI Judgment: Head of an 162 Apostle

PIETRO Detail from The Last Rome: Convent of S. Cecilia CAVALLINI Judgment: Head of the 164 Christ in Glory

SIMONE SANESE Altar-piece: S. Louis Naples: S. Lorenzo 166 crowning King Robert of Naples

SIMONE SANESE The Annunciation Antwerp: Royal Museum, 257-8 170

LIPPO MEMMI Madonna and Child Altenburg: Lindenau Museum, 43 174

TADDEO GADDI The Last Supper Florence: S. Croce, the Refectory 178

BERNARDO DI CIONE Detail from The Florence: S. Maria Novella 190 ORCAGNA Paradise: Christ with the Virgin Enthroned

ANDREA DI CIONE The Death and Assumption Florence: Relief on the ORCAGNA of the Virgin Tabernacle, Or San Michele 194

FRANCESCO TRAINI S. Thomas Aquinas Pisa: S. Caterina 198

GIOVANNI DAL S. Peter Enthroned Florence: Uffizi, 1292 212 PONTE

Part 4

AGNOLO GADDI The Marriage of S. Philadelphia: J. G. Johnson 218 Catharine Collection

* * * * *

+-------------------------------------------------+ |Transcriber's note: | | | |The CORRIGENDA have been corrected in this etext.| +-------------------------------------------------+

CORRIGENDA

Page 49, lines 1, 27, for "Apollonius" read "Apollonio."

Page 120, line 10, for "which tabernacle is quite round" read "which tabernacle is in the round."

Page 127, lines 11, 12, for "oval spaces" read "mandorle."

Page 196, line 18, for "an oval space" read "a mandorla."

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TO THIS EDITION

Vasari introduces himself sufficiently in his own prefaces and introduction; a translator need concern himself only with the system by which the Italian text can best be rendered in English. The style of that text is sometimes laboured and pompous; it is often ungrammatical. But the narrative is generally lively, full of neat phrases, and abounding in quaint expressions--many of them still recognizable in the modern Florentine vernacular--while, in such Lives as those of Giotto, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelagnolo, Vasari shows how well he can rise to a fine subject. His criticism is generally sound, solid, and direct; and he employs few technical terms, except in connection with architecture, where we find passages full of technicalities, often so loosely used that it is difficult to be sure of their exact meaning. In such cases I have invariably adopted the rendering which seemed most in accordance with Vasari's actual words, so far as these could be explained by professional advice and local knowledge; and I have included brief notes where they appeared to be indispensable.

In Mrs. Foster's familiar English paraphrase--for a paraphrase it is rather than a translation--all Vasari's liveliness evaporates, even where his meaning is not blurred or misunderstood. Perhaps I have gone too far towards the other extreme in relying upon the Anglo-Saxon side of the English language rather than upon the Latin, and in taking no liberties whatever with the text of 1568. My intention, indeed, has been to render my original word for word, and to err, if at all, in favour of literalness. The very structure of Vasari's sentences has usually been retained, though some freedom was necessary in the matter of the punctuation, which is generally bewildering. As Mr. Horne's only too rare translation of the Life of Leonardo da Vinci has proved, it is by some such method that we can best keep Vasari's sense and Vasari's spirit--the one as important to the student of Italian art as is the other to the general reader. Such an attempt, however, places an English translator of the first volume at a conspicuous disadvantage. Throughout the earlier Lives Vasari seems to be feeling his way. He is not sure of himself, and his style is often awkward. The more faithful the attempted rendering, the more plainly must that awkwardness be reproduced.

Vasari's Introduction on Technique has not been included, because it has no immediate connection with the Lives. In any case, there already exists an adequate translation by Miss Maclehose. All Vasari's other prefaces and introductions are given in the order in which they are found in the edition of 1568.

With this much explanation, I may pass to personal matters, and record my thanks to many Florentine friends for help in technical and grammatical questions; to Professor Baldwin Brown for the notes on technical matters printed with Miss Maclehose's translation of "Vasari on Technique"; and to Mr. C. J. Holmes, of the National Portrait Gallery, for encouragement in a task which has proved no less pleasant than difficult.

G. DU C. DE V.

LONDON, March 1912.

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT SIGNOR COSIMO DE' MEDICI, DUKE OF FLORENCE

MY MOST HONOURED LORD,

Seeing that your Excellency, following in this the footsteps of your most Illustrious ancestors, and incited and urged by your own natural magnanimity, ceases not to favour and to exalt every kind of talent, wheresoever it may be found, and shows particular favour to the arts of design, fondness for their craftsmen, and understanding and delight in their beautiful and rare works; I think that you cannot but take pleasure in this labour which I have undertaken, of writing down the lives, the works, the manners, and the circumstances of all those who, finding the arts already dead, first revived them, then step by step nourished and adorned them, and finally brought them to that height of beauty and majesty whereon they stand at the present day. And because these masters have been almost all Tuscans, and most of these Florentines, of whom many have been incited and aided by your most Illustrious ancestors with every kind of reward and honour to put themselves to work, it may be said that in your state, nay, in your most blessed house the arts were born anew, and that through the generosity of your ancestors the world has recovered these most beautiful arts, through which it has been ennobled and embellished.

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