circumstance induces the author of the Sienese Letters and the best informed persons, to disbelieve the artificial colouring of the marble. The truth is, the secret of colouring marble was not then known, but was afterwards discovered in Siena by Michelangiolo Vanni, who has transmitted the memory of his invention to posterity.[297] He erected a monument for his father, Cav. Francesco, with columns, ornaments, festoons, and figures of children; accompanied by a genealogy of the family, which were all designed on a white slab, and every part carefully and appropriately coloured, so as to resemble mosaic of different marbles. It is supposed that the colours were imparted to the marble by some mineral essences to impregnate it, because they penetrated a considerable way. He entitles himself the inventor of this art, in the monumental inscription. A secret of this nature was known to Niccolò Tornioli, of Siena, about the year 1640; and this artist is said to have painted a Veronica in that manner, the marble of which he caused to be sawed, and the same picture was found on each side of the section.[298] He was probably a scholar of Vanni; and the latter seems anxious by the inscription that he should not claim the honour of the invention. The connexion of the subject has led me to notice these two artists in this place. Their true place is in the third epoch of the Sienese school, to which I shall immediately proceed.
[275] Baldinucci, in his Life of Antonio Veneziano, contends that this artist resided, during some time, at Siena; but the silence of the city historians as to such a fact, leads us to doubt the truth of his assertion.
[276] Vasari calls him "a pretty good master" in the Life of D. Bartolommeo: from the note of Bottari on this passage we collect that he flourished about 1500. Gigli makes him the master of Beccafumi.
[277] There is a Coronation of the Virgin by him at Fonte Giusta, and a picture, representing various saints, at Carmine, dated 1512.
[278] See Lett. Sanesi, tom. iii. p. 320, where the inscription of Signorelli on his pictures in the Petrucci palace is quoted, and Vasari is corrected.
[279] He is thus named by Baldinucci; but Vasari, in his Life of Razzi, mentions a Girolamo del Pacchia, a rival of Razzi himself; and this person appears to be Pacchiarotto. He also mentions Giomo, or Girolamo del Sodoma, who died young; and whom both Orlandi and Bottari have confounded with Pacchiarotto; when we ought rather to believe that he was a pupil of Razzi, and died while he was yet young.
[280] Mattaccio signifies a buffoon. Tr.
[281] In P. della Valle, in the Supplement to the life of Razzi, See Vasari, edit. of Siena, p. 297. In the following page there is a chronological error. He agrees with Baldinucci that Razzi was born in 1479, and says that his picture of S. Francis was executed in 1490, that is, when the artist was about eleven years of age.
[282] See also Perini, in his Lettera su l' Archicenobio di Monte Oliveto, p. 49, where he defends Razzi from the charge of indecorum made by Vasari, on a view of the grotesques and fancy subjects which he painted in that place.
[283] Tom. iii. p. 243.
[284] I am in doubt as to his native place. The name of one Scalobrinus Pistoriensis, a painter of merit, and belonging to the same age, is found inscribed at the church of S. Francesco, without the Tuscan gate, where he left seven specimens of altar-pieces. Memorie per le belle Arti, tom. ii. p. 190.
[285] See Sig. da Morrona, tom. i. p. 116. Mecherino there painted the Evangelists, and some historical pieces from the life of Moses: Razzi executed in the same place a Descent from the Cross, and an Abraham offering his Son, which are among his last, and not his best works.
[286] The Sienese historians prove this in opposition to Vasari, who makes him by descent a Florentine. See Lett. Sen. tom. iii. p. 178.
[287] For his labours in the cathedral of Siena he had thirty crowns a year; as the architect of S. Peter's, two hundred and fifty. He derived little advantage from private commissions, for people generally took advantage of his modesty, in either not paying him at all, or rewarding him scantily.
[288] I saw one in the possession of Cav. Cavaceppi in Rome, of which this great connoisseur used to say, that it might pass for a Raffaello, if it had been as like in colouring as in every thing else. The Sergardi family at Siena have another, and a Holy Family, by Razzi, as its companion. These are reckoned among their first performances, and are believed to have been painted in competition with each other. In that of Peruzzi one recognizes, even at that time, that elegance of design which he delighted afterwards to exhibit in his figures, especially in the Chigi, now called the Farnese palace.
[289] It is a fresco, and, though retouched, surprises at once by the novelty and expression of the figures. A. Caracci designed it for one of his studies.
[290] Lett. vii.
[291] Siena Illustre.
[292] The expression in the original is: "condotto con quella bella grazia che si vede-non murato, ma veramente nato." Vasari.
[293] P. 191.
[294] Serlio, 1. c.
[295] Lettere Senesi, tom. iii. lett. 6. See also lett. 8. page 223, where there are many observations on the design of Mecherino, and on the execution committed to the Martini, brothers, and eminent sculptors of that period. For the prints from their works by Andreani and Gabuggiani, see the notes of Bottari on the life of Mecherino, p. 435.
[296] See Lett. Pittoriche, tom. i. p. 311, and tom. iv. p. 344. See also Notes on Vasari, tom. iv. p. 436. Ed. Fiorentin.
[297] He inscribed the monument, "Francisco Vannio … Michael Angelus … novæ hujus in petrâ pingendi artis inventor et Raphael … Filii parenti optimo m. p. a. 1656.
[298] See the note of Bottari on Gallaccini's letter. tom. i. p. 308.
SIENESE SCHOOL.
EPOCH III.
