resemble those in the Logge of Raffaello: they are better coloured than those in the consistory, and being smaller are, on that account, better designed: for the style of Mecherino resembles a liquor which retains its qualities when shut up in a phial, but evaporates and is dissipated when poured into a larger vessel. This circumstance, however, was common to many others: his peculiarity consists in what he communicated to Vasari; that, "out of the atmosphere of Siena, he imagined he could not paint successfully;" an effect, according to P. Guglielmo, of the climate; which would be a happy secret for peopling it with painters. Perhaps it is to be explained by the greater degree of quiet and tranquillity that he enjoyed at home, in the society of his friends, among a people ready to encourage him by praise, not to chill him by reproach, and surrounded by all the spectacles and the lively genius of his country; objects eagerly desired by the natives of Siena, but not easily found in other places.
The style of Mecherino, now described, expired with him: for his pupil, Giorgio da Siena, became a painter of grotesques, and imitated Gio. da Udine, both in his own country and at Rome: Giannella, or Gio. da Siena, turned his attention from painting to architecture; and Marco da Pino, surnamed also da Siena, united a variety of styles. Baglione, and the historians of Siena, say, that he was there educated by Beccafumi, and Baldinucci adds, likewise by Peruzzi: P. della Valle, from his brilliant colouring, denies him to them, and assigns him to Razzi. All, however, are agreed that he obtained his knowledge principally from Rome, where he first painted from the cartoons of Ricciarelli or of Perino; and if we may credit Lomazzo, was also instructed by Bonarruoti. We cannot readily find any Florentine capable of following the precepts of Michelangiolo, without ostentation; but he acquired the principles without the affectation of displaying his knowledge. His manner is grand, select, and full of elegance: it is adduced by Lomazzo as a perfect model for the human figure, and for the just distribution of the light according to the distance of objects; a department of the art in which he shares the glory with Vinci, Tintoretto, and Baroccio. He painted little in Siena except a picture, with which I am not acquainted, in the mansion of the Francesconi family; and few of his works are to be seen at Rome, with the exception of a Pietà, in an altar of Araceli, and some frescos in the church Del Gonfalone. Naples was his field; and there he will again appear as a master and historian of that school.
If conjecture were allowable in assigning masters to painters of the old schools, I should be inclined to reckon Daniele di Volterra rather the scholar of Mecherino, than of Razzi or Peruzzi. We know for certain that he studied at Siena in early life, when those three artists kept an open academy. Peruzzi was wholly a follower of Raffaello; Razzi disliked the Florentine style; and Beccafumi alone aspired to be esteemed a faithful imitator of Bonarruoti: by regarding him, therefore, as the master of Daniele, we can best account for the already noticed predilection of the latter for the style of Michelangiolo. No artist was capable of initiating him better in the art of casting in bronze than Mecherino; or afford him more frequent examples of that strong opposition of bright and sombre colours that appears in some works of Daniele. Yet I will not depart from the more correct rule which forbids us in such doubtful points to depart readily from history: for each painter was always free to choose his style; he might be directed in one path by his master, and drawn a different way by his own genius, or by accidental circumstances.
Baldassare Peruzzi is one of the numerous individuals whose merit must not be measured by their good fortune. Born in indigent circumstances in the diocese of Volterra, but within the territory of Siena, and of a Sienese father,[286] he was nurtured amid difficulties, and through life was the perpetual sport of misfortune. Reckoned inferior to his rivals, because he was as modest and timid as they were arrogant and impudent; despoiled of his whole property in the sack of Rome; constrained to exist on a mere pittance at Siena, at Bologna, or at Rome,[287] he died when he began to be known, not without suspicion of being poisoned, and with the affliction of leaving a wife and six children almost beggars. His death demonstrated to the world better than his life the greatness of his genius; and the justness of his epitaph, in which he is compared to the ancients, is allowed by posterity. General consent ranks him among the best architects of his age; and he would also have been classed with the greatest painters, had he coloured as well as he designed, and had always been equal to himself; a thing he could not command during a life so chequered and wretched.
After Peruzzi had received the elements of the art in his native place from an unknown master, he went to Rome for the completion of his studies, in the time of Alexander VI. He knew, admired, and imitated Raffaello (of whom some suppose him a pupil), especially his Holy Families.[288] He approached him nearly in some works in fresco; such as the Judgment of Paris in the castle of Belcaro, which is deemed his best performance, and the celebrated Sybil foretelling the birth of Christ to Augustus, in the Fonte Giusta, of Siena, which is admired as one of the finest pictures in that city. He imparted to it such a divine enthusiasm, that Raffaello himself never surpassed him in treating this subject; nor Guido, nor Guercino, of whom so many Sybils are exhibited. In great compositions, such as the Presentation in the Pace at Rome,[289] he designs well, gives a faithful representation of the passions, and embellishes the subject by appropriate edifices. His oil paintings are very rare; those representing the Magi, which are shewn in many collections at Florence, Parma, and Bologna, are copies from one of his chiaroscuros, which was afterwards coloured by Girolamo da Trevigi, as we are informed by Vasari. I was told at Bologna, that the picture of Girolamo was lost at sea, and that the picture which the Rizzardi family of that place possess, is a copy by Cesi. His small altar-pieces are uncommonly scarce likewise: and I am unable to point out any of them but one, which contains three half-length figures of the Virgin, the Baptist, and S. Jerome, and is at Torre Babbiana, eighteen miles from Siena.
What I have here related would have added to the glory of any other artist; but is little to the merit of Baldassare. The genius of this man was not limited to the production of excellent cabinet pictures and frescos. I have already said he was an architect; or, as Lomazzo has expressed it, a universal architect: and in this profession, the fruit of his assiduous study of ancient edifices, he ranks among the foremost, and is even preferred to Bramante. The encomiums bestowed on him by the most celebrated writers on architecture are mentioned in the third volume of the Sienese Letters.[290] No one, however, has done him greater honour than his scholar Serlio, who declares in the introduction to his fourth book, that, whatever merit his work possesses, is not due to himself, but to Baldassare da Siena, of whose manuscripts he became the heir, and the plagiarist, if we are to credit Giulio Piccolomini,[291] and his other townsmen. The declaration above stated absolves Serlio from this imputation, unless it is insisted that he ought to have affixed the name of Baldassare to every anecdote that he learnt or took from those manuscripts; a thing which it would be unreasonable to demand. He has, indeed, frequently mentioned him, and commended him for a sound taste, for facility, and elegance, both in designing edifices, and in ornamenting them. To say the truth, his peculiar merit lies in giving a pleasing effect to his works; and I have not observed any idea of his which in some way does not exhibit the stamp of a lively imagination. This character is apparent in the portico of the Massimi at Rome, the great altar of the metropolitan church of Siena, and the large gateway of the Sacrati palace at Ferrara, which is so finely ornamented that it is named among the rarities of that city, and, in its kind, even of Italy. But what chiefly establishes his reputation as a man of excellent and various genius, is the Farnese palace, which is "executed with such exquisite grace that it appears created by enchantment, rather than built by human hands."[292]
He was eminently skilled in ornamenting façades; in painting so as to represent real architecture, and basso-relievos of sacrifices, Bacchanalian scenes, and battles, which "serve to maintain the buildings sound and in good order, while they improve their appearance," according to Serlio.[293]
