Chapter VII: Book I: Florentine School (4)

[Footnote 66: We cannot reconcile it to dates that Paolo Uccello was one of his scholars, having been born after the death of Antonio, if, indeed, there be not some error in regard to the chronology either of the master or of his pupil. Starnina might have been his pupil, as he is said to have been born in 1354; and, therefore, in 1370, he might possibly be one of his school. Yet it appears that Antonio had then renounced the easel. In his epitaph we find written:

Annis qui fueram pictor JUVENILIBUS, artis
Me Medicae reliquo tempore coepit amor, &c.

(See Vasari ed. Senese, tom. ii. p. 297.)]

[Footnote 67: The old painters varied the manner of their superscriptions, even in the following ages, according to the taste of the Greeks. _Sebastianus Venetus pingebat a._ 1520; is written upon a St. Agatha in the Palazzo Pitti; and this corresponds to the EPOIEI, _faciebat_; by which the Greek sculptors wished to convey, that such work was not intended to exhibit their last effort; so that they were at liberty to improve it when they pleased. The subscription of Opus Belli is obvious, and similar ones, drawn from the ERGON, (for example,) LUSIPPOU which we see in Maffei. I recount in my fifth book as singular, the epigraph _Sumus Rogerii manus_; it is, however, derived from the Greeks, who, for instance, sometimes wrote CHEIR. AMBROSIOU. MONACHOU, as I read in a Fabrianese church called Della Carita, where there is a picture of the General Judgment; the figures very small, and highly finished, upon a large tablet; with, I think, more figures than are seen in the Paradise of Tintoretto. CHEIR BITORE, was written by Vittor Carpaccio, under his portrait cited in the index. I omit other forms better known. That adopted at Trevigi, _Hieronymus Tarvisio_, is very erudite; and it is imitated from the military _latercoli_, in which, with the same view, the soldier and his country are named. In short, where the words _fecit_ or _pinxit_ are not used, the best plan was that of giving the proper name in the genitive case at the foot of the picture, as the engravers of Greek gems were wont to do in inscriptions, as AULOU DIOSKORIDOU, &c.]

[Footnote 68: Pascoli, tom. i. p. 199.]

[Footnote 69: Vasari.]

[Footnote 70: Verona Illustrata, tom. iii. p. 277.]

[Footnote 71: Gloria is a name given in Italy to a representation of the celestial regions.]

[Footnote 72: Vasari.]

[Footnote 73: In the dictionary of Guarienti, in the article, Gio. Abeyk, appears an account of a picture of this artist, existing in the gallery at Dresden, bearing date 1416; a time, says the writer, when he enjoyed his highest reputation, by painting in his second manner, in oil. It represents the Virgin in a majestic seat with the divine infant, who is seen very gracefully receiving an apple from St. Anne, seated on a couch of straw. The young St. John is seen assisting, and also St. Joseph, whose countenance represents the portrait of the painter himself. The introduction of arms shews that the picture must have been executed for some distinguished person. It is in high preservation, and is pronounced by Guarienti the miracle of painting, from its display of extreme diligence, even in the minute furniture, and particularly because the chamber in which the scene is represented, the couch, the window, the pavement, executed _a punto alto_, together with the whole action, are conducted with the most exact rules of perspective.]

[Footnote 74: In 1454 he was in great credit at Perugia. (See Mariotti, Lett. Perug. p. 133.)]

[Footnote 75: Lib. i. c. 18. Accipe semen lini, et exsicca illud in sartagine super ignem sine aqua, &c. Brustolato says, it should be pounded, and again subjected to the fire in water, then put into a press between cloths, and the oil extracted. He continues: Cum hoc oleo tere minium sive cenobrium super lapidem sine aqua, et cum pincello linies super ostia vel tabulas quas rubricare volueris, et ad solem siccabis, deinde iterum linies et siccabis. And in chap. 22, he says,--Accipe colores quos imponere volueris, terens eos diligenter, oleo lini sine aqua; et fac mixturas vultuum ac vestimentorum sicut superius aqua feceras, et bestias, sive aves, aut folia, variabis suis coloribus prout libuerit.]

[Footnote 76: Gottingen, 1792. See Esprit des Journaux, Ottobre, 1792.]

[Footnote 77: Raspe (_Lib. Cit._). Della Valle (_Ann. al Vasari_, tom. iii. p. 313). Tiraboschi (_St. Lett._ tom. vi. p. 407). Vernazza (_Giorn. Pisano_, tom. xciv. p. 220), cited by Morelli (_Notizia_, p. 114). More recently is added the authority of P. Federici Domenicano. It is absurd to suppose that Tommaso da Modena, or, according to him, da Trevigi, carried the discovery from this city into Germany, from whence it was subsequently communicated to Flanders.]

[Footnote 78: Pisa Illustrata, p. 160, et seq.]

[Footnote 79: See Opuscoli del Calogera, tom. xlv.]

[Footnote 80: This person invented and fabricated an ornament called ghirlanda or garland, worn on the heads of the Florentine children.]

[Footnote 81: Mengs, tom. ii. p. 109.]

[Footnote 82: Tom. vi. p. 1204.]

[Footnote 83: _Victurus genium debet habere liber._ Martial.]

FLORENTINE SCHOOL.

EPOCH I.

_Origin and progress of Engraving on Copper and Wood._