But he, being infuriated, bade him take himself off, for his
brother Domenico was worth more than all the pigs of abbots that
ever were in that monastery. And from that time the abbot took pains
to treat them as they ought to have been treated.
Domenico had a pupil named Jacopo l'Indaco, who was a reasonably
good master in his time. It is not strange that few works left his
hands, for he was a merry, idle fellow, and would never work if he
could help it. He used to say it was not a Christian thing to do
nothing but labour and take no pleasure. He was very intimate with
Michael Angelo, and that great artist, when he wanted recreation
after his great labours of mind and body, could find no one more to
his humour. And because he found pleasure in his chatter and his
jokes, he used to have him constantly to dine with him. But one day,
becoming wearisome, as such people generally do become to their
friends by their continual chatter without discretion and at wrong
times, Michael Angelo, to get rid of him, having something else to
do, sent him out to buy some figs. And as soon as Jacopo was out of
the house he fastened the door behind him, determined not to let him
in when he came back. So when l'Indaco came back from the market,
and found, after knocking at the door in vain for some time, that
Michael Angelo would not open it, he took the figs and the leaves in
which they were wrapped and strewed them all over the threshold.
Then he went away, and for many months he would not speak to Michael
Angelo; and though they afterwards made it up, they were never such
friends as before.
Cosimo Rosselli was called to Rome at the same time as Domenico
Ghirlandajo to paint in the Sistine Chapel, and there, working in
company with Sandro Botticelli, Luca da Cortona, and Piero Perugino,
he painted three pictures. There is a story told that the Pope had
offered a prize to the painter who, according to the Pope's own
judgment, should work best. When the pictures were finished, his
Holiness went to see them, every painter having done his utmost to
deserve the reward. Cosimo, knowing himself to be weak in invention
and design, had sought to hide his defects by covering his picture
with the finest ultramarine and other bright colours, and there was
not a tree, or a blade of grass, or a garment, or a cloud that was
not shining with goldj for he thought that the Pope, understanding
little of art, would give him the prize on that account. When the
day was come that all their works were uncovered, and his was seen,
it was received with great laughter and many scoffing jests by the
other artists, who mocked him without pity. But in the end the
laughter was turned against them, for, as Cosimo had imagined,
thecolours dazzled the eyes of the Pope, who did not much understand
such matters, although he took great pleasure in them, and he
decided that Cosimo had done much better than all the others. And
having given him the prize, he commanded the others to cover their
pictures with the best azure that could be found, and to touch them
up with gold, that they might be like Cosimo's in colour and
richness. So the poor painters, filled with despair at having to
satisfy the Holy Father's small understanding, set themselves to
spoil all their good work, and Cosimo laughed at those who a little
before had laughed at him.
He afterwards returned to Florence with a little money, and lived
comfortably there, having as his pupil Piero,who was always called
Piero di Cosimo.
This Piero was the son of one Lorenzo, a goldsmith, but is never
known under any other name than Piero di Cosimo. His father, seeing
his inclination to drawing, gave him into Cosimo's care, who
received him willingly, and loved him as his son; and always
considered him as such. The boy had by nature a lofty spirit, being
absentminded, and very different from the other boys who studied
under Cosimo. He would get so intent on what he was doing that if a
matter was being discussed with him it would sometimes be necessary
to begin again, and go over the whole matter a second time, because
his mind had gone away to something else. And he was so fond of
solitude that he had no greater pleasure than going by himself to
weave fancies ?nd build castles in the air. His master Cosimo made
great use of him, and could leave him to conduct matters of
importance, knowing that Piero had a better manner and more judgment
than himself. He took him with him to Rome when Pope Sixtus summoned
him to work in his chapel, and in one of his pictures there Piero
painted a most beautiful landscape. And because he drew well from
nature he painted in Rome the portraits of many distinguished men.
After the death of Cosimo he shut himself up, and would let no
one see him work, living more like a wild beast than a man. He would
never have his rooms swept, eat just when he felt hungry, would not
have his garden dug or the fruit trees pruned, but let the vines
grow and their branches trail on the ground, and seemed to find
pleasure in seeing everything as wild as his own nature, saying that
things of this sort ought to be left to nature to take care of. He
would often go to see any animal or plant that was made strangely,
and would talk of it until he wearied his hearers.
He had seen some things of Lionardo's, finished with the extreme
care that Lionardo would take when he wished to show his art, and
this manner pleasing Piero, he sought to imitate it, though he was
very far from attaining to Lionardo's skill, and was unlike him;
indeed, he may be said to have changed his manner in almost
everything he did. If he had not been so abstracted, and had taken
more care of himself, he would have made his great genius known, so
that he would have been adored; whereas he was generally held to be
mad, though he did no harm except perhaps to himself, and did good
to his art by his works.
I must not forget to say that Piero in his youth, having a
fantastic and strange invention, was often employed in the
masquerades at the carnival, and was therefore much in favour with
the noble Florentine youths, greatly im~roving with his invention
that pastime. Some say he was the first to turn them into a kind of
triumphal procession; at any rate, he improved them, introducing
music appropriate to the subjects represented, and adding pompous
and splendid processions of men and horses in suitable habits and
costumes. And certainly it was a fine thing to see at night
twentyfive or thirty pairs of horses, richly accoutred, with their
masters attired according to the subject represented, six or eight
attendants in livery following each cavalier, torch in hand, perhaps
to the number of four hundred, and behind them the car with trophies
and fantastical extravagances, all which things give great pleasure
to the people. I will just touch briefly on one of his inventions in
mature years, not because of its agreeableness, but, on the
contrary, because by its strange and unexpected horror it gave no
little pleasure to the people. This was the car of Death, made in
such secrecy in the hall of the Pope that no one was allowed to see
it. It was a triumphal car, hung in black and painted with dead
men's bones and white crosses, and drawn by buffaloes; and on the
car was a great figure of Death with a scythe in his hand, and all
round were tombs. At the places where the triumphal procession was
used to stop to sing, the tombs opened and there came out figures
dressed in black, on which were painted the bones of the skeleton,
horrible to look at, and they sang to the sound of muffled trumpets
in melancholy music that noble song-
"Dolor, pianto e penitenza," &c.
Before and after the car rode a great number of the dead on
horseback, singing in a trembling voice the Miserere.
This spectacle, from its novelty, satisfied all, and Piero, the
author and inventor, was much praised and commended.
I heard Andrea di Cosimo, and Andrea del Sarto, his pupils, who
aided him in the preparation, say that it was the opinion of the
time that it was intended to signify the return of the house of
Medici, for they were then exiles, or, as you may say, dead, and
were soon to rise again; and so some of the words of the song were
interpreted.
