The History of Painting in Italy. Luigi Lanzi
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the following inscription from a picture in the Villa Tolomei, "Dipinse Tommaso di Stefano Fortunatino de' Gucci Tolomei." But Cinelli, the strenuous opponent of Baldinucci, attributes it, perhaps justly, to Giottino. This artist left behind him one Lippo, sufficiently commended by Vasari, but who rather seems to have been an imitator than a scholar. Giovanni Tossicani of Arezzo, was a disciple of Giottino, employed in Pisa and over all Tuscany. He painted the St. Philip and St. James, which still remain on the baptismal font in Arezzo, and were repaired by Vasari while a young man, who acknowledges that he learned much from this work, injured as it was. With him perished the best branch of the stock of Giotto.
Taddeo Gaddi may be considered as the Giulio Romano of Giotto, his most intimate and highly favoured pupil. Vasari, who saw his frescos and easel pictures at Florence, in good preservation, prefers him to his master, in colouring and in delicacy; but the lapse of time at this day forbids our deciding this point, although several of his pictures remain, especially in the church of Santa Croce, which are scriptural histories, much in the manner of Giotto. He discovered more originality in the chapter house of the Spagnuoli, where he worked in competition with Memmi.[64] He painted some of the acts of the Redeemer on the ceiling, and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the refectory, which is among the finest specimens of art in the fourteenth century. On one of the walls he painted the Sciences, and under each some one of its celebrated professors; and demonstrated his excellence in this species of allegorical painting, which approaches so nearly to poetry. The brilliance and clearness of his tints are chiefly conspicuous in that chapter house. The royal gallery contains the taking down of Christ, the work of his hands, which was formerly at Orsanmichele, and by some ascribed to Buffalmacco, merely because it was unascertained. Taddeo flourished beyond the term assigned him by Vasari, and outlived most of those already named. This may be collected from Franco Sacchetti, a contemporary writer, who relates in his 136th Tale, that Andrea Orcagna proposed as a question, "who was the greatest master, setting Giotto out of the question?" Some answered Cimabue, others Stefano, some Bernardo, and some Buffalmacco. Taddeo Gaddi, who was in the company, said, "truly these were very able painters, but the art is decaying every day, &c." He is mentioned up to 1352, and he might possibly survive several years.
He left at his death several disciples, who became eminent teachers of painting in Florence, and other places. D. Lorenzo Camaldolese is mentioned with honour. He instructed pupils in the art; and several old pictures by him and his scholars are in the monastery of the Angeli. At that time the fraternity of Camaldulites furnished some miniature painters, one of whom, named D. Silvestro, ornamented missals, which still exist, and are amongst the best that Italy possesses. The most favoured pupils of Taddeo were Giovanni da Milano, whom I shall notice in the school of Lombardy, and Jacopo di Casentino, who also will find a place there, together with his imitators. To these two he recommended on his death-bed his two sons and disciples: Giovanni, who died prematurely, with a reputation for genius; and Angiolo, who being then very young, most needed a protector. The latter died, according to Vasari, at 63 years of age; in 1589, according to the date of Baldinucci. He did not improve the art in proportion to his abilities, but contented himself with imitating Giotto and his father, in which he was astonishingly successful. The church of S. Pancrazio possessed one picture by him, containing several saints, and some histories from the Gospel, which may still be seen in the monastery, divided into several pieces, and coloured in a taste superior to what was then usual. There is another in the same style in the sacristy of the Conventual friars, by whom he was employed in the choir of the church, to paint in fresco the story of the recovery of the Cross, and its transportation in the time of Heraclius; a work inferior to the others, because much larger, and to him somewhat new. He afterwards lived at Venice, as a merchant rather than as a painter; and Baldinucci, who seizes every opportunity of supporting his hypothesis, says, that if he was not the founder of that school, he, at least, improved it. But I shall demonstrate, in the proper place, that the Venetian school was advancing to a modern style, before Angiolo could have taught in that place; and in the many old pictures I saw at Venice, I was unable to recal to mind the delicate style of Angiolo. The Venetians owe to him the education of Stefano da Verona, whom I shall consider in the second volume; and he gave the Florentines Cennino Cennini, praised by Vasari as a colourist, of whom as a writer I shall soon make mention.
In the school of Angiolo Gaddi we may reckon Antonio Veneziano, concerning whom Vasari and Baldinucci disagree. The former makes him a Venetian, "who came to Florence to learn painting of Agnolo Gaddi:" the latter, a systematic writer, as we have seen, asserts that he was born in Florence, and that he obtained the surname of Veneziano, from his residence and many labours in Venice, on the authority of certain memoirs in the Strozzi library, which were, perhaps, doubted by himself; for had they been of high authority, he would not have omitted to proclaim their antiquity. However this may be, each of them is a little inconsistent with himself. As they assert that Antonio died of the plague in 1384, or, according to the correction of their annotators, in 1383, at the age of 74, it follows that he was born many years before Gaddi, whose disciple, therefore, we cannot easily suppose him. It is likewise rendered doubtful by his design in the legends of S. Ranieri,[65] which remain in the Campo Santo of Pisa, where there is a certain facility, care, and caprice in the composition, that savour of another school. Vasari, moreover, notices a method of painting in fresco, without ever re-touching it when dry, that would seem to have been introduced from other parts, different from what was employed by the Tuscan artists, his competitors, whose paintings, in the time of the historian, were not in as good a state of preservation as those of Antonio. In the same place he deposited his portrait, which the describers of the ducal gallery at Florence pretend still to find in the chamber of celebrated artists. This portrait is, however, painted in a manner so modern, that I cannot believe it the work of a painter so ancient. On this occasion I must observe that there was another Antonio Veneziano, whom this picture probably represents, and who, about the year 1500, painted, at Osimo, a picture of St. Francis, in the manner of that age, and inscribed it with his name. I learned this from the accomplished Sig. Cav. Aqua, who added, that this name had been erased, and that of Pietro Perugino inserted, who certainly gains no very great honour by such substitution.
We learn from history[66] that Antonio educated in Paolo Uccello, a great artist in perspective; and in Gherardo Starnina, a master in the gay style, of whom there are yet some remnants, in a chapel of the church of Santa Croce. They are among the last efforts of the school of Giotto, which succeeding artists abandoned, to adopt a better manner. One exception occurs in Antonio Vite, who executed some works in the old style, in Pistoia, his native city, and in Pisa. I may here observe, that Starnina and Dello Fiorentino shortly after introduced the new Italian manner in the court of Spain, and returned to Florence with honour and with affluence. The first remained to enjoy them in his native country, until the time of his death: the latter returned back to increase them; and, according to Vasari, he left no public work in Florence, except an historic design of Isaac, in green earth, in a cloister of the church of S. Maria Novella: perhaps he ought to have said, that he left various works, for several are there visible, all in the same taste, and so rude, as to induce us to reckon him rather a follower of Buffalmacco than of Giotto. But he excelled in small pieces; and there was none then living who could more elegantly ornament cabinets, coffers, the backs of couches, or other household furniture, with subjects from history and fable.
Among the disciples of Taddeo Gaddi I have named Jacopo del Casentino, of whom there are some remains in the church of Orsanmichele. Jacopo taught Spinello Aretino, a man of a most lively fancy, as may be gathered from some of his pictures in Arezzo, no less than from his life. He painted also at Florence, and was one of those who had the honour of ornamenting the Campo Santo of Pisa with historical paintings. His pictures of the martyrs S. Petito and S. Epiro, are noticed by Vasari as his best performances. He was, however, inferior to his competitors by the meanness of his design, and the style of his colouring, in which green and black are predominant, without being sufficiently relieved by other colours. The fall of the angels still remains in S. Angelo at Arezzo, in which Lucifer is represented so terrible, that it afterwards haunted the dreams of the artist, and, deranging both his mind and body, hastened his death. Bernardo