Girolamo del Pacchia, both included by Milanesi
in his Commentary on Vasari's Life of Bazzi,
among our hero's followers, there is indeed much
to be said. But since the former never, as far as
can be ascertained, had any close relations with
Bazzi, and the latter was at best but an able
imitator, these two play no necessary part in a
record of the elder painter's Life.
Nevertheless three names remain deserving at
any rate some mention. Since, however, we do not
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propose to write complete lives of Bazzi's pupils,
we would once more refer the interested inquirer
to Milanesi's Commentary aforesaid.
Girolamo Magagni better known from his
appellation Giomo del Sodoma stands first, both
in order of time and of notoriety. The son of one
Francesco di Mariano di Stefano Magagni, a
barber, by his wife Caterina (daughter of a certain
Giacomo, a sawyer), he was born in October 1507 ;
and we have already heard how, during his master s
illness in Florence, he removed a number of objects
of value from the studio in Siena.
According to Vasari ^ Giomo died young ; but
since, as Milanesi points out,^ he made his Will on
April 23rd, 1562^ with a codicil on the 26th of the
same month in the following year we must con-
clude, setting the date of the summons (1527) side
by side with that of his death, that he could not
have been less thanfiftyyearsof age at his decease in
1563. We learn furthermore that he died in May,
for on the nth of that month an inventory of his
goods'* was taken on behalf of his sister Elisabetta.
This lady married twice first, Girolamo di Gio-
vanni of Como, and secondly, Niccol6 di Lorenzo
Bonelli,^ both armourers by trade. Girolamo
Magagni himself, as far as can be ascertained,
died a bachelor.
* Vasari, Op. cit.^ p. 399.
2 Vasari, Op. ctt, Commentary, p. 409.
' Arch. Not. Prov. Siena. Rogiti di Ser Giovanni Billo. ad
annum. He is here described as Frovidus vir magister Hieronimus
quondam magistri Francisci de Magagnis, vulgariter nuncupatus del
Soddoma pictor de Senis, etc.
* Archivio detto. Inventarj di Ser Baldassare Corti, No. 848.
' Cf. ante, p. 191.
GIOMO DEL SODOMA 241
The paintings actually known to be by Giomo
are few in number, though it is probable that a
great deal of the inferior work which passes under
the master's name should rather be allotted to the
pupil ; and his share was doubtless no slight one
in much of the later work that received Bazzi's
finishing touches. An attractive painting of the
Madonna and Child, with a female saint, a bishop,
and an angel playing on a lute, over the first altar
to the right in the little church of S. Mustiola in
Siena, is perhaps the best example of Magagni's
work. The small chapel at the foot of the hill,
crowned by the convent of the Osservanza, near
Siena, contains a fresco (now much damaged) com-
menced by this painter with the assistance of one
Niccol6 di Pietro. This work was completed by
Riccio, who, in company with one Giorgio di
Giovanni, had valued it on April 3rd, 1549. Aided
by the same Niccol6, Giomo in 1550 also painted
and gilded the organ of the chapel of the Madonna
del Voto in the Duomo.
Lorenzo Brazzi, better known as il Rustico, was a
fellow-student of Giomo, and, Milanesi tells us, also
one of Bazzi's pupils. The son of one Cristoforo
Brazzi, a builder and architect^ from Piacenza, he
was born in 1521, and from him descended the
family of Rustici (afterwards ennobled), whilst his
brother continued the line of Brazzi. We read that
he was extremely ill-favoured, but of sprightly wit
and humour withal : wherefore his fellows of the
* Milanesi MSS., P. III. 52, p. 311. Here we are told that " Cristo-
foro Brazzi da Piacenza muratore ed architetto muore di ferite in Siena
nel 1545."
16
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Accademia dei Rozzi gave him the additional
nickname of Cirloso. According to Mancini,^ //
Rustico was thrown into prison for devising the
following political practical joke. Being commis-
sioned to paint a shield of the Grand Ducal arms,
he adapted hinges to the Medici balls, alleging
as a reason for such a piece of mechanism that
they could thus be conveniently removed should a
change of government occur. In 1550 he executed
certain stucco decorations in the house of Vincenzo
Paccinelli,^ and in 1555 some frescoes in the chapel
of the Compagnia di S. Michele. We find him in
the following year engaged in a lawsuit with a
barber, named Bartolommeo da Asti, concerning
certain paintings for the latter's shop. Two of the
three vaulted ceilings of the Loggia di Mercanzia
in Siena were decorated by him in fresco in 1554
and 1568 respectively; and during the last years
of his life he commenced another series of ceiling
paintings a commission previously allotted to
Riccio, but rejected by him for the Confraternita
delta SS. Trinita. These works were left incom-
plete at his death, and, being subsequently much
damaged, were repainted between 1595 and 1602
by Ventura Salimbeni. Lorenzo Brazzi died on
June loth, 1572, aged 51, and was buried in the
family vault in S. Domenico, Siena.
To attempt a comprehensive history of the life
and work of Bartolommeo Neroni, or Negroni
{jl Riccio), our painter's son-in-law and closest
^ Giulio Mancini, Ragguaglio delle Cose di Siena. MS. Bib. Com.
di Siena.
2 Archivio detto. Rogiti di Ser Alessandro Arrighetti, Filza 14 de,
Lodi. No. 98.
IL RICCIO 243
imitator, would overcrowd our already well-filled
space. His name and connection with our hero
has already justified his frequent appearance in our
pages, ^ leaving but little more to add. Documents
referring to his private affairs tell us that his
father's name was Sebastiano; and Milanesi^ sug-
gests, since allusion is made in a letter by him
dated 1540 to certain relatives in Florence, that he
was by birth a native of that city. Certain it is,
however, that the greater portion of his life was
spent in or near Siena. A number of Riccio's
paintings are recorded in the Commentary'^
among them a portrait of Charles V.'s viceroy in
Siena, Don Diego de Mendoza; and he would seem
to have been, if not actually a genius, at any rate
a man of versatile talent, employed to design or
to advise in a multifarious variety of artistic and
kindred matters. Early in life he painted in minia-
ture a set of twenty-one Scenes from the Life of
S. Benedict, copied from his father-in-law's cele-
brated Monte Oliveto Acts, in four Missals for the
Olivetan Convent of Final Pia (now suppressed),
which are preserved in the Palazzo Bianco, Genoa.
A portrait of the artist himself, a lad with long fair
locks, included in this series, is evidence of his
youth at the time of their execution. Vasari
tells us of designs for church-furniture in great
^ See above, pp. 223 and 224 and notes, and p. 237.
^ Vasari, Op. cit., Commentary, p. 412. The same writer in his MS.
Notes, P. III. 50, p. 140, informs us that he was attacked by his brother
Francesco in 1534 and severely wounded : nel 1534 "J/" Bartolomeo
de Riccis (il Riccio) fu assalito una sera da un tal Fraticesco del Riccio
suofratello eferito nel vitaP
^ Vasari, Op. cit., Commentary, pp. 412-15.
244 SCHOLARS
variety,^ architectural works, triumphal arches (in
1 541), and theatrical scenery,^ besides plans and
elevations for the fortifications of Siena and its
smaller subject towns and castles (castelli).
Bartolommeo Neroni's paintings, especially those
of sacred subjects, are mostly a somewhat feeble
echo of his teacher's ideas, and his fame rests
principally on the design and execution of the
marble pulpit-stairs, and the magnificent choir-
stalls ^ and sedilia in the Duomo of Siena. Riccio
resided for some time in Lucca indeed, Vasari
states that he was living there at the date of the
first publication of Bazzi's Life.'' After the death
of Bazzi's daughter Faustina, he took as his second
wife Giuditta, daughter of Giovanni di Giuliano
Giovanangelo.^ The gout, a malady from which
he appears to have suffered severely in his later
years, carried him off in June 1571, after he had
executed a Will on the 14th of the same month, ^
whereby he bequeathed all his property to the two
daughters of his first marriage.
Riccio is the last link in the chain of Bazzi's
^ Magnificent examples of these, executed in oak, walnut and other
choice woods, are still to be seen in many of the Sienese churches.
^ We are told by Milanesi that on the occasion of the visit of Duke
Cosimo di Medici to take possession of the city, Riccio designed a
proscenium for the performance of " P Ortensio," a comedy by Alessandro
Piccolomini, and performed by the members of the Societa degli Intronati.
This proscenium was painted by Andrea Andreani of Mantua.
^ We have seen above (p. 224, note ^) how one of his daughters tried
to recover 170 ducats for a design for the principal stall.
* Vasari, Op. cit., p. 399.
^ Cf. p. 222, note ^.
^ Milanesi MS., P. III. 49, p. 427% makes reference to this Testa-
ment thus: Ser Flaminio Micheli No. 3377. 1571, 14 Giugno. In
spite of a most careful search, however, it cannot now be traced.
SUMMARY 245
scholars in the narrower sense of the term : the
chain that connects two centuries of Art. He is
the last exponent of the restrained style and
methods of the Quattro- and early Cinque-cento,
whose merits, so soon forgotten by the later
Eclectic Sienese, were remembered only where
a weakness could be copied, a defect exaggerated,
or a mannerism perpetuated, to the untold
detriment of the culture and taste of subsequent
centuries.^
In summing up the life of so remarkable a man
and artist as Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, we must
first clear our thoughts of all prejudice raised by
writers like Vasari, who, by the art of '' suggestio
falsi'' and '' siippressio veri,'' have presented us
with a distorted likeness ; and we must equally
set aside all weakly sentiment prompted by the
effect upon us of two or three of his most
celebrated paintings. Between the Scylla of the
one and the Charybdis of the other, to strike a
happy mean is no easy task. This, nevertheless,
is what we have here attempted ; placing in a clear
light all the ascertained facts that tell both ways,
and leaving the reader to judge and draw his own
final conclusions on the complex nature of this
exceptional character.
We are cognizant of the many pitfalls that Art-
Historians of an earlier age have stepped into when
venturing upon conclusions with regard to the
private life of painters, drawn from the visages
* Cf. Walther Rothes, Die Bluthezeit der Sienesischen Malerei. Strass-
burg : J. H. Heilz & Mundel. 1904.
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of their Madonnas and Saints. Yet, in laying
bare the personality of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi,
displayed in his existing works, one very striking
feature intrudes itself upon our notice ; a feature
which assists us in no small degree to explain his
character as a man. The subject of our inquiry,
from all time past, has been pilloried as an example
of Vice Personified. But what does his work
reveal ? Is it, indeed, as Vasari freely asserts, full
of " lewd " suggestion ? Not at all. On the con-
trary, when opportunity and temptation are almost
forced upon him, how steadfastly does he avoid all
semblance of vicious intent ! how constantly does
he keep before our eyes the ideal purity of maiden-
hood ! That he worshipped beauty of a sensuous
type, and especially so in the human form, is
very evident, since he paints the nude with a lover's
brush. But where, may we ask, in the entire cycle
of his nude types, is there one that can foster
licentious thought? His Eve in the Siena Academy
is the most modest representation of the Mother of
All Flesh in the whole range of Art ; his drawings
for a Leda suggest beauty alone, illustrating a
legend and nothing else. All his classical person-
ages are instinct with the same sense of restrained
loveliness. Where could a young man of excep-
tionally imaginative temperament, in the fulness
of life and vigour, have had a stronger temptation
to indulge, were he so minded, in lascivious motive,
than in the famous fresco at Monte Oliveto? Yet
even there the graceful and fascinating courtezans
appeal to the intellectual rather than to the material
sense. It is of no consequence whether, as tradition
^fuH^foftu^i.^^. ta.*w^-
Photo: MoiU(boni.
HEAD OF LEDA.
DRAWING.
CASTELLO SFOKZESCO, MILAN.
To/ace f>. 246.
SUMMARY 247
tells us, these fair damsels were originally designed
nude or not. It is in the grace of their bearing and
the naiveU of their personal charm that tempta-
tion to the monks would have had to reside, rather
than in any evil suggestion intentionally aroused
by the artist himself.
Let us take even a stronger instance. When
the painter, in the zenith of his artistic and social
fame, and in the primeof his manhood, is summoned
by one of the wealthiest and most dissolute men
of the time, living in, maybe, the most dissolute
age of history the ornament and envy of, perhaps,
the most dissolute court in Europe, to decorate
his bedchamber, a subject The Marriage of
Alexander and Roxana is chosen, exalted and
beautiful indeed, but capable of the most suggestive
treatment. Howdoesour artist, amid surroundings
and among companions of a character sufficient to
turn the head of the purest-minded (as it undoubtedly
did turn that of the " Divine Raphael"), treat this
opportunity ? Does he indulge in the pruriency
of Giulio Romano and other scholars of the Prince
of Painters?^ Nothing of the kind. Heembroiders
on Lucian's canvas one of the purest and most
idyllic conceptions of the Renaissance : a compo-
sition that, in an age where Classical Myth and
Ecclesiastical Symbolism were so frequently inter-
mingled, might truly almost pass for an illustration
of the Mystic Marriage described in the Canticles,
and applied by the Church to Herself.
^ As an example the reader need only be referred to the work of
these artists in the Reception-rooms of the Corte Reale and the Palazzo
del Tfe at Mantua.
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Bazzi's composition may often be faulty, whilst
time and the hand of man have laid a destructive
stigma upon this great work; but where in pictorial
art can there be found a lovelier and, at the same
time, more ideal type of the Classic '' Pudicitia'
than Roxana? The entire composition is fraught
with graceful fancy and penetrating charm, yet not
a breath of course suggestion sullies our thoughts ;
whilst the religion of ideal beauty overwhelms
the senses, and no disturbing shadows arise to
break the spell. Well might Rosini^ exclaim,
"If Raphael had only chosen Bazzi as his helper
instead of Giulio Pippi, what might he not have
become ? "
Bazzi's Madonnas perhaps tell us little more
than that they are lovely. They exhibit scarcely
anything of that appearance of aloofness from
ordinary life above and beyond so characteristic
in the Art of his predecessors ; nor, likewise, do
they present us with the handsome peasant or
fascinating courtezan type adopted by his suc-
cessors. His ideal was clearly a noble one ;
his figures of either sex and of all ages are fine,
well chosen, and generally carefully characterized.
The special point about them during his best
period is, that they breathe a sentiment of natural
ease, as though the artist had obtained from his
model all he desired to express at once ; without
effort or strain to secure effects. There is an un-
affected simplicity in their mien ; no second thought
or mental reservation ; so much so, indeed, that all
that they tell us about themselves may be summed
1 Rosini, Op. cit.^ vol. v. p. 48,
^'.Ai^^^^t^ J/^hffip^'rtuHi^f^ ff".u^^-/Jru^fL .
^yly^a^ (Tf^^y^TXy^l'Uidofin.ay .
ua^
Tara
n^A^ ^^fufme^.
SUMMARY 249
up in two words, Purity and Refinement. In this
gift lies the artist's supreme charm.
From the foregoing conclusions, indeed, we may
surely take it for granted that Bazzi's was a
character of impulse and passion, upon which he
perhaps too often acted without thought for the
consequences. The spontaneity of his technique,
leading to the careless composition and slovenly
execution of so much of his work faults which
were, and remain yet, the despair of the Art-critic,
who knows not how to hold the balance true between
the painter's merits and defects was paralleled, no
doubt, in his daily life by acts of similar thought-
lessness. All the traditions and tales about him,
good and bad alike, show him to us as the play-
thing of chance and sudden emotion : a true child
of his age, born when the Renaissance had reached
its zenith, and dying with its knell sounding in
his ears. His age failed in comprehension of his
" artistic temperament " ; and whilst heaping praise
upon his vagaries, sought revenge by condemning
his morals. Men like Vasari, with their sense of
proportion obscured in the exclusive admiration
of giants such as Michelangelo, and with their
critical judgment wrapped in the aesthetic cere-
clothes of the Schools of Art founded by that great
leader and by Raphael, could not justify to them-
selves the raison d'etre of a man who although
willing to be influenced by splendid example yet
rebelled at confinement within the straitened lines
and imitative tendencies of any coefiaculum what-
ever. It is instructive to followtheevolution of those
artists who, commencing under his instruction.
250 SCHOLARS
drifted away into other schools. Instances of
such are Daniele da Volterra and Michel Angelo
Anselmi. In both these painters, incipient grace
almost attaining to originality imbibed from their
earlier master, is too soon submerged in eclectic
mannerism. The first masquerades in the grand
style of Michelangelo; the latter imitates tolerably
well the prettiness, exaggerated tenderness and
washed-out colouring of Correggio's Parmesan
period. The result in both cases is a verdict of
mediocrity.
Hence Bazzi in his day could only win for
himself the well-deserved commendation of those
capable of discernment, the few who could see the
light of genius shining through his errors ; and
modern taste has done justice at last in restoring
him to that place among the painters of the
Renaissance, which he so fully deserves.
No worse fate could befall our hero than to be
branded with the stamp of precursorship of the
" Eclectic School"; and if this essay has succeeded
even remotely in ''giving the Devil his due," the
seed sown in these pages will not have fallen on
barren ground.
APPENDIX
NOTE ON THE VARIOUS PORTRAITS OF
BAZZI BY HIMSELF AND OTHERS.
There are a large number of portrait-heads, chiefly
introduced into frescoes and compositions of large
dimensions, which tradition more or less authenticated
states to be presentments of Bazzi. With one exception
they are all painted by the artist himself. A comparison
between them not only raises a number of interesting
questions, but tends to show that many of these so-called
portraits cannot possibly be the person whom they are
said to represent
The single portrait which must ever form the basis
of any inquiry on this point is the youthful likeness at
Monte Oliveto, painted in May 1506, and recorded by
Vasari,^ This has been described so often, and is so well
authenticated, that we may take it for granted that it is a
speaking effigy of our painter as he then stood before the
world. Although the features are sufficiently striking and
marked to provide us with indications whereby we should
identify the likeness elsewhere, it is nevertheless no easy
matter to recognize these lineaments in the portrait
coming next in order of date, the authority for which
is no less important a critic than Morelli himself. The
figure of a man standing beside Raphael in the large fresco
^ Vasari, Op. cit., p, 383. Padre de Angelis, as we have said
{supra, p. 69 note ') in his Ragguaglio, etc., sees a portrait of Bazzi
as a youth in the angel of the Leccetto Nativity (Siena Academy,
Room XL No. 512.)
252 APPENDIX
of the School of Athens at the Vatican, was long supposed
to be the portrait of Perugino, and maudlin sentiment ran
riot over the alleged attachment between Master and Pupil,
that secured its introduction into this important compo-
sition. Morelli, however, asserted that the personage
represented was Bazzi, and again a flood of more or less
vapid talk burst forth : this time concerning the friendship
not improbable, indeed, even on other grounds existing
between these two artists.
We hear, likewise, of two more actual portraits, both
recorded by Vasari ; neither of which have come down to
us. These were introduced into the frescoes of Christ at
the Column (in the Cloister of S. Francesco), and the
Nativity (over the Porta Pispini) respectively. In the first
he was represented, we are told, beardless, but with flowing
hair ; ^ and in the other as an old man with a beard.^ It
is most unfortunate that both of these portraits have
disappeared ; since from them we might have derived the
necessary landmarks to assist us in identifying the other
traditional likenesses. The chief of these are as
follows :
The Soldier in Armour. Descent from the Cross.
(Siena Academy.) No. 413.
S. Roch in the group on the reverse face of the
S. Sebastian Banner. (Uffizi.)
The shepherd looking on between two trees.
Adoration of the Magi. (S. Agostino, Siena.)
One of the sleeping soldiers in the Resurrection.
(Pal. Pubblico, Siena.)
1 Vasari, Op. cit., p. 388.
2 Vasari, Op. cit., p. 396. It is perhaps worth noting that in an edition
of Vasari which appeared in t8ii, with portraits of the painters attached
to each Life, that given to Bazzi is of an elderly man with a beard, and
resembles no likeness of him at present existing. At that date the lower
part of the Porta Pispini fresco was still tolerably preserved ; and it is
just possible that this engraving may have been taken from the lost
portrait.
MONTE OLIVETO MAGGIORE.
Pholo: A till
DRAWING.
UFKIZI, FI.OKENXE.
Photo : H. Housrhton.
Ul'FIZI, Kl.OKENCE.
Photo: Alih
PORTRAITS OF GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI BY HIMSELF.
PORIRAIT OF A BEARDED MAN.
PASTEL.
liRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.
Photo : Braiin Clement &* Cie.
PORTRAIT OF
A iMILANESE NOBLEMAN (?).
DRAWING.
AI.BERTINA, VIENNA.
OTHER PORTRAITS BY THE SAME MASTER.
To face p. 252.
''<^" OF THE
4LIFbR3i^
PORTRAITS OF BAZZI 253
To this number Frizzoni would add the S. Joseph in the
large painting {Madonna and Saints) in the Pisa Gallery/
Whether these figures be one and all really portraits is
a matter of great uncertainty. It is probable, though,
that the very bold masculine type, which recurs so
frequently in his work notably the figure in the fore-
ground of the Resurrection at Naples is, if not an exact
likeness of himself, at least fashioned after his own cast
of countenance.
Besides these we have two oil paintings in Florence
in the Uffizi and Pitti Galleries respectively, both said
to be likenesses of the painter. The finer of the two,
preserved in the Collection of Artists' Portraits (No. 282)
in the Uffizi, represents a powerfully built, handsome man
in early middle life. Although we are pertinently assured
that Bazzi himself stands before us, it is not easy to trace
here the features of the gallant of Monte Oliveto days.^
The other portrait, in the Pitti Gallery (Room XI.),
in spite of the high thin nose, which at first sight seems
so unlike our painter, offers on closer inspection a much
greater resemblance to him as he may have looked later
on, a sadder and perhaps a wiser man. This painting is
by no means so fine, and the panel appears to have been
lengthened at the bottom and repainted by a later hand.^
A small picture with Gio. Ant. Razzi, P.S., written
upon the face, and Razzi detto il Sodoma Pittore Senese
Giovanni Antonio di Jacomo on the back, is to be found
^ See above, p. 233.
^ Romagnoli, building on the Vergelle tradition, makes out that the
scenery behind actually represents Vergelle with the Casa Savini in the
distance, in which house he states that Bazzi was born.
^ Delia Valle {Op. cit.^ p. 255) speaks of two portraits in the
Florence collection as follows : " Finalniente in galleria a Firenze nella
Stanza de' rittratti, due ve n'ha di Gio. Antonio, dipinti dalui medesimo
il primo lo dimostra in eta, di 45 in 50 anni, e sotto si legge : Gio
Antonio da Vercelli. Nella seconda stanza ritrasse se stesso di maggiore
eta, e in un' aria di un vecchio robusto, e pieno di energia. In esso
dichiara 1' onore, a cui fu assunto dai Sanesi, con ammetterlo alia Citta-