MICHEL ANGELO ANSELMI 97
to have engendered an erroneous idea of their
authorship. 1 We are not aware that any writer
has hitherto drawn attention to the identity of
this pupil, but the frequent mention of Vmcentio,
besides a record of his journey to San Gimignano on
September 3rd, 1506,^ and furthermore the entry of
a payment on March 15th of the previous year
of g carlini a uno fratello del suo garzone di
Santo Gemignano in the Monastery accounts
furnishes clear proof of our contention.
Another disciple whom we know that Bazzi
had under his tuition about this period, is Michel
Angela A nselmi\^ but we do not find any reference
to him by name in the books of either convent.
Anselmi's parents people of respectability and
good repute from Parma returned to their native
town in 1505, leaving their son under Bazzi's artistic
tutelage ; and he appears to have dwelt with him
^ There is also a fine fresco a life-size Madonna and Child with
the Archangels Michael and Raphael and the young Tobias in the
Collegiata at Asciano that may almost certainly be assigned to this
painter.
2 Apparently on a visit, because we find him again buying
pipkins {pignatti) at the Michaelmas Fair at Chiusuri, presumably for
his master.
^ Very many writers, especially in guide-books, call this artist scolaro
or discipolo di Riccio; but this is absolutely impossible, since he was
born in 1491. If, as Milanesi (Vasari, Op. cit.. Commentary^ p. 412)
states, Riccio was in his first youth when he married Bazzi's daughter
Faustina in 1543, he could not possibly have been more than an infant
when Michael Angelo Anselmi left Siena for good. Cf. post^ p. 166.
Antonio Anselmi, banished from Parma, took refuge at Lucca,
where he found a wife. There his son, Michel Angelo, was born, and
thence the parents moved to Siena, where they stayed until 1505.
For further information concerning this master the student may be
referred to E. Scarabelli Zunti, Documenti e Memorie di Belle Arti
Parmigiane (1505-50) and Romualdo Baistrocchi : MSB. in the Com-
munal Library at Parma.
98 EARLY FRESCOES AND PAINTINGS
until 1 516 or thereabouts. Why, therefore, his
name does not occur at all in the accounts, it is
somewhat hard to understand, unless it be that he
was generally known, both to the monks and to
his companions, under some other designation.
He might perchance be identified with either of
the two first-mentioned lads.
The most interesting and important paintings
in the series are those occupying the corners
of the cloister: {a) The Saint leaving his Home;
{b) The Broken Cribble; if) The Temptation of
the Monks ; (d) The Reception of the Novices,
Maitrns and Placidiis ; and (e) The Destruction of
Monte Cassino} In the first-named, there appear
the types we so often meet with throughout the
cycle. The figure of the young S. Benedict is typical
of all the young men (even the so-called portrait
of Bazzi's wife) that follow in succession. The
original model was probably one of his ov^n garsoni',
whilst the monks are evidently portraits, and no
doubt speaking likenesses, of members of the
community. Bazzi, we are told by Vasari, having
been ordered to paint the portraits of the Generals
of the Order^ two and two under each "Act,"
certainly did avail himself of the features of the
brethren for his purpose. Where the artist ob-
tained his beautiful female models it is not easy
to say, more especially since the types vary so
considerably : in the Temptation, for example,
^ It is to be observed that Eugene Miintz {Op. cit, p. 519) thinks
that this fresco was in point of time the first of the series.
2 Vasari, Op. cit., p. 383. These pseudo-likenesses seem to have
offerde but a feeble resistance to the hand of time, since Fra Antonio
Bentivoglio (apparently Vasari's contemporary) ordered their obliteration.
Photo: Lombardi,
CHOIR OF SINGERS.
DETAIL FROM SCENE 23 OF THE LIFE OF S. BENEDICT.
MONTE OLWETO MAGGIOKE.
To /ace p.
'<?:
- OF THE r
NIVERSITY
Photo : I.oinbardi,
FEMALE HEAD.
DETAIL FROM SCENE 19. "THE TEMPTAriON OF THE MONKS."
MONTE OMVETO MAGGIOKE.
Tojfacep q8.
'y
Photo: Lortiba7'di.
FEMALE HEADS.
DETAIL FROM SCENE 19. "-THE TEMPTATION OF THE MONKS.'
MONTE OLIVETO MAGC;lORE.
To face p. 98.
OF THE ^'^
'^"VERstry
Of '
^
BAZZrS MODELS 99
the several figures differ notably both in counten-
ance and form. It may fairly be suggested,
indeed it appears extremely probable, that our
artist introduced a deeper symbolism into the
picture than he is generally credited with. Why
otherwise should he have drawn so marked a
contrast between the stately, intellectual-looking
ladies in the centre, gazing it would seem dis-
dainfully at the two graceful but lightly-clad
damsels, treading their seductive measure, in the
right-hand corner of the composition ? Might not
his intention be, that the former should appear to
sway the spiritual faculties of the monastic student-
band ; the latter seek rather to appeal to the
grosser instincts of the less cultivated and learned
among their number ? To accentuate this aspect
of the question it is conceivable that, while one
pair are garbed as princesses, the other should in
the artist's mind depend solely on their personal
charms, " when unadorned adorned the most ";
another illustration perhaps of Vice and Chastity :
Sacred and Profane Love.
Animals are conspicuous by their presence in all
the remaining frescoes enumerated above, notably
a most cleverly foreshortened white horse in the
Destruction of Monte Cassino} The horses, both
^ Berenson {^Drawings of the Florentine Painters cit., p. 125), says,
" The fact seems to have escaped notice that the spirit of Leonardo's
composition \^The Battle of Anghiari'\ inspired no other composition so
much as the fresco at Monte Oliveto Maggiore by Sodoma, representing
Totila's attack on Monte Cassino." He further mentions a fine late
sixteenth-century copy (in the possession of Mr, H. P. Home, in
Florence) of the group representing the Struggle for the Standard, which
is in his opinion the copy of a copy by Bazzi from Leonardo's original.
The comments of a critic of such high standing, on works like these,
loo EARLY FRESCOES AND PAINTINGS
of S. Benedict and of his nurse, and the white dog
in the foreground of the first scene, besides the
menagerie described earlier in these pages, are
among his most successful portrayals of animal
life. Borders of arabesque capricci divide each
section, and these alone would almost enable
us to assert confidently, that Vasari wrote from
hearsay, and had not actually seen these produc-
tions of Bazzi's brush ; for whilst he describes
the whole as full of lewdness, these grotesques,
in which a vivid imagination might have run to
riotous excess, are, in point of fact, conceived
throughout in the most innocent, graceful, and
charming vein. As is usual with grotesques
(and the term itself is an avowal), contortions and
monstrosities do of course occur. But there is
nothing in them the least deserving of Vasari's
sweeping reprobation. Frizzoni^ points out with
justice the probability that Bazzi was influenced
in his arabesques by the work of Fra Giovanni
da Verona, the celebrated wood-carver and
intarsiatore, at that time also employed at the
convent, whose exquisite craftsmanship to this
day compels our admiration. The learned writer
goes on to suggest, and indeed it is more than
probable, that the Friar had brought with him
from Venice a number of the woodcuts from the
are always worth recording. Though confessedly opposed to Bazzi's
artistic attitude he remarks on p. 272 of the same work, when comparing
his frescoes here with those of Andrea del Sarto at the Annunziata
in Florence {The Story of S. Philip Benizzi)^ that "the Lombard is at
times almost ravishing, while the Tuscan, though prosaic, shows greater
seriousness of artistic purpose."
^ Frizzoni, Op. cit.^ pp. 120-21.
Photo: Lombardi.
MADONNA AND CHILD WITH AN OLIVETAN MONIC
FRESCO BY VINCENZO TAMAGNI.
MONTE OLIVEI'O MAGGIOKE.
To face p, loo.
^
MANTEGNA'S DESIGNS lot
graceful classical designs of Andrea Mantegna,
at that time already public property. These, to
a temperament like Bazzi's, impassioned for new
ideas, could not fail to prove a source of immense
interest and delight. Possible evidence of the
above may be found in the composition under
the window of the south side of the cloister, repre-
senting the Triumph of Neptune, with horses,
marine deities and sea-monsters, clearly recalling
one of these woodcuts.^ We might remark
incidentally that among the other frescoes in
the convent ascribed to our artist a number of
inferior paintings cover the walls of a small room
in the General's apartment. These are how-
ever clearly not by Bazzi, but might be attributed
to Tamagni, who was probably the author of the
very pleasing toudo, The Madonna and Child
with an Olivet an Monk, on a wall of the con-
vent linen-room. One small work by our artist,
nevertheless, usually escapes notice : an attractive
head, perhaps The Madonna, painted in fresco
close under the ceiling of the principal saloon
in the suite above mentioned. It is a fragment
only, but a very charming one, and undoubtedly
the work of the master in person.^
We might suppose, were we to judge solely by
^ It is of course, however, not impossible that Bazzi may have only
renewed his acquaintance or refreshed his memory with these designs ;
since, if, as we have suggested above, he had studied illustrated works
on ancient architecture in Leonardo's bottega, he would probably there
also have come across these woodcuts.
2 Frizzoni {Op. cit, p. ii6) would also attribute to Bazzi's own hand
a Pieta on one of the staircases ; but if this work ever was by him,
which is extremely doubtful, entire repainting has completely obliterated
all trace of its original character.
I02 EARLY FRESCOES AND PAINTINGS
the statements which have gained general credence,
that the time Bazzi spent at this monastery was
occupied in little else than diversion, more or less
innocent according to the individual attitude of
commentator or biographer. We find instead that,
in spite of all the faults and omissions imputed to
him, he must have worked tolerably hard to have
carried through so much work within the time
allotted to him. Vasari accuses him of neglecting
to make sketches ; but the convent registers include
more than one entry of carta reale, which in
one instance is distinctly stated to be '' per fare il
disegno de la istoria dela portaT ^
The frescoes were not all ; there were works on
panel besides. One of these, indeed, may be that
lovely round picture, the Charitas, formerly in the
Chigi Palace at Siena, but now in Count Bobrinsky's
collection at the Villa Malta on the Pincian Hill in
Rome.^
Furthermore, we learn from the ledgers, that in
1507^ our artist had gone to San Gimignano and
painted there, in what was once the prison chapel,
^ In the portfolios in the Uffizi, among the drawings attributed to
Timoteo Viti, there is (Sheet 324, No. 1357) a sketch in sepia and
brownish ink, careful but unpleasantly grotesque, for part of No. 7,
from the S. Benedict series. This is referred to by Morelli {Op. cit.,
p. 309, note) as a study by Bazzi himself for this fresco. With all due
deference to that distinguished critic, we cannot reckon the drawing
as a genuine work of the master, and it appears to have been made
subsequently by some inferior hand.
2 The style of this work forcibly recalls the group of three paintings
so fully discussed earlier in this chapter. The outer edge of the panel
itself bears a delicate border of gracefully conceived grotesques, quite
in the spirit of those at the two convents.
^ An entry referring to this expedition is dated October nth, 1507.
He took one gold ducat for his journey and other expenses.
CHARITAS.
BOBRINSKY COLLECTION, ROME.
To /ace p. 102.
-^
SAN GIMIGNANO 103
a fresco of 6*. Ivo dispensing Justice, which may
still be seen in position. It is a large painting in
monochrome ; and, although exhibiting in places
the marks of haste and negligence, yet the carefully
designed arabesque work on the pilasters in the
picture, together with the detail of a coffered ceiling,
are evidence that such a vast composition could
not have been dashed off with but a few days' work.
This fresco was doubtless commissioned, maybe
through the instrumentality of the family of Bazzi's
pupil Tamagni, by Messer Giovanni Battista
Macchiavelli, at that date Podesta of the little
towered city ;^ since his arms, though injured and
partly effaced by time and human malfeasance,^
are still discernible upon it. That Bazzi's work
pleased the citizens of San Gimignano is certain,
since they employed the artist again in 1513^ : this
time to paint a Madonna and Child to take the
place of an older fresco,"^ in the Loggia under the
Palazzo del Podesta. Fragments of two putti sup-
porting a curtain are all that remain of this painting.
Three years from August 1505 to August 1508
are not an excessive period wherein to carry out,
even with apprentice assistance, all the work
known to have been completed within that space of
^ Can. Luigi Pecori, Storia della Terra di San Gimignano. Firenze,
1853. P- 574-
^ Another allegorical work, fragments of which are still visible
on the opposite wall of the same room, is perhaps by Tamagni himself.
It is certainly not, as some writers have suggested, the work of
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi.
^ Pecori, Op. cit., p. 563, note 4. For this work he was paid 142 lire.
2 Luglio 15 13. Lib. di Provv. di Lett. G., Nos. 64 and 140.
* This work was dated 1337, and had cost the town 10 florins. It
represented The Madonna and Child with SS. Gimignano^ Louis, and
Christopher. Pecori, Op. cit,, p. cit.
I04 EARLY FRESCOES AND PAINTINGS
time. We may reasonably, therefore, view with
suspicion, not untinged with scepticism, the by-
no-means candid or disinterested criticism of our
artist's alleged scandalous idleness.
The payments made to him amounted in all
to 1 56 1 lire. For the larger and more elaborate
frescoes, such as the Temptation of the Monks, he
was paid 10 ducats each (= 70 lire), and for the
lesser compositions 7 ducats (= 49 lire).
A creature of impulse, careless of the morrow,
and incapable of long sustained effort, he certainly
was ; and no doubt a boon companion besides,
whose animal spirits roused the quiet Abbey in
a fashion that left the inmates with a goodly store
of memories for discourse and commentary many
years after his departure from their midst. But we
would ask once more, whether mirth and joviality
are necessarily signs of depraved instincts. Were
such the case, who would escape the imputation ?
It has been aptly remarked that the informing
spirit of Bazzi's frescoes and the inspiration of his
predecessor Luca Signorelli's work are essentially
diverse. Signorelli's selection deals almost exclu-
sively with the more supernatural among the legends
of S. Benedict's life; such as, encounters with incar-
nate fiends, miraculous foreknowledge of monkish
deception, and so forth. Bazzi, on the other hand,
while indulging equally in the marvellous, invests
his characters with a more human aspect, and ap-
peals directly to the spectator's own sensations ; thus
imparting to the creatures of his fancy that sense
of reality almost amounting to personal contact
so noticeable throughout his work. In both artists
BAZZI ANDSIGNORELLI COMPARED 105
a passionate admiration for the beauty of the human
form is vividly present ; but whereas Signorelli
devotes his energies to depicting a realism of
muscular development, which tends often to un-
lovely exaggeration, and on that account seldom
attempts to represent female beauty, Bazzi is
keenly alive to the possibilities presented alike by
either sex, endowing his figures with a suave grace,
which, if more fanciful, is at least as artistically
satisfactory.^ Moreover, Signorelli's monks, as
Paul Bourget ^ remarks, are, in spite of all his fine
draughtsmanship, but clumsy peasants taken from
the glebe ; while Bazzi's are full of a spirit, too often
wanton and freakish, but always real and true to
nature. Despite recent criticism^ regarding his
treatment of the monastic garb, we would venture
to submit that Bazzi has succeeded better even than
Lippi in reproducing without monotony the correct
disposition into which the folds of a heavy material
must of necessity fall. Signorelli's treatment is not
so successful, and the lifeless ivory-white hue of
the Benedictine-Olivetan habit in his work, strikes
a jarring note in his compositions. In defiance of
Vasari's statement that Bazzi said he only worked
"when money jingled," and despite also the too
evident traces of haste and negligence,"* these
^ On this point see John Addington Symonds, New Italian Sketches
{Monte Oliveto). Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, 1884, pp. 51-56.
' Paul Bourget, Sensations d^Italie. Paris : Lemerre.
^ E. C. Strutt, Fra Filippo Lippu London: George Bell & Sons, 1901,
pp. 96-7.
* Don Luigi Perego {Op. cit., p. 94) notes one instance where haste
to complete might tend to give a false impression of the artist's ability.
In describing fresco No. 14 {S. Benedict at the Prayers of the Monks draws
Water from a Rock), he points out that among the fourteen monastic
io6 EARLY FRESCOES AND PAINTINGS
frescoes breathe such a joie de vivre that neither
time nor injudicious restoration^ can detract from
their subtle charm. The late reverend Abbot,
Don Gaetano di Negro, desiring to preserve these
masterpieces from further injury, very wisely closed
in the cloister with glass ; but we could have
wished that, in redecorating, there had been some
one at hand to place a check upon the lavish use
of scagliola (to imitate coloured marble), which
now surrounds these beautiful works of art, and
introduces a disturbing element in the symphony
of delicate and subdued colour.
figures in the composition, only four hands are visible. It is true that
monks do conceal their hands in their wide sleeves, so that the painter
on his side had reason in not delineating more than were needed for the
action of the story ; but the worthy father takes care to lay stress upon
the point, that the artist probably concealed them to save himself trouble,
and not because he could not paint hands. Hands are in point of fact
one of the most strikingly beautiful features in all his work.
^ Romagnoli (C^.r/V.) states that the frescoes were restored between
1800 and 1830, and by no means improved thereby.
CHAPTER V
FIRST VISIT TO ROME
Most writers and critics have fixed upon 1507 as
the date of Bazzi's first visit to Rome ; and formerly,
indeed, upon the authority of Vasari, he was
supposed to have completed all his undertakings
there during one single visit. This proposition is
nevertheless a point widely disputed by divers
authorities. The publication of the Monte Oliveto
Maggiore documents has elicited one hitherto
unknown fact : namely, that our artist could
under no circumstances have begun to paint in
Rome Mntil the autumn of 1^08 ; ^ since records
of payments and advances of money recur in the
Monastery accounts as late as August 22nd, when
a final settlement was effected with him, apparently
in person? It is undoubtedly true, that Agostino
Chigi did come to Siena in 1507 to negotiate the
sale of Port' Ercole ; and if we read Vasari literally,
we might surmise that Giovanni Antonio journeyed
to Rome in his train during that year. This sug-
gestion might hold good if we understand the entry
'' quello da VerzellV in the convent ledgers dated
^ Some of the later writers on Bazzi seem even to wish to limit his
stay at the convent to one instead of three years. For example, Faccio,
Op. cit., Chronological list ; Priuli Bon, Op. cit., Chronological list.
^ Archivio di Stato di Siena. Libro d' Amministrazione dell'
Archicenobio di Monte Oliveto cit. 1508, 22 di Agosto.
107
r^
108 FIRST VISIT TO ROME
August 28th, 1507, to refer to our artist: but that he
could not have remained there long is evident from
these selfsame accounts. He may indeed have been
invited by his eminent patron^ to pay a visit to the
Eternal City, where perhaps he arranged to return
in the following year, so soon as his commission at
the convent should have been terminated. Or again,
Agostino Chigi's departure to Rome may have been
deferred until 1508, when the painter could well have
accompanied his protector. The fact that Bazzi did
not enter upon his work at the Vatican un^i/ the
autMinn of that year is proved also by a document
dated October 13th, 1508, quoted by Cugnoni,^
^ Bazzi probably obtained his introduction to the Chigi from his
earhest Sienese patrons, the Spannocchi, who were commercial allies of
the great bankers.
^ C. Cugnoni, Agostino Chigi il Magnifico. Archivio della Societk
Romana di Storia Romana, vol. ii. p. 485, note 89. Roma, 1878.
"Die xiii. Octobr. 1508, Ma*""^ D. Sigismundus Chisius p'misit quod
Magr. lo Ant. de bazis de Vercellis pictor in Vrbe pinget in Cameris
S. D. pp superiorib. tanta opera q extimabitur fact. p. 50 duos de car"'"
Xp due, quos p'"' lo. Ant, confessus fuit recepisse p manus D. Hier.
fran"' de Senis computis fabricar. p*' S. D. N. ad bonum computu.
" Rome in bancho p" D. Sigis pntib. Ant luti capserio dicti banchi et
Mariano del peccia laicis Senen. Andreas Centolynus,"
This work is based chiefly on Fabio Chigi's Life of his celebrated
ancestor, which exists in MS. in the Chisian Library in Rome. Fabio
Chigi, who afterwards became Pope under the title of Alexander VII.,
compiled this Life nearly a century after the death of its subject, from
various authors ; mainly, he states, from Sigismondo Tizio, who was a
younger contemporary of Agostino.
That Sigismondo Chigi was as valuable a friend to the artist as his
brother Agostino, is also proved by an extract quoted by the same
writer {Op. cit., p. 61, note 89) from the Coimnentaries of Fabio Chigi
as follows : " Aedificavit [Sigismundus] domus superiorem partem, que
Senis ad forum extat, spectatque viam [quae dicitur] Casati; aedificatam
a Patre contiguam partem, quae viam spectat S. Salvatoris, Malborghetto
olim nuncupatam, lateritia facie exornavit, cum ruinam minitaretur
anno MDX. Laquearibus texit contignationes ; cubilia praecipue duo
exornavit. In altero per lacunar, in altero per parietes dispositis
SIGISMONDO CHIGI 109
and by Miintz,^ and referred to by Crowe and
Cavalcaselle,^ in which Sigismondo Chigi, brother
to Agostino, tenders security that Bazzi shall
execute certain work upon the ceiling of the
Camera della Segnatura to the value of 50 ducats.
The above-mentioned writers, moreover, point out,
that since neither Albertini,^ nor the records of
the Vatican Office of Works, mention Raphael's
name during the winter of 1508-9, it is probable
that the latter was not summoned until the fol-
lowing spring. Thus Bazzi would have had six
luculamentis, et quasi areolis picturas coUocavit eximias ; et lacunar q-dem
fabulas ab Ovidio desumptas ostendit, parietes vero alterius cubiculi et
aversa hostia ac fenestrae Julij Caesari gesta scripto circum in zophoro
Epigrammate minime malo
Flevit Alexandri Caesar cum vidit honores,
Concepitque animis aequora, regna, polum.
Inde triumphatum circumtulit arma per orbem,
Tantum ingens virtus, aemula facta potest.
Quisquis in hac igitur defiget imagine vultus,
^3mulus is Magni Caesaris esse velit.
Sub quaque etiam areola depicta, et aliae sunt inscriptiones ; omnia eius
artificis opera, qui anteriorem quoque domus faciem pinxit, Johannes
Antonio Vercellensis cognomento Sodoma. . . . ^dem praeterea S. Bar-
tholomei consimili excitavit impendio, fornice picto stellatoque supra
Coronani, quae e topho aurato est, incubante sacris additis instrumentis,
ac postea super aram Tabula a lo. Antonio Sodoma depicta. Quam bella
gerente Carlo V. contra Senensium Remp. a militibus abreptam Hispanis,
et ad oppidum Collis Vallis Elsae translatam scribit Julius Mancinus,
Senensis Urbani VIII. medicus ac intimus cubicularius in suo opere de
Pictura."
It should be observed also, that in 1507 Sigismondo had married
Sulpicia, daughter of Pandolfo Petrucci ; so that he too would have been
in Siena during that year.
^ Miintz, Raphael. Op. at (large edition, 1882), p. 307, note.
2 J. A. Crowe and C. B. Cavalcaselle, Raphael: his Life and Worhs,
vol. ii. pp. 10-14. London : John Murray, 1885.