works Lorenzo de' Medici, well aware that the most efficacious method of exciting the talents of the living, is to confer due honour on departed merit, raised a bust to his memory in the church of S. Maria del fiore, the inscription for which was furnished by Politiano.(a) The merits of Giotto and his school are appreciated Character of his with great judgment by Vasari, who attributes to him and his predecessor Cimabue, the credit of having banished the insipid and spiritless manner introduced by the Greek artists, and given rise to a new and more natural stile of composition. This the historian denominates the maniera di Giotto (b). "Instead of the harsh outline, circum"scribing se, mitto Tabulam meam sive historiam Beatæ virginis Mariæ, operis Jocti (a) Ille ego sum per quem Pictura extincta revixit, Cui quam recta manus tam fuit et facilis. Naturæ deerat nostræ quod defuit arti; Plus licuit nulli pingere nec melius. Hæc quoque de modulo crevit ad astra meo. Hoc nomen longi carminis instar erit. (b) Proemio di Giorgio Vasari to the second part of his work, written like all his other prefaces, with great judgment, candour, and historical knowledge of his art. Tractant fabrilia fabri-The early painters are fortunate in possessing an historian, who without envy, spleen, or arrogance, and with as little prejudice or partiality as the imperfection of human nature will allow, has distributed to each of his characters, his due portion of applause. If he has on any occasion shewn too apparent a bias in favour of an individual, it leans towards Michelagnolo Buonarroti, Besides these "Giotto was "scribing the whole figure, the glaring eyes, the pointed "feet and hands, and all the defects arising from a total "want of shadow, the figures of Giotto exhibit a better "attitude, the heads have an air of life and freedom, the "drapery is more natural, and there are even some "attempts at fore-shortening the limbs. "improvements," continues this author, "the first who represented in his pictures, the effect "of the passions on the human countenance. That he "did not proceed further must be attributed to the difficul"ties which attend the progress of the art, and to the want "of better examples. In many of the essential requisites "of his profession, he was indeed equalled, if not sur"passed, by some of his contemporaries. The colouring ❝of Gaddi had more force and harmony, and the atti"tudes of his figures more vivacity. Simone da Sienna "is to be preferred to him in the composition of his subjects; and other painters excelled him in other branches "of the art; but Giotto had laid the solid foundation of "their improvements. It is true, all that was effected 66 66 by in whose friendship he gloried, and whose works he diligently studied; but an excess of admiration for this great man, will scarcely be imputed to him as a fault. As a painter and an architect, Vasari holds a respectable rank. In the former department, his productions are extremely numerous: One of his principal labours is his historical suite of pictures of the Medici family, with their portraits, painted for the great duke Cosmo I. in the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence, of which Vasari himself has given a particular account, published by Filippo Giunti, in 1588, and entitled "Ragionamenti del Sig. Cav. Giorgio Vasari sopra le invenzione da lui dipinte in Firenze &c. Reprinted in Arezzo 1762. In this series of pictures are represented the principal incidents in the life of Lorenzo. This work has been engraved, but not in such a manner as to do justice to the painter. The Medici encourage the arts. Masaccio. Paolo Uccello. "by these masters may be considered only as the first rude "sketch of a sculptor, towards completing an elegant 66 statue, and if no further progress had been made, there "would not upon the whole have been much to com"mend; but whoever considers the difficulties under which "their works were executed, the ignorance of the times, "the rarity of good models, and the impossibility of ob 66 taining instruction, will esteem them not only as com"mendable, but wonderful productions, and will perceive "with pleasure these first sparks of improvement which were afterwards fanned into so bright a flame." 66 The patronage of the family of the Medici is almost contemporary with the commencement of the art. Giovanni de' Medici, the father of Cosmo, had employed his fellow citizen Lorenzo de' Bicci, to ornament with portraits a chamber in one of his houses in Florence, which afterwards became the residence of Lorenzo, the brother of Cosmo(a). The liberality of Cosmo led the way to further improvement. Under Masaccio, the study of nature, and actual observation, were substituted to cold and servile imitation. By this master, his competitors, and his scholars, every component branch of the art was carried to some degree of perfection. Paolo Uccello was the first who boldly surmounted the difficulty which Giotto, though sensible of its importance, had ineffectually attempted to overcome, and gave that ideal depth to his labours, which is (a) Vasar, vita di Lor. de' Bicci. is the essence of picturesque representation/a). This he accomplished by his superior knowledge of perspective, which he studied in conjunction with the celebrated Giannozzo Manetti, and in the attainment of which, the painter and the scholar were mutually serviceable to each other (b). The rules which he thence acquired he applied to practice, not only in the back-grounds of his pictures, but in his representation of the human figure, of which he expressed the Scorci, or fore-shortenings with accuracy and effect (c). The merit of having been the first to apply mathematical rules to the improvement of works of art, and the proficiency which he made in so necessary and so laborious a study, if it had not obtained from Vasari a greater share of praise, ought at least to have secured the artist from that ridicule with which he seems inclined to treat him(d). The elder Filippo Lippi gave to his figures a boldness and grandeur before unknown. He attended also Fra Filippo. (a) È da osservare che non si trova prima di lui nessuno scorto di figure, perciò a ragione può dirsi aver questo valent' uomo fatto un gran progresso nell' Etruria Pittrice No. xiv. arte. (b) E fu il primo che ponesse studio grande nella prospettiva, introducendo il modo di mettere le figure su' piani, dove esse posar devono, diminuendole a proporzione; il che, da maestri avanti a lui, si faceva a caso, e senz' alcuna consideratione. Baldinuc. Dec. ii. del. par i. Sec. iv. (c) In his picture of the inebriety of Noah, in the church of S. Maria Novella, is a figure of the patriarch stretched on the ground, with his feet towards the front of the picture, yet even in this difficult attitude, the painter has succeeded in giving an explicit idea of his subject. v. Etrur. Pittr. No. xiv. (d) La moglie soleva dire che tutta la notte Paolo stava nello scrittoio, per trovar i termini della prospettiva, e che quando ella lo chiamava a dormire, egli le diceva, O che dolce cosa è questa prospettiva ! Vas. Vita di Paolo. also to the effect of his back-grounds, which were however in general too minutely finished. About two years after his death, which happened in the year 1469, Lorenzo de' Medici, who was then absent from Florence on a journey to congratulate Sixtus IV. on his accession to the pontificate, took the opportunity of passing through Spoleto, where he requested permission from the magistrates to remove the ashes of the artist to the church of S. Maria del Fiore at Florence. The community of that place were however unwilling to relinquish so honourable a deposit; and Lorenzo was therefore content to testify his respect for the memory of the painter, by engaging his son, the younger Filippo, to erect in the church of Spoleto, a monument of marble, the inscription upon which, written by Politiano, has led his historian Menckenius into a mistake almost too apparent to admit of an excuse. (a) In (a) In Philippum Fratrem Pictorem. Marmoreo tumulo MEDICES LAURENTIUS hic me From the appellation of Frater, given to Lippi by Politiano, Menckenius conjectures, that he was his brother. "Is enim quis sit, cujus hic "frater dicitur Philippus, si Politianus non est, hariolari non possum." Menck. in vita Pol. p. 31. Filippo had entered into holy orders, whence he was called Fra Filippo; a circumstance which Menckenius might easily have discovered, though he professes not to have been able to obtain any information respecting it." Nihil enim eâ de re scriptores alii, etsi non desint, qui maxime |