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Book FirstPart XXXI
Part XXXI
It would take too long to describe in detail all the many and divers
pieces of work which I executed for a great variety of men. At present I need
only say that I devoted myself with sustained diligence and industry to
acquiring mastery in the several branches of art which I enumerated a short
while back. And so I went on labouring incessantly at all of them; but since
no opportunity has presented itself as yet for describing my most notable
performances, I shall wait to report them in their proper place before very
long. The Sienese sculptor, Michel Agnolo, of whom I have recently been
speaking, was at that time making the monument of the late Pope Adrian. Giulio
Romano went to paint for the Marquis of Mantua. The other members of the club
betook themselves in different directions, each to his own business; so that
our company of artists was well-nigh altogether broken up.
About this time there fell into my hands some little Turkish poniards;
the handle as well as the blade of these daggers was made of iron, and so too
was the sheath. They were engraved by means of iron implements with foliage in
the most exquisite Turkish style, very neatly filled in with gold. The sight
of them stirred in me a great desire to try my own skill in that branch, so
different from the others which I practiced; and finding that I succeeded to
my satisfaction, I executed several pieces. Mine were far more beautiful and
more durable than the Turkish, and this for divers reasons. One was that I cut
my grooves much deeper and with wider trenches in the steel; for this is not
usual in Turkish work. Another was that the Turkish arabesques are only
composed of arum leaves a few small sunflowers; ^1 and though these have a
certain grace, they do not yield so lasting a pleasure as the patterns which
we use. It is true that in Italy we have several different ways of designing
foliage; the Lombards, for example, construct very beautiful patterns by
copying the leaves of briony and ivy in exquisite curves, which are extremely
agreeable to the eye; the Tuscans and the Romans make a better choice, because
they imitate the leaves of the acanthus, commonly called bear`s-foot, with
its stalks and flowers, curling in divers wavy lines; and into these
arabesques one may excellently well insert the figures of little birds and
different animals, by which the good taste of the artist is displayed. Some
hints for creatures of this sort can be observed in nature among the wild
flowers, as, for instance, in snap-dragons and some few other plants, which
must be combined and developed with the help of fanciful imaginings by clever
draughtsmen. Such arabesques are called grotesques by the ignorant. They have
obtained this name of grotesques among the moderns through being found in
certain subterranean caverns in Rome by students of antiquity; which caverns
were formerly chambers, hot-baths, cabinets for study, halls, and apartments
of like nature. The curious discovering them in such places (since the level
of the ground has gradually been raised while they have remained below, and
since in Rome these vaulted rooms are commonly called grottoes), it has
followed that the word grotesque is applied to the patterns I have mentioned.
But this is not the right term for them, inasmuch as the ancients, who
delighted in composing monsters out of goats, cows, and horses, called these
chimerical hybrids by the name of monsters; and the modern artificers of whom
I speak, fashioned from the foliage which they copied monsters of like nature;
for these the proper name is therefore monsters, and not grotesques. Well,
then, I designed patterns of this kind, and filled them in with gold, as I
have mentioned; and they were far more pleasing to the eye than the Turkish.
[Footnote 1: Gichero, arum maculatum, and clizia, the sunflower.]
It chanced at that time that I lighted upon some jars or little antique
urns filled with ashes, and among the ashes were some iron rings inlaid with
gold (for the ancients also used that art), and in each of the rings was set a
tiny cameo of shell. On applying to men of learning, they told me that these
rings were worn as amulets by folk desirous of abiding with mind unshaken in
any extraordinary circumstance, whether of good or evil fortune. Hereupon, at
the request of certain noblemen who were my friends, I undertook to fabricate
some trifling rings of this kind; but I made them of refined steel; and after
they had been well engraved and inlaid with gold, they produced a very
beautiful effect; and sometimes a single ring brought me more than forty
crowns, merely in payment for my labour.
It was the custom at that epoch to wear little golden medals, upon which
every nobleman or man of quality had some device or fancy of his own engraved;
and these were worn in the cap. Of such pieces I made very many, and found
them extremely difficult to work. I have already mentioned the admirable
craftsman Caradosso, who used to make such ornaments; and as there were more
than one figure on each piece, he asked at least a hundred gold crowns for his
fee. This being so - not, however, because his prices were so high, but
because he worked so slowly - I began to be employed by certain noblemen, for
whom, among other things, I made a medal in competition with that great
artist, and it had four figures, upon which I had expended an infinity of
labour. These men of quality, when they compared my piece with that of the
famous Caradosso, declared that mine was by far the better executed and more
beautiful, and bade me ask what I liked as the reward of my trouble; for since
I had given them such perfect satisfaction, they wished to do the like by me.
I replied that my greatest reward and what I most desired was to have rivalled
the masterpieces of so eminent an artist; and that if their lordships thought
I had, I acknowledged myself to be most amply rewarded. With this I took my
leave, and they immediately sent me such a very liberal present, that I was
well content; indeed there grew in me so great a spirit to do well, that to
this event I attributed what will afterwards be related of my progress.
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