Fra Bartolommeo | Page 5

its true aim, the interpretation
of nature, and the illustration of the poetry of a nation.
But with the decadence we have happily nothing to do; the artists of
whom we speak first, Fra Bartolommeo and Albertinelli, belong to the
culmination of art on its rising side, while Andrea del Sarto stands as
near to the greatest artists on the other side, and is the last of the group
before the decline. On Fra Bartolommeo the spirituality of Fra
Angelico still lingered, while the perfection of Raphael illumined him.
Andrea del Sarto, on the other side, had gathered into his hands the
gleams of genius from all the great artists who were his elder
contemporaries, and so blending them as to form seemingly a style of
his own, distinct from any, has left on our walls and in our galleries
hundreds of masterpieces of colour, as gay and varied as the tints the
orientals weave into their wondrous fabrics.
It might be said with truth that Fra Bartolommeo painted for the soul,
and Andrea del Sarto for the eye.

CHAPTER II
.
THE "BOTTEGA" OF COSIMO ROSELLI. A.D. 1475-1486.
Amongst the thousand arteries in which the life blood of the
Renaissance coursed in all its fulness, none were so busy or so
important as the "botteghe" of the artists. In these the genius of the
great masters, the Pleiades of stars at the culmination of art in Florence,
was either tenderly nursed, or sharply pruned into vigour by struggling
against discouragement and envy. In these the spirit of awakened
devotion found an outlet, in altarpieces and designs for church frescoes

which were to influence thousands. Here the spirit of poetry, brooding
in the mysterious lines of Dante, or echoing from past ages in the myths
of the Greeks, took form and glowed on the walls in mighty cartoons to
be made imperishable in fresco. Here the spirit of luxury was satisfied
by beautiful designs for ornaments, dress stuffs, tapestries, vases and
"cassoni," &c., which brought beauty into every life, and made each
house a poem. The soul, the mind, and the body, could alike be
supplied at those fountains of the beautiful, the artshops or schools.
Whilst Michelangelo as a youth was drawing from the cartoons of the
Sassetti chapel in the school of Domenico Ghirlandajo, Cosimo Roselli
was just receiving as a pupil a boy only a little behind him in genius. A
small, delicate-faced, spiritual-eyed boy of nine years, known as Baccio
della Porta, who came with a roll of drawings under his arm and high
hopes in his soul, no doubt trotting along manfully beside Cosimo's old
friend, Benedetto da Majano, the sculptor, who had recommended his
being placed in the studio.
By the table given in the note [Footnote: Pietro, a Genoese, came in
1400 to the parish of S. Michele, at Montecuccioli in Mugello; he was a
peasant, and had a son Jacopo, who was father of Paolo, the muleteer;
and three other sons, Bartolo, Giusto, and Jacopo, who had a podere at
Soffignano, near Prato. Paolo married first Bartolommea, daughter of
Zanobi di Gallone, by whom he had a son, Bartolommeo, known as
Baccio della Porta, born 1475. The first wife dying, Paolo married
Andrea di Michaele di Cenni, who had four sons, Piero, Domenico,
Michele, and Francesco; only Piero lived to grow up, and he became a
priest. [_Favoured by Sig. Milanesi._]] it will be seen that Baccio was
the son of Paolo, a muleteer, which no doubt was a profitable trade in
those days when the country roads were mere mule-tracks, and the
traffic between different towns was carried on almost entirely by horses
and mulepacks. There is some doubt as to the place of Baccio's birth,
which occurred in 1475. Vasari gives it as Savignano near Prato;
Crowe and Cavalcaselle [Footnote: Vol. iii. chap. xiii. p. 427.] assert it
was Suffignano, near Florence, where they say Paolo's brothers, Jacopo
and Giusto, were contadini or peasants.
But on consulting the post-office authorities we find no place called
Suffignano near Florence; it must therefore have been a village near
Prato called Soffignano, which from similarity of sound Vasari

confused with the larger place, Savignano. This is the more probable,
for Rosini asserts that "Benedetto da Majano, _who had bought a
podere near Prato_, knew him and took him into his affections, and by
his means placed him with Cosimo." [Footnote: Rosini, _Storia della
Pittura_, chap. xvii. p. 47.]
It is certainly probable that Paolo's wife lived with his family during his
wanderings, because it is the true Italian custom, and Baccio was in that
case born in his uncle's house; for it is not till 1480 that we find Paolo
retired from trade and set up in a house of his own in Florence