DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0093
ANDREA TAFI.
77
ings of importance in which they did not take part, as may
be proved from numerous inscriptions in addition to those
above cited. While speaking of these two sculptors and
architects, I have alluded, on various occasions, to the works
of art preserved in Pisa. I will, therefore, not omit to men-
tion, that on the steps in front of the new hospital there may
be seen a vase, placed on a column of porphyry, supported
by a lion, and on the pedestal of the whole are engraved the
following words:—
“ This is the talent which the Emperor Caesar gave to the
people of Pisa, to the intent that by this they should regulate
the tribute which they paid him. The said talent was placed on
this column and lion in the time of Giovanni Rosso, master
of the works of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Pisa, on the second
■day of March a.d. mcccxiii.”
ANDREA TAFI* PAINTER, OF FLORENCE.
[1213--1294.]
As the works of Cimabue awakened no small admiration
in the men of his time, who were accustomed to the Greek
manner only (he having certainly given better design
and form to the art of painting), so the works in Mosaic
of Andrea Tati, who belonged to the same period, were
also greatly admired, and himself considered an excel-
lent, nay, a divine* artist, on their account; people not
supposing that better could be produced in that art, because
nothing better had come under their notice.f But Andrea,
certainly not considering himself to be the most excellent art-
ist in the world, and reflecting on the durability of works in
Mosaic, left Florence and betook himself to Venice, where
certain Greek painters were then working in Mosaic in the
church of St. Mark. Forming a close intimacy with these
artists, Andrea Tati so contrived, that by promises, money,
* For some valuable details respecting Andrea Tafi, see Lanzi,
History of Painting, vol. i, p. 49, et seq.
+ All the commentators on Vasari, widely as they differ on other
points, agree in the expression of their astonishment, that he should
permit himself these remarks ; but although the Byzantine glass mosaics
were familiar in Sicily and the South, and at Venice, it does not follow
that the art was much known, or practised, at Florence.
77
ings of importance in which they did not take part, as may
be proved from numerous inscriptions in addition to those
above cited. While speaking of these two sculptors and
architects, I have alluded, on various occasions, to the works
of art preserved in Pisa. I will, therefore, not omit to men-
tion, that on the steps in front of the new hospital there may
be seen a vase, placed on a column of porphyry, supported
by a lion, and on the pedestal of the whole are engraved the
following words:—
“ This is the talent which the Emperor Caesar gave to the
people of Pisa, to the intent that by this they should regulate
the tribute which they paid him. The said talent was placed on
this column and lion in the time of Giovanni Rosso, master
of the works of Santa Maria Maggiore, in Pisa, on the second
■day of March a.d. mcccxiii.”
ANDREA TAFI* PAINTER, OF FLORENCE.
[1213--1294.]
As the works of Cimabue awakened no small admiration
in the men of his time, who were accustomed to the Greek
manner only (he having certainly given better design
and form to the art of painting), so the works in Mosaic
of Andrea Tati, who belonged to the same period, were
also greatly admired, and himself considered an excel-
lent, nay, a divine* artist, on their account; people not
supposing that better could be produced in that art, because
nothing better had come under their notice.f But Andrea,
certainly not considering himself to be the most excellent art-
ist in the world, and reflecting on the durability of works in
Mosaic, left Florence and betook himself to Venice, where
certain Greek painters were then working in Mosaic in the
church of St. Mark. Forming a close intimacy with these
artists, Andrea Tati so contrived, that by promises, money,
* For some valuable details respecting Andrea Tafi, see Lanzi,
History of Painting, vol. i, p. 49, et seq.
+ All the commentators on Vasari, widely as they differ on other
points, agree in the expression of their astonishment, that he should
permit himself these remarks ; but although the Byzantine glass mosaics
were familiar in Sicily and the South, and at Venice, it does not follow
that the art was much known, or practised, at Florence.