DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0242
226
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
GIOVANNI DAL PONTE, PAINTER, OE FLORENCE.
[born 1307—died in 1365.]
Although the old proverb, that a spendthrift never lacks
the means of spending, is by no means true and can be but
little confided in,—on the contrary we are certain that he
who will not live a regular life according to his degree, shall
finally live in want and die miserably ;—yet, it may some-
times be remarked that fortune seems rather to aid those
who squander without restraint, than those who are careful
and self-denying in all things ; or, if the favours of fortune
are withdrawn, death is frequently observed to make up for
her inconstancy, and to bring a remedy for the misgovern-
ment of the man himself, by intervening exactly at that
moment when the spendthrift begins to discover, to his in-
finite misery, what it is to want that in age which he has
squandered in youth: labouring and living wretchedly when
he should be reposing and at his ease. Such would have
been the lot of Giovanni da San Stefano a Ponte, of Flo-
rence, if, after he had consumed his patrimony, wasted the
large gains which fortune, rather than his merits, threw
into his hands, and exhausted other possessions reverting to
him unexpectedly from various sources, he had not attained
the end of his life at the moment when the last portion of his
property was expended. Giovanni dal Ponte was a scholar of
Buffalmacco,* whom he imitated rather in his attachment to
the pleasures of life, than in the effort to become a good
painter. Born in 1307, and entered early as a disciple of
Buffalmacco, the first works of Giovanni were executed in
fresco, for the capitular church of Empoli. They were in
the chapel of San Lorenzo, where he depicted certain stories
from the life of the saint with so much success, that as a
more satisfactory progress was anticipated from so creditable
a commencement, he was invited to Arezzo in the year 1344,
where he painted an assumption of the Virgin in one of the
chapels of the church of San Francesco ; and no long time
afterwards, being in some credit in that city, on account of
* In the life of Giottino, Giovanni is called the disciple of that master,
as we have seen ; but a comparison of dates would make his being the
scholar of Buffalmacco much more probable.
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
GIOVANNI DAL PONTE, PAINTER, OE FLORENCE.
[born 1307—died in 1365.]
Although the old proverb, that a spendthrift never lacks
the means of spending, is by no means true and can be but
little confided in,—on the contrary we are certain that he
who will not live a regular life according to his degree, shall
finally live in want and die miserably ;—yet, it may some-
times be remarked that fortune seems rather to aid those
who squander without restraint, than those who are careful
and self-denying in all things ; or, if the favours of fortune
are withdrawn, death is frequently observed to make up for
her inconstancy, and to bring a remedy for the misgovern-
ment of the man himself, by intervening exactly at that
moment when the spendthrift begins to discover, to his in-
finite misery, what it is to want that in age which he has
squandered in youth: labouring and living wretchedly when
he should be reposing and at his ease. Such would have
been the lot of Giovanni da San Stefano a Ponte, of Flo-
rence, if, after he had consumed his patrimony, wasted the
large gains which fortune, rather than his merits, threw
into his hands, and exhausted other possessions reverting to
him unexpectedly from various sources, he had not attained
the end of his life at the moment when the last portion of his
property was expended. Giovanni dal Ponte was a scholar of
Buffalmacco,* whom he imitated rather in his attachment to
the pleasures of life, than in the effort to become a good
painter. Born in 1307, and entered early as a disciple of
Buffalmacco, the first works of Giovanni were executed in
fresco, for the capitular church of Empoli. They were in
the chapel of San Lorenzo, where he depicted certain stories
from the life of the saint with so much success, that as a
more satisfactory progress was anticipated from so creditable
a commencement, he was invited to Arezzo in the year 1344,
where he painted an assumption of the Virgin in one of the
chapels of the church of San Francesco ; and no long time
afterwards, being in some credit in that city, on account of
* In the life of Giottino, Giovanni is called the disciple of that master,
as we have seen ; but a comparison of dates would make his being the
scholar of Buffalmacco much more probable.