DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0251
AGNOLO GADDI.
235
in Cennini’s day being perfectly well known to all artists in
these our times. But I will not omit to remark, that Cennini
makes no mention of certain earths, such as the dark terra
rossa, nor of cinnabar and various greens—perhaps because
they were not then in use ; other colours were in like man-
ner wanting to the painters of that age, as umber for exam-
ple, yellow-lake (giallo santo), the smalts, both for oil and
fresco painting, with certain yellows and greens, all which
have been discovered at a later period. Cennini likewise treats
of grinding colours in oil, to make red, azure, green, and other
grounds of different kinds;* he speaks of the mordants, used
in the application of gold also, but not as applied to figures.
In addition to the works which Cennini executed in Florence,
with his master, there is a Virgin accompanied by certain
saints, from his hand, under the loggia of the hospital of
Bonifazio Lupi, the colouring of which was managed so
carefully, that it remains in good preservation even to this
day.f.
This Cennino, speaking of himself in the first chapter of
his book, has the following passage, which I give in his
exact words :—“I, Cennino di Drea Cennini, of Colle di Val-
delsa, was instructed in the said art during twelve years, by
my master Agnolo di Taddeo, of Florence, who learnt the
same from Taddeo his father, which last was the godson of
Giotto, and his disciple for four-and-twenty years. This
Giotto transmuted the art of painting from Greek into Latin;
he brought it to our modern manner, and certainly did more
to perfect it than any other had ever done.” These are the
precise words of Cennino, to whom it appeared, that as he
who translates any work from the Greek into the Latin, con-
fers a great benefit on all who do not understand Greek, so
did Giotto, in transmuting the art of painting from a manner
not known or understood by any one (unless, indeed, that all
might easily perceive it to be senseless)—to a manner at once
* This passage of Vasari is considered to be in contradiction to the
remarks he afterwards makes (in his life of Antonello da Messina) on
the discovery of oil painting; but Lanzi, availing himself of the obser-
vations of Morelli, has reconciled this apparent contradiction, as will be
seen in the proper place.—Montani.
t See Gaye, vol. i, 528-9. The paintings of Cennini must have been
destroyed in 1787, when the hospital was changed into a lunatic asylum,
and its form altered.
235
in Cennini’s day being perfectly well known to all artists in
these our times. But I will not omit to remark, that Cennini
makes no mention of certain earths, such as the dark terra
rossa, nor of cinnabar and various greens—perhaps because
they were not then in use ; other colours were in like man-
ner wanting to the painters of that age, as umber for exam-
ple, yellow-lake (giallo santo), the smalts, both for oil and
fresco painting, with certain yellows and greens, all which
have been discovered at a later period. Cennini likewise treats
of grinding colours in oil, to make red, azure, green, and other
grounds of different kinds;* he speaks of the mordants, used
in the application of gold also, but not as applied to figures.
In addition to the works which Cennini executed in Florence,
with his master, there is a Virgin accompanied by certain
saints, from his hand, under the loggia of the hospital of
Bonifazio Lupi, the colouring of which was managed so
carefully, that it remains in good preservation even to this
day.f.
This Cennino, speaking of himself in the first chapter of
his book, has the following passage, which I give in his
exact words :—“I, Cennino di Drea Cennini, of Colle di Val-
delsa, was instructed in the said art during twelve years, by
my master Agnolo di Taddeo, of Florence, who learnt the
same from Taddeo his father, which last was the godson of
Giotto, and his disciple for four-and-twenty years. This
Giotto transmuted the art of painting from Greek into Latin;
he brought it to our modern manner, and certainly did more
to perfect it than any other had ever done.” These are the
precise words of Cennino, to whom it appeared, that as he
who translates any work from the Greek into the Latin, con-
fers a great benefit on all who do not understand Greek, so
did Giotto, in transmuting the art of painting from a manner
not known or understood by any one (unless, indeed, that all
might easily perceive it to be senseless)—to a manner at once
* This passage of Vasari is considered to be in contradiction to the
remarks he afterwards makes (in his life of Antonello da Messina) on
the discovery of oil painting; but Lanzi, availing himself of the obser-
vations of Morelli, has reconciled this apparent contradiction, as will be
seen in the proper place.—Montani.
t See Gaye, vol. i, 528-9. The paintings of Cennini must have been
destroyed in 1787, when the hospital was changed into a lunatic asylum,
and its form altered.