Vallombrosa

Adding ruefully, "I have no head above my eyes." A few days later, O gift of God, O perfect day, the easy chair went with Mr.

and Mrs. Browning to Vallombrosa, and the one incident most clearly remembered is that of Browning seating himself at the organ in the chapel and playing some Gregorian chant, perhaps, or hymn of Pergolesi's.

It was enough to the enchanted eyes of his young companion that they saw him, who was already a great English poet, sitting at the organ where the young Milton had sat, and touching the very keys which Milton's hand had pressed.

It was midsummer in Italy, but the high, narrow streets of Florence hold a protecting shade over the lingering pilgrim, and from such companionship as that of the Via della Scala even Venice long wooed in vain.

But the latter would not release him from his bond without Andrea first promising that he would paint two other scenes at his own leisure and convenience, however, and with an increase of payment, and thus they came to terms.

Having come into greater repute by reason of these works, Andrea received commissions for many pictures and works of importance, among others one from the genero of the monks of Vallombrosa, for painting an arch of the vaulting, with the Last Supper on the front wall, in the refectory of the monastery of St. Salvi, without the Porta alla Croce.

In four medallions on that vault he painted four figures, St. Benedict, St. Giovanni Gualberto, St. Salvi the Bishop, and St. Bernardo degli Uberti of Florence, a friar of that order, and a cardinal; and in the centre he made a medallion containing three faces, which are one and the same, to represent the Trinity.

All this was very well executed for a work in fresco, and Andrea therefore came to be valued at his true worth in the art of painting.

All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by K.

Hand Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, Volume 5 By Giorgio Vasari Translated by Gaston Doucet de Vere Life of Andrea del Sarto, Part 4 Having finished that work, which is certainly well worthy of all praise, he painted for the General of Vallombrosa a panel picture with four very lovely figures, St. John the Baptist, San Giovanni Gualberto, founder of that order, San Michelagnolo, and San Bernardo, a cardinal and a monk of the order, with some little boys in the center that could not be more vivacious or more beautiful.

This panel is at Vallombrosa, on the summit of a rocky height, where certain monks live in some rooms called the cells, separated from the others, and leading as it were the lives of hermits.

Looking up at the million tamaracks and balsams, the splashes of yellow among the dark green, the white glacier peaks five, six, seven thousand feet above the jade lakes where pygmy-wise I row along, such phrases as such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain to it, drift into the mind.

Milton also occurs in such odd lines like gold flecks in quartz as thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa.

When I come to some place where the trees that shed cones and needles give place to the aspens and birches and maples showering their late crimson and yellow to the ground, Walt Whitman comes very easily to the mind, unsought, in such lines as the night in silence under many a star and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know.

If writers of the sophisticated order occur, they do so rather by way of contrast than because of their aptness, and ever and again they do occur.

the scent of the soaking brown leaves filling the air, the roar of the torrent, turbid with autumn rains, rising from the precipice below.

Then suddenly, the leafless chestnut woods are replaced, as at Vallambrosa, by a belt of black, dense fir plantations.

Emerging from these, you come to an open space, frozen, blasted meadows, the rocks of snow-clad peak, the newly fallen snow close above you.

and in the midst, on a knoll with a gnarled larch on either side, the Ducal Villa of Sant'Elmo, a big black stone box with a stone escutcheon, grated windows, and the double flight of steps in front.

drift into the mind.

Milton also occurs in such odd lines like gold flecks in quartz as thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks in Vallombrosa.

When I come to some place where the trees that shed cones and needles give place to the aspens and birches and maples showering their late crimson and yellow to the ground.

Walt Whitman comes very easily to the mind, unsought, in such lines as the night and silence under many a star and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know.

This figure is in the office of works in company with the others.

Next, in the year 1515, the chiefs and heads of the Order of Vallombrosa, wishing to transfer the body of San Giovanni Gualberto from the Abbey of Pasagnato to the Church of San Trinità, an abbey of the same order in Florence, commissioned Benedetto to make a design, upon which he was set to work for a chapel and tomb combined, with a vast number of life-size figures in the round, which were to be suitably distributed over that work in some niches separated by pilasters filled with ornaments and friezes and with delicately carved grotesques.

And below this whole work there was to be a base one braccio and a half in height, wherein were to be the scenes of the life of the said Giovanni Gualberto, while endless numbers of other ornaments were to be round the sarcophagus and as a crown to the work.

On this tomb, then, Benedetto, assisted by many carvers, labored continually for ten years with vast expense to that congregation, and he brought the work to completion in their house of Guarlondo, a place near San Salvi, without the Porta della Croce, where the general of the order that was having the work executed almost always lived.

Having thus finished that side of the cloister, and considering that if the honor was great, the payment was small, Andrea resolved to give up the rest of the work, however much the friar might complain.

But the latter would not release him from his bond without Andrea first promising that he would paint two other scenes at his own leisure and convenience, however, and with an increase of payment, and thus they came to terms.

Having come into greater repute by reason of these works, Andrea received commissions for many pictures and works of importance, among others, one from the general of the monks of Vallombrosa, for painting an arch of the vaulting with the Last Supper on the front wall in the refectory of the Monastery of Saint Salvi, without the Porta alla Croce.

In four medallions on that vault, he painted four figures, Saint Benedict, Saint Giovanni Gualberto, Saint Salvi the Bishop, and Saint Bernardo degli Uberti of Florence, a friar of that order and a cardinal.

To ride alone with fleeting black and brown figures skulking behind fallen timber is another.

Not for a long time, I think, will that gentleman forget that hour or so when he was lost in the forest with bears, thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in Vallombrosa.

The poetic quotation is my own idea.

What he said was entirely different.

Well, and what have you been doing?

I'm just back from, oh, such a heavenly ride, Halfway to Vallombrosa.

But wasn't it grilling?

We may expect a storm before morning, I think.

This figure is in the office of works, in company with the others.

Next, in the year 1515, the chiefs and heads of the Order of Vallombrosa, wishing to transfer the body of San Giovanni Gualberto from the Abbey of Pasagnato to the Church of San Trinità, an abbey of the same order in Florence, commissioned Benedetto to make a design, upon which he was set to work for a chapel and tomb combined, with a vast number of life-size figures in the round, which were to be suitably distributed over that work in some niches separated by pilasters filled with ornaments and friezes and with delicately carved grotesques.

And below this whole work there was to be a base one braccio and a half in height, wherein were to be the scenes of the life of the said Giovanni Gualberto, while endless numbers of other ornaments were to be round the sarcophagus and as a crown to the work.

On this tomb, then, Benedetto, assisted by many carvers, labored continually for ten years.

Having thus finished that side of the cloister, and considering that if the honor was great, the payment was small, Andrea resolved to give up the rest of the work, however much the friar might complain.

But the latter would not release him from his bond without Andrea first promising that he would paint two other scenes at his own leisure and convenience, however, and with an increase of payment, and thus they came to terms.

Having come into greater repute by reason of these works, Andrea received commissions for many pictures and works of importance, among others, one from the genero of the monks of Vallombrosa, for painting an arch of the vaulting with the Last Supper on the front wall in the refectory of the monastery of St. Salvi, without the Porta la Croce.

In four medallions on that vault he painted four figures, St. Benedict, St. Giovanni Gualberto, St. Salvi the Bishop, and St. Bernardo degli Uberti of Florence, a friar of that order and a cardinal, and in the centre he made a medallion containing three faces, which are one and the same, to represent the Trinity.