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| Raphael Sibyls receiving Angelic Instructions (detail) 1514 fresco Cappella Chigi, Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
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| Raphael Sibyls receiving Angelic Instructions (detail) 1514 fresco Cappella Chigi, Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
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| Raphael Sibyls receiving Angelic Instructions (detail) 1514 fresco Cappella Chigi, Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
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| Raphael Sibyls receiving Angelic Instructions (detail) 1514 fresco Cappella Chigi, Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
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| Raphael Sibyls receiving Angelic Instructions (detail) 1514 fresco Cappella Chigi, Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pace, Rome |
"Not long after this, Agostino Chigi, a very rich merchant of Siena, who was much the friend of every man of excellence, gave Raffaello the commission to paint a chapel. . . . Raffaello, then, having made the cartoon for that chapel, which is at the entrance of the Church of S. Maria della Pace, on the right hand as one goes into the church by the principal door, executed it in fresco, in his new manner, which was no little grander and more magnificent than his earlier manner. In this painting Raffaello depicted some Prophets and Sibyls, before Michelangelo's chapel had been thrown open to view, although he had seen it; and in truth it is held to be the best of his works, and the most beautiful among so many that are beautiful, for in the women and children that are in it, there may be seen a marvellous vivacity and perfect colouring. And this work caused him to be greatly esteemed both in his lifetime and after his death, being the rarest and most excellent that Raffaello executed in all his life."
– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)
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| Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio Licinio) The Crucifixion 1521 fresco Duomo di Cremona |
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| Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio Licinio) The Crucifixion (detail) 1521 fresco Duomo di Cremona |
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| Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio Licinio) The Crucifixion (detail) 1521 fresco Duomo di Cremona |
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| Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio Licinio) The Deposition 1522 fresco Duomo di Cremona |
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| Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio Licinio) The Deposition (detail) 1522 fresco Duomo di Cremona |
"But among the most illustrious and renowned painters of the territory of Friuli, the rarest and most famous in our day – since he has surpassed those mentioned above by a great measure in the invention of scenes, in draughtsmanship, in boldness, in mastery over colour, in fresco work, in swiftness of execution, in strength of relief, and in every other department of our arts – is Giovanni Antonio Licinio, called by some Cuticello. This master was born at Pordenone, a township in Friuli, twenty-five miles from Udine; and since he was endowed by nature with a beautiful genius and an inclination for painting, he devoted himself without any teacher to the study of natural objects, imitating the style of Giorgione da Castelfranco, because that manner, seen by him many times in Venice, had pleased him much. Now, having learnt the rudiments of art, he was forced, in order to save his life from a pestilence that had fallen upon his native place, to take to flight; and thus, passing many months in the surrounding country, he executed various works in fresco for a number of peasants, gaining at their expense experience of using colour on plaster. Wherefore, since the surest and best method of learning is practice and a sufficiency of work, it came to pass that he became a well-practised and judicious master of that kind of painting, and learned to make colours produce the desired effect when used in a fluid state, which is done on account of the white, which dries the plaster and produces a brightness that ruins all softness. . . . He always made his figures grand, and was very rich in invention, and so versatile that he could imitate everything very well; but he was, above all, resolute and most facile in works in fresco."
– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)
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| Pontormo (Jacopo Carrucci) Vertumnus and Pomona (detail) 1520-21 fresco Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano |
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| Pontormo (Jacopo Carrucci) Vertumnus and Pomona (detail) 1520-21 fresco Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano |
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| Pontormo (Jacopo Carrucci) Vertumnus and Pomona (detail) 1520-21 fresco Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano |
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| Pontormo (Jacopo Carrucci) Vertumnus and Pomona (detail) 1520-21 fresco Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano |
". . . Pontormo became the friend of Messer Ottaviano [de' Medici], and the Great Hall at Poggio a Caiano having then to be painted, there were given to him to paint the two ends where the round openings are that give light – that is, the windows – from the vaulting down to the floor. Whereupon, desiring to do himself honour even beyond his wont, both from regard for the place and from emulation of the other painters who were working there, he set himself to study with such diligence, that he overshot the mark, for the reason that, destroying and doing over again every day what he had done the day before, he racked his brains in such a manner that it was a tragedy; but all the time he was always making new discoveries, which brought credit to himself and beauty to the work. Thus, having to execute a Vertumnus with his husbandmen, he painted a peasant seated with a vine-pruner in his hand, which is so beautiful and so well done that it is a very rare thing, even as certain children that are there are lifelike and natural beyond all belief. On the other side he painted Pomona and Diana, with other Goddesses, enveloping them perhaps too abundantly with draperies. However, the work as a whole is beautiful and much extolled."
– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)
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| Giovanni Maria Tolosani Virgin and Child with St Anthony Abbot St Sebastian with St Roch 1524 fresco Santuario di Santa Maria delle Grazie, Colle Val d'Elsa |