{"product_id":"the-lives-of-the-most-excellent-painters-sculptors-and-architects-isbn-9780375760365","title":"The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects","description":"A painter and architect in his own right, Giorgio Vasari (1511-74) achieved immortality for this book on the lives of his fellow Renaissance artists, first published in Florence in 1550. Although he based his work on a long tradition of biographical writing, Vasari infused these literary portraits with a decidedly modern form of critical judgment. The result is a work that remains to this day the cornerstone of art historical scholarship. \u003cbr\u003eSpanning the period from the thirteenth century to Vasari’s own time, the Lives opens a window on the greatest personalities of the period, including Giotto, Brunelleschi, Mantegna, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Titian. This Modern Library edition, abridged from the original text with notes drawn from earlier commentaries, as well as current research, reminds us why The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects is indispensable to any student interested in Renaissance art. | Philip Jacks, a leading scholar of the Italian Renaissance, is Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Art History at George Washington University and the author of several books. He also edited Vasari’s Florence: Artists and Literati at the Medicean Court. | Preface to the Lives\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      I have no manner of doubt that it is with almost all writers a common and  deeply-fixed opinion that sculpture and painting together were first  discovered, by the light of nature, by the people of Egypt, and that there  are certain others who attribute to the Chaldæans the first rough sketches  in marble and the first reliefs in statuary, even as they also give to the  Greeks the invention of the brush and of coloring. But I will surely say  that of both one and the other of these arts the design, which is their  foundation, nay rather, the very soul that conceives and nourishes within  itself all the parts of man’s intellect, was already most perfect before  the creation of all other things, when the Almighty God, having made the  great body of the world and having adorned the heavens with their  exceeding bright lights, descended lower with His intellect into the  clearness of the air and the solidity of the earth, and, shaping man,  discovered, together with the lovely creation of all things, the first  form of sculpture; from which man afterwards, step by step (and this may  not be denied), as from a true pattern, there were taken statues,  sculptures, and the science of pose and of outline; and for the first  pictures (whatsoever they were), softness, harmony, and the concord in  discord that comes from light and shade. Thus, then, the first model  whence there issued the first image of man was a lump of clay, and not  without reason, seeing that the Divine Architect of time and of nature,  being Himself most perfect, wished to show in the imperfection of the  material the way to add and to take away; in the same manner wherein the  good sculptors and painters are wont to work, who, adding and taking away  in their models, bring their imperfect sketches to that final perfection  which they desire. He gave to man that most vivid color of flesh, whence  afterwards there were drawn for painting, from the mines of the earth, the  colors themselves for the counterfeiting of all those things that are  required for pictures. It is true, indeed, that it cannot be affirmed for  certain what was made by the men before the Flood in these arts in  imitation of so beautiful a work, although it is reasonable to believe  that they too carved and painted in every manner; seeing that Belus, son  of the proud Nimrod, about 200 years after the Flood, caused to be made  that statue wherefrom there was afterwards born idolatry, and his son’s  wife, the very famous Semiramis, Queen of Babylon, in the building of that  city, placed among its adornments not only diverse varied kinds of  animals, portrayed and colored from nature, but also the image of herself  and of Ninus, her husband, and, moreover, statues in bronze of her  husband’s father, of her husband’s mother, and of the mother of the lat-  ter, as Diodorus relates, calling them by the Greek names (that did   not yet exist) Jove, Juno, and Ops. From these statues, perchance, the  Chaldæans learned to make the images of their gods, seeing that 150 years  later Rachel, in flying from Mesopotamia together with Jacob her husband,  stole the idols of Laban her father, as is clearly related in Genesis.  Nor, indeed, were the Chaldæans alone in making sculptures and pictures,  but the Egyptians made them also, exercising themselves in these arts with  that so great zeal which is shown in the marvelous tomb of the most  ancient King Osimandyas, copiously described by Diodorus, and proved by  the stern commandment made by Moses in the Exodus from Egypt, namely, that  under pain of death there should be made to God no image whatsoever. He,  on descending from the mountain, having found the golden calf wrought and  adored solemnly by his people, and being greatly perturbed to see Divine  honors paid to the image of a beast, not only broke it and reduced it to  powder, but for punishment of so great a sin caused many thousands of the  wicked sons of Israel to be slain by the Levites. But because not the  making of statues but their adoration was a deadly sin, we read in Exodus  that the art of design and of statuary, not only in marble but in every  kind of metal, was bestowed by the mouth of God on Bezaleel, of the tribe  of Judah, and on Aholiab, of the tribe of Dan, who were those that made  the two cherubim of gold, the candlesticks, the veil, the borders of the  priestly vestments, and so many other most beautiful castings for the  Tabernacle, for no other reason than to bring the people to contemplate  and to adore them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    From the things seen before the Flood, then, the pride of men found the  way to make the statues of those for whom they wished that they should  remain famous and immortal in the world. And the Greeks, who think  differently about this origin, say that the Ethiopians invented the first  statues, as Diodorus tells; that the Egyptians took them from the  Ethiopians, and, from them, the Greeks; for by Homer’s time sculpture and  painting are seen to have been perfected, as it is proved, in discoursing  of the shield of Achilles, by that divine poet, who shows it to us carved  and painted, rather than described, with every form of art. Lactantius  Firmianus, by way of fable, attributes it to Prometheus, who, in the  manner of Almighty God, shaped man’s image out of mud; and from him, he  declares, the art of statuary came. But according to what Pliny writes,  this came to Egypt from Gyges the Lydian, who, being by the fire and  gazing at his own shadow, suddenly, with some charcoal in his hand, drew  his own outline on the wall. And from that age, for a time, outlines only  were wont to be used, with no body of color, as the same Pliny confirms;  which method was rediscovered with more labor by Philocles the Egyptian,  and likewise by Cleanthes and Ardices of Corinth and by Telephanes of  Sicyon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Cleophantes of Corinth was the first among the Greeks who used colors, and  Apollodorus the first who discovered the brush. There followed Polygnotus  of Thasos, Zeuxis, and Timagoras of Chalcis, with Pythias and Aglaophon,  all most celebrated; and after these the most famous Apelles, so much  esteemed and honored by Alexander the Great for his talent, and the most  ingenious investigator of slander and false favor, as Lucian shows us;  even as almost all the excellent painters and sculptors were endowed by  Heaven, in nearly every case, not only with the adornment of poetry, as  may be read of Pacuvius, but with philosophy besides, as may be seen in  Metrodorus, who, being as   well versed in philosophy as in painting, was sent by the Athenians to  Paulus Emilius to adorn his triumph, and remained with him to read  philosophy to his sons.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The art of sculpture, then, was greatly exercised in Greece, and there  appeared many excellent craftsmen, and, among others, Pheidias, an  Athenian, with Praxiteles and Polycletus, all very great masters, while  Lysippus and Pyrgoteles were excellent in sunk reliefs, and Pygmalion in  reliefs in ivory, of whom there is a fable that by his prayers he obtained  breath and spirit for the figure of a virgin that he made. Painting,  likewise, was honored and rewarded by the ancient Greeks and Romans,  seeing that to those who made it appear marvelous they showed favor by  bestowing on them citizenship and the highest dignities. So greatly did  this art flourish in Rome that Fabius gave renown to his house by writing  his name under the things so beautifully painted by him in the temple of  Salus, and calling himself Fabius Pictor. It was forbidden by public  decree that slaves should exercise this art throughout the cities, and so  much honor did the nations pay without ceasing to the art and to the  craftsmen that the rarest works were sent among the triumphal spoils, as  marvelous things, to Rome, and the finest craftsmen were freed from  slavery and recompensed with honors and rewards by the commonwealths.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    The Romans themselves bore so great reverence for these arts that besides  the respect that Marcellus, in sacking the city of Syracuse, commanded to  be paid to a craftsman famous in them, in planning the assault of the  aforesaid city they took care not to set fire to that quarter wherein  there was a most beautiful painted panel, which was afterwards carried to  Rome in the triumph, with much pomp. Thither, having, so to speak,  despoiled the world, in course of time they assembled the craftsmen  themselves as well as their finest works, wherewith afterwards Rome became  so beautiful, for the reason that she gained so great adornment from the  statues from abroad more than from her own native ones; it being known  that in Rhodes, the city of an island in no way large, there were more  than 30,000 statues counted, either in bronze or in marble, nor did the  Athenians have less, while those at Olympia and at Delphi were many more  and those in Corinth numberless, and all were most beautiful and of the  greatest value. Is it not known that Nicomedes, King of Lycia, in his  eagerness for a Venus that was by the hand of Praxiteles, spent on it  almost all the wealth of his people? Did not Attalus the same, who, in  order to possess the picture of Bacchus painted by Aristides, did not  scruple to spend on it more than 6,000 sesterces? Which picture was placed  by Lucius Mummius in the temple of Ceres with the greatest pomp, in order  to adorn Rome.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    But for all that the nobility of these arts was so highly valued, it is  none the less not yet known for certain who gave them their first  beginning. For, as has been already said above, it appears most ancient  among the Chaldæans, some give it to the Ethiopians, and the Greeks  attribute it to themselves; and it may be thought, not without reason,  that it is perchance even more ancient among the Etruscans, as our Leon  Batista Alberti testifies, whereof we have clear enough proof in the  marvelous tomb of Porsena at Chiusi, where, no long time since, there were  discovered underground, between the walls of the Labyrinth, some  terra-cotta tiles with figures on them in half-relief, so excellent and in  so beautiful a manner that it can be easily recognized that the art was  not begun precisely at that time, nay rather, by reason of the perfection  of these works, that it was much nearer its height than its beginning. To  this, moreover, witness is likewise borne by our seeing every day many  pieces of those red and black vases of Arezzo, made, as may be judged from  the manner, about those times, with the most delicate carvings and small  figures and scenes in low-relief, and many small round masks wrought with  great subtlety by masters of that age, men most experienced, as is shown  by the effect, and most excellent in that art. It may be seen, moreover,  by reason of the statues found at Viterbo at the beginning of the  pontificate of Alexander VI, that sculpture was in great esteem and in no  small perfection among the Etruscans; and although it is not known  precisely at what time they were made, it may be reasonably conjectured,  both from the manner of the figures and from the style of the tombs and of  the buildings, no less than from the inscriptions in those Etruscan  letters, that they are most ancient and were made at a time when the  affairs of this country were in a good and prosperous state. But what  clearer proof of this can be sought? seeing that in our own day—that is,  in the year 1554—there has been found a bronze figure of the Chimæra of  Bellerophon, in making the ditches, fortifications, and walls of Arezzo,  from which figure it is recognized that the perfection of that art existed  in ancient times among the Etruscans, as may be seen from the Etruscan  manner and still more from the letters carved on a paw, about which—since  they are but few and there is no one now who understands the Etruscan  tongue—it is conjectured that they may represent the name of the master as  well as that of the figure itself, and perchance also the date, according  to the use of those times. This figure, by reason of its beauty and  antiquity, has been placed in our day by the Lord Duke Cosimo in the hall  of the new rooms in his Palace, wherein there have been painted by me the  acts of Pope Leo X. And besides this there were found in the same place  many small figures in bronze after the same manner, which are in the hands  of the said Lord Duke.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    But since the dates of the works of the Greeks, the Ethiopians, and the  Chaldæans are as doubtful as our own, and perhaps more, and by reason of  the greater need of founding our judgment about these works on  conjectures, which, however, are not so feeble that they are in every way  wide of the mark, I believe that I strayed not at all from the truth (and  I think that everyone who will consent to consider this question  discreetly will judge as I did), when I said above that the origin of  these arts was nature herself, and the example or model, the most  beautiful fabric of the world, and the master, that divine light infused  by special grace into us, which has not only made us superior to the other  animals, but, if it be not sin to say it, like to God. And if in our own  times it has been seen (as I trust to be able to demonstrate   a little later by many examples) that simple children roughly reared   in the woods, with their only model in the beautiful pictures and  sculptures of nature, and by the vivacity of their wit, have begun by  themselves to make designs, how much more may we, nay, must we confidently  believe that these primitive men, who, in proportion as they were less  distant from their origin and divine creation, were thereby the more  perfect and of better intelligence, that they, by themselves, having for  guide nature, for master purest intellect, and for exam-  ple the so lovely model of the world, gave birth to these most noble   arts, and from a small beginning, little by little bettering them, brought  them at last to perfection? I do not, indeed, wish to deny that there was  one among them who was the first to begin, seeing that I know very well  that it must needs be that at some time and from some one man there came  the beginning; nor, also, will I deny that it may have been possible that  one helped another and taught and opened the way to design, to color, and  relief, because I know that our art is all imitation, of nature for the  most part, and then, because a man cannot by himself rise so high, of  those works that are executed by those whom he judges to be better masters  than himself. But I say surely that the wishing to affirm dogmatically who  this man or these men were is a thing very perilous to judge, and  perchance little necessary to know, provided that we see the true root and  origin wherefrom art was born. For since, of the works that are the life  and the glory of the craftsmen, the first and step by step the second and  the third were lost by reason of time, that consumes all things, and  since, for lack of writers at that time, they could not, at least in that  way, become known to posterity, their craftsmen as well came to be  forgotten. But when once the writers began to make record of things that  were before their day, they could not speak of those whereof they had not  been able to have information, in a manner that there came to be first  with them those of whom the memory had been the last to be lost. Even as  the first of the poets, by common consent, is said to be Homer, not  because there were none before him, for there were, although not so  excellent, which is seen clearly from his own works, but because of these  early poets, whatever manner of men they were, all knowledge had been lost  quite 2,000 years before. However, leaving behind us this part, as too  uncertain by reason of its antiquity, let us come to the clearer matters  of their perfection, ruin, and restoration, or rather resurrection,  whereof we will be able to discourse on much better grounds.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    I say, then, it being true indeed, that they began late in Rome, if the  first figure was, as is said, the image of Ceres made of metal from the  treasure of Spurius Cassius, who, for conspiring to make himself King, was  put to death by his own father without any scruple; and that although the  arts of sculpture and of painting continued up to the end of the twelve  Cæsars, they did not, however, continue in that perfection and excellence  which they had enjoyed before, for it may be seen from the edifices that  the Emperors built in succession one after the other that these arts,  decaying from one day to another, were coming little by little to lose  their whole perfection of design. And to this clear testimony is borne by  the works of sculpture and of architecture that were wrought in the time  of Constantine in Rome, and in particular the triumphal arch raised for  him by the Roman people near the Colosseum, wherein it is seen that in  default of good masters they not only made use of marble groups made at  the time of Trajan, but also of the spoils brought from various places to  Rome. And whosoever knows that the votive offerings in the medallions,  that is, the sculptures in half-relief, and likewise the prisoners, and  the large groups, and the columns, and the moldings, and the other  ornaments, whether made before or from spoils, are excellently wrought,  knows also that the works which were made to fill up by the sculptors of  that time are of the rudest, as also are certain small groups with little  figures in marble below the medallions, and the lowest base wherein there  are certain victories, and certain rivers between the arches at the sides,  which are very rude and so made that it can be believed most surely that  by that time the art of sculpture had begun to lose something of the good.  And there had not yet come the Goths and the other barbarous and  outlandish peoples who destroyed, together with Italy, all the finer arts.  It is true, indeed, that in the said times architecture had suffered less  harm than the other arts of design had suffered, for in the bath that  Constantine erected on the Lateran, in the entrance of the principal porch  it may be seen, to say nothing of the porphyry columns, the capitals  wrought in marble, and the double bases taken from some other place and  very well carved, that the whole composition of the building is very well  conceived; whereas, on the contrary, the stucco, the mosaics, and certain  incrustations on the walls made by masters of that time are not equal to  those that he caused to be placed in the same bath, which were taken for  the most part from the temples of the heathen gods. Constantine, so it is  said, did the same in the garden of Æquitius, in making the temple which  he afterwards endowed and gave to the Christian priests. In like manner,  the magnificent Church of S. Giovanni Laterano, erected by the same  Emperor, can bear witness to the same—namely, that in his day sculpture  had already greatly declined; for the image of the Savior and the twelve  Apostles in silver that he caused to be made were very debased sculptures,  wrought without art and with very little design. Besides this, whosoever  examines with diligence the medals of Constantine and his image and other  statues made by the sculptors of that time, which are at the present day  in the Campidoglio, may see clearly that they are very far removed from  the perfection of the medals and statues of the other Emperors; and all  this shows that long before the coming of the Goths into Italy sculpture  had greatly declined.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Architecture, as has been said, continued to maintain itself, if not so  perfect, in a better state; nor is there reason to marvel at this, seeing  that, as the great edifices were made almost wholly of spoils, it was easy  for the architects, in making the new, to imitate in great measure the  old, which they had ever before their eyes, and that much more easily than  the sculptors could imitate the good figures of the ancients, their art  having wholly vanished. And that this is true is manifest, because the  Church of the Prince of the Apostles on the Vatican was not rich save in  columns, bases, capitals, architraves, moldings, doors, and other  incrustations and ornaments, which were all taken from various places and  from the edifices built most magnificently in earlier times. The same  could be said of S. Croce in Gierusalemme, which Constantine erected at  the entreaty of his mother Helena, of S. Lorenzo outside the walls of  Rome, and of S. Agnesa, built by him at the request of Constantia, his  daughter. And who does not know that the font which served for the baptism  of both her and her sister was all adorned with works wrought long before,  and in particular with the porphyry basin carved with most beautiful  figures, with certain marble candlesticks excellently carved with foliage,  and with some boys in low-relief that are truly most beautiful? In short,  for these and many other reasons it is clear how much, in the time of  Constantine, sculpture had already declined, and together with it the  other finer arts. And if anything was wanting to complete this ruin, it  was supplied to them amply by the departure of Constantine from Rome, on  his going to establish the seat of the Empire at Byzantium; for the reason  that he took with him not only all the best sculptors and other craftsmen  of that age, whatsoever manner of men they were, but also an infinite  number of statues and other works of sculpture, all most beautiful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    After the departure of Constantine, the Cæsars whom he left in Italy,  building continually both in Rome and elsewhere, exerted themselves to  make their works as fine as they could; but, as may be seen, sculpture, as  well as painting and architecture, went ever from bad to worse, and this  perchance came to pass because, when human affairs begin to decline, they  never cease to go ever lower and lower until such time as they can grow no  worse. So, too, it may be seen that although at the time of Pope Liberius  the architects of that day strove to do something great in constructing  the Church of S. Maria Maggiore, they were yet not happy in the success of  the whole, for the reason that although that building, which is likewise  composed for the greater part of spoils, was made with good enough  proportions, it cannot be denied any the less, not to speak of certain  other parts, that the frieze made right round above the columns with  ornaments in stucco and in painting is wholly wanting in design, and that  many other things which are seen in that great church demonstrate the  imperfection of the arts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    Many years after, when the Christians were persecuted under Julian the  Apostate, there was erected on the Cœlian Mount a church to S. John and S.  Paul, the martyrs, in a manner so much worse than those named above, that  it is seen clearly that the art was at that time little less than wholly  lost. The buildings, too, that were erected at the same time in Tuscany,  bear most ample testimony to this; and not to speak of many others, the  church that was built outside the walls of Arezzo to S. Donatus, Bishop of  that city (who, together with the monk Hilarian, suffered martyrdom under  the said Julian the Apostate), was in no way better in architecture than  those named above. Nor can it be believed that this came from anything  else but the absence of better architects in that age, seeing that the  said church (as it has been possible to see in our own day), which is  octagonal and constructed from the spoils of the Theater, the Colosseum  and other edifices that had been standing in Arezzo before it was  converted to the faith of Christ, was built without thought of economy and  at the greatest cost, and adorned with columns of granite, of porphyry,  and of many-colored marbles, which had belonged to the said buildings. And  for myself I   do not doubt, from the expense which was clearly bestowed on that church,  that if the Aretines had had better architects they would have built  something marvelous; for it may be seen from what they did that they  spared nothing if only they might make that work as rich and as well  designed as they possibly could, and since, as has been already said so  many times, architecture had lost less of its perfection than the other  arts, there was to be seen therein some little of the good. At this time,  likewise, was enlarged the Church of S. Maria in Grado, in honor of the  said Hilarian, for the reason that he had been for a long time living in  it when he went, with Donatus, to the crown of martyrdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    But because Fortune, when she has brought men to the height of her wheel,  is wont, either in jest or in repentance, to throw them down again, it  came about after these things that there rose up in various parts of the  world all the barbarous peoples against Rome; whence there ensued after no  long time not only the humiliation of so great an Empire but the ruin of  the whole, and above all of Rome herself, and with her were likewise  utterly ruined the most excellent craftsmen, sculptors, painters, and  architects, leaving the arts and their own selves buried and submerged  among the miserable massacres and ruins of that most famous city. And the  first to fall into decay were painting and sculpture, as being arts that  served more for pleasure than for use, while the other—namely,  architecture—as being necessary and useful for bodily weal, continued to  exist, but no longer in its perfection and excellence. And if it had not  been that the sculptures and pictures presented, to the eyes of those who  were born from day to day, those who had been thereby honored to the end  that they might have eternal life, there would soon have been lost the  memory of both; whereas some of them survived in the images and in the  inscriptions placed in private houses, as well as in public buildings,  namely, in the amphitheaters, the theaters, the baths, the aqueducts, the  temples, the obelisks, the colossi, the pyramids, the arches, the  reservoirs, the public treasuries, and finally, in the very tombs, whereof  a great part was destroyed by a barbarous and savage race who had nothing  in them of man but the shape and the name. These, among others, were the  Visigoths, who, having created Alaric their King, assailed Italy and Rome  and sacked the city twice without respect for anything whatsoever. The  same, too, did the Vandals, having come from Africa with Genseric, their  King, who, not content with his booty and prey and all the cruelties that  he wrought there, carried away her people into slavery, to their exceeding  great misery, and among them Eudoxia, once the wife of the Emperor  Valentinian, who had been slaughtered no long time before by his own  soldiers. For these, having fallen away in very great measure from the  ancient Roman valor, for the reason that all the best had gone a long time  before to Byzantium with the Emperor Constantine, had no longer any good  customs or ways of life. Nay more, there had been lost at   one and the same time all true men and every sort of virtue, and laws,  habits, names, and tongues had been changed; and all these things together  and each by itself had caused every lovely mind and lofty intellect to  become most brutish and most base.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    But what brought infinite harm and damage on the said professions, even  more than all the aforesaid causes, was the burning zeal of the new  Christian religion, which, after a long and bloody combat, with its wealth  of miracles and with the sincerity of its works, had finally cast down and  swept away the old faith of the heathens, and, devoting itself most  ardently with all diligence to driving out and extirpating root and branch  every least occasion whence error could arise, not only defaced or threw  to the ground all the marvelous statues, sculptures, pictures, mosaics,  and ornaments of the false gods of the heathens, but even the memorials  and the honors of numberless men of mark, to whom, for their excellent  merits, the noble spirit of the ancients had set up statues and other  memorials in public places. Nay more, it not only destroyed, in order to  build the churches for the Christian use, the most honored temples of the  idols, but in order to ennoble and adorn   S. Pietro (to say nothing of the ornaments which had been there from the  beginning) it also robbed of its stone columns the Mausoleum of Hadrian,  now called the Castello di S. Angelo, and many other buildings that today  we see in ruins. And although the Christian religion did not do this by  reason of hatred that it bore to the arts, but only in order to humiliate  and cast down the gods of the heathens, it was none the less true that  from this most ardent zeal there came so great ruin on these honored  professions that their very form was wholly lost. And as if aught were  wanting to this grievous misfortune, there arose against Rome the wrath of  Totila, who, besides razing her walls and destroying with fire and sword  all her most wonderful and noble buildings, burned the whole city from end  to end, and, having robbed her of every living body, left her a prey to  flames and fire, so that there was not found in her in eighteen successive  days a single living soul; and he cast down and destroyed so completely  the marvelous statues, pictures, mosaics, and works in stucco, that there  was lost, I do not say only their majesty, but their very form and  essence. Wherefore, it being the lower rooms chiefly of the palaces and  other buildings that were wrought with stucco, with painting, and with  statuary, there was buried by the ruins from above all that good work that  has been discovered in our own day, and those who came after, judging the  whole to be in ruins, planted vines thereon, in a manner that, since the  said lower rooms remained under the ground, the moderns have called them  grottoes, and “grotesque” the pictures that are therein seen at the  present day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    After the end of the Ostrogoths, who were destroyed by Narses, men were  living among the ruins of Rome in some fashion, poorly indeed, when there  came, after 100 years, Constantine II, Emperor of Constantinople, who,  although received lovingly by the Romans, laid waste, robbed, and carried  away all that had remained, more by chance than by the good will of those  who had destroyed her, in the miserable city of Rome. It is true, indeed,  that he was not able to enjoy this booty, because, being carried by a  sea-tempest to Sicily and being justly slain by his own men, he left his  spoils, his kingdom, and his life a prey to Fortune. But she, not yet  content with the woes of Rome, to the end that the things stolen might  never return, brought thither for the ruin of the island a host of  Saracens, who carried off both the wealth of the Sicilians and the spoils  of Rome to Alexandria, to the very great shame and loss of Italy and of  Christendom. And so all that the Pontiffs had not destroyed (and above all  S. Gregory, who is said to have decreed banishment against all the  remainder of","brand":"Modern Library","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48338552258789,"sku":"NP9780375760365","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780375760365.jpg?v=1769572657","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-lives-of-the-most-excellent-painters-sculptors-and-architects-isbn-9780375760365","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}