Late Spring, 1528<\/p>\n
Drawing made for Giorgio Vasari, Arezzo.<\/p>\n
Vasari, 1568, III, 981 (Vasari-Milanesi, VII, 651-652), in the \u201cDescrizione dell\u2019opere di Giorgio Vasari:\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cL\u2019anno poi 1528, finita la peste, la prima opera, che io fece fu una tavoletta nella Chiesa di san Piero d\u2019Arezo de\u2019frati de servi, nella quale, che \u00e8 appoggiata a un pilastro, sono tre mezze figure, sant\u2019Agata, san Roccho, e san Bastiano.\u00a0 La qual pittura; vendendola il Rosso, pittore famosissimo, che di que giorni venne in Arezzo, fu cagione, che conoscendovi qualche cosa di buono, cavata dal naturale, mi volle conoscere; e che poi m\u2019aiuto di disegni, e di consiglio.\u00a0 Ne pass\u00f2 molto, che per suo mezo, mi diede M. Lorenzo Gamurrini fare una tavola, della quale mi fece il Rosso il disegno; e io poi la condussi con quanto piu studio, fatica, e diligenza mi fu possible, per imparare, e acquistarmi un poco di nome.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In his Libro delle Ricordanze<\/i> (Vasari-Frey, 1930, 848, and Vasari-Del Vita, 1938, 9), Vasari records that he was commissioned the panel painting of the three half-length saints on 1 March 1528.\u00a0 Given that it might have taken about a month to execute this not very large painting, Rosso could already have seen it in Arezzo toward the end of that month.\u00a0 For 20 April 1528 Vasari records the commissioning of the painting from Lorenzo Gamurrini (Vasari-Frey, 1930, 848, and Vasari-Del Vita, 1938, 10), and specifies that it was a panel painting depicting \u201cNostro Signore Jesu cristo che resuscita del Sepolcro.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a> He does not state its size but the price he gives for it is not much more than he received for the other painting, suggesting that the later one was about the same general size, if not the same shape.2<\/sup><\/a> The drawing that Rosso made for Vasari would seem to have been done in Arezzo at the end of April 1528 or shortly thereafter.\u00a0 Unfortunately both it and Vasari\u2019s painting are lost (see Carroll, 1967, 303-304, and 1987, 25).\u00a0 Hence, there is no way to judge what kind of drawing Rosso made for Vasari.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
Vasari seems to indicate that Rosso had actually moved to Arezzo when he made his drawing, but this did not take place until later in 1528 when Rosso received the commission for a series of frescoes in the Aretine church of S. Maria delle Lagrime in November of that year.\u00a0 Rosso must have come to Arezzo from Borgo Sansepolcro, where he had painted his Piet\u00e0<\/i> (P.19<\/a>), which remains in that town, and which may have been finished by the time that he first met Vasari.\u00a0 The trip to Arezzo could have been to search out commissions.\u00a0 It could also have been a stop on a trip to or from Florence, which it is very likely that Rosso made as his subsequent works indicate knowledge of the art that was being made there.\u00a0 This seems indicated by his early study (Fig.D.29<\/a>) for his Christ in Glory<\/i> in Citt\u00e0 di Castello, commissioned 1 July 1528 (see P.20<\/a>).\u00a0 Rosso would have settled in Citt\u00e0 di Castello about this time, but only for a short while, for he became ill there and moved back to Borgo Sansepolcro, and then to Pieve S. Stefano to recover more completely.\u00a0 From there he returned to Arezzo.\u00a0 Vasari visited Rosso in Borgo Sansepolcro while he was convalescing, and there met Cristofano Gherardi.4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n\n