Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10): Cimabue to Agnolo GaddiVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10): Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
After these works, in the year 1334, on July 9, he put his hand to the
Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, whereof the foundation was a platform
of strong stone, in a pit sunk twenty braccia deep from which water and
gravel had been removed; upon this platform he made a good mass of
concrete, that reached to the height of twelve braccia above the first
foundation, and the rest--namely, the other eight braccia--he caused to
be made of masonry. And at this beginning and foundation there
officiated the Bishop of the city, who, in the presence of all the
clergy and all the magistrates, solemnly laid the first stone. This
work, then, being carried on with the said model, which was in the
German manner that was in use in those times, Giotto designed all the
scenes that were going into the ornamentation, and marked out the model
with white, black, and red colours in all those places wherein the
marbles and the friezes were to go, with much diligence. The circuit
round the base was one hundred braccia--that is, twenty-five braccia for
each side--and the height, one hundred and forty-four braccia. And if
that is true, and I hold it as of the truest, which Lorenzo di Cione
Ghiberti has left in writing, Giotto made not only the model of this
campanile, but also part of those scenes in marble wherein are the
beginnings of all the arts, in sculpture and in relief. And the said
Lorenzo declares that he saw models in relief by the hand of Giotto, and
in particular those of these works; which circumstance can be easily
believed, design and invention being father and mother of all these
arts and not of one alone. This campanile was destined, according to the
model of Giotto, to have a spire, or rather a pyramid, four-sided and
fifty braccia high, as a completion to what is now seen; but, for the
reason that it was a German idea and in an old manner, modern architects
have never done aught but advise that it should not be made, the work
seeming to be better as it is. For all these works Giotto was not only
made citizen of Florence, but was given a pension of one hundred florins
yearly by the Commune of Florence, which was something very great in
those times; and he was made overseer over this work, which was carried
on after him by Taddeo Gaddi, for he did not live so long as to be able
to see it finished.
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