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
Now it came to pass in the year 1326, as it has been said in his Life,
that Giotto was called by means of Charles, Duke of Calabria, who was
then staying in Florence, to Naples, in order to make some things for
King Robert in S. Chiara and other places in that city; wherefore
Giotto, passing by way of Orvieto on his way to Naples, in order to see
the works that had been made and were still being made there by so many
men, wished to see everything minutely. And because the prophets of
Agostino and Agnolo of Siena pleased him more than all the other
sculptures, it came about therefore that Giotto not only commended them
and held them, much to their contentment, among his friends, but also
presented them to Piero Saccone da Pietramala as the best of all the
sculptors then living, for the making of the tomb of Bishop Guido, Lord
and Bishop of Arezzo, which has been mentioned in the Life of Giotto
himself. And so then Giotto having seen in Orvieto the works of many
sculptors and having judged the best to be those of Agostino and Agnolo
of Siena, this was the reason that the said tomb was given to them to
make--in that manner, however, wherein he had designed it, and according
to the model which he himself had sent to the said Piero Saccone.
Agostino and Agnolo finished this tomb in the space of three years,
executing it with much diligence, and built it into the Church of the
Vescovado of Arezzo, in the Chapel of the Sacrament. Over the
sarcophagus, which rests on certain great consoles carved more than
passing well, there is stretched the body of that Bishop in marble, and
at the sides are some angels that are drawing back certain curtains very
gracefully. Besides this, there are carved in half-relief, in
compartments, twelve scenes from the life and actions of that Bishop,
with an infinite number of little figures. I will not grudge the labour
of describing the contents of these scenes, to the end that it may be
seen with what great patience they were wrought, and how zealously
these sculptors sought the good manner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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