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
In that tomb there is seen the portrait of Messer Cino himself in
marble, by the hand of Andrea; he is teaching a number of his scholars,
who are round him, with an attitude and manner so beautiful that,
although to-day it might not be prized, in those days it must have been
a marvellous thing.
[Illustration: _Alinari_
THE CREATION OF MAN
(_After a relief, by_ Andrea Pisano, _on the Campanile, Florence_)]
Andrea was also made use of in matters of architecture by Gualtieri,
Duke of Athens and Tyrant of the Florentines, who made him enlarge the
square, and caused him, in order to safeguard himself in his palace, to
secure all the lower windows on the first floor (where to-day is the
Sala de' Dugento) with iron bars, square and very strong. The said Duke
also added, opposite S. Pietro Scheraggio, the walls of rustic work
that are beside the palace, in order to enlarge it; and in the thickness
of the wall he made a secret staircase, in order to ascend and descend
unseen. And at the foot of the said wall of rustic work he made a great
door, which serves to-day for the Customs-house, and above that his
arms, and all with the design and counsel of Andrea; and although these
arms were chiselled out by the Council of Twelve, which took pains to
efface every memorial of that Duke, there remained none the less in the
square shield the form of the lion rampant with two tails, as anyone can
see who examines it with diligence. For the same Duke Andrea built many
towers round the walls of the city, and he not only made a magnificent
beginning for the Porta a S. Friano and brought it to the completion
that is seen, but also made the walls for the vestibules of all the
gates of the city, and the lesser gates for the convenience of the
people. And because the Duke had it in his mind to make a fortress on
the Costa di S. Giorgio, Andrea made the model for it, which afterwards
was not used, for the reason that the work was never given a beginning,
the Duke having been driven out in the year 1343. Nevertheless, there
was effected in great part the desire of that Duke to bring the palace
to the form of a strong castle, because, to that which had been made
originally, he added the great mass which is seen to-day, enclosing
within its circuit the houses of the Filipetri, the tower and the houses
of the Amidei and Mancini, and those of the Bellalberti. And because,
having made a beginning with so great a fabric and with the thick walls
and barbicans, he had not all the material that was essential equally in
readiness, he held back the construction of the Ponte Vecchio, which was
being worked on with all haste as a work of necessity, and availed
himself of the stone hewn and the wood prepared for it, without the
least scruple. And although Taddeo Gaddi was not perhaps inferior in the
matters of architecture to Andrea Pisano, the Duke would not avail
himself of him in these buildings, by reason of his being a Florentine,
but only of Andrea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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