Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10): Berna to Michelozzo MichelozziVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10): Berna to Michelozzo Michelozzi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
After this work, Jacopo made in Siena two panels of lime-wood, carving
the figures in them, with their beards and hair, with so great patience
that it was a marvel to see. And after these panels, which were placed
in the Duomo, he made some prophets in marble, of no great size, which
are in the facade of the said Duomo; and he would have continued to
labour at the works of this building, if plague, famine, and the
discords of the citizens of Siena had not brought that city to an evil
pass; for, after having many times risen in tumult, they drove out
Orlando Malevolti, by whose favour Jacopo had enjoyed creditable
employment in his native city. Departing then from Siena, he betook
himself by the agency of certain friends to Lucca, and there, in the
Church of S. Martino, he made a tomb for the wife, who had died a short
time before, of Paolo Guinigi, who was Lord of that city; on the base of
which tomb he carved some boys in marble that are supporting a garland,
so highly finished that they appeared to be of flesh; and on the
sarcophagus laid on the said base he made, with infinite diligence, the
image of the wife of Paolo Guinigi herself, who was buried within it,
and at her feet, from the same block, he made a dog in full relief,
signifying the fidelity shown by her to her husband. After Paolo had
departed, or rather, had been driven out of Lucca in the year 1429, when
the city became free, this sarcophagus was removed from that place and
was almost wholly destroyed, by reason of the hatred that the people of
Lucca bore to the memory of Guinigi; but the reverence that they bore to
the beauty of the figure and of the so many ornaments restrained them,
and brought it about that a little time afterwards the sarcophagus and
the figure were placed with diligence near the door of the sacristy,
where they are at present, while the Chapel of Guinigi was taken over
by the Commune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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