Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to MantegnaVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 03 (of 10): Filarete and Simone to Mantegna
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
It is said that in company with Giusto and Minore, masters of
tarsia,[2] he wrought the seats of the Sacristy of the Nunziata, and
likewise those of the choir that is beside the chapel, and many things
in the Badia of Florence and in S. Marco; and that, having acquired a
name through these works, he was summoned to Pisa, in the Duomo of which
he wrought the seat that is beside the high-altar, in which the priest,
the deacon, and the sub-deacon sit when Mass is being sung; making in
tarsia on the back of this seat, with tinted and shaded woods, the three
prophets that are seen therein. In this work he availed himself of Guido
del Servellino and Maestro Domenico di Mariotto, joiners of Pisa, to
whom he taught the art so well that they afterwards wrought the greater
part of that choir both with carvings and with tarsia-work; which choir
has been finished in our own day, with a manner no little better, by
Batista del Cervelliera of Pisa, a man truly ingenious and fanciful.
But to return to Giuliano; he made the presses of the Sacristy of S.
Maria del Fiore, which were held at that time to be admirable examples
of tarsia and inlaid-work. Now, while Giuliano thus continued to devote
himself to tarsia, to sculpture, and to architecture, Filippo di Ser
Brunellesco died; whereupon, being chosen by the Wardens of Works to
succeed him, he made the borders, incrusted with black and white marble,
which are round the circular windows below the vault of the cupola; and
at the corners he placed the marble pilasters on which Baccio d'Agnolo
afterwards laid the architrave, frieze, and cornice, as will be told
below. It is true that, as it appears from some designs by his hand that
are in our book, he wished to make another arrangement of frieze,
cornice, and gallery, with pediments on each of the eight sides of the
cupola; but he had not time to put this into execution, for, being
carried away by an excess of work from one day to another, he died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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