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
Having acquired the name of an excellent master by means of these works,
above all through many works in metal, in which he took much delight, he
made a tomb of bronze in S. Lorenzo, wholly in the round, for Giovanni
and Pietro di Cosimo de' Medici, with a sarcophagus of porphyry
supported by four corner-pieces of bronze, with twisted foliage very
well wrought and finished with the greatest diligence. This tomb stands
between the Chapel of the Sacrament and the Sacristy, and no work could
be better done, whether wrought in bronze or cast; above all since at
the same time he showed therein his talent in architecture, for he
placed the said tomb within the embrasure of a window which is about
five braccia in breadth and ten in height, and set it on a base that
divides the said Chapel of the Sacrament from the old Sacristy. And over
the sarcophagus, to fill up the embrasure right up to the vaulting, he
made a grating of bronze ropes in a pattern of mandorle, most natural,
and adorned in certain places with festoons and other beautiful things
of fancy, all remarkable and executed with much mastery, judgment, and
invention.
Now Donatello had made for the Tribunal of Six of the Mercanzia that
marble shrine which is now opposite to S. Michael, in the Oratory of
Orsanmichele, and for this there was to have been made a S. Thomas in
bronze, feeling for the wound in the side of Christ; but at that time
nothing more was done, for some of the men who had the charge of this
wished to have it made by Donatello, and others favoured Lorenzo
Ghiberti. Matters stood thus as long as Donatello and Ghiberti were
alive; but finally the said two statues were entrusted to Andrea, who,
having made the models and moulds, cast them; and they came out so
solid, complete, and well made, that it was a most beautiful casting.
Thereupon, setting himself to polish and finish them, he brought them
to that perfection which is seen at the present day, which could not be
greater than it is, for in S. Thomas we see incredulity and a too great
anxiety to assure himself of the truth, and at the same time the love
that makes him lay his hand in a most beautiful manner on the side of
Christ; and in Christ Himself, who is raising one arm and opening His
raiment with a most spontaneous gesture, and dispelling the doubts of
His incredulous disciple, there are all the grace and divinity, so to
speak, that art can give to any figure. Andrea clothed both these
figures in most beautiful and well-arranged draperies, which give us to
know that he understood that art no less than did Donato, Lorenzo, and
the others who had lived before him; wherefore this work well deserved
to be set up in a shrine made by Donatello, and to be ever afterwards
held in the greatest price and esteem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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