Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il SodomaVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il Sodoma
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
of delight and playing as they shelter under the lip of the tazza,
which could not be equalled in its simplicity and beauty. Opposite to
the four paths that intersect the garden are four children of bronze
lying at play in various attitudes, which are after the designs of
Tribolo, although they were executed afterwards by others. Above this
tazza begins another shaft, which has at the foot, on some
projections, four children of marble in the round, who are pressing
the necks of some geese that spout water from their mouths; and this
water is that of the principal conduit coming from the labyrinth, and
rises exactly to this height. Above these children is the rest of the
shaft of this pedestal, which is made with certain cartouches which
spurt forth water in a most bizarre manner; and then, regaining a
quadrangular form, it rises over some masks that are very well made.
Above this, then, is a smaller tazza, on the lip of which, on all four
sides, are fixed by the horns four heads of Capricorns, making a
square, which spout water through their mouths into the large tazza,
together with the children, in order to make the rain which falls, as
has been told, into the first basin, which has eight sides. Still
higher there follows another shaft, adorned with other ornaments and
with some children in half-relief, who, projecting outwards, form at
the top a round space that serves as base to the figure of a Hercules
who is crushing Antaeus, which was designed by Tribolo and executed
afterwards by others, as will be related in the proper place. From the
mouth of this Antaeus he intended that, instead of his spirit, there
should gush out through a pipe water in great abundance, as indeed it
does; which water is that of the great conduit of Petraia, which comes
with much force, and rises sixteen braccia above the level where the
steps are, and makes a marvellous effect in falling back into the
greater tazza. In that same aqueduct, then, come not only those waters
from Petraia, but also those that go to the fish-pond and the grotto,
and these, uniting with those from Castellina, go to the fountains of
the Falterona and Monte Asinaio, and thence to the fountains of the
Arno and Mugnone, as has been related; after which, being reunited at
the fountain of the labyrinth, they go to the centre of the great
fountain, where are the children with the geese. From there, according
to the design of Tribolo, they were to flow through two distinct and
separate conduits into the basins of the loggie, where the tables are,
and then each into a separate private garden. The first of these
gardens--that towards the west--is all filled with rare and medicinal
plants; wherefore at the highest level of that water, in that garden
of simples, in the niche of the fountain, and behind a basin of
marble, there was to be a statue of AEsculapius.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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