Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 07 (of 10): Tribolo to Il Sodoma — John Shaqi
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
Nor will I omit to tell what was the intention of Tribolo with regard
to the statues that were to be as ornaments in the great garden of the
labyrinth, in the niches that may be seen regularly distributed there
in various spaces. He proposed, then--acting in this on the judicious
advice of M. Benedetto Varchi, who has been in our times most
excellent as poet, orator, and philosopher--that at the upper and
lower ends there should be placed the four Seasons of the
year--Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter--and that each should be set
up in that part where its particular season is most felt. At the
entrance, on the right hand, beside the Winter, and in that part of
the wall which stretches upwards, were to go six figures that were to
demonstrate the greatness and goodness of the house of Medici, and to
denote that all the virtues are to be found in Duke Cosimo; and these
were Justice, Compassion, Valour, Nobility, Wisdom, and Liberality,
which have always dwelt in the house of Medici, and are all united
together at the present day in the most excellent Lord Duke, in that
he is just, compassionate, valorous, noble, wise, and liberal. And
because these qualities have made the city of Florence, as they still
do, strong in laws, peace, arms, science, wisdom, tongues, and arts,
and also because the said Lord Duke is just in the laws, compassionate
in peace, valorous in arms, noble through the sciences, wise in his
encouragement of tongues and other culture, and liberal to the arts,
Tribolo wished that on the other side from the Justice, Compassion,
Valour, Nobility, Wisdom, and Liberality, on the left hand, as will be
seen below, there should be these other figures: Laws, Peace, Arms,
Sciences, Tongues, and Arts. And it was most appropriately arranged
that in this manner these statues and images should be placed, as
they would have been, above the Arno and Mugnone, in order to signify
that they do honour to Florence. It was also proposed that in the
pediments there should be placed portrait-busts of men of the house of
Medici, one in each--over Justice, for example, the portrait of his
Excellency, that being his particular virtue, over Compassion that of
the Magnificent Giuliano, over Valour Signor Giovanni, over Nobility
the elder Lorenzo, over Wisdom the elder Cosimo or Clement VII, and
over Liberality Pope Leo. And in the pediments on the other side it
was suggested that there might be placed other heads from the house of
Medici, or of persons of the city connected with that house. But since
these names make the matter somewhat confused, they have been placed
here in the following order:
SUMMER. THE MUGNONE. GATE. THE ARNO. SPRING.
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