Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero — John Shaqi
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo ZuccheroVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 08 (of 10): Bastiano to Taddeo Zucchero
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
This scenery having also much pleased the Duke, he ordained, when the
time came, that for his nuptials with Madama Margherita of Austria
another comedy should be performed, with scenery by Aristotile, in the
Company of Weavers, which is joined to the house of the Magnificent
Ottaviano de' Medici, in the Via di S. Gallo. To which having set his
hand with all the study, diligence, and labour of which he was capable,
Aristotile executed all those preparations to perfection. Now Lorenzo di
Pier Francesco de' Medici, having himself written the piece that was to
be performed, had charge of the whole representation and the music; and,
being such a man that he was always thinking in what way he might be
able to kill the Duke, by whom he was so much favoured and beloved, he
thought to find a way of bringing him to his end in the preparations for
the play. And so, where the steps of the prospect-view and the floor of
the stage ended, he caused the wing-walls on either side to be thrown
down to the height of eighteen braccia, intending to build up in that
space a room in the form of a purse-shaped recess, which was to be of
considerable size, and a stage on a level with the stage proper, which
might serve for the choral music. Above this first stage he wished to
make another for harpsichords, organs, and other suchlike instruments
that cannot be moved or changed about with ease; and the space where he
had pulled down the walls, in front, he wished to have covered with
curtains painted with prospect-views and buildings. All which pleased
Aristotile, because it enriched the proscenium, and left the stage free
of musicians, but he was by no means pleased that the rafters upholding
the roof, which had been left without the walls below to support them,
should be arranged otherwise than with a great double arch, which should
be very strong; whereas Lorenzo wished that it should be sustained by
some props, and by nothing else that could in any way interfere with the
music. Aristotile, knowing that this was a trap certain to fall headlong
down on a multitude of people, would not on any account agree in the
matter with Lorenzo, who in truth had no other intention but to kill the
Duke in that catastrophe. Wherefore, perceiving that he could not drive
his excellent reasons into Lorenzo's head, he had determined that he
would withdraw from the whole affair, when Giorgio Vasari, who was the
protege of Ottaviano de' Medici, and was at that time, although a mere
lad, working in the service of Duke Alessandro, hearing, while he was
painting on that scenery, the disputes and differences of opinion that
there were between Lorenzo and Aristotile, set himself dexterously
between them, and, after hearing both the one and the other and
perceiving the danger that Lorenzo's method involved, showed that
without making any arch or interfering in any other way with the stage
for the music, those rafters of the roof could be arranged easily
enough.
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