Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the FlemingsVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 09 (of 10): Michelagnolo to the Flemings
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
figures in bronze, little less than the size of life, which are by his
hand, together with various scenes and figures in low-relief. That
work makes a most beautiful base to the said campanile, which has a
thickness, on one of the sides, of thirty-five feet, which is about
the extent of Sansovino's ornamentation. In height, from the ground to
the cornice where are the windows of the bells, it is one hundred and
sixty feet; from the level of that cornice to the other above it,
where the corridor is, twenty-five feet; and the other dado above has
a height of twenty-eight feet and a half. From that level of the
corridor up to the pyramid is sixty feet; at the summit of which
spire, the little square, upon which rests the Angel, is six feet
high, and the said Angel, which turns with every wind, is ten feet
high; insomuch that the whole height comes to be two hundred and
ninety-two feet.
But the finest, richest, and strongest of his edifices is the Mint of
Venice, all of iron and stone, for there is not in it one single piece
of wood, in order to render it absolutely safe from fire. And the
interior is distributed with such order and convenience for the sake
of the many artificers, that there is not in any part of the world a
treasury better ordered, or with greater strength, than that one,
which he built entirely in the Rustic Order and very beautiful; which
method, not having been used before in that city, caused the
inhabitants to marvel not a little. By his hand, also, may be seen the
Church of S. Spirito on the lagoons, of a very delicate and pleasing
workmanship; and in Venice there is the façade of S. Gimignano, which
gives splendour to the Piazza, in the Merceria the façade of S.
Giuliano, and in S. Salvadore the very rich tomb of the Prince
Francesco Veniero. He also erected in the Rialto, on the Grand Canal,
the new fabrics of the vaults, with such good design, that almost
every day there assembles there a very convenient market of townsmen
and of other persons who flock to that city. And a very marvellous
thing and new was that which he did for the Tiepoli at the
Misericordia, in that, they having on the canal a great palace with
many regal chambers, and the whole building being badly founded in the
water, so that it was likely enough that in a few years the edifice
would fall to the ground, Sansovino rebuilt all the foundations in the
canal below the palace with very large stones, maintaining the house
on its feet with a marvellous support of props, while the owners lived
in their house with perfect security.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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