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
begin to rise, in line with the solid parts of the basement, eighteen
large piers all of travertine, each adorned with two columns on the
outer side and pilasters on the inner, as will be described below, and
between the piers are left the spaces where there are to be all the
windows that are to give light to the tribune. These piers, on the
sides pointing towards the central point of the tribune, are
thirty-six palms in extent, and on the front sides nineteen and a
half. Each of them, on the outer side, has two columns, the lowest
dado of which is eight palms and three-quarters broad and one palm and
a half high, the base five palms and eight inches broad and ... palms
and eleven inches high, the shaft of the column forty-three and a half
palms high, five palms and six inches thick at the foot and four palms
and nine inches at the top, the Corinthian capital six palms and a
half high, with the crown of mouldings nine palms. Of these columns
three quarters are to be seen, and the other quarter is merged into
the corner, with the accompaniment of the half of a pilaster that
makes a salient angle on the inner side, and this is accompanied in
the central inner space by the opening of an arched door, five palms
wide and thirteen palms and five inches high, from the summit of which
to the capitals of the pilasters and columns there is a filling of
solid masonry, serving as a connection with two other pilasters that
are similar to those that form a salient angle beside the columns.
These two pilasters correspond to the others, and adorn the sides of
sixteen windows that go right round the tribune, each with a light
twelve palms and a half wide and about twenty-two palms high. These
windows are to be adorned on the outer side with varied architraves
two palms and three-quarters high, and on the inner side they are to
be adorned with orders likewise varied, with pediments and
quarter-rounds; and they are wide without and more narrow within, and
so, also, they are sloped away at the foot of the inner side, so that
they may give light over the frieze and cornice. Each of them is
bordered by two flat pilasters that correspond in height to the
columns without, so that there come to be thirty-six columns without
and thirty-six pilasters within; over which pilasters is the
architrave, which is four palms and three-quarters in height, the
frieze four and a half, and the cornice four and two-thirds, with a
projection of five palms; and above this is to go a range of
balusters, so that one may be able to walk all the way round there
with safety. And in order that it may be possible to climb
conveniently from the level where the columns begin, another staircase
ascends in the same line within the thickness of the part that is
fifteen palms wide, in the same manner and of the same width, with two
branches or ascents, all the way up to the summit of the columns, with
their capitals, architraves, friezes, and cornices; insomuch that,
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