Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/139

Rh no long time after, Agostino and Agnolo were invited to Orvieto by some of the Tolomei family, who were living there in exile, when the brothers executed certain sculptures for the in that city. , which are now considered among the best and most finely proportioned of all the ornaments enriching that much celebrated façade, are by their hands.

Now it happened in the year 1326, that was invited to Naples, as we have related in his life, by means of Charles, Duke of Calabria, who was then residing in Florence, to execute certain works for King Robert, in the, and other places of that city. On his way thither, Giotto paid a visit to Orvieto, for the purpose of viewing the works completed and in course of execution by the many good artists labouring there, all of which he desired to examine minutely. And as the Prophets of Agostino and Agnolo pleased him more than all the other sculptures, Giotto not only commended them and received the artists into the number of his friends, to their very great satisfaction, but presented them to, as the best of all the sculptors then existing, to construct the , bishop and lord of Arezzo, as we have related in the life of Giotto. Thus then, Giotto, having seen the works of many sculptors in Orvieto, and having decided that those of Agostino and Agnolo, of Siena, were the best among them, was the cause of this tomb being given to the care of the brothers, who constructed it accordingly with great diligence, but in the manner that he had designed, and after the model sent by him to Piero Saccone, completing the sepulchre in three years, and erecting it in the, within the chapel of the sacrament. The figure of the bishop, in marble, is extended on the sarcophagus, which reposes on certain large consoles, carved with considerable skill, while on each side are angels drawing back a curtain with very graceful and natural action. There are besides, twelve compartments, in mezzo-relievo, repre-