Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/162

148 son of Domenico Ghirlandajo. The Virgin, in marble (halflength), which is over the lateral door of the Misericordia, in the facade of the Cialdonai, is also bv Andrea, who was highly commended for this work, in which, contrary to his custom, he imitated the pure manner of the antique, from which he generally differed widely; a fact rendered manifest by some drawings in my own book, wherein he has depicted the whole history of the Apocalypse.

Andrea Pisano had given some attention to architecture in his youth; and the commune of Florence found occasion to employ him in that art, when, Arnolfo being dead, and Giotto absent, they selected him to prepare designs for the castle of Scarperia, situate in the Mugello, at the foot of the Alps. Some affirm, but I will not vouch for the truth of the assertion, that Andrea passed a year in Venice, "where he executed, in sculpture, certain small marble figures, which are to be seen on the fagade of St. Mark. They further declare, that in the time of Messer Pietro Gradenigo, doge of that republic, Andrea prepared the designs for the arsenal, but as I have no high authority to offer on this subject, I leave each one to form his own opinion respecting it. When Andrea returned from Venice to Florence, the latter city wras in great fear of the emperor, whose arrival was daily expected: the citizens therefore employed Andrea in great haste to raise their walls eight braccia higher in that portion of them which lies between St. Gallo and the gate of the Prato. He was also commanded to construct bastions, stockades, and other strong defences, both in wood and earth-work. Three years previous to this, Andrea had acquired great honour by the execution of a cross in bronze, which he had sent to the pope in Avignon, by his intimate friend Giotto, who was then at that court. He was, consequently, now appointed to execute one of the doors for the church of San Giovanni of Florence, for which Giotto had given a most beautiful design. This he was employed to complete, I say, as being considered—among all the many who had hitherto laboured at that fabric—the most able, prac-