Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/165

Rh and also in the fourth chapter of the “ Triumph of Love”, where he says— “See Cino ofPistoja—who, from Guy, Of fair Arezzo, claims the foremost place”, etc. The portrait of this Messer Cino, from the hand of Andrea Pisano, is placed on the tomb, where he is depicted teaching a number of his scholars, who stand around him in attitudes of so much grace and beauty, that in his day they must have been thought something wonderful, even though they should not be greatly admired in ours.

Gualtieri, duke of Athens, and tyrant of Florence, also profited by the services of Andrea for his architectural undertakings, causing him to enlarge the piazza; and, desiring to render himself more secure in his palace, he had a very strong grating of iron bars placed on all the windows of the first floor (where the hall of the Two Hundred now is). The same duke erected the walls in rustic masonry which were added to the palace, on the side opposite to San Scheraggio; and in the thickness of the wall he made a secret stair, by which he could ascend or descend without being observed. In this wall he also placed a large door, which now serves as the entrance to the custom-house, and over the door he carved his arms, all which was completed after the designs and by the advice of Andrea. These arms were subsequently effaced by the Council of Twelve, those magistrates desiring to destroy all remembrance of the duke. The form of a lion rampant, with double tail, may nevertheless be still discerned by whomsoever will examine the shield carefully. Andrea Pisano erected many towers around the circuit of the city walls for the same duke, and not only commenced the magnificent church of San Friano, which he brought to the state in which we now see it, but also raised the walls for the vestibule of all the gates of the city, with the smaller gates which were opened for the convenience of the people. The duke further desired to construct a fortress on the side of San Giorgio, and Andrea prepared the model for it; but this was not used, the work never having been commenced, because the duke was