Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/257

Rh stances alike unknown, but the fact that he bequeathed the invention of “chiaro-scuro” pictures in marble, as a legacy to the art of painting, would of itself be sufficient to secure him infinite praise and glory; he must assuredly be numbered among those benefactors who have adorned our art and promoted its progress; since he who first overcomes the difficulties of an extraordinary invention, not only claims our gratitude for his general deserts, but merits, in addition, a more special remembrance for the particular benefit thus conferred.

It is affirmed in Siena that, in the year 1348, Duccio gave the design for the chapel built on the piazza in front of the palace of the Signory; and we find it recorded, that the sculptor and architect Moccio, an artist of very respectable talent, was the fellow-countryman as well as contemporary of Duccio. Many works were performed by Moccio in various parts of Tuscany, especially in Arezzo, where he constructed a tomb for one of the Cerchi, in the church of St. Domenico; which tomb now serves as the support as well as ornament of the organ of the church. And if it should appear to some persons that the tomb in question is not a work of much excellence, yet if it be considered that the artist erected it while still but a youth, that is in 1356, it must be acknowledged to have some merit. Moccio acted as under-architect and sculptor, in the building of Santa Maria del Fiore, and executed some of the marble ornaments of that church. In Arezzo he rebuilt the church of Sant’ Agostino, which was very small, in the manner we now see. The cost of this work was borne by the heirs of Picco Saccone de’ Tarlati, as that noble had commanded immediately before his death, which took place at'Bibbiena in the Casentino. In erecting the church of Sant’ Agostino, the architect constructed no arches for the support of the roof, the weight of which was thrown on the arches of the columns: he thereby exposed his work to great peril, and was without doubt too bold. The same artist built the church and convent of Sant’ Antonio, which, before the siege of Florence, was situated at the gate leading to Faenza, but which is now totally ruined; in his capacity of sculptor, he decorated the door of the church of Sant’ Agostino in Ancona, with various figures and ornaments, similar to those which adorn the door of San Francesco, in