Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/327

Rh of this Second Part, and, following the order of the different manners, I will gradually proceed to lay open and elucidate, in the lives themselves, the difficulties of these beautiful, laborious, and most honourable arts.

The sculptor Jacopo, son of Maestro Piero di Filippo of Quercia, a place in the neighbourhood of Siena, was the first —after Andrea Pisano, Orgagna, and the other masters above named—who, devoting himself to sculpture with a more earnest study, began to show that a near approach might be made to Nature herself; and it was from him that other artists first took courage to hope that it was possible, in a certain measure, to equal her works. The first labours of this master which require to be mentioned, were executed in Siena, when he was but nineteen years old, and the occasion was as follows:—The Sienese army, then in action against the Florentines, was commanded by Gian Tedesco, nephew of Saccone da Pietramala, and by Giovanni d’Azzo Ubaldini, when the latter general fell sick in the camp; he was consequently brought to Siena, where he died. The Sienese deeply lamented the loss of their captain, whom they honoured with a most superb and solemn funeral; they caused an edifice of wood-work to be constructed, in form of a pyramid, on the summit of which was placed a statue of Giovanni on horseback, larger than life, which was executed by Jacopo. This work displayed considerable judgment, as well as fertility of invention; Jacopo having discovered a method of proceeding which had not before been in use: he formed the skeleton and body of the horse, namely, from pieces of wood and small planks, which 'were afterwards swrathed and wrapped with hay, tow, and hemp, being well bound and secured with ropes, when all was covered with clay mixed with a cement formed of paste, glue, and the shearings of woollen cloth. This mode of treatment certainly was, and