Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/336

322, lived Niccolo di Piero, a citizen of Arezzo, to whom Nature had been as liberal in her endowments of genius and force of mind, as fortune was niggardly in the gifts of ease and wealth. Niccolo di Piero was a poor countryman, and having received some kind of injury or mortification, in his native place, from his nearest of kin, he left Arezzo, where he had studied sculpture with great success, under the discipline of Maestro Moccio (who, as we have said elsewhere, executed certain works in Arezzo), although the said Maestro Moccio was not himself very excellent. Niccolo then repaired to Florence, where on his first arrival, and for several months after, he occupied himself with whatever works he could lay his hands on, being sorely beset by poverty and want, and having besides to compete with other young men, who, with severe study and heavy labour, nobly emulating each other, virtuously struggled to advance themselves in the art of sculpture. At length, and after many efforts, Niccolo became a tolerably good sculptor, when the wardens of Santa Maria del Fiore commissioned him to prepare two statues for the campanile of that church. These figures were accordingly placed in the tower, on the side opposite to the canonicate; they stand one on each side of those subsequently executed by Donato, and were considered tolerably good,—better works in full relief not having at that time been often seen. Having left Florence in the year 1383, on account of the plague then raging in the city, Niccolo returned to Arezzo. Here the confraternity of Santa Maria della Misericordia was found to have inherited large possessions from those who had died of the same pestilence, as we have related elsewhere, and from different persons of that city, who desired to signalize their reverence and devotion towards that holy place, as well as their admiration and respect for the brotherhood thereof; by whom the sick were succoured and tended, and who also buried the dead and performed many other offices of mercy and piety throughout the entire duration of the pestilence, without fear or consideration for themselves. With these funds, the brotherhood resolved to construct a façade for their house, in grey stone, not having marble at hand, and this Niccolo undertook to