Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/356

342 executed for the various parts of Tuscany, they sent many specimens of their art into France and Spain. The abovenamed Piero dei Medici, also employed them extensively, more especially in the church of San Miniato-a-Monte, where they decorated the ceiling of the marble chapel, which is raised on four columns in the centre of the church. This ceiling was divided into eight compartments, producing a very beautiful effect. But perhaps the most remarkable work of this kind that proceeded from the hands of these artists was the ceiling of the chapel of San Jacopo, in the same church. Here the cardinal of Portugal lies entombed. The has no sharp angles; but within four circular compartments, the masters represented the four Evangelists; and, in the midst of the ceiling, also within a medallion, they depicted the Holy Spirit, filling all the remaining spaces with scales, which, following the lines of the ceiling, diminished gradually as they approached the centre; the whole executed with so much care and diligence, that nothing better in that manner could possibly be imagined.

At a later period, Luca della Robbia produced a figure of the Virgin, surrounded by numerous angels: a work of infinite animation and beauty, which was placed in the small arch over the door of the church of San Piero Buonconsiglio, situated below the Mercato Vecchio; and over the door of a small church near San Piero Maggiore, he executed another Madonna, within a half circle, also attended by angels; which are considered extremely beautiful. In the chapter-house of Santa Croce, which had been erected by the Pazzi family, under the direction of Pippo di Ser Brunellesco, Luca also executed the figures of glazed terra-cotta, both those outside, and those within the building. This master is, moreover, asserted to have sent various figures, in full relief, and of great beauty, to the King of Spain, with other works in marble. For Naples, also, he constructed the marble sepulchre of the Infant, brother to the Duke of Calabria: this was