Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/510

496 extreme care, and was much praised. This artist was closely attached to the service of Cosimo de’ Medici, to whom the superiority of his talents was well known, and who consequently caused him to prepare the model for the house and palace situated at the corner of the Via Larga, and beside San Giovannino; that which had been made by Filippo di Ser Brunellesco appearing to him, as we have said, too sumptuous and magnificent, and quite as likely to awaken envy among his fellow citizens as to contribute to the grandeur and ornament of the city, or to his own convenience. Wherefore, as Cosimo considered the model made by Michelozzo satisfactory, he caused the building to be erected under his care; when it was completed in the manner that we now see, with all the utility, beauty, and graceful decorations so much admired, and which derive majesty and grandeur from their simplicity. Michelozzo deserves all the more credit for this building, since it was the first palace, erected in Florence after modern rules, and in which the rooms were arranged with a view to convenience as well as beauty. The cellars are excavated to more than half their depth under ground, having four braccia beneath the earth that is, with three above, on account of the lights. There are, besides, butteries, store-rooms, etc. on the same level. In the first, or ground floor, are two court-yards, with magnificent colonnades (loggia), on which open various saloons, bed-chambers, ante-rooms, writing-rooms, offices, baths, kitchens, and reservoirs, with staircases, both for private and public use, all most commodiously arranged. In the upper floors are dwellings and apartments for a family, with all those conveniences proper, not only to that of a private citizen, as Cosimo then was, but sufficient also for the most powerful and magnificent sovereign. Accordingly, in our time, kings, emperors, popes, and whatever of most illustrious Europe can