Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/524

510 the candles. The size of the figure is that of life, the Child is in its arms, and the expression is very good. There is a similar Virgin by the same artist in the rooms used by the superintendents of Santa Maria del Fiore, In San Miniuto al Tedesco, likewise, Pagno executed certain figures while still very young, in company with his master Donato, and in Lucca he constructed a marble tomb opposite to the chapel of the Sacrament in the for Messer Piero Nocera, who is there pourtrayed after the life. Filarete, in the 25th book of his work, has recorded that Francesco Sforza, fourth duke of Milan, presented a most beautiful palace in that city to the magnificent Cosimo de’ Medici, and that the latter, to show the duke how acceptable was the gift, not only adorned it richly with marbles and carvings in wood, but also enlarged it under the direction of Michelozzo, giving it an extent of eightyseven braccia and a half, whereas it had previously measured eighty-four braccia only. Besides this, he commanded that various pictures should be painted there, more particularly in one of the galleries, where he caused to be represented certain stories from the life of the emperor Trajan. Among the decorations of these works, Cosimo ordered the portrait of Francesco Sforza to be depicted, with that of the Lady Bianca, duchess of Milan, his consort, and those of their children; the portraits of many other nobles and great personages wrere added, together with those of eight emperors, and with these Michelozzo placed the likeness of Cosimo himself, done by his own hand. All the rooms, moreover,