Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/85

Rh the art of those days could produce, insomuch that Frederick Barbarossa, returning from Rome, where he had been crowned, and passing through Arezzo many years after its completion, commended, nay, admired it infinitely : and certainly with good reason ; for, to speak of nothing more, the various portions of this work, formed of innumerable morsels, are so nicely conjoined, and fixed together with so much exactitude, that any one who is not well practised in matters of art may readily suppose the whole to be of one piece. In the same church, Giovanni constructed the chapel of the Ubertini, a most illustrious family, still possessing several lordships, but formerly the masters of many more. This he likewise enriched with numerous decorations in marble ; but these have been covered over by various ornaments in stone, erected on that site, by Giorgio Vasari, in the year 1535, for the support of an organ, of extraordinary beautyand excellence, which has been placed in that chapel.

Giovanni Pisano also gave the designs for the church of Santa Maria de’ Servi, which has been destroyed, with many palaces belonging to the noblest families of the city, for the causes before mentioned. And here I will not omit to note that Giovanni employed the services of certain Germans for the altar above described, who assisted him, more in the hope of improvement than for gain ; these artists became so expert under his instructions, that, having departed to Rome on the completion of the work, they were employed in many of the sculptures of St. Peter’s by Boniface VIII, as well as in architecture, when that pontiff was building Civita Castellana. They were, besides, despatched by the same pope to Santa Maria d’Orvieto, where they executed many figures, in marble, for the façade of that church, which were tolerably well done for those times. But among those who assisted Giovanni Pisano in the works of the cathedral of Arezzo, and, sculptors and architects of Siena, were the most distinguished, and far surpassed all others, as will be related at the proper time. We now return to Giovanni, who repaired to Florence on leaving Orvieto, partly to view