Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/132

124 the same may be said of the plans and fortifications of the city, as well as of the palace and loggia built for the same pontiff. Francesco passed his life in respect and honour, and was invested with the highest offices of the Signoria, but when he had attained the age of forty-seven, he died. His works date about the year 1480. This artist left behind him his companion and most intimate friend, Jacopo Cozzarello, who devoted himself to sculpture and architecture, and executed certain figures in wood at Siena, where there is also a work in architecture, Santa Maria Maddalena, namely, situate without the gate of Tufi, commenced by him, but which remained incomplete at his death. We are also indebted to him for the portrait of Francesco, which was executed by his hand. To Francesco di Giorgio much gratitude is due, he having effected more to facilitate the progress of architecture, and performed more essential services for that branch of art than any other master had done from the time of Filippo Brunellesco to his own.

Lorenzo di Piero Vecchietti was also a Sienese, and in like manner was a distinguished sculptor; he had previously been a much-esteemed goldsmith, but finally attached himsel. to sculpture and casting in bronze. These arts he studied with so much zeal, that he became very eminent, and received a commission to execute a tabernacle of bronze for the high altar of the cathedral in his native city of Siena, with the decorations in marble, which are still to be seen there. By this work, an extremely fine one, he acquired a name and very great reputation, well merited by the correctness of its proportions and by the grace exhibited in every part of it: whoever examines this performance will perceive that it has been well-designed, and that the artist was a judicious, practised, and able man. The same master exe-