Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/237

Rh event exactly as it occurred. Tliefe are medals of various Popes also by the same master, with many other things which are well known to artists. Antonio was seventy-two years old when he died, and Pietro died at the age of sixty-live. The former left many disciples, among whom was Andrea Sansovino. Antonio was a most fortunate man and led a very happy life, having met with rich pontiffs, and living when his native city was at the summit of prosperity and remarkable for its love of talent, wherefore he was highly esteemed; but had he lived in less favourable times he might not have produced the rich fruits which we derive from his labours, for the cares of life are deadly enemies to the acquirement of such knowledge as is necessary to him who delights in and makes profession of the fine arts.

For San Giovanni in Florence there were made certain very rich ecclesiastical vestments after the design of this master, two Dalmaticas namely, a Planeta or Chasuble, and a Pluviale or Cope, all of double brocade, each woven of one entire piece and without seam, the bordering and ornaments being stories from the life of St. John, embroidered with the most subtle mastery of that art by Paolo da Verona, a man most eminent in his calling, and of incomparable ingenuity: the figures are no less ably executed with the needle than they would have been if Antonio had painted them with the pencil; and for this we are largely indebted to the one master for his design, as well as to the other for his patience in embroidering it. This work required twenty-six years for its completion, being wholly in the close stitch, which, to say nothing of its durability, makes the work appear as if it were a real picture limned with the pencil; but the excel-