Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/256

248 Benedetto constructed a level ceiling decorated with gilded rosettes, which is much admired.

Having purchased an estate at about half a mile from Prato, beyond the gate leading towards Florence, Benedetto built a very beautiful little chapel on the high-road, at no great distance from the gate. In a recess of this building he placed a figure of Our Lady with the Child in her arms, which is only in terra-cotta, and although of no other colour than that of the clay, is so admirably executed that its beauty is equal to that of marble.The same may be said of two angels, each holding a light in his hand, placed by the artist over all, by way of ornament. The decoration of the altar consists of a Dead Christ, the Madonna, and San Giovanni, executed in marble, and singularly beautiful. At his death this master left in his house the commencement of many other works, both in terra-cotta and marble.

Benedetto da Maiano drew extremely well, as may be seen by certain drawings preserved in our book. He died in the year 1498, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and was interred by his friends in San Lorenzo. His property was bequeathed, after the death of certain relatives, to the brotherhood of the Bigallo.

While Benedetto, still a youth, was employed in woodwork and tarsia, he had among his competitors Baccio Cellini, piper to the Signoria of Florence, who executed many admirable inlaid works in ivory. Among others was an octagon decorated with figures in ivory, outlined in black, and of great beauty, v/hich is now in the guardaroba of the Lord Duke. Girolamo della Cecca, a pupil of Baccio Cellini, and also piper to the Signoria, in like manner executed various works in tarsia at the same time; and contemporary with these was David of Pistoja, by whom the San Giovanni, of inlaid work, which is now at the entrance to the choir in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Pistoja,