Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/54

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About the same time, Ludovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, having determined to construct the apsis, or tribune, and the principal chapel in the Nunziata, the church of the Servites in Florence, after the design and model of Leon Batista, caused a small square chapel, very old, and painted in the ancient manner, which was at the upper end of that church, to be demolished, and in its place made the tribune above-mentioned. It has the fanciful and difficult form of a circular temple surrounded by nine chapels, all surmounted by a round arch, and each having the shape of a niche. But as the arches of these chapels are supported by the pilasters in front of them, it follows that the outlines of the stone arch tend constantly backwards towards the wall behind them, while the latter, following the form of the tribune itself, turns in the opposite direction: hence it results, that when the arches of the chapels are regarded from the side, they appear to fall backwards, which gives the whole an unhappy effect, although the proportions are correct: but the mode of treatment is an exceedingly difficult one, and it certainly would have been much better if Leon Batista had avoided the disorders of this method altogether: it is true that the plan is by no means easy of accomplishment, but there is a want of grace both in the whole and in the details, insomuch that it could not possibly have a good effect. And that this is true in respect of the larger parts may be shown by the great arch which forms the entrance to the tribune; for this, which is very beautiful on the outer side, appears on the inner, where it must of necessity turn with the turn of the chapel, which is round, to be falling backwards, and is extremely ungraceful. Leon Batista would, perhaps, not have fallen into this error, if to the knowledge he possessed, and to his theories, he had added the practice and experience acquired by actual working; another would have taken pains to avoid this difficulty, and sought rather to secure grace and beauty to his edifice. The whole work is nevertheless very fanciful and beautiful in itself, as well as diffi-