Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/141

Rh Benedetto also took part, as is said, in the figures of the Apostles, four braccia and a half high, for Santa Maria del Fiore, the figure attributed to him being that of San Giovanni Evangelista, which is one of tolerable merit, and evinces good design as well as some practice. This is now in the rooms of the wardens of works together with the others.

In the year 1515, the superior and the more influential brethren of the order of Vallombrosa determined to transfer the body of San Giovanni Gualberto from the abbey of Passignano to the church of the Santa Trinita in Florence, which is also an abbey of the same order. They consequently commissioned Benedetto to prepare the design for a chapel and tomb, adorned with a large number of figures in full relief and of the size of life, all to be duly arranged, among the compartments of the work, in certain niches, to be prepared for that purpose; with columns, pilasters, rich friezes, and an infinite variety of fanciful ornaments, the whole of which were to be delicately carved: beneath the entire work there was also to be extended a basement, one braccio and a half in height, and here there were to be represented certain events from the life of the said San Giovanni Gualberto, while other decorations of various kinds were to be placed around the sarcophagus, and to be employed in other parts also, as the completion of the work.

At this monument therefore Benedetto, assisted by numerous carvers, laboured continually for ten years, to the great cost of that Brotherhood; the work was to be executed until its ultimate completion in the house of the Guarlondo, a place near San Salvi, outside the gate of the Croce, where the General of the order, who had commanded the erection of that monument, made his almost constant dwelling-place. This undertaking, both chapel and tomb, was carried forward by Benedetto, in a manner which caused the utmost surprise and admiration to all Florence, but as fate would.