Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/448

440 portal of the governor’s palace, which portal, as a work in the purest and most correct taste, has been infinitely commended by every one. Giovan-Maria likewise erected two very beautiful gates for the city, one, called that of San Giovanni, which opens on the road to Vicenza, and is particularly handsome, as well as commodious for the soldiers who guard the same; the other, called that of Savonarola, and which is a work giving evidence of much merit and judgment in the architect. The design and model for the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which belongs to the Monks of San Domenico, were in like manner given by Falconetto, who also laid the foundations of that building. This work, as may be seen by the model, is so admirably arranged as well as so beautiful, that one of equal size which could be in all respects compared with it has perhaps never been seen in any other place. The model of a most superb palace was likewise prepared by Giovan-Maria for the Signor Girolamo Savorgnano, at his strongly fortified castle of XJsopo in Friuli: the foundations were laid and the walls had begun to rise above the earth, but the Signor Girolamo having died, the work remained at that point and never proceeded further; had it been completed it would without doubt have been a most magnificent erection.

About this time, Falconetto repaired to Polo in Istria for the sole purpose of examining and designing the Theatre, Amphitheatre, and Arch of Triumph still remaining in that most ancient city. Giovan-Maria was the first by whom theatres and amphitheatres were thus designed and by whom their ground plans were first made out, for all that we see in this kind, more especially as regards Verona, proceed from him and were caused to be painted or engraved by others after his designs. This master had a great and most exalted mind, he had never given his attention to works less important than the best and grandest of those remaining from the ancient masters, and had no other wish than that of being