Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/473

Rh of the building, who required his aid in the preparation of a plan and model in wood for certain fantasies of figures and other ornaments, which Bandinello proposed using in the construction of the high altar of marble for Santa Maria del Fiore; all which Giuliano, who was a kindly and obliging man, did willingly, partly because he delighted in architecture as much as Bandinello despised it, and partly as being attracted by the promises of honour and profit which were largely made to him by the sculptor. Giuliano, I say then, set hand to the model thus required, which he made in tolerably close conformity with the simple arrangement which had been ordered by Bandinello, with this difierence, that he enriched it by doubling the columns and constructing an arch at the completion of the upper part, which he finished entirely.

This model, together with many designs, being then taken to the Duke Cosimo, it was determined, in the regal mind of his most illustrious Excellency, that not only the altar, but also the entire decoration of the eight sides of the choir, should all be executed in marble according to the ancient order, but with all those rich ornaments which have since been brought to completion in a manner worthy of the grandeur and magnificence of the Temple. Giuliano, therefore, with the assistance of Bandinello, commenced the construction of that choir, without altering anything excepting only the principal entrance to the same, which, being opposite to the altar above-mentioned, he was desirous of having exactly similar to the altar itself, with the same arch and the same decorations. He also constructed two other arches together with those of the entrance and the high altar which form a kind of cross, and here, according to the old arrangement, were two chancels for the music and other ceremonial observances, to be performed in the choir and at the altar.

Around the eight sides of the choir, Giuliano erected a range of Ionic columns, and at each angle he placed a pilaster, which curved towards the centre; in the midst of each side was another pilaster, but as each was gradually diminished from the point where it approached the centre, it was very narrow and much curved on the inside, while on the outer side it was very sharp and broad, a contrivance that was not much approved, nor could it be commended as beautiful by any one possessing judgment in the matter. For a work of