Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/474

466 such great cost, and one to be erected in a place so renowned, Bandinello, if he did not himself appreciate the beauties of architecture or comprehend its details, should have obtained the assistance of some one among his contemporaries who might have been competent both by knowledge and practice to do better. Griuliano is nevertheless well worthy of excuse, since he did the best he could according to his ability, which was not small. It is, however, certain that no one who has not great powers of design, and is not gifted with rich invention, will ever attain to perfection in compositions which affect great and noble edifices, seeing that such men must be ever too poor in judgment, and too much wanting in grace, to be capable of carrying into effect important undertakings in architecture.

For Filippo Strozzi, Giuliano executed a couch of repose in walnut wood; this is now at Citta di Castello, in possession of the heirs of Signor Alessandro Vitelli; he also undertook to prepare a very rich and beautiful frame-work for a picture painted by Giorgio Vasari for the high altar of the Abbey of Camaldoli in the Casentino, and after a design given to him by the above-named Giorgio. In the church of Sant’ Agostino, at Monte Sansovino, Giuliano made another framework richly carved, for a large picture also painted by Vasari, as he did also at Ravenna, in respect to another work painted by Giorgio for the Abbey of Classi, and for which, in like manner, Giuliano executed a rich and beautiful frame-work. For the monks of the Abbey of Santa Flora, in Arezzo, he prepared the frames of all the pictures in their refectory, which are likewise by the hand of Giorgio Vasari.

In the episcopal church of the same city, Giuliano constructed a Choir of walnut wood behind the high altar, and this he did after a design of Giorgio Vasari, according to which it became needful to move the altar somewhat forward; and ultimately, but a short time before his death, he made the rich and beautiful Ciborium or Tabernacle of the Holy Sacrament for the high altar of the Nunziata, with the two angels carved in wood, and in full relief, which stand on each side of the same; and this was the last work executed