Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/475

Rh by the hand of Giuliano, he having departed to a better life in the year 1555.

Domenico, the brother of Giuliano, was by no means inferior in judgment to Giuliano himself; for besides that he carved in wood much better than did Giuliano, he was also very ingenious in works of architecture: of this we have testimony in the house which Bastiano da Montaguto caused to be erected after the design of Domenico, in the Via de’ Servi, where there are also many productions in wood by the hand of Domenico. He completed the angles of the Piazza de’ Mozzi for Agostino del Nero, and built an exceedingly beautiful terrace for those houses of the Nasi family which had been commenced by his father Baccio. Had he not died early, it is indeed believed that Domenico would have greatly surpassed his father as well as Giuliano his brother.

VALERIO VICENTINO, GIOVANNI OF CASTEL BOLOGNESE; MATTEO DAL NASSARO OF VERONA, AND OTHER EMINENT ENGRAVERS OF CAMEOS AND PRECIOUS STONES.

Since the art of engraving oriental stones, and of cutting cameos was carried to such perfection by the Greeks, whose works in that manner may be called divine, I should consider myself to commit no slight error if I v/ere to pass over in silence the men who, in our own times, have imitated those admirable artists, although there has been none among the moderns, as it is said, who, in this present and fortunate age, have surpassed the ancients in delicacy and beauty of design, unless, indeed, it may have been done by those of whom we are now about to speak.

But before I begin my relation, it will be proper that I should make a short discourse in relation to the art of engraving hard stones and jewels, which was lost, after the destruction of Greece and Rome, with the other arts of design. Of these engraved works, whether in relief or intaglio, examples are daily discovered among the ruins of Rome; cameos, carnelians, the sardonyx, and others, admirably cut.