Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/98

90 ascent not been rendered incommodious by its too great steepness, since it is certain that the steps might have been made to rise more gradually, even in the same amount of space, because that has been done for the Duke Cosimo, by Giorgio Vasari, opposite to those erected by Cronaca, and with no greater extent of room to work in: this last-mentioned staircase being of so gentle an ascent and so commodious, that the mounting them is but very little more fatiguing than going over level ground; and this has been done • by order of the Duke Cosimo, who, in all things, as well as in the government of his people, gives evidence of a most happy genius and the most profound judgment. No expense nor other obstacle is suffered to impede his plans; for which cause all the fortifications and other edifices, public or private, when he has taken them in hand, afford proof of the greatness of his mind; being rendered no less beautiful than useful, and no less useful than beautiful.

His Excellency, therefore, considering that the body of this Hall is the largest, the most magnificent, and the handsomest in all Europe, has resolved that it shall be improved in all those parts which are defective, and that in all other parts it shall be richly decorated after the designs and by the labours of the Aretine, Giorgio Vasari, whom he has commanded to enrich it with ornaments that shall surpass those of all the other edifices in Italy.

The wallshaving been raised therefore, twelve braccia higher than they originally were, so that the height of the building from the ground to the ceiling is now thirty braccia, the rafters wherewith II Cronaca supported the roof have been restored and re-erected after a new arrangement; the old ceiling has also been altered and remodelled, seeing that it was too ordinary, too simple, and altogether unworthy of such a Hall: it has been embellished by a richer variety in the compartments, with more beautiful cornices, adorned with carved work and covered with gold; there have, moreover, been added thirty-nine pictures in oil, of round and octangular forms, the greater part of which are nine braccia in extent, and some of them even larger; these pictures exhibit historical delineations, the larger figures of which are from seven to eight braccia high.

In these paintings are depicted events from the history of