Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/198

190 his Court; to this Duke Cosimo was encouraged by Maestro Piero da San Casciano, who was considered in those days to he a tolerably good master and had been much in the service of the Signora Maria, mother of the Duke;* Piero had besides been always employed as a builder by the house of Medici, and was an ancient servant of the Signor Giovanni. The Duke now resolved to bring certain waters which he had long wished to conduct thither, to that place; the acqueduct, which was at once begun, was designed to receive all the waters from the height of the Castellina, a place distant somewhat more than a quarter of a mile from Castello; and the work, at which a good number of men were set to labour, was carried vigorously forward.

But the Duke knew that Maestro Piero had neither invention nor knowledge of design, sufficient to enable him to make such a commencement of the undertaking, as should permit of the place receiving, in due time, that character of ornament and those decorations, which the site and the waters deserved and required; one day therefore, that his Excellency was at Castello, and was speaking of this matter with other persons, among whom were Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici, and Cristofano Rinieri a friend of Tribolo, and an old servant of the Signora Maria and of the Duke; these two then so extolled the above-named artist, whom they described as a man endowed with all the qualities that should be assembled in the superintendent of such a fabric, that the Duke immediately gave Cristofano the commission to summon his friend from Bologna. This Rinieri did without loss of time, and Tribolo, who could have received no more agreeable intelligence than that of his appointment to serve the Duke Cosimo, came instantly to Florence, where being arrived, he was conducted to Castello. There his most Illustrious Excellency, having heard from his lips what he thought it would be well to do for the suitable decoration of those fountains, gave him the commission at once to preoare the models.

To these Tribolo immediately set hand, and was proceeding with them, while Maestro Piero da San Casciano was constructing the aqueduct and leading the water to the