Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/20

12 chapels are constructed, and the larger one in the middle aisle. Now this work does certainly merit to be celebrated as the best which Antonio ever performed, and that not without reasonable cause, for while he who constructs an entirely new building, erecting it from its foundations, has full power to raise or lower it at his pleasure, and to bring it to such perfection as he will or can, without impediment of any kind; he, on the contrary, who has to rectify or restore the edifice commenced by others, but who have succeeded badly, either by misfortune or by the inability of the artist, finds himself to possess none of these advantages; wherefore, it may be truly affirmed, that Antonio resuscitated the dead, and performed that which was all but impossible. Having effected all that we have related, the master then arranged for the covering of the church with lead, and gave directions for the manner in which all that still remained to be completed should be done; insomuch, that by his endeavours this most renowned temple may be said to have received a better form, and more perfect grace, than it had previously possessed, with the hope also of a very long duration.

Prom Loretto Antonio returned to Rome, which he did after that city had been plundered, and when the Pope was abiding in Orvieto. The whole court was then suffering the utmost inconvenience from the want of water; for which cause, and by command of the Pontiff, Antonio constructed a fountain for the city of Orvieto, sinking the well for that purpose, and executing the work entirely in stone, the width being twenty-five braccia, and the descent by a winding stair. This is cut in the Tufa, one step above another, according to the winding of the path to the well, to the bottom of which one descends by these spiral stairs with all convenience; and the animals which carry the water, entering by one door, descend by one of these planes or steps, and having arrived at the platform where they take in their load, they receive the water, and, without turning round, they pass to the other branch of the spiral ascent which turns over that by which they descended, and thus emerge from the well by a different and opposite door to that by which they entered it. This construction, which was a most ingenious, useful, and admirably beautiful work, had almost