Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/220

212 covered with jets of flame, and filled with rockets and artificial fireworks of every description, sometimes presenting the form of a temple, sometimes of a ship, sometimes of rocks, or occasionally of a city, or the infernal regions, as might best suit the taste of the inventor. The charge of this work was one year given to Tribolo, who performed his part to admiration, as shall be related below. But as in relation to the various modes of these artificial fires, more especially of those intended to be set off as spectacles on festive occasion, there is a Treatise by the Sienese Vannoccio, and also works by other writers, I will say no more respecting them, but confine myself to a few remarks on these Girandolas.

The whole construction is of wood, with broad spaces, which last increase from the lower part upwards, widening that is to say as they approach the summit, to the end that the rockets, when set alight, shall not interfere with or set fire to each other, but rising into the air, shall there gradually separate to the extent desired, and each giving aid to the other, shall fill the air with a shower of fire, which shall form arches from heaven to earth. The spaces of the machine, I say, are thus contrived to enlarge, that so the fires may not burn all at once, but may form a continuous and beautiful object. The same arrangement is made with regard to other kinds of fireworks, such, for example, as being fast bound to the firm poles of the Girandola, are so contrived as to maintain a continued succession of joyous sounds. Those which are intended to send forth these festive clamours are indeed for the most part distributed among the ornaments of the structure, being not unfrequently made to proceed from the mouths of masks, or things of similar kind.

But the most important consideration in respect to this Girandola is, that the lights which are fixed thereon, in vases of whatever kind, shall be so calculated as to burn throughout the night, thus constantly maintaining the Piazza in a state of illumination. The whole movement of the work is in fact effected by a simple match of tow, which being saturated with a preparation of powder, sulphur, and brandy, gradually makes its way from one point to another, kindling