Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/221

Rh fires at every place where such are demanded, until the whole is accomplished. And hereby may various circumstances be exhibited, but those selected are for the most part in relation to things prepared by fire, or to persons punished by that element. Thus there had long before been represented the Flight of Lot and his Daughters from the condemned City, and the Story of Gerion with Yirgil and Dante in the lower regions, as we find it related by Dante himself in his Inferno; nay, even previously to these there had been the representation of Orpheus bringing back Eurydice with him from those infernal abodes, with many other subjects of similar kind.

His Excellency therefore commanded that the preparation of the Girandola should not on that occasion be left to such simpletons as more than once before had exhibited a thousand absurdities in these works, but should be placed in charge of an eminent master, who might produce something really good. He thus commissioned Tribolo to take the direction of the matter; and that artist, with the ability and judgment always displayed in his undertakings, constructed a framework in the form of a beautiful Temple, having eight sides, and rising with its decorations to a height of twenty braccia. This temple was intended to exhibit that of Peace, and on the summit was a statue of the goddess, setting fire to a great heap of Arms, which she had at her feet. These arms, the statue of Peace, and all the other figures, which gave a most beautiful aspect to that structure, were all formed with pasteboard, clay, and waxed cloth, but in the most artistic manner; these materials being used to the end that the whole work should be as light as possible, seeing that it had to be suspended by a double rope, which, crossing the Piazza at a great height, upheld the same above the earth.

It is true that the inflammable materials had been laid too thickly within the building, and the matches also were placed too close together, insomuch that when they were once kindled, the fury of the fire was such that the fabric burst into flame at all points, and was consumed as by lightning, whereas it ought to have continued burning at least for an hour. But what was worse, the fire seized on the wood-work and all that should have been preserved, consuming the ropes and everything besides in an instant, to the great destruction