Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/235

Rh design. While still occupied with the above-named river therefore, he began to model a story in wax, which was afterwards to be cast in bronze; the height being somewhat more than a braccio, and the width three quarters of a braccio. In this he represented two of the Count’s sons as dead, one in the act of expiring, and the fourth, exhausted by hunger and almost at extremity, but not yet arrived at the last breath. The father, blind with grief and in the most dolorous and pitiable attitude, goes stumbling over the miserable remains of his hapless children, which lie extended on the earth. In this work II Vinci was no less happy in setting forth the powers of design, than Dante had been in displaying the excellence of poetry, seeing that he who beholds these events as represented in the wax of the sculptor, is moved to compassion no less forcibly than are those who listen to the words and accents imprinted on the living page of the poet.

To mark the site where the event delineated in the rilievo occurred, Piero has caused the river Arno to occupy the whole of the foreground, the before-mentioned tower in Pisa being but a very short distance from the Arno. On the tower itself there is an undraped figure, dry, attenuated, and of terror-stricken aspect, which represents Famine, and is much in the manner wherein she is described by Ovid. Having finished his work in wax, Piero cast the story in bronze, when the work was extolled by all the court as well as by every one who beheld it, all being greatly pleased therewith.*

Duke Cosimo was at that time deeply intent on the advantage and embellishment of the city of Pisa; he had already caused the Piazza del Mercato to be restored, and had a large number of shops erected around it, as also a column in the centre, the latter not less than ten braccia high, and on the summit thereof, according to the plan of Luca, was to be placed a statue of Riches. Martini having spoken to the Duke therefore, and presenting Piero to his Excellency, obtained a very willing assent from the Duke, who entrusted the young artist with that work, having always been ready to assist men of ability, and to bring for-