Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/26

18 by the guard; whereas the Ascolani, as well as other people, having supposed that it could not be put forward to that extent under a lapse of years, stood confounded on seeing the garrison so instantly appointed and installed;—the people, I say, remained looking at each other in utter astonishment, and could with difficulty credit what their eyes beheld. For his own house in the Strada Giulia at Rome, Antonio subsequently made new foundations; these being needful for the better defence of the same against the floods of the Tiber; and he not only began but also completed a great part of the palace near San Biagio, which he then inhabited himself, but which is now the property of the Cardinal Riccio da Montepulciano, who has added many beautiful rooms thereto, and decorated the whole at a great cost in addition to what had been expended by Antonio, which was not less than many thousands of scudi.

But all the works performed by Antonio da San Gallo for the use and advantage of the world, were as nothing in comparison with the model of the most venerable and most stupendous fabric of San Pietro at Rome, which, having been first planned by Bramante, was afterwards re-arranged and enlarged in a most extraordinary manner, and after a new plan by himself, who imparted its due dignity to the whole as well as correct proportion and befitting arrangement to every separate part. The truth of this assertion may be seen by the model made of wood and finished at every point with the utmost exactitude, by the hand of San Gallo’s disciple, Antonio Labacco. This model, by which San Gallo acquired a very great increase of fame, was engraved and published after his death, together with the ground-plan of the whole edifice, by Antonio Labacco, who proposed thereby to make known the extent of ability possessed by San Gallo, and also to the end that all men might learn what had been the real opinions and intentions of that architect, seeing that new orders of a totally opposite character had been given by Michelagnolo, and out of these changes and new arrangements there had arisen many disputes and contentions, as