Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/279

Rh hundred crowns, so that there could he no very fair prospect that a work thus remunerated should be speedily brought to an end.

Now, if with all this, Baccio and Giuliano, employed as they were for a work of so much importance, had at least brought the head of that Hall into the true square, as they very well might have done, there would have been some good effected; but of the eight braccia, to which extent the structure was awry, they did not rectify the half, leaving much of their work thereby out of proportion; as, for example, the niche of the centre, with the two principal ones of the sides, which have a stunted look, while the members of the cornices appear to be too slight for so large a building; if, moreover, they had carried the columns to a greater height, as they very easily could have done, they would have imparted an air of more grandeur, better manner, and richer invention to the whole work: had they done these things indeed, and had they raised the last cornice to the level of the old ceiling, they would have displayed more ability and judgment, nor would so great a labour have been expended in vain, or so large an amount of money squandered inconsiderately, as it was afterwards found to have been by those to whom it appertained to set all in order and to finish the whole undertaking, as will be related hereafter.

Nor, in despite of all the pains taken and all the labours endured at a later period, does the observer fail to perceive numerous defects and errors in the entrance to this fabric, as wTell as in the disproportions and inequalities of the niches in the side walls: it has, indeed, been necessary to change the form of some parts entirely, but whatever might be done, it has not been found possible, without totally demolishing the whole, to remedy the defect of the walls being out of square, or to prevent this fault from being apparent, both in the floor and ceiling. It is true that much labour and pains must have been given before the work could have been arranged as Baccio and Giuliano have placed it, and as it now stands; nor is it to be denied that they merit commendation for those portions of the masonry which are exe-