Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/282

274 ministration, and employ the whole sum in the construction of the octagonal choir of the church, and in the ornaments required for the altar: or to use those moneys for the embellishment of the stairs, the seats for the Duke, and the magistracy,. and the stalls for the canons, chaplains, and clerks required in the choir, all which he said ought to be executed in a manner worthy of so important a building.

Now in respect to this choir, Filippo di Ser Brunellesco had left the model of that simple frame-work of wood, which first served as the choir of the church, intending that it should be ultimately constructed of marble, in the same form, but with a richer and more elaborate decoration. Baccio therefore perceived clearly that, if he could prevail on the Duke to complete this choir, it would furnish him with occasion for executing many statues and stories in marble and bronze for the high altar as well as around the whole choir, to say nothing of the two pulpits which were to be of marble; he furthermore considered that on the external side of the choir there might likewise be placed various historical representations in bronze, inserted within the ornamental frame-work of marble, forming the basement on all the eight faces of the choir. Above this basement, moreover, Baccio intended to erect a range of columns and pilasters, which were to support the cornices all round, with four arches, one directed towards each aisle and transept, divided according to the cross-aisles of the church, the principal entrance to the choir being one of these arches, and being opposite to that of the high altar, while two others, standing one on the left and one on the right hand, were to receive beneath them the two pulpits. Lastly, Baccio designed to raise a gallery above the cornice and round the eight walls, which gallery was to be surmounted by a range of chandeliers, to the end that the choir might be in a manner crowned with lights at fixed times and on certain occasions, as had ever been the custom while the model in wood erected by Brunellesco was still there.

Placing all these things before the Duke, Baccio assured his Excellency that the revenues of the Administration of Works, that of Santa Maria del Fiore namely, and of the Superintendents of Works to that cathedral, with the sums to be expected from his own liberality, would suffice in a