Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/332

324 of hand, he could do things, as it were, on the spur of the moment, and without any previous preparation, whereby he would surpass many who did, in fact, know much more than himself. Nor would it be possible adequately to describe the skill and rapidity with which he executed his works, they were incredibly great; once Doceno set himself to his labour, at whatever time it might be, he gave his whole heart to it, and always made it a pleasure: never did he lift his head from his task; and very safely might the utmost success be predicted for whatever was undertaken by Cristofano. He was besides so amusing in conversation, and would talk so pleasantly while he laboured, that Vasari would sometimes remain working in his company from morning till night, without ever feeling fatigued.

This façade our artist completed in a ew months, to say nothing of the fact that he passed some weeks at the Borgo, visiting his family, and enjoying his restoration to his coun try and civil rights. Nor will I refuse the labour of enumerating the compartments, and describing the figures of the work in question; for, exposed as it is to the air, and liable as the pictures are to all the injuries of the seasons, it may perhaps not have a long life; the façade was indeed scarcely finished before it received considerable damage from a torrent of rain and a violent hail-storm, the intonaco having been in some places torn from the wall.

In this façade, then, there are three compartments: the first beginning from below, and being at that part of the front where are the two windows and the principal door; the second is from the cornice of those windows to the windows of the next floor; and the third extends from the last-mentioned windows to the cornice immediately beneath the roof. Now in each range of windows there are six, which gives seven compartments for each range; and it was in accordance with this number that the divisions of the whole work were made, from the cornice of the roof to the ground. Immediately beneath the roof is a cornice painted in perspective, with corbels which project over a frieze composed of children, six of whom stand upright, along the width of the building, one on the uppermost