Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/547

Rh the door of San Sepolcro, in Milan, and is an admirable work: after having done this, I say, Bramantino furthermore depicted the Nativity of Christ Our Saviour, in fresco, on a façade of the Mint; and in the church of Santa Maria di Brera he painted the Birth of the Madonna, with figures of Prophets on the doors which close the organ in that church. The figures in this last-mentioned work are foreshortened admirably, and there is a view in perspective, which is also exceedingly well done; but this does not surprise me, that master having always delighted in the details of architecture, with which he was well acquainted.

Indeed I remember to have seen in the possession of Valerio Vicentino, a very beautiful book filled with designs of antiquities, the measurements and execution of which were wholly by the hand of Bramantino; it comprised those existing in Lombardy, and gave the plans of many renowned edifices, which I did myself design from that book, being then a youth. There was the church of Sant’ Ambrogio in Milan, for example, which had been erected by the Lombards, and was filled with pictures and works in sculpture, after the Greek manner: it bad a circular apsis of considerable extent, but which was not well considered, as respects the architecture. This church was subsequently, and in the time of Bramantino, rebuilt after his design, when it received the addition of a portico in stone, on one of the sides, the columns being formed to resemble trees that have been cut down, and having a new and peculiar effect.

In the same book was the ancient portico of the church of San Lorenzo, in the city of Milan, and this portico is a vast