Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/106

94 extolled. He was afterwards sent to Arezzo, by Maestro Dionisio, who was then General of the Servites, and was eventually made Cardinal by Pope Paul III.; that Dionisio considering himself under great obligations to Angelo the General of his Order at Arezzo, by whom he had been brought up and instructed in good letters; and having commissioned Giovann’ Agnolo to erect a magnificent sepulchral monument of macigno stone in the Church of San Piero, in that city, for the said Aretine General, adorning the same with many carvings and statues. On the Sarcophagus is the figure of the General Angelo, a portrait from the life, with two nude figures of children, in full relief, represented as weeping while they extinguish the torches of human life; there are besides other ornaments, which render that work extremely beautiful; but it was not entirely completed when Giovann’ Agnolo was recalled to Florence, and compelled to depart, his presence being required in the last-named city, by the preparations which the Duke Alessandro was then making for the expected arrival of the Emperor Charles V., who was at that time returning victorious from Tunis.

Having reached Florence, the Frate at once proceeded to construct a colossal figure of eight braccia high, which he placed on a broad pedestal at the Bridge of the Trinità; this, which represented the River Arno, was in a recumbent position, and appeared to be rejoicing with the Rivers— Rhine, Danube, Biagrada, and Ibero, (which had been made by other artists) at the coming of his Majesty; this figure of the Arno was a very good and beautiful one. The same Frate made a statue, twelve braccia high, for the angle of the Carnesecchi, a Jason, Leader of the Argonauts, namely; but this, being as it was of immoderate size, and the time for its preparation being short, was not of equal perfection with the first-mentioned, nor indeed was another, representing Royal Gladness, which the Frate added at the corner of