Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/115

Rh the first range of columns: in the central compartment is the Resurrection of Our Saviour Christ in full relief; the figures, which are in marble, being larger than life. On the sides are ranges of columns in like manner, and in the middle, above the before-mentioned tomb, is a figure of Our Lady in mezzo-rilievo, with the Dead Christ: on each side of the Madonna are figures representing King David and St. John the Baptist, St. Andrew and the Prophet Jeremiah occupying the spaces at the opposite end. In the lunettes of the arches and above the greater cornice where are the windows, is a rich decoration in stucco-work, with figures of Children who appear to be employed in adorning those windows. In the angles beneath the cupola are four Sybils also in stucco, works in which material likewise decorate the whole of the vault, being formed into grottesche of various kinds.

Beneath this chapel is a subterraneous chamber, into which there is a descent by means of marble stairs; and having entered it, you perceive a marble tomb at the upper -end with figures of Angels in the form of children above it; and here were to be deposited, after his death, the remains of the above-named Signore, Andrea Doria, as I believe has been done. On an altar placed opposite to the Tomb is a beautiful Vase in bronze, cast and polished most admirably by whomsoever may have done it, and within this vase is laid a piece of the wood of the most holy cross whereon our Saviour Christ was crucified, that morsel of the cross having been given to the Prince Doria by the Duke of Savoy. The walls of this sepulchral chamber are wholly encrusted with marble, and the vault is decorated with stucco-work and gold, exhibiting stories from the life and great deeds of Doria himself; the pavement also is composed of varicoloured marbles and precious stones, the divisions of the same corresponding with those of the vault.

In the transept of the church above are two sepulchral monuments in marble, with tablets in mezzo-rilievo: in one of these lies entombed the Signore, Count Filippino Doria,