Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/382

370 tomb, will soon be finished and in their places. The work is at the cost of Leonardo Buonarroti, with the exception of the marbles; but his Excellency, that nothing may be wanting to the honour of so great a man, proposes to place his bust with an inscription, in the Cathedral, wherein there are the busts and names of many other distinguished Florentines.

Having hitherto treated of such of our artists as are no longer in life among us, from 1200 that is to say, down to the current year 1567, and having, for many reasons, placed at the last Michelagnolo Buonarroti, although two or three have died since his departure, I have now considered that it cannot be other than useful to make mention of many noble artists still living, but well meriting to be enumerated among those already recorded. And this I do the more willingly, because all are my friends and brethren, while the three principal are so far advanced in years that few more labours can now be hoped for from their hands, although custom induces them still to continue working. After these I will also briefly name those who, under their discipline, have attained the first places among the artists of the present day; with a few others, who are proceeding to the acquirement of perfection in their art.