Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/436

424 there are six stories of mezzo-rilievo, in bronze, by his hand. They are one braccio high, and one and a half long: the subjects are taken from the Life of the Evangelist; they are to be placed around a pulpit, and are greatly admired for their variety. Over the door of the same Church is a Madonna in marble, also by Jacopo; it is the size of life, and considered very beautiful. The bronze door of the Sacristy divided into two parts, and adorned with Stories from the Life of Christ, admirably executed, are in like manner by his hand; and over the Gate of the Arsenal he has erected a fine statue of Our Lady in marble, with the Divine Child in her arms. All these works have not only adorned the city, but have daily increased the renown of Sansovino; they have furthermore caused him to receive frequent proofs or the estimation in which he is held by the Signoria, with gratifying marks of their liberality, while they have procured him the respect and admiration of artists, no work in sculpture or architecture being undertaken in his time at Venice without his advice and concurrence.

And well did Sansovino deserve to be held in esteem by the Venetians, artists, nobles, and people, seeing that by his knowledge and judgment the city has been, so to say, renewed, while he has taught her builders the true science of architecture, as I have said before. Three beautiful statues in stucco, by Jacopo Sansovino, are now to be seen in the hands of his son. These are a Laocoon, a Venus standing upright, and a Madonna surrounded by Angels. They are the most beautiful figures to be found in Venice. This son has also sixty designs for Churches and other buildings, all of Sansovino’s invention, and so beautiful that since the time of the ancients nothing better has been seen, or even imagined. I hear that their owner is about to give them to the world, and has already caused some portions of them to be engraved, together with plates of some of those fine buildings which his father erected in various parts of Italy.

Thus constantly occupied, as we have said, in works public and private—out of the city, as well as in it (for