Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/452

440 liberality towards his native city than was the sculptor for the love and care with which he had finished the Grroup.

Ultimately Nanni Bigio devoted himself more especially to architecture, under Antonio da Sangallo, and while the disciple of the latter, Nanni Baccio worked with him at the Church of San Pietro, where he fell from a scaffold sixty braccia high, and hurt himself so grievously that it was a marvel he escaped with life. This artist has erected many buildings both in Rome and without the city; many others and of more important character he has laboured to obtain the care of, as we have said in the Life of Michelagnolo. The Palace of Cardinal Montepulciano in the Strada Gulia is Nanni’s work, as is one of the Gates of Monte Sansavino, erected by order of Pope Julius III., with a reservoir of water not yet finished; a Loggia and entire apartments added to the Palace formerly built by the elder Cardinal di Monte. The house of the Mattel family, with many other edifices, either completed or in course of construction at Rome, are in like manner the work of Nanni Bigio.

The Perugino Galeazzo Alessi is also among the most renowned architects of our day. In his youth he was chamberlain to the Cardinal of Rimini, and among his first works were certain apartments in the Fortress of Perugia, which he rebuilt at the desire of that prelate, completing them in so beautiful a manner and rendering them so commodious, that, the small space he had to work in considered, they caused amazement in all who saw them; the Pope and all his court having been more than once accommodated therein. After the execution of many other works for the same prelate, Galeazzo, to his great honour, was invited to enter the service of the Genoese republic. His first work was to restore and fortify the Port and Pier, which he greatly improved, extending the former into the sea for a considerable distance, and adding a semi-circular haven richly adorned with rustic columns and niches, while at the extremities of the half-circle are two Bastions which defend the same.

On the piazza above the pier and behind the haven, on the side towards the city, Galeazzo furthermore erected a very large Portico of the Boric order, for the accommodation of the Guard; and above this building is a platform for the Artillery, of the same size with itself, and extending besides