structed many other fabrics, which shall now be enumerated in their due order.[1]
For the family of the Pazzi, Filippo prepared with his own hand, the model for the chapter-house of Santa Croce, in Florence,[2] a work of great and varied beauty. He likewise made the model of the Busini Palace,[3] a dwelling calculated for two families, as also the model for the house and loggia of the Innocenti,[4] the vaulting of which was completed without scaffolding, a method which is still observed in the present day. It is said that Filippo was invited to Milan, to construct the model of a fortress for the Duke Filippo Maria, and that he left the building of the house of the Innocenti meanwhile to the care of his intimate friend Francesco della Luna.[5] This Francesco made the bordering of an architrave increasing from the upper to the lower part, which is a violation of architectural rules. When Filippo returned, and reproached him for having done such a thing, Francesco replied that he had taken it from the church of San Giovanni, which is antique. “One sole fault,” answered Filippo, “is to be found in that building, and that thou hast imitated.”[6] The model of this edifice, by Filippo’s own hand, was for many years to be seen in the house of the Guild of Por Santa Maria, and was highly valued, as a portion of the fabric still remained to be finished, but it is now lost. Filippo likewise
- ↑ For further details respecting this work, see Moreni, Due vite di Brunelleschi, etc., p. 272, et seq.
- ↑ Brocchi, in his Lives of the Florentine Saints, attributes the erection of this chapter-house to the year 1400, when Brunelleschi was but twenty-three years old.
- ↑ Now the Quaratesi Palace, in the Piazza d’Ognissanti, Nos. 3423, 3424. —Fantozzi, Pianta Geometrica di Firenze.
- ↑ See Gaye, Carteqgio Inedito, i, 549.
- ↑ his Francesco della Luna was the disciple of Brunellesco in architecture. In the archives of the Administration of Works for the Cathedral of Siena, are many of his letters to Messer Caterino di Corsino, warden of that church. —Ed. Flor. 1849.
- ↑ The anonymous biographer is more diffuse than Vasari, when speaking of the audacity and want of judgment betrayed by Francesco della Luna, in frequently departing from the designs of Brunellesco.— Masselli.
In 1812 the building was furnished with lightning conductors, as the Vatican had previously been; and this seems to have sufficiently secured the edifice, which may without exaggeration be called the miracle of architecture.— Masselli.
