Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/143

But to return to Benedetto; it was indeed a great misfortune that all his labours, as well as the cost expended by that religious order, should have so unhappily come to that deplorable end. The architecture and arrangement of the gate and vestibule of the abbey of Florence ‘are due to this master, as are several of the chapels in that edifice, among others that of San Stefano, which was constructed by the Pandolfini family.^[1]

At a later period Benedetto was invited into England to take service with the king of that country, for whom he executed many works in marble and bronze, but more especially the tomb of his majesty. By these labours he obtained such large rewards from the liberality of that monarch, as to be supplied with the means of living at his ease for the remainder of his days. He returned to Florence, therefore; but after he had there completed a few small works, a kind of dizziness, from which he had suffered in England, and which had then begun to affect his eyes, increased to so painful a degree as to occasion him much pain; other causes contributed to the evil, among which, as it is said, was the having stood too long near the fire while engaged in the founding of metals: from these, or whatever else may have been the disposing circumstances, Benedetto became gradually incapable of distinguishing objects, and finally the sight^of his eyes was totally lost; he ceased his labours, therefore, in the year 1550,^[2] and died a few years after.

Benedetto endured the blindness which afflicted him during the last years of his life with Christian patience and resignation, thanking God for having permitted him first to provide himself by the fruit of his labours with the means cf living honourably. A good and courteous man was Benedetto,

A tiranni airocissimi ed a mostri,
E dà lor forza e di mal fare ingegno:
Per questo Mario e Silla pose al Mondo,
E duo Neroni e Cajo furibundo.

1. The access to the chapel of St. Stephen is through the corridor, which serves as a vestibule to the church. —Ed. Flor. 1832 -8.
2. In the year 1550 it was that Vasari’s first edition was published, and he then remarks that Benedetto, “old and blind, had ceased to work since the year 1540, but having prudently managed the gains won by his labours, he can still live in comfort, although fortune has turned her back on hiraj and he endures all her insults most patiently.”