Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/426

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lives of the artists.

For Messer Bindo Altoviti he directed the construction of a most costly Chimney-piece, in macigno, finely carved by Benedetto da Rovezzano, and which was erected in his house at Florence, where Sansovino executed a Story in small figures with his own hand, as the Frieze of that chimneypiece; representing therein the God Vulcan and other heathen deities, all of great beauty. But most beautiful of all were two Boys placed on the summit of this work, and supporting the Arms of the Altoviti family; but these have been taken away by the Signor Don Luigi di Toledo (who now dwells in the house of Messer Bindo,) and have been placed on a Fountain in the garden, which Don Luigi possesses behind the Servite Monastery.

Two other Children of extraordinary beauty, also in marble and by the hand of this master, are in the house of Giovan Francesco Ridolfi; these being likewise the supporters of an Escutcheon of Arms. The works here described, caused Sansovino to bv. considered a most excellent and graceful artist by all Florence, and by every one connected with art; wherefore Giovanni Bartolini, having built a house in the Gualfonda, requested him to execute a Bacchus in marble, represented by a youth the size of life; when, the model being made by Sansovino, was found to be entirely satisfactory, and Giovanni having supplied him with the marble, he set to work with a good will, that gave wings both to his thoughts and hands. But the figure was not hastily done; on the contrary, he studied it with the most intense care, and to promote the perfection of the form, he set himself to copy the figure of a certain disciple of his, called Pippo del Fabbro,^[1] whom he kept standing naked the greater part of the day.

Having completed this statue, it was adjudged to be the best ever executed by a modern master, Sansovino having overcome a difficulty no longer attempted; one arm of the

↑ “The Blacksmith’s Joe” that is to say. Of this poor boy, our author, in his first edition, remarks that he would have become an able artist, but he adds the melancholy conclusion that this long remaining unclothed during cold weather or the severity of his studies, destroyed his health, and disturbed his mind, he was perpetually placing himself in the attitude of the Bacchus, or in that appropriate to other statues, in which he would stand for hours together, silent and immoveable, as if he were in fact a statue. In this condition he remained, with few intervals, until his early death.

[1] “The Blacksmith’s Joe” that is to say. Of this poor boy, our author, in his first edition, remarks that he would have become an able artist, but he adds the melancholy conclusion that this long remaining unclothed during cold weather or the severity of his studies, destroyed his health, and disturbed his mind, he was perpetually placing himself in the attitude of the Bacchus, or in that appropriate to other statues, in which he would stand for hours together, silent and immoveable, as if he were in fact a statue. In this condition he remained, with few intervals, until his early death.

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