Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/453

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galeazzo alessi.
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over the two bastions and the gate. This is continued over the pier also, in the manner of a cavalier, and defends the port from all attack, whether from within or without. The work is now completed, and the city is furthermore about to be enlarged and beautified after the designs of the same master, who is acquiring great honour by these and other works. The model he has exhibited has already been approved by the Signoria, and the new Street which he has laid out in Genoa has so many palaces in the modern manner, erected along the range thereof after his designs, that many affirm it to be as magnificent a street as can be found in any city of Italy; nay, for the many rich palaces which the Genoese nobles have built by the persuasions and under the direction of Galeazzo, to say nothing of its noble width and extent, some declare that it has no equal. All the Genoese confess themselves greatly indebted to the architect meanwhile, he having been the inventor as well as executor of works by which their city is so much embellished. Galeazzo has laid out other streets leading from Genoa, and among them that which, departing from the Ponte Decimo, commences the road into Lombardy. He has restored the city wall towards the sea, moreover, and has added the Tribune with a Cupola to the Cathedral. Many private residences have been constructed by this master, the Country House of Messer Luca Justiniano for example, with that of the Signor Attaviano Grimaldi. The Palaces of two Doges are in like manner among his works, as is one for the Signor Pattista Grimaldi and many others, which need no further mention.

But I will not omit to say that the Lake and Island so beautifully adorned with rich and fancifully decorated Fountains, which belongs to the Signor Adano Centurioni, are also of Galeazzo’s design, as is the Fountain of the Captain Learco, near the city, a truly noble work. He lias, indeed, constructed numerous fine fountains for many persons, but more beautiful than all else is the Bath which has been formed after his design, in the house of the Signor Battista Grimaldi at Bisagno. This, which is of a round form, has a basin in the centre within which eight or ten persons can bathe commodiously. Warm water is poured into the basin from four heads of marine monsters, which appear to proceed from the basin itself; while the cold