red that their
father and mother were both Sienese, and their antecedents were
architects, for the Fontebranda was completed by them in the year
1190, under the government of the three Consols, and in the following
year they founded the Custom House and other buildings of Siena,
under the same consulship. Indeed it is often seen that where the
seeds of talent have existed for a long time they often germinate and
put forth shoots so that they afterwards produce greater and better
fruit than the first plants had done. Thus Agostino and Agnolo added
many improvements to the style of Giovanni and Niccola Pisani, and
enriched art with better designs and inventions, as their works
clearly show. It is said that when Giovanni Pisano returned to Pisa
from Naples in the year 1284, he stopped at Siena to design and found
the facade of the Duomo, where the three principal doors are, so that
it should be entirely adorned with marble. It was then that Agostino,
who was not more than fifteen years of age at the time, associated
with him in order to study sculpture, of which he had learned the
first principles, being no less attracted by that art than by
architecture. Under Giovanni's instruction and by means of
unremitting study he surpassed all his fellow-pupils in design, grace
and style, so that everyone remarked that he was his master's right
eye. And because it is natural to desire for those whom one loves
beyond all other gifts of nature, mind or fortune, that quality of
worth which alone renders men great and noble in this life and
blessed in the next, Agostino took advantage of Giovanni's presence
to secure the same advantages for his younger brother Agnolo; nor was
if very difficult to do so, for the practice already enjoyed by
Agnolo with Agostino and the other sculptors, and the honour and
benefits which he perceived could be gained from this art, had so
inflamed him with a desire to take up the study of sculpture, that he
had already made a few things in secret before the idea had occurred
to Agostino. The elder brother was engaged with Giovanni in making
the marble reliefs for the high altar of the Vescovado of Arezzo,
which has been mentioned above, and he succeeded in securing the
co-operation of Agnolo in that work, who did so well, that when it
was completed, it was found that he had surpassed Agostino in
excellence. When this became known to Giovanni, he employed both
brothers in many other works undertaken by him su