d
the Palace, that a great sum of money had been spent and much time
consumed, and that for all this the work was not half finished and
gained little approval from the people, he set about thinking of some
new fantasy, and began to attempt to remove from the Duke's mind the
thought of the Palace, believing that his Excellency also was weary of
that work. Thus, then, having made enemies of the proveditors and of
all the stone-cutters in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore,
which was under his authority, while the statues that were destined
for the audience-chamber were, after his fashion, some only blocked
out and others finished and placed in position, and the ornamentation
in great part built up, wishing to conceal the many defects that were
in the work and little by little to abandon it, he suggested to the
Duke that the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore were throwing
away his money and no longer doing anything of any importance. He said
that he had therefore thought that his Excellency would do well to
divert all that useless expenditure of the Office of Works into making
the octagonal choir of the church and the ornaments of the altar, the
steps, the daises of the Duke and the magistrates, and the stalls in
the choir for the canons, chaplains, and clerks, according as was
proper for so honourable a church. Of this choir Filippo di Ser
Brunellesco had left the model in that simple framework of wood which
previously served as the choir in the church, intending in time to
have it executed in marble, in the same form, but more ornate. Baccio
reflected, besides the considerations mentioned above, that in this
choir he would have occasion to make many statues and scenes in marble
and in bronze for the high-altar and all around the choir, and also
for two pulpits of marble that were to be in the choir, and that the
base of the outer side of the eight faces might be adorned with many
scenes in bronze let into the marble ornamentation. Above this he
thought to place a range of columns and pilasters to support the
cornice right round, and four arches distributed according to the
cross of the church; of which arches one was to form the principal
entrance, opposite to another rising above the high-altar, and the two
others were to be at the sides, one on the right hand and another on
the left, and below these last two were to be placed the pulpits. Over
the cornice was to be a range of balusters, curving right round a