e beauty and how delicate the carving of a vase filled with flowers,
which was made in this work by the gracious hand of Andrea, who
lavished so much excellence on the plumes of the Angels, the hair, the
grace of their features and draperies, and, in short, on every other
thing, that this divine work cannot be extolled enough. And, in truth,
that most holy place, which was the very house and habitation of the
Mother of the Son of God, could not obtain from the resources of the
world a greater, richer, or more beautiful adornment than that which it
received from the architecture of Bramante and the sculpture of Andrea
Sansovino; although, even if it were entirely of the most precious gems
of the East, it would be little more than nothing in comparison with
such merits.

Andrea spent an almost incredible amount of time over this work, and
therefore had no time to finish the others that he had begun; for, in
addition to those mentioned above, he began in a space on one of the
side-walls the Nativity of Jesus Christ, with the Shepherds and four
Angels singing; and all these he finished so well that they seem to be
wholly alive. But the story of the Magi, which he began above that one,
was afterwards finished by Girolamo Lombardo, his disciple, and by
others. On the back wall he arranged that two large scenes should be
made, one above the other; in one, the Death of Our Lady, with the
Apostles bearing her to her burial, four Angels in the air, and many
Jews seeking to steal that most holy corpse; and this was finished after
Andrea's lifetime by the sculptor Bologna. Below this one, then, he
arranged that there should be made a scene of the Miracle of Loreto,
showing in what manner that chapel, which was the Chamber of Our Lady,
wherein she was born, brought up, and saluted by the Angel, and in which
she reared her Son up to the age of twelve and lived ever after His
Death, was finally carried by the Angels, first into Sclavonia,
afterwards to a forest in the territory of Recanati, and in the end to
the place where it is now held in such veneration and continually
visited in solemn throng by all the Christian people. This scene, I say,
was executed in marble on that wall, according to the arrangement made
by Andrea, by the Florentine sculptor Tribolo, as will be related in due
place. Andrea likewise blocked out the Prophets for the niches, but did
not finish them completely, save one alone, and the others were
afterwards fini