much indebted to Andrea, in that
he enriched the one with many rules of measurement and devices for
drawing weights, and with a degree of diligence that had not been
employed before, and in the other he brought his marble to perfection
with marvellous judgment, care, and mastery.

FOOTNOTE:

[3] See note on p. 57, Vol. I.

BENEDETTO DA ROVEZZANO

LIFE OF BENEDETTO DA ROVEZZANO

SCULPTOR

Great, I think, must be the displeasure of those who, having executed
some work of genius, yet, when they hope to enjoy the fruits of this in
their old age, and to see the beautiful results achieved by other
intellects in works similar to their own, and to be able to perceive
what perfection there may be in that field of art that they themselves
have practised, find themselves robbed by adverse fortune, by time, by a
bad habit of body, or by some other cause, of the sight of their eyes;
whence they are not able, as they were before, to perceive either the
deficiencies or the perfection of men whom they hear of as living and
practising their own professions. And even more are they grieved to hear
the praises of the new masters, not through envy, but because they are
not able to judge, like others, whether that fame be well-deserved or
not.

This misfortune happened to Benedetto da Rovezzano, a sculptor of
Florence, of whom we are now about to write the Life, to the end that
the world may know how able and practised a sculptor he was, and with
what diligence he carved marble in strong relief against its ground in
the marvellous works that he made. Among the first of many labours that
this master executed in Florence, may be numbered a chimney-piece of
grey-stone that is in the house of Pier Francesco Borgherini, wherein
are capitals, friezes, and many other ornaments, carved by his hand in
open-work with great diligence. In the house of Messer Bindo Altoviti,
likewise, is a chimney-piece by the same hand, with a lavatory of
marble, and some other things executed with much delicacy; but
everything in these that has to do with architecture was designed by
Jacopo Sansovino, then a young man.

Next, in the year 1512, Benedetto received the commission for a tomb of
marble, with rich ornaments, in the principal chapel of the Carmine in
Florence, for Piero Soderini, who had been Gonfalonier in that city; and
that work was executed by him with incredible diligence, seeing that,
besides foliage, carved emblems of death, an