of God the Father
and those angels that are still there. It is said that the Magnificent
Lorenzo de' Medici, conversing one day with Graffione, who was an
original, said to him, "I wish to have all the ribs of the inner cupola
adorned with mosaic and stucco-work;" and that Graffione replied, "You
have not the masters." To which Lorenzo answered, "We have enough money
to make some." Graffione instantly retorted, "Ah, Lorenzo, 'tis not the
money that makes the masters, but the masters that make the money." This
man was a bizarre and fantastic person. In his house he would never eat
off any table-cloth save his own cartoons, and he slept in no other bed
than a chest filled with straw, without sheets.

But to return to Alesso; he took leave of his art and of his life in
1448, and he was honourably buried by his relatives and
fellow-citizens.

[Illustration: THE TRINITY

(_After the panel by =Graffione=. Florence: S. Spirito_)

_Alinari_]

VELLANO DA PADOVA

LIFE OF VELLANO DA PADOVA

SCULPTOR

So great is the effect of counterfeiting anything with love and
diligence, that very often, when the manner of any master of these our
arts has been well imitated by those who take delight in his works, the
imitation resembles the thing imitated so closely, that no difference is
discerned save by those who have a sharpness of eye beyond the ordinary;
and it rarely comes to pass that a loving disciple fails to learn, at
least in great measure, the manner of his master.

Vellano da Padova strove with so great diligence to counterfeit the
manner and the method of Donato in sculpture, particularly in bronze,
that in his native city of Padua he was left the heir to the excellence
of the Florentine Donatello; and to this witness is borne by his works
in the Santo, which nearly every man that has not a complete knowledge
of the matter attributes to Donato, so that every day many are deceived,
if they are not informed of the truth. This man, then, fired by the
great praise that he heard given to Donato, the sculptor of Florence,
who was then working in Padua, and by a desire for those profits that
come into the hands of good craftsmen through the excellence of their
works, placed himself under Donato in order to learn sculpture, and
devoted himself to it in such a manner, that, with the aid of so great a
master, he finally achieved his purpose; wherefore, before Donatello had
finished his works and departed from Padu