them than of the inept and vulgar.

Now, after being created Pontiff in the year 1431, Pope Eugenius IV,
hearing that the Florentines were having the doors of S. Giovanni made
by Lorenzo Ghiberti, conceived a wish to try to make one of the doors of
S. Pietro in like manner in bronze. But since he had no knowledge of
such works, he entrusted the matter to his ministers, with whom Antonio
Filarete, then a youth, and Simone, the brother of Donatello, both
sculptors of Florence, had so much interest, that the work was allotted
to them. Putting their hands to this, therefore, they toiled for twelve
years to complete it; and although Pope Eugenius fled from Rome and was
much harassed by reason of the Councils, yet those who had charge of S.
Pietro contrived to prevent that work from being abandoned. Filarete,
then, wrought that door in low-relief, making a simple division, with
two upright figures in each part--namely, the Saviour and the Madonna
above, and S. Peter and S. Paul below; and at the foot of S. Peter is
that Pope on his knees, portrayed from life. Beneath each figure,
likewise, there is a little scene from the life of the Saint that is
above; below S. Peter, his crucifixion, and below S. Paul, his
beheading; and beneath the Saviour and the Madonna, also, some events
from their lives. At the foot of the inner side of the said door, to
amuse himself, Antonio made a little scene in bronze, wherein he
portrayed himself and Simone and their disciples going with an ass laden
with good cheer to take their pleasure in a vineyard. But since they
were not always at work on the said door during the whole of those
twelve years, they also made in S. Pietro some marble tombs for Popes
and Cardinals, which were thrown to the ground in the building of the
new church.

[Illustration: BRONZE DOORS

(_After =Antonio Filarete=. Rome: S. Peter's_)

_Alinari_]

After these works, Antonio was summoned to Milan by Duke Francesco
Sforza, then Gonfalonier of Holy Church (who had seen his works in
Rome), to the end that there might be made with his design, as it
afterwards was, the Albergo de' poveri di Dio,[1] which is a hospital
that serves for sick men and women, and for the innocent children born
out of wedlock. The division for the men in this place is in the form of
a cross, and extends 160 braccia in all directions; and that of the
women is the same. The width is 16 braccia, and within the four square
sides that enclose the cro