e design is good, and that the craftsman was a man of
judgment and of practised ability. For the Chapel of the Painters of
Siena, in the great Hospital of the Scala, the same man made a beautiful
metal casting of a nude Christ, of the size of life and holding the
Cross in His hand; which work was finished with a love and diligence
worthy of the beautiful success of the casting. In the pilgrim's hall in
the same place there is a scene painted in colours by Lorenzo. Over the
door of S. Giovanni he painted an arch with figures wrought in fresco;
and in like manner, since the baptismal font was not finished, he
wrought for it certain little figures in bronze, besides finishing, also
in bronze, a scene formerly begun by Donatello. In this place two scenes
in bronze had been already wrought by Jacopo della Fonte, whose manner
Lorenzo ever imitated as closely as he was able. This Lorenzo brought
the said baptismal font to perfect completion, adding to it some bronze
figures, formerly cast by Donato but entirely finished by himself, which
are held to be very beautiful.
For the Loggia of the Ufficiali[16] in Banchi Lorenzo made two life-size
figures in marble of S. Peter and S. Paul, wrought with consummate grace
and executed with fine mastery. He disposed the works that he made in
such a manner that he deserves as much praise for them after death as he
did when alive. He was a melancholic and solitary person, ever lost in
contemplation; which was perchance the reason that he did not live
longer, for he passed to the other life at the age of fifty-eight. His
works date about the year 1482.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] The officials of the Mercanzia.
GALASSO FERRARESE
LIFE OF GALASSO FERRARESE[17]
[_GALASSO GALASSI_]
PAINTER
When strangers come to do work in a city in which there are no craftsmen
of excellence, there is always some man whose intelligence is afterwards
stirred to strive to learn that same art, and to bring it about that
from that time onwards there should be no need for strangers to come and
embellish his city and carry away her wealth, which he now labours to
deserve by his own ability, seeking to acquire for himself those riches
that seemed to him too splendid to be given to foreigners. This was made
clearly manifest by Galasso Ferrarese, who, seeing Piero dal Borgo a San
Sepolcro rewarded by the Duke of Ferrara for the works that he executed,
and also honourably received in Ferrara, was incit
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