the said Chapel of the Sacrament from the old Sacristy. And over
the sarcophagus, to fill up the embrasure right up to the vaulting, he
made a grating of bronze ropes in a pattern of mandorle, most natural,
and adorned in certain places with festoons and other beautiful things
of fancy, all remarkable and executed with much mastery, judgment, and
invention.

Now Donatello had made for the Tribunal of Six of the Mercanzia that
marble shrine which is now opposite to S. Michael, in the Oratory of
Orsanmichele, and for this there was to have been made a S. Thomas in
bronze, feeling for the wound in the side of Christ; but at that time
nothing more was done, for some of the men who had the charge of this
wished to have it made by Donatello, and others favoured Lorenzo
Ghiberti. Matters stood thus as long as Donatello and Ghiberti were
alive; but finally the said two statues were entrusted to Andrea, who,
having made the models and moulds, cast them; and they came out so
solid, complete, and well made, that it was a most beautiful casting.
Thereupon, setting himself to polish and finish them, he brought them
to that perfection which is seen at the present day, which could not be
greater than it is, for in S. Thomas we see incredulity and a too great
anxiety to assure himself of the truth, and at the same time the love
that makes him lay his hand in a most beautiful manner on the side of
Christ; and in Christ Himself, who is raising one arm and opening His
raiment with a most spontaneous gesture, and dispelling the doubts of
His incredulous disciple, there are all the grace and divinity, so to
speak, that art can give to any figure. Andrea clothed both these
figures in most beautiful and well-arranged draperies, which give us to
know that he understood that art no less than did Donato, Lorenzo, and
the others who had lived before him; wherefore this work well deserved
to be set up in a shrine made by Donatello, and to be ever afterwards
held in the greatest price and esteem.

Now the fame of Andrea could not go further or grow greater in that
profession, and he, as a man who was not content with being excellent in
one thing only, but desired to become the same in others as well by
means of study, turned his mind to painting, and so made the cartoons
for a battle of nude figures, very well drawn with the pen, to be
afterwards painted in colours on a wall. He also made the cartoons for
some historical pictures, and afterwards b