ovements in his house at Florence;
although it is true that in the two ground-floor windows, supported by
knee-shaped brackets, which open out upon the street, Giuliano departed
from his usual method, and so cut them up with projections, little
brackets, and off-sets, that they inclined rather to the German manner
than to the true and good manner of ancient or modern times. Works of
architecture, without a doubt, must first be massive, solid, and simple,
and then enriched by grace of design and by variety of subject in the
composition, without, however, disturbing by poverty or by excess of
ornamentation the order of the architecture or the impression produced
on a competent judge.

Meanwhile Baccio Bandinelli, having returned from Rome, where he had
finished the tombs of Leo and Clement, persuaded the Lord Duke Cosimo,
then a young man, to make at the head of the Great Hall of the Ducal
Palace a facade full of columns and niches, with a range of fine marble
statues; and this facade was to have windows of marble and grey-stone
looking out upon the Piazza. The Duke having resolved to have this done,
Bandinelli set his hand to making the design; but finding that the hall,
as has been related in the Life of Cronaca, was out of square, and
having never given attention to architecture, which he considered an art
of little value, marvelling and even laughing at those who gave their
attention to it, he was forced, on recognizing the difficulty of this
work, to confer with Giuliano with regard to his model, and to beseech
him that he, as an architect, should direct the work. And so all the
stone-cutters and carvers of S. Maria del Fiore were set to work, and a
beginning was made with the structure. Bandinelli had resolved, with the
advice of Giuliano, to let the work remain out of square, following in
part the course of the wall. It came to pass, therefore, that he was
forced to make all the stones irregular in shape, preparing them with
great labour by means of the pifferello, which is the instrument
otherwise called the bevel-square; and this made the work so clumsy,
that, as will be related in the Life of Bandinelli, it has been
difficult to bring it to such a form as might be in harmony with the
rest. Such a thing would not have happened if Bandinelli had possessed
as much knowledge in architecture as he did in sculpture; not to mention
that the great niches in the side-walls at each end proved to be squat,
and that the one