lla.

The marvellous works of these two brothers will bear witness before
the world to the extraordinary genius that they possessed; and for
their lives, their honourable ways, and their every action, they
were held in estimation by all men. Giuliano and Antonio bequeathed
to the art of architecture methods that gave the Tuscan Order of
building better form than any other architect had yet achieved, and
the Doric Order they enriched with better measures and proportions
than their predecessors, following the rules and canons of
Vitruvius, had been wont to use. They collected in their houses at
Florence an infinite number of most beautiful antiquities in marble,
which adorned Florence, and still adorn her, no less than those
masters honoured themselves and their art. Giuliano brought from
Rome the method of casting vaults with such materials as made them
ready carved; examples of which may be seen in a room in his own
house, and in the vaulting of the Great Hall at Poggio a Cajano,
which is still to be seen there. Wherefore we should acknowledge our
obligation to their labours, whereby they fortified the dominion of
Florence, adorned the city, and gave a name, throughout the many
regions where they worked, to Florence and to the intellects of
Tuscany, who, to honour their memory, have written to them these
verses--

Cedite Romani structores, cedite Graii,
Artis, Vitruvi, tu quoque cede parens.
Etruscos celebrare viros, testudinis arcus,
Urna, tholus, statuae, templa, domusque petunt.

FOOTNOTE:

[22] A friable volcanic tufa.

RAFFAELLO DA URBINO

LIFE OF RAFFAELLO DA URBINO

[_RAFFAELLO SANZIO_]

PAINTER AND ARCHITECT

How bountiful and benign Heaven sometimes shows itself in showering
upon one single person the infinite riches of its treasures, and all
those graces and rarest gifts that it is wont to distribute among
many individuals, over a long space of time, could be clearly seen
in the no less excellent than gracious Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino,
who was endowed by nature with all that modesty and goodness which
are seen at times in those who, beyond all other men, have added to
their natural sweetness and gentleness the beautiful adornment of
courtesy and grace, by reason of which they always show themselves
agreeable and pleasant to every sort of person and in all their
actions. Him nature presented to the world, when, vanquished by art
through the hands of Michelagnolo Buonar