DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0458
442
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
taken measures for the future progress of the fabric, Filippo
conducted the works with so much solicitude and such minute
attention, that there was not a stone placed in the building
which he had not examined. Lorenzo on the other hand,
finding himself vanquished and in a manner disgraced, was
nevertheless so powerfully assisted and favoured by his friends,
«• that he continued to receive his salary, under the pretext that
he could not be dismissed until the expiration of three years
from that time.
Drawings and models were meanwhile continually pre-
pared by Filippo, for the most minute portions of the building,
for the stages or scaffolds for the workmen, and for the
machines used in raising the materials. There were never-
theless several malicious persons, friends of Lorenzo, who did
not cease to torment him by daily bringing forward models
in rivalry of those constructed by him, insomuch that one
was made by Maestro Antonio da Verzelli,* and other mas-
ters who were favoured and brought into notice—now by
one citizen and now by another, their fickleness and muta-
bility betraying the insufficiency of their knowledge and the
weakness of their judgment, since having perfection within
their reach, they perpetually brought forward the imperfect
and useless.
The chain-work was now completed around all the eight
sides, and the builders, animated by success, worked vigor-
ously ; but being pressed more than usual by Filippo, and
having received certain reprimands concerning the masonry
and in relation to other matters of daily occurrence, discon-
tents began to prevail. Moved by this circumstance and by
their envy, the chiefs among them drew together and got up
a faction, declaring that the work was a laborious and peril-
ous undertaking, and that they would not proceed with the
vaulting of the Cupola, but on condition of receiving large
payments, although their wages had already been increased
and were much higher than was usual: by these means they
hoped to injure Filippo and increase their own gains. This
circumstance displeased the wardens greatly, as it did Filippo
also ; but the latter, having reflected on the matter, took his
resolution, and one Saturday evening he dismissed them all.
The men seeing themselves thus sent about their business,
t Of whom we have no other notice than these words.—Masselli.
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
taken measures for the future progress of the fabric, Filippo
conducted the works with so much solicitude and such minute
attention, that there was not a stone placed in the building
which he had not examined. Lorenzo on the other hand,
finding himself vanquished and in a manner disgraced, was
nevertheless so powerfully assisted and favoured by his friends,
«• that he continued to receive his salary, under the pretext that
he could not be dismissed until the expiration of three years
from that time.
Drawings and models were meanwhile continually pre-
pared by Filippo, for the most minute portions of the building,
for the stages or scaffolds for the workmen, and for the
machines used in raising the materials. There were never-
theless several malicious persons, friends of Lorenzo, who did
not cease to torment him by daily bringing forward models
in rivalry of those constructed by him, insomuch that one
was made by Maestro Antonio da Verzelli,* and other mas-
ters who were favoured and brought into notice—now by
one citizen and now by another, their fickleness and muta-
bility betraying the insufficiency of their knowledge and the
weakness of their judgment, since having perfection within
their reach, they perpetually brought forward the imperfect
and useless.
The chain-work was now completed around all the eight
sides, and the builders, animated by success, worked vigor-
ously ; but being pressed more than usual by Filippo, and
having received certain reprimands concerning the masonry
and in relation to other matters of daily occurrence, discon-
tents began to prevail. Moved by this circumstance and by
their envy, the chiefs among them drew together and got up
a faction, declaring that the work was a laborious and peril-
ous undertaking, and that they would not proceed with the
vaulting of the Cupola, but on condition of receiving large
payments, although their wages had already been increased
and were much higher than was usual: by these means they
hoped to injure Filippo and increase their own gains. This
circumstance displeased the wardens greatly, as it did Filippo
also ; but the latter, having reflected on the matter, took his
resolution, and one Saturday evening he dismissed them all.
The men seeing themselves thus sent about their business,
t Of whom we have no other notice than these words.—Masselli.