DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0462
446
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
not until our own days, that, even a fragment was executed,
on a part of one of the eight sides, (to the end that the build-
ing might be completed,) but as it was not in accordance with
the plan of Filippo, it was removed by the advice of
Michelagnolo Buonarotti,f and was not again attempted.
Filippo also constructed a model for the lanthorn, with his
own hand; it had eight sides, the proportions were in harmony
with those of the Cupola, and for the invention as well as
variety and decoration, it was certainly very beautiful. He
did not omit the stair-case for ascending to the ball, which
was an admirable thing; but as he had closed the entrance
with a morsel of wood fixed at the lower part, no one but
himself knew its position. Filippo was now highly renowned,
but notwithstanding this, and although he had already over-
come the envy and abated the arrogance of so many opponents,
he could not yet escape the vexation of finding that all the
masters of Florence, when his model had been seen, were set-
ting themselves to make others in various manners; nay, there
was even a lady of the Gaddi family, who ventured to place
her knowledge in competition with that of Filippo.t The lat-
ter, meanwhile, could not refrain from laughing at the pre-
sumption of these people, and when he was told by certain
of his friends that he ought not to show his model to any
artist lest they should learn from it, he replied that there
was but one true model, and that the others were good for
nothing. Some of the other masters had used parts of Fi-
neath the drum, and two of machines for raising weights. There is,
besides, one small but well-preserved model of the lanthorn ; but it can-
not be that of Brunellesco, since it wants the staircase formed within
the pillar, with all that would serve to show the internal construction.
* On the south-east, and opposite to the Guadagni (now Ricardi)
palace. The design was by Baccio d’Agnolo, and the work was exe-
cuted in Carrara marble.—Schorn. See also Masselli.
t Who, returning from Rome, made a great outcry respecting this
gallery, which was in the style of a portico, and which he called a fly-
cage, “ gabbia da grillo” (more literally, perhaps, a cage for crickets).
“ Grillo” is also a whim ; and such indeed it may well have appeared to
him, comparing it, as he did, with the magnificent ornament by which
the drum of the great Cupola of the Vatican is enriched
J Five artists presented models for the lanthorn—Lorenzo Ghiberti,
Antonio Manetti (respecting whom see Gaye, Carteggio Inedito, etc., i,
167, et seq.'), Bruno di Ser Lapo Mazzei, Domenico Stagnaio, and finally
Filippo Brunelleschi. We are indebted for these notices to the author
of the Descrizione della Cattedrals di Prato, Prato, 1846.
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
not until our own days, that, even a fragment was executed,
on a part of one of the eight sides, (to the end that the build-
ing might be completed,) but as it was not in accordance with
the plan of Filippo, it was removed by the advice of
Michelagnolo Buonarotti,f and was not again attempted.
Filippo also constructed a model for the lanthorn, with his
own hand; it had eight sides, the proportions were in harmony
with those of the Cupola, and for the invention as well as
variety and decoration, it was certainly very beautiful. He
did not omit the stair-case for ascending to the ball, which
was an admirable thing; but as he had closed the entrance
with a morsel of wood fixed at the lower part, no one but
himself knew its position. Filippo was now highly renowned,
but notwithstanding this, and although he had already over-
come the envy and abated the arrogance of so many opponents,
he could not yet escape the vexation of finding that all the
masters of Florence, when his model had been seen, were set-
ting themselves to make others in various manners; nay, there
was even a lady of the Gaddi family, who ventured to place
her knowledge in competition with that of Filippo.t The lat-
ter, meanwhile, could not refrain from laughing at the pre-
sumption of these people, and when he was told by certain
of his friends that he ought not to show his model to any
artist lest they should learn from it, he replied that there
was but one true model, and that the others were good for
nothing. Some of the other masters had used parts of Fi-
neath the drum, and two of machines for raising weights. There is,
besides, one small but well-preserved model of the lanthorn ; but it can-
not be that of Brunellesco, since it wants the staircase formed within
the pillar, with all that would serve to show the internal construction.
* On the south-east, and opposite to the Guadagni (now Ricardi)
palace. The design was by Baccio d’Agnolo, and the work was exe-
cuted in Carrara marble.—Schorn. See also Masselli.
t Who, returning from Rome, made a great outcry respecting this
gallery, which was in the style of a portico, and which he called a fly-
cage, “ gabbia da grillo” (more literally, perhaps, a cage for crickets).
“ Grillo” is also a whim ; and such indeed it may well have appeared to
him, comparing it, as he did, with the magnificent ornament by which
the drum of the great Cupola of the Vatican is enriched
J Five artists presented models for the lanthorn—Lorenzo Ghiberti,
Antonio Manetti (respecting whom see Gaye, Carteggio Inedito, etc., i,
167, et seq.'), Bruno di Ser Lapo Mazzei, Domenico Stagnaio, and finally
Filippo Brunelleschi. We are indebted for these notices to the author
of the Descrizione della Cattedrals di Prato, Prato, 1846.