artist should execute another for the same place, likewise in bronze, and of the same proportions with that of St. Matthew. The figure was to represent St. Stephen, who was the patron saint of that guild, and was to be placed in the niche following that of St. Matthew. This also Lorenzo completed very happily, giving the bronze a very beautiful varnish, insomuch that this statue afforded no less satisfaction than those before mentioned, or than the other works performed in Florence by the same master.[1]
At that time Maestro Leonardo Dati was general of the Preaching Friars, and, desiring to leave to his country a memorial of himself in Santa Maria Novella, where he had taken his vows, he caused Lorenzo to construct a sepulchre of bronze, with his own figure, taken from nature, in a recumbent position thereon;[2] and from this work, which was very much admired, there arose another, which Ludovico degli Albizzi and Niccolo Valori caused to be constructed in the church of Santa Croce.[3]
After these things, Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici desiring to do honour to the relics of the three martyrs, Protus, Ilyacinthus, and Nemesius, caused their bodies to be brought from Casentino, where they had remained, receiving but little veneration, for many years, and commissioned Lorenzo to prepare a tomb of bronze.[4] In the midst thereof are two angels, in basso-rilievo, holding a garland of olive, within which is inscribed the names of the aforesaid martyrs. In this tomb were placed the above-named relics, and it was fixed in the church belonging to the monastery of the Angeli, in Florence. On the lower part, and on that side which is turned towards the church of the monks, are the following words, engraved on marble:—
- ↑ These statues still retain their places.—Ed. Flor. 1832 -9.
- ↑ The sepulchre was erected at the expense of the convent and the republic, in acknowledgment of services rendered by Dati. Being in the pavement before the high altar, and having been trampled on for ages, This work has now suffered greatly.— Ibid.
- ↑ Ludovico degli Obizzi, that is; but of this work, now much worn, the design and model only belong to Ghiberti. The second name, moreover, is not Niccolo, but Bartolommeo Valori.— Ibid.
- ↑ This tomb was broken up and sold as old metal, at the suppression of the monastery, under the French domination in Italy; but the pieces having been happily recovered, were joined together with infinite care, and are now in the Florentine Gallery, in the hall of the modern bronzes. —Ibid.. 1832-8, and 1846-8.
