Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/400

he discoursed of many and various matters, but in such sort that but little profit can be derived from it. The only thing good that there is in the book, according to my judgment, is the fact, that after speaking of many ancient painters, more particularly of those cited by Pliny, he makes a brief mention of Cimabue, Giotto, and many others of those times, but this he does with much more brevity than was fitting, and that for no better reason than to give himself the opportunity of falling with a good grace into discourse concerning himself, and enumerating as he does, with the most minute description, all his own works one after another. Nor will I conceal that he seems to intimate that this book is made by others, but in the course of the work, discoursing of himself (like a man better versed in making designs, in working with his chisel, and in casting bronze then in the weaving of stories), he speaks in the first person, and says “I made”, “I said”, “I was doing”, and “I was saying.”^[1] Finally, having attained the sixtyfourth year of his life, Ghiberti was attacked by a violent and continuous fever, of which he died,^[2] leaving an eternal memorial of his existence in his works, as well as in the writings of authors: he was honourably interred in Santa Croce. The portrait of Lorenzo is on the principal bronze door of San Giovanni; it is seen in the centre when the doors are closed, among the decorations of the border; the head is bald, and beside this portrait of Ghiberti is that of Bartoluccio, his father; near them are the following words:—

“laurentii cionis di ghibertis mira arte fabricatum.”^[3]

The drawings of Lorenzo are most excellent, and have much relief, as may be seen in our book of collected designs, from an Evangelist by his hand, as well as from some other figures in chiaro-scuro, which are truly beautiful.

Bartoluccio also, the father^[4] of Lorenzo, drew moderately well, as is shown by another Evangelist from his hand, in the same book, but which is considerably inferior to that ot

1. This work of Ghiberti (manuscript) is in Florence, in the Magliabecchiana Library.
2. The death of Lorenzo took place in the year 1455, when he must have been seventy-five, or, as some writers say, seventy-seven years old. —Ed. Flor. 1846-9.
3. The tomb of Ghiberti is not now to be found. — Ibid.
4. Step-father.