sequent period to be placed in the old sacristy of San Lorenzo, and at the back of the altar, where it still remains.[1] That of Donato[2] was given to the Guild of the Money-changers.[3]
The commission for the door being given to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo and Donato, who were together, resolved to depart from Florence in company, and to remain in Rome for some years, Filippo proposing to pursue the study of architecture, and Donato that of sculpture. And this Filippo did, desiring to surpass Lorenzo and Donato, in proportion as architecture is more useful to man than are sculpture and paintings he first sold a small farm which he possessed at Settignano, when both artists departed from Florence and proceeded to Rome, where, when Filippo beheld the magnificence of the buildings and the perfection of the churches, he stood like one amazed, and seemed to have lost his wits.[4] They instantly made preparations for measuring the cornices and taking the ground-plans of these edifices, Donato and himself both labouring continually, and sparing neither time nor cost. No place was left unvisited by them, either in Rome or without the city, and in the Campagna; nor did they fail to take the dimensions of any thing good within their reach.
- ↑ Brunellesco also made the design for the marble pulpit now in the church of Santa Maria Novella, and which was sculptured with stories in basso-rilievo, by a certain Maestro Lazzaro, at the expense of the Rucellai family. Borghini found the following document in the ancient books of the Borsario (Syndicate):— “S. Brunelleschi p. m. mag. Ieronimi pro modello ligni pro pulpito fiendo in Ecclesia for. unum larg. fuit valoris L. 4, 15. See Storia Annalistica di Santa Maria Novella, vol. ii, p. 418. — Ed. Flor. 1849.
- ↑ The testimony of Ghiberti makes it obvious that Donato was not among the competitors for the door of San Giovanni. Vasari may probably have seen a fourth story, in addition to those of Ghiberti, Brunellesco, and Jacopo della Quercia, which he believed to be by Donato. — Ibid, and Ed. Flor. 1849.
- ↑ The story of Brunellesco was placed by the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo—who obtained it as a present from the Chapter of San Lorenzo —in the Florentine Gallery, in the corridor of modern bronzes. It is beside that of Ghiberti; and the injustice of the preference given to it by the anonymous biographer is manifest, on comparing them. Both are given in the work ofCicognara. —Masselli.
- ↑ Bottari observes that, at this time, the stupendous edifices of antiquity had not in so many instances been demolished, or suffered to go to ruin.
