works executed in consequence were so excellent, that they were acknowledged to be the best of all that were to be seen there. The subjects chosen were the Feast of Herod and the Dance of Herodias; but more beautiful than all the rest is the St. John, in the centre of the altar, a work most highly extolled, and executed entirely with the chisel.[1] The consuls then commissioned Antonio to prepare the silver chandeliers, three braccia high, with the cross in proportion, when the master enriched his work with such a profusion of chasing, and completed the whole to such a degree of perfection, that, whether by his countrymen or by foreigners, it has ever been considered a most wonderful and admirable work. Antonio Pollaiuolo bestowed the most unwearied pains on all his undertakings, whether in gold, enamel, or silver: among others, are certain patines in San Giovanni, coloured so beautifully, that these enamels, completed by the action of fire, could scarcely be more delicately finished even with the pencil. In other churches likewise in Florence and Rome, as well as in other parts of Italy, his miraculous enamels are to be seen.[2]
Antonio taught his art to Mazzingo, a Florentine, and to Giuliano del Facchino, who were tolerably good masters. He likewise imparted it to Giovanni Turini, of Siena, who greatly surpassed both his companions in that calling;[3] wherein from Antonio di Salvi (who executed many good works, as, for example, a large cross in silver for the abbey of Florence, with other things), down to our own day, there has not been much done that can be considered extraordinary. But many of his works, as well as those of the PoUaiuoli, have been broken and melted for the necessities of the city in times of war.[4]
Eventually, considering that this art did not secure a long life to the works of its masters, Antonio, desiring for his
- ↑ These works are still carefully preserved, and are annually displayed in the church of San Giovanni, on the festival of the Saint. — Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ There is a patine, enamelled by Pollaiuolo, in the Gallery of the Uffizj. —I.
- ↑ Antonio di Salvi also has been extolled by Cellini in the introduction to his treatise on Goldsmiths’ work.— Ed. Flor., 1849,
- ↑ And how many admirable works of the same kind have not been sacrificed to the necessities of war, from the time of Vasari to our own. —Ed. Flor., 1849.
