Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/236

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
228
lives of the artists.

stands entirely isolated: the figure of Sixtus, very finely executed, is extended upon it. The monument of Pope Innocent was placed in the church of San Pietro, near the chapel in which the lance of Christ[1] is preserved. It is said that the same artist designed the Palace of the Belvedere for the above-named Pope Innocent, although the fabric was erected by others, Antonio not having much experience in building.[2] Finally, these brothers, having enriched themselves by their labours, died at a short distance of time, one after the other, in the year 1498; they were buried by their kindred in San Pietro in Vincula, where a monument was raised to their memory near the middle door, and on the left as you enter the church. This consisted of the portraits of both brothers on two medallions in marble, with the following epitaph:—

Antonius Pullarius patria Florentinus pictor insignisy qui dour, pont, Xisti et Innocentiiy acrea moniment. miro optic, expressit, re famil. composita ex test, hie se cum Petro fratre condi voluit.

Vixit An. lxxii. Obiit An. Sal. m.iid.

Antonio also executed a basso-rilievo in bronze, which was sent to Spain, but of which a cast in plaster may be seen in the possession of the Florentine artists. The subject is a combat of nude figures; and after his death there were found the design and model for an equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, which the master had made for Ludovico Sforza. This we have in our book depicted in two different manners. In one he has the city of Verona beneath him; in the other he is in full armour on a pedestal covered with battle-pieces, and is forcing his horse to leap on an armed man beneath it. The reason why this design was not carried into execution I have not been able to discover. There are, moreover, several beautiful medals by Antonio; among others one representing the conspiracy of the Pazzi. The heads of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici are on the one side, and on the reverse is the Choir of Santa Maria del Fiore, with the whole of that

  1. The spear of Longinus that is to say, with which he pierced the side of Christ.
  2. In the British Museum there is a pen-and-ink drawing by Antonio Pollaiuolo, one of the Colossal Statues on the Quirinal, namely.