“But you have not masters for it.” Whereupon Lorenzo rejoined, “We have so much money that we shall make them.” But GralRone instantly exclaimed, “Heigh! Lorenzo; money can make no masters; it is the masters who make the money.” Graffione was a man of most fantastic character and singular habits. In his house he ate at no table but one prepared with his pasteboards, &c., and slept in no other bed than a great chest filled with straw and without sheets. But to return to Alesso: that master finished his works and ended his life in the year 1448,[1] when he was honourably interred by his relations and fellow citizens.[2]
THE SCULPTOR, VELLANO OF PADUA.
[born about 1430!—died in 1500 or 1502!]
So powerful is the etfect of care and practice in him who with zealous study addicts himself to the imitation of any given object, that we frequently observe the manner of certain of our masters to be so well imitated by those who greatly delight in their works, that no ditference can be discerned (unless it be by those who examine with well-practised eyes) between the imitation and the thing imitated: and it rarely happens that a well-disposed and affectionate disciple fails to adopt, at least in great part, the manner of his master.
Vellano of Padua devoted himself with so much zeal to the imitation of the manner and methods of Donato in sculpture, but more particularly in works of bronze, that he was con-
- ↑ An error of the press for 1498; for the true date of Alesso’s death, see note f, p. 68.
- ↑ The Memoriale of Francesco di Giovanni di Guido Baldovinetti, before cited, makes mention of other works of Alesso, not alluded to by Vasari. One of these was in the cloisters of San Benedetto, outside Florence; another was in those of Santa Croce, and represented the Flagellation of Christ. All these works are dispersed or lost, some of them being ascribed to other masters, as that of Santa Croce, for example, which is attribute<i to Andrea dal Castagno.
