Lily, the ancient device of the Commune of Florence. This Simone executed with leaves twined around it, and these leaves were accompanied by tendrils, seeds, &c. of such extraordinary beauty that they caused amazement in all who beheld them.[1]
No long time after the completion of the above-named escutcheons, Messer Agnolo Cesis caused Antonio da San Gallo to prepare the marble ornaments of a chapel and tomb for himself and his family, which he afterwards, in the year 1550 namely, caused to be constructed in the Church of Santa Maria della Pace: San Gallo then entrusted a portion of the work, consisting of richly decorated pillars and socles, to Simone Mosca, who acquitted himself so well, and completed these parts in so beautiful a manner that those by his hand may be readily distinguished, by their grace and beauty, from all the rest, without requiring any more exact description at my hand. It is indeed not possible to imagine anything more admirable or more appropriate than the altars for sacrifice after the antique manner, which Simone executed as part of the socles belonging to this work. San Gallo afterwards caused the Fountain which he had been employed to finish in the Cloister of San Pietro in Vincula to receive the decorations of its lip or edge from the hand of Simone, who embellished the same accordingly with large masks of extraordinary beauty.
Simone returned, shortly after having completed this work, and during the summer season, to the city of Florence, where Baccio Bandinelli was then employed in the execution of the Orpheus in marble which was subsequently placed in the court of the Medici Palace. The pedestal for this statue, Bandinelli had confided to Benedetto da Kovezzano, but Simone, having now acquired a good name among the artists, received commission from Baccio to execute the festoons and other beautiful carvings to be seen thereon, and this he did very much to his credit, although there is one of the festoons which was never brought to completion, and still remains in its unfinished state. Simone likewise executed other works in macigno stone, of which we need not make further men-
- ↑ These arms, according to Bottari, are in the socles along that front of the Church which was erected by Pope Clement XII., after the designs of Alessandro Galilei.
