He Was A Celebrated
General Or Condottiere Who Arrived In Italy At The Head Of Four
Thousand Soldiers Of Fortune, Mostly Englishmen Who Had Served
With Him In The Army Of King Edward III., And Were Dismissed At
The Peace Of Bontigny.
Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in
Italy by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the
Florentine service.
He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had
been put apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by
it, was an antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There
are some good statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze
on the outside of the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the
embossed work of its brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which
Buonaroti used to say, deserved to be made the gates of Paradise.
I viewed them with pleasure: but still I retained a greater
veneration for those of Pisa, which I had first admired: a
preference which either arises from want of taste, or from the
charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my
attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every
thing worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches,
libraries, palaces, tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge,
etc. may consult Keysler, who is so laboriously circumstantial in
his descriptions, that I never could peruse them, without
suffering the headache, and recollecting the old observation,
that the German genius lies more in the back than in the brain.
I was much disappointed in the chapel of St. Lorenzo.
Notwithstanding the great profusion of granite, porphyry, jasper,
verde antico, lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones,
representing figures in the way of marquetry, I think the whole
has a gloomy effect. These pietre commesse are better calculated
for cabinets, than for ornaments to great buildings, which ought
to be large masses proportioned to the greatness of the edifice.
The compartments are so small, that they produce no effect in
giving the first impression when one enters the place; except to
give an air of littleness to the whole, just as if a grand saloon
was covered with pictures painted in miniature. If they have as
little regard to proportion and perspective, when they paint the
dome, which is not yet finished, this chapel will, in my opinion,
remain a monument of ill taste and extravagance.
The court of the palace of Pitti is formed by three sides of an
elegant square, with arcades all round, like the palace of
Holyrood house at Edinburgh; and the rustic work, which
constitutes the lower part of the building, gives it an air of
strength and magnificence. In this court, there is a fine
fountain, in which the water trickles down from above; and here
is also an admirable antique statue of Hercules, inscribed
LUSIPPOI ERGON, the work of Lysippus.
The apartments of this palace are generally small, and many of
them dark. Among the paintings the most remarkable is the Madonna
de la Seggiola, by Raphael, counted one of the best coloured
pieces of that great master.
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