Nor, Indeed,
Do I Think There Was Much Talent Required In Representing A
Figure With The Head And Breasts Of A Woman, And All The Other
Parts Of The Body Masculine.
There is such a profusion of
curiosities in this celebrated musaeum; statues, busts, pictures,
medals, tables inlaid in the
Way of marquetry, cabinets adorned
with precious stones, jewels of all sorts, mathematical
instruments, antient arms and military machines, that the
imagination is bewildered, and a stranger of a visionary turn,
would be apt to fancy himself in a palace of the fairies, raised
and adorned by the power of inchantment.
In one of the detached apartments, I saw the antependium of the
altar, designed for the famous chapel of St. Lorenzo. It is a
curious piece of architecture, inlaid with coloured marble and
precious stones, so as to represent an infinite variety of
natural objects. It is adorned with some crystal pillars, with
capitals of beaten gold. The second story of the building is
occupied by a great number of artists employed in this very
curious work of marquetry, representing figures with gems and
different kinds of coloured marble, for the use of the emperor.
The Italians call it pietre commesse, a sort of inlaying with
stones, analogous to the fineering of cabinets in wood. It is
peculiar to Florence, and seems to be still more curious than the
Mosaic work, which the Romans have brought to great perfection.
The cathedral of Florence is a great Gothic building, encrusted
on the outside with marble; it is remarkable for nothing but its
cupola, which is said to have been copied by the architect of St.
Peter's at Rome, and for its size, which is much greater than
that of any other church in Christendom.
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