uisite workmanship.
On the Madonna's breast is an ornament shaped like a gold casket,
containing, if report be true, jewels of great value, although it is
believed that they, as well as some other small figures on the top
and about the work, were taken away by the soldiers, who do not often
respect the even most Holy Sacrament. On these works the Aretines
expended 30,000 florins, as is found in some records. Nor does this
appear impossible, because at that time it was considered to be a
thing of the most precious and rare description, so that when
Frederick Barbarossa returned from his coronation at Rome, and was
passing through Arezzo many years after its completion, he praised
and admired it infinitely, and indeed with good cause, since the
joints are constructed of tiny pieces so excellently welded
together, that to an inexperienced eye, the whole work seems to be
made in one piece. In the same church Giovanni made the chapel of the
Ubertini, a noble family, and lords of a castle, as they still are,
though they were formerly of greater estate. He adorned this with
many marble ornaments, which are to-day covered over by many large
ornaments of stone, placed there in the year 1535, after plans by
Giorgio Vasari, for the support of an organ of extraordinary
excellence and beauty which rests upon them. Giovanni Pisano also
designed the church of S. Maria dei Servi, which has been destroyed
in our day, together with many palaces of the noblest families of the
city, for the reasons mentioned above. I must not omit to note that
in the construction of the marble altar Giovanni was assisted by some
Germans, who associated with him, rather for the sake of learning the
art, than for gain, and who profited so much by his instruction, that
when they went to Rome, after the completion of that work, they
served Pope Boniface VIII. in many works of sculpture executed for St
Peter's, and also in architecture, when he made Civita Castellana.
They were, moreover, sent by that Pope to S. Maria at Orvieto, where
they made a number of marble figures for the facade of the church,
which were very tolerable for those times. But among the others who
assisted Giovanni in his undertakings for the Vescovado at Arezzo,
were Agostino and Agnolo, sculptors and architects of Siena, who far
surpassed all the others, as will be said in the proper place. But
to return to Giovanni. When he left Orvieto he came to Florence to
see Arnolfo's building of S.