_)]

Having then succeeded in this as much as he could desire, he resolved
that his first works should be those that are in the arch over the
bronze door which he had made for the sacristy, below the organ of S.
Maria del Fiore; and therein he made a Resurrection of Christ, so
beautiful for that time that it was admired, when placed in position, as
something truly rare. Moved by this, the said Wardens of Works desired
that the arch over the door of the other sacristy, where Donatello had
made the ornament of the other organ, should be filled by Luca in the
same manner with similar figures and works in terra-cotta; wherefore
Luca made therein a very beautiful Jesus Christ ascending into Heaven.

Now, not being yet satisfied with this beautiful invention--so lovely
and so useful, above all for places where there is water, and where,
because of damp or other reasons, there is no scope for paintings--Luca
went on seeking further progress, and, instead of making the said works
in clay simply white, he added the method of giving them colour, with
incredible marvel and pleasure to all. Wherefore the Magnificent Piero
di Cosimo de' Medici, one of the first to commission Luca to fashion
coloured works in clay, caused him to execute the whole of the round
vaulting of a study in the Palace--built, as it will be told, by his
father Cosimo--with various things of fancy, and likewise the pavement,
which was something singular and very useful for the summer. And seeing
that this method was then very difficult, and that many precautions were
necessary in the firing of the clay, it is certainly a marvel that Luca
could execute these works with so great perfection that both the
vaulting and the pavement appear to be made, not of many pieces, but of
one only. The fame of these works spreading not only throughout Italy
but throughout all Europe, there were so many who desired them that the
merchants of Florence, keeping Luca, to his great profit, continually at
this labour, sent them throughout the whole world. And because he could
not supply the whole, he took his brothers, Ottaviano and Agostino, away
from the chisel, and set them to work on these labours, wherein the
three of them together gained much more than they had done up to then
with the chisel, for the reason that, besides those of their works that
were sent to France and Spain, they also wrought many things in Tuscany;
and in particular, for the said Piero de' Medici, in the Ch