braccia, who holds the
trident in his hand, and has the right leg planted beside a Dolphin. At
the sides, also, upon two other pedestals, are Scylla and Charybdis in
the forms of two monsters, fashioned very well, with heads of Dogs and
Furies about them.

That work, likewise, when finished, much pleased the people of Messina,
who, having found a man to their liking, made a beginning, when the
fountains were completed, with the facade of the Duomo, and carried it
to some extent forward. And then they ordained that twelve chapels in
the Corinthian Order should be made in that Duomo, six on either side,
with the twelve Apostles in marble, each of five braccia. Of these
chapels only four were finished by the Frate, who also made with his own
hand a S. Peter and a S. Paul, which were two large and very good
figures. He was also commissioned to make a Christ of marble for the
head of the principal chapel, with a very rich ornament all around, and
a scene in low-relief beneath each of the statues of the Apostles; but
at that time he did nothing more. On the Piazza of the same Duomo he
directed the building of the Temple of S. Lorenzo, in a beautiful manner
of architecture, which won him much praise; and on the shore there was
built under his direction the Beacon-tower. And while these works were
being carried forward, he caused a chapel to be erected for the Captain
Cicala in S. Domenico, for which he made a Madonna of marble as large as
life; and for the chapel of Signor Agnolo Borsa, in the cloister of the
same church, he executed a scene of marble in low-relief, which was held
to be beautiful, and was wrought with much diligence. He also caused
water to be conducted by way of the wall of S. Agnolo for a fountain,
and made for it with his own hand a large boy of marble, which pours
water into a vase that is very ornate and beautifully contrived; which
was held to be a lovely work. At the Wall of the Virgin he made another
fountain, with a Virgin by his own hand, which pours water into a basin;
and for that which is erected at the Palace of Signor Don Filippo
Laroca, he made a boy larger than life, of a kind of stone that is used
at Messina, which boy, surrounded by certain monsters and other products
of the sea, pours water into a vase. And he made a statue in marble of
four braccia, a very beautiful figure of S. Catharine the Martyr, which
was sent to Taormina, a place twenty-four miles distant from Messina.

[Illustratio