a, Vellano had made such great
progress in the art that great expectations were already entertained
about him, and he inspired such confidence in his master as to induce
him (and that rightly) to leave to his pupil all the equipment, designs,
and models for the scenes in bronze that were to be made round the choir
of the Santo in that city. This was the reason why, when Donato
departed, as has been said, the commission for the whole of that work
was publicly given to Vellano in his native city, to his very great
honour. Whereupon he made all the scenes in bronze that are on the outer
side of the choir of the Santo, wherein, among others, there is the
scene of Samson embracing the column and destroying the temple of the
Philistines, in which one sees the fragments of the ruined building duly
falling, and the death of so many people, not to mention a great
diversity of attitudes among them as they die, some through the ruins,
and some through fear; and all this Vellano represented marvellously. In
the same place are certain works in wax and the models for these scenes,
and likewise some bronze candelabra wrought by the same man with much
judgment and invention. From what we see, this craftsman appears to have
had a very great desire to attain to the standard of Donatello; but he
did not succeed, for he aimed too high in a most difficult art.

Vellano also took delight in architecture, and was more than passing
good in that profession; wherefore, having gone to Rome in the year
1464, at the time of Pope Paul the Venetian, for which Pontiff Giuliano
da Maiano was architect in the building of the Vatican, he too was
employed in many things; and by his hand, among other works that he
made, are the arms of that Pontiff which are seen there with his name
beside them. He also wrought many of the ornaments of the Palace of S.
Marco for the same Pope, whose head, by the hand of Vellano, is at the
top of the staircase. For that building the same man designed a
stupendous courtyard, with a commodious and elegant flight of steps, but
the death of the Pontiff intervened to hinder the completion of the
whole. The while that he stayed in Rome, Vellano made many small things
in marble and in bronze for the said Pope and for others, but I have not
been able to find them. In Perugia the same master made a bronze statue
larger than life, in which he portrayed the said Pope from nature,
seated in his pontifical robes; and at the foot of this