EXTOLLITUR ARTE.

Upon this base stood a pyramid nine braccia high, on two sides of
which (namely, that which looked towards the principal door, and that
which faced towards the high-altar), at the foot, were two ovals with
the head of Michelagnolo portrayed from nature in relief and executed
very well by Santi Buglioni. At the summit of the pyramid was a ball
in due proportion with the pyramid, such as might have contained the
ashes of him who was being honoured, and upon the ball was a figure of
Fame, larger than life and in the likeness of marble, and in the act,
as it were, of taking flight, and at the same time of causing the
praises and glory of that great craftsman to resound throughout the
world through a trumpet which branched into three mouths. That Fame
was by the hand of Zanobi Lastricati, who, besides the labours that he
had as proveditor for the whole work, desired also not to fail to
show, with much honour to himself, the virtue of his hand and brain.
In all, from the level of the ground to the head of the Fame, the
height, as has been related, was twenty-eight braccia.

Besides the catafalque described above, the whole church was draped
with black baize and serge, hung not on the columns in the centre, as
is usual, but on the chapels that are all around; and there was no
space between the pilasters that enclose those chapels and correspond
to the columns, that had not some adornment in painting, which, making
an ingenious, pleasing, and beautiful display, caused marvel and at
the same time the greatest delight.

Now, to begin with one end: in the space of the first chapel that is
beside the high-altar, as you go towards the old sacristy, was a
picture six braccia in height and eight in length, in which, with
novel and as it were poetical invention, was Michelagnolo in the
centre, already come to the Elysian fields, where, on his right hand,
were figures considerably larger than life of the most famous and most
highly celebrated sculptors and painters of antiquity. Each of these
could be recognized by some notable sign; Praxiteles by the Satyr that
is in the Vigna of Pope Julius III, Apelles by the portrait of
Alexander the Great, Zeuxis by a little panel on which were figured
the grapes that deceived the birds, and Parrhasius with the covering
counterfeited in painting over his picture; and, even as these, so the
others were known by other signs. On the left hand were those who have
been illustrious i