would fall to the ground, Sansovino rebuilt all the foundations in the
canal below the palace with very large stones, maintaining the house
on its feet with a marvellous support of props, while the owners lived
in their house with perfect security.

Nor for all this, while he has given his attention to so many
buildings, has he ever ceased to occupy himself every day for his own
delight with vast and beautiful works of sculpture, in marble and in
bronze. Over the holy-water font of the Friars of the Ca Grande there
is by his hand a statue made of marble, representing S. John the
Baptist, which is very beautiful and highly extolled. At Padua, in the
Chapel of the Santo, there is a large scene in marble by the same
hand, with very beautiful figures in half-relief, of a miracle of S.
Anthony of Padua; which is much esteemed in that place. For the
entrance of the stairs of the Palace of S. Marco he is even now
executing in marble in the forms of two very beautiful giants, each of
seven braccia, a Neptune and a Mars, signifying the power which that
most illustrious Republic has on land and sea. He made a most
beautiful statue of Hercules for the Duke of Ferrara; and for the
Church of S. Marco he made six scenes of bronze in half-relief, one
braccio high and one and a half long, for placing on a pulpit, with
stories of that Evangelist, which are held in much estimation for
their variety. Over the door of the same S. Marco he made a Madonna of
marble, the size of life, which is held to be a very beautiful thing;
and at the entrance to the sacristy of that place there is by his hand
the door of bronze divided into two most beautiful parts, with stories
of Jesus Christ all in half-relief and wrought excellently well. And
over the door of the Arsenal he made a very beautiful Madonna, who is
holding her Son in her arms, of marble. All which works not only have
given lustre and adornment to that Republic, but also have caused
Sansovino to be better known every day as a most excellent craftsman,
and loved and honoured by the magnificent liberality of those Signori,
and likewise by the other craftsmen, every work of sculpture and
architecture that has been executed in that city in his time being
referred to him. And in truth the excellence of Jacopo has well
deserved that he should be held in the first rank among the craftsmen
of design in that city, and that his talents should be loved and
revered by all without exception, both nobl