468. They were then coloured and gilded
in places by "Maestro Ugozon de Padoa, depentor." Burnt in 1749, only
two stalls remain, made into confessional boxes, in the Chapel of the
Beato Belludi. The designs for the tarsia of the sacristy were made by
Squarcione, master of Mantegna and Lorenzo, who was paid for them in
1462. There were 90 seats in this choir, so that it was a very important
piece of work. A contemporary account by Matteo Colaccio (1486) shows
what were the aims of the intarsiatori of the period as understood and
admired by the more or less cultivated populace. "In past days in
visiting those intarsiad figures, I was so much taken with the
exquisiteness of the work that I could not withhold myself from praising
the authors to heaven! And to commence with the objects that one sees
around every day, here are books expressed in tarsia that seem real.
Some are one on the other, and arranged carelessly, or by chance, some
closed, some newly bound and difficult to close; candles of wax with the
ends of wicks, now in well-turned wooden candlesticks, one straight, one
crooked, less or more, with another crossing it. Elsewhere one sees
clouds of smoke which spread out from new chimneys, fish which turn
round from a full basket, a cithern which hangs from the centre of a
narrow niche. Close by is a cage of bars expressed with wonderful
spirit. Palaces, towers, and churches, through the half-closed doors of
which one can see in the interior arches and windows, cupolas and
steps. Most natural, then, is it not to be able to decide which tower
to approach; these mountains appear to one covered with grass and with
stones; and where earth of various colours appears there all green is
taken away. But what shall I say of the images of the saints. Of their
uncut and curled beards, of their hands, the joints of their fingers,
their nails? Of their clothes, their sinuous folds, and the shadows? Nor
less pleased me the little collar of rich pearls under the chin of S.
Prosdocimus. Then round the angel Gabriel and the most pious mother one
admires branches with such fruit and twigs that nature does not make
them more true. And this is specially admirable, that through the dull
colour of their leaves they seem to have been taken from the tree
scarcely a day ago." And then he praises in a pompous fashion the folds
of the Virgin's and the Angel's drapery, the silk veil over a chalice,
and the perspective of a flight of steps which s