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said to have extracted the beautiful from all the other provinces and gathered it into a single style, making it the best and the most divine of all the arts.
At the time of Andrea all these good methods and arts were lost, and the only style in use was that which had been brought to Tuscany by the Goths and the rude Greeks. Thus he noted the new style of Giotto and such few antiquities as were known to him, and somewhat refined a great part of the grossness of that wretched manner by his own judgment, so that he began to work in better style, and endow his works with far more beauty than had hitherto been seen. When his intelligence, skill, and dexterity had become known he was assisted by many of his compatriots, and while he was still a young man, he was commissioned to make some small figures in marble for S. Maria a Ponte. These brought him such a good name that he was most earnestly desired to come to work at Florence by those in charge of the building of S. Maria del Fiore, as after the facade of the three doors had been begun, there was a lack of masters to execute the subjects which Giotto had designed for the beginning of that structure. Accordingly Andrea went to Florence in order to undertake that work, and because at that time the Florentines were desirous of making themselves agreeable and friendly to Pope Boniface VIII., who was then chief pontiff of the church of God, they wished Andrea, before everything else, to make his statue in marble. Andrea therefore set to work, and did not rest until he had finished the Pope's figure placed between St Peter and St Paul, the three figures being set up on the facade of S. Maria del Fiore, where they still are. Afterwards Andrea made some figures of prophets for the middle door of that church, in some tabernacles or niches. These showed that he had made great improvements in the art, and that in excellence and design he surpassed all those who had laboured for that structure up to that time. Hence it was decided that all works of importance should be entrusted to him and not to others. Soon after he was commissioned to make four statues of the principal doctors of the church--St Jerome, St Ambrose, St Augustine, and St Gregory. When these were finished they brought him favour and renown with the craftsmen and throughout the city, and he was commissioned to make two other figures in marble of the same size. These were St Stephen and St Laurence, which are on the front of S. Maria del Fiore at the outside angle. By Andrea's hand also is the marble Madonna, three and a half braccia high with the child at her neck, which is over the altar of the little church and company of the Misericordia on the piazza of S. Giovanni at Florence. This was much praised in those times, especially as on either side of the Madonna he put an angel two and a half braccia high. A setting of very finely carved wood has been made for this in our own day by Maestro Antonio called "Il Carota," with a predella beneath, full of most beautiful figures coloured in oil by Ridolfo, son of Domenico Grillandai. In like manner the half-length Madonna in marble which is over the side-door of the Misericordia, on the facade of the Cialdonai, is by Andrea's hand, and was highly praised, because in it he had imitated the good antique manner, contrary to his habit, which was always different from it, as shown by some designs of his which are in our book, and in which he represents all the scenes from the Apocalypse. Now Andrea had studied architecture in his youth, and an opportunity occurred for his employment in this art by the commune of Florence, for as Arnolfo was dead and Giotto absent, he was entrusted with the preparation of plans for the castle of Scarperia, which is in Mugello at the foot of the Alps. Some say, though I will not vouch for the truth of it, that Andrea stayed a year at Venice, and there executed some small marble figures which are on the facade of S. Marco, and that in the time of M. Piero Gradenigo, doge of that republic, he designed the Arsenal. But as I know nothing of this beyond the bare mention of it which occurs in some writers, I must leave the matter to the judgment of my readers. From Venice he returned to Florence, where the city, fearing the coming of the emperor, with Andrea's co-operation, hastily added eight braccia to part of the wall between S. Gallo and the Prato Gate, and in other places he made bastions, palisades and works in earth and wood. Now some three years before, he had shown his skill in casting bronze in a much admired cross which he had sent to the Pope at Avignon, by means of his close friend Giotto; accordingly he was commissioned to make in bronze one of the doors of the church of S. Giovanni, for which Giotto had already made a very fine design. This, as I say, was given to him to finish, because he was considered the most talented, skilful, and judicious master of all those who had worked until then, not only in Tuscany, but throughout Italy. He set to work, resolved to spare neither time, pains, nor diligence upon the completion of a task of such importance. Fate was propitious to him in his casting, at a time when men were ignorant of the secrets known today, so that in the space of twenty-two years he brought the door to its present stage of perfection; and what is more, at the same time he made not only the tabernacle of the high altar of S. Giovanni, with an angel on either side which were considered most beautiful, but also the small marble figures about the base of the door of the campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, after Giotto's design, and about that campanile, in certain mandorle, the seven planets, the seven virtues, and the seven works of mercy in small figures in half-relief, which were then much admired. At the same time he made the three figures of four braccia high, which were placed in niches in that campanile, on the side towards the place where the Pupilli now are, that is towards the south, figures which were considered at the time to be of considerable merit. But to return to my starting-point, I say that the bronze door contains scenes in bas-relief from the life of St John the Baptist, from his birth to his death, most happily conceived and executed with great care. And although many are of opinion that these stories do not exhibit that fine design nor that high art which should be put into figures, yet Andrea merits the highest praise, because he was the first who undertook to complete a work which rendered it possible for those who came after him to produce what is beautiful, difficult and good in the other two doors, and in the exterior ornaments now to be seen. This work was set in the middle door of the church, and remained there until Lorenzo Ghiberti made the present one, when it was removed and set up opposite the Misericordia, where it is at the present time. I must not omit to say that in making this door Andrea was assisted by his son Nino, who afterwards became a much better master than his father had been, and that it was finished in the year 1339--that is to say, not only polished and cleaned, but gilt at the fire. It is thought that the metal was cast by some Venetian masters very skilful in founding; and a record of this is in the library of the art of the Calimara, guardians of the work of S. Giovanni. Whilst the door was being made, Andrea not only made the altars aforesaid, but many others, and in particular the model of the church of S. Giovanni at Pistoia, which was founded in the year 1337. In this same year, on the 25th day of January, was found the body of St Atto, bishop of that city, in excavating the foundations of the church. The body had been buried in that place for 137 years. The architecture of that temple, which is round, was meritorious for the time. Also by the hand of Andrea is a marble tomb in the principal church of Pistoia, the body of the sarcophagus of which is full of small figures, with some larger ones above. In this tomb rests the body of M. Cino d'Angibolgi, doctor of laws, and a very famous man of letters in his day, as M. Francesco Petrarca testifies in the sonnet: