[28] Observe, for example, the casing of a Gothic church at Rimini by Alberti with a series of Roman arches; or the facade of S. Andrea at Mantua, where the vast and lofty central arch leads, not into the nave itself, but into a shallow vestibule.

[29] See Burckhardt, Cicerone, vol. i. p. 167.

[30] See De Stendhal, Histoire de la Peinture en Italie, p. 122.

[31] For a notice of his life, see Vol.  II., Revival of Learning, p. 247.

[32] The Arch of Augustus at Rimini was the model followed by Alberti in this facade.  He intended to cover the church with a cupola, as may be seen from the design on a medal of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta.  See too the letter written by him to Matteo da Bastia, Alberti, Opere, vol. iv. p. 397.

[33] This ancestral palace of the Medici passed in 1659 to the Marchese Gabriele Riccardi, from the Duke Francesco II.

[34] Von Reumont, Lorenzo de’ Medici, vol. ii. pp. 187-191, may be consulted for an interesting account of the building of this Casa Grande by Filippo Strozzi.  The preparations were made with great caution, lest it should seem that a work too magnificent for a simple citizen was being undertaken; in particular, Filippo so contrived that the costly opus rusticum employed in the construction of the basement should appear to have been forced upon him.  This is characteristic of Florence in the days of Cosimo.  The foundation stone was laid in the morning of August 16, 1489, at the moment when the sun arose above the summits of the Casentino.  The hour, prescribed by astrologers as propitious, had been settled by the horoscope; masses meanwhile were said in several churches, and alms distributed.

[35] Antonio Filarete, or Averulino, architect and sculptor, was author of a treatise on the building of the ideal city, one of the most curious specimens of Renaissance fancy, to judge from the account rendered of the manuscript by Rio, vol. iii. pp. 321-328.

[36] Matteo Civitale, Benedetto da Majano, Mino da Fiesole, Luca della Robbia, Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia, Lo Scalza, Omodeo, and the Sansovini, not to mention less illustrious sculptors, filled the churches of Italy with this elaborate stone-work.  Among the bronze-founders it is enough to name Ghiberti, Antonio Filarete, Antonio Pollajuolo, Donatello and his pupil Bertoldo, Andrea Riccio, the master of the candelabrum in S. Antonio at Padua, Jacopo Sansovino, the master of the door of the sacristy in S. Mark’s at Venice, Alessandro Leopardi, the master of the standard-pedestals of the Piazza of S. Mark’s.  I do not mean these lists to be in any sense exhaustive, but simply to remind the reader of the rare and many-sided men of genius who devoted their abilities to this kind of work.  Some of their masterpieces will be noticed in detail in the chapter on Sculpture.