The license he introduced gave great courage to those who studied his method, and emboldened them to follow on his path.

Since that time, new freaks of fancy have been seen, resembling the style of arabesque and grotesque more than was consistent with tradition.

For this emancipation of the art, all craftsmen owe him an infinite and everduring debt of gratitude, since he at one blow broke down the bands and chains which barred the path they trod in common." If I am right in thus interpreting an unusually incoherent passage of Vasari's criticism, no words could express more clearly the advent of Barocco mannerism.

But Vasari proceeds to explain his meaning with still greater precision.

Afterwards he made a plainer demonstration of his intention in the library of S.Lorenzo, by the splendid distribution of the windows, the arrangement of the upper chamber, and the marvellous entrance-hall into that enclosed building.
"The grace and charm of art were never seen more perfectly displayed in the whole and in the parts of any edifice than here.