Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10): Berna to Michelozzo MichelozziVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 02 (of 10): Berna to Michelozzo Michelozzi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
Ranieri at table, all the figures being made with much consideration.
Next, in the painting of the death of the said Saint, he expressed very
well not only the effect of weeping, but also the movement of certain
angels who are bearing his soul to Heaven, surrounded by a light most
resplendent and made with beautiful invention. And truly one cannot but
marvel as one sees, in the bearing of the body of that Saint by the
clergy to the Duomo, certain priests who are singing, for in their
gestures, in the actions of their persons, and in all their movements,
as they chant diverse parts, they bear a marvellous resemblance to a
choir of singers; and in that scene, so it is said, is the portrait of
the Bavarian.[1] In like manner, the miracles that Ranieri wrought as
he was borne to his tomb, and those that he wrought in another place
when already laid to rest therein in the Duomo, were painted with very
great diligence by Antonio, who made there blind men receiving their
sight, paralytics regaining the use of their members, men possessed by
the Devil being delivered, and other miracles, all represented very
vividly. But among all the other figures, that of a dropsical man
deserves to be considered with marvel, for the reason that, with the
face withered, with the lips shrivelled, and with the body swollen, he
is such that a living man could not show more than does this picture the
very great thirst of the dropsical and the other effects of that malady.
A wonderful thing, too, in those times, was a ship that he made in this
work, which, being in travail in a tempest, was saved by that Saint; for
he made therein with great vivacity all the actions of the mariners, and
everything which is wont to befall in such accidents and travailings.
Some are casting into the insatiable sea, without a thought, the
precious merchandize won by so much sweat and labour, others are running
to see to their vessel, which is breaking up, and others, finally, to
other mariners' duties, whereof it would take too long to relate the
whole; it is enough to say that all are made with so great vividness and
beautiful method that it is a marvel. In the same place, below the lives
of the Holy Fathers painted by Pietro Laurati of Siena, Antonio made the
body of the Blessed Oliverio (together with the Abbot Panuzio, and many
events of their lives), in a sarcophagus painted to look like marble;
which figure is very well painted. In short, all these works that
Antonio made in the Campo Santo are such that they have been universally
held, and with great reason, the best of all those that have been
wrought by many excellent masters at various times in that place, for
the reason that, besides the particulars mentioned, the fact that he
painted everything in fresco, never retouching any part on the dry,
brought it about that up to our day they have remained so vivid in the
colouring that they can teach the followers of that art and make them
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