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
At the same time, and in the same church, he painted in colours the
hour-dial above the principal door within the church, with four heads
coloured in fresco at the corners. He wrought in terra-verde, also, the
loggia that faces towards the west above the garden of the Monastery of
the Angeli, painting below each arch a story of the acts of S. Benedict
the Abbot, and of the most notable events of his life, up to his death.
Here, among many most beautiful scenes, there is one wherein a monastery
is destroyed by the agency of the Devil, while a friar is left dead
below the stones and beams. No less notable is the terror of another
monk, whose draperies, as he flies, cling round his nude form and
flutter with most beautiful grace; whereby Paolo awakened the minds of
the craftsmen so greatly, that they have ever afterwards followed that
method. Very beautiful, also, is the figure of S. Benedict, the while
that with dignity and devoutness, in the presence of his monks, he
restores the dead friar to life. Finally, in all these stories there are
features worthy of consideration, and above all in certain places where
the very tiles of the roof, whether flat or round, are drawn in
perspective. And in the death of S. Benedict, while his monks are
performing his obsequies and bewailing him, there are some sick men and
cripples, all most beautiful, who stand gazing on him; and it is
noticeable, also, that among many loving and devout followers of that
Saint there is an old monk with crutches under his arms, in whom there
is seen a marvellous expression, with even a hope of being made whole.
In this work there are no landscapes in colour, nor many buildings, nor
difficult perspectives, but there is truly great design, with no little
of the good.
In many houses of Florence there are many pictures in perspective by the
hand of the same man, for the adornment of couches, beds, and other
little things; and in Gualfonda, in particular, on a terrace in the
garden which once belonged to the Bartolini, there are four
battle-scenes painted on wood by his hand, full of horses and armed men,
with very beautiful costumes of those days; and among the men are
portraits of Paolo Orsino, Ottobuono da Parma, Luca da Canale, and Carlo
Malatesti, Lord of Rimini, all captains-general of those times. And
these pictures, since they were spoilt and had suffered injury, were
restored in our own day by the agency of Giuliano Bugiardini, who did
them more harm than good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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