Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 04 (of 10): Filippino Lippi to Domenico PuligoVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 04 (of 10): Filippino Lippi to Domenico Puligo
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
He also adorned this work with a view in perspective and with many
figures, executed in such a sweet and delicate manner, that Pope
Julius was induced thereby to cause all the scenes of the other
masters, both the old and the new, to be thrown to the ground, so
that Raffaello alone might have the glory of all the labours that
had been devoted to these works up to that time. The work of
Giovanni Antonio Sodoma of Vercelli, which was above Raffaello's
painting, was to be thrown down by order of the Pope; but Raffaello
determined to make use of its compartments and grotesques. There
were also some medallions, four in number, and in each of these he
made a figure as a symbol of the scenes below, each figure being on
the same side as the scene that it represented. Over the first
scene, wherein he painted Philosophy, Astrology, Geometry, and
Poetry making peace with Theology, is a woman representing
Knowledge, who is seated on a throne that is supported on either
side by a figure of the Goddess Cybele, each with those many breasts
which in ancient times were the attributes of Diana Polymastes; and
her dress is of four colours, standing for the four elements; from
the head downwards there is the colour of fire, below the girdle
that of the sky, from the groin to the knees there is the colour of
earth, and the rest, down to the feet, is the colour of water. With
her, also, are some truly beautiful little boys. In another
medallion, on the side towards the window that looks over the
Belvedere, is a figure of Poetry, who is in the form of Polyhymnia,
crowned with laurel, and holds an antique musical instrument in one
hand, and a book in the other, and has her legs crossed. With a more
than human beauty of expression in her countenance, she stands with
her eyes uplifted towards Heaven, accompanied by two little boys,
who are lively and spirited, and who make a group of beautiful
variety both with her and with the others. On this side, over the
aforesaid window, Raffaello afterwards painted Mount Parnassus. In
the third medallion, which is above the scene where the Holy Doctors
are ordaining the Mass, is a figure of Theology, no less beautiful
than the others, with books and other things round her, and likewise
accompanied by little boys. And in the fourth medallion, over the
other window, which looks out on the court, he painted Justice with
her scales, and her sword uplifted, and with the same little boys
that are with the others; of which the effect is supremely
beautiful, for in the scene on the wall below he depicted the giving
of the Civil and the Canon Law, as we will relate in the proper
place.
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