Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 06 (of 10): Fra Giocondo to Niccolo SoggiVasari, Giorgio
History
Lives of the most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 06 (of 10): Fra Giocondo to Niccolo Soggi
Vasari, Giorgio
Art, Italian; Artists -- Italy -- Biography
The distribution of this Hall, which is low, had been designed with much
judgment by Raffaello, who had placed at the corners, over all the
doors, large niches with ornaments in the form of little boys holding
various devices of Leo, such as lilies, diamonds, plumes, and other
emblems of the House of Medici. In the niches were seated some Popes in
pontificals, each with a canopy in his niche; and round those Popes were
some little boys in the form of little angels, holding books and other
appropriate things in their hands. And each Pope had on either side of
him a Virtue, chosen according to his merits; thus, the Apostle Peter
had Religion on one side and Charity, or rather Piety, on the other, and
so all the others had similar Virtues; and the said Popes were Damasus
I, Alexander I, Leo III, Gregory, Sylvester, and some others. All these
figures were so well placed in position and executed by Giulio, who
painted all the best parts of this work in fresco, that it is clear that
he endured much labour and took great pains with them; as may also be
seen from a drawing of S. Sylvester, which was designed very well by his
own hand, and is perhaps a much more graceful work than the painted
figure. It may be affirmed, indeed, that Giulio always expressed his
conceptions better in drawings than in finished work or in paintings,
for in the former may be seen more vivacity, boldness, and feeling; and
this may have happened because he made a drawing in an hour, in all the
heat and glow of working, whereas on paintings he spent months, and even
years, so that, growing weary of them, and losing that keen and ardent
love that one has at the beginning of a work, it is no marvel that he
did not give them that absolute perfection that is to be seen in his
drawings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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