Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/124

110 can by no means persuade himself to believe his own. The distrust and indignation of the husband are clearly evident from his countenance ; while that of the wife makes her innocence and purity equally obvious. None can regard that candid brow and those truthful eyes with attention, but must perceive the wrong her husband does her in compelling her to affirm her innocence, and in publicly accusing her of unchastity. There is also extreme vividness of expression in a group, comprising a man suffering from various wounds, while all the women around him, offended by the exhalations emitted from these wounds, turn away in disgust with various contortions, but all with the most graceful attitudes. The foreshortenings which are to be observed in another picture, wherein is a crowd of lame beggars, have also great merit, and must have been highly appreciated by the artists of those days, since it was from these works that the commencement and first methods of fore-shortening were derived ; besides which they cannot be considered badly done, considering them as the first. But, more than all other parts of these frescoes, the gestures which the above-named Michelina makes towards certain usurers, whW are paying her the price of her possessions, which she has given to the poor, are the most wonderful. The contempt she feels for riches and all other earthly wealth is most manifest—nay, she seems to hold them in disgust and abhorrence ; while the usurers present the very personification of human avarice and greed. The figure of one, who, while counting the money, is making signs to the notary, who is writing, is extremely fine ; for though he has his eyes on the notary, he yet holds his hands over his money, betraying his love of it, his avarice, and his mistrust, in every feature. Again, the three figures personating Obedience, Patience, and Poverty, which are hovering in the air, and upholding the vestments of St. Francis, are worthy of infinite praise, and more particularly because there is a grace in the flow of the draperies, which makes it obvious that Giotto was born to be the light of painting. He has, besides, given the portrait of Malatesta in this work : he is in a boat, and so truly natural that he might be thought to breathe. Other mariners also, and other figures, in the vivacity of their actions, the grace of their attitudes, and the life of their expression, make manifest the excellence of this