Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/181

Rh in the frieze, in the middle of which, and on the corners, are several heads, and among them that of Buffalmacco himself, as I have said, the head bearing a cap, exactly as he is seen in the portrait we have here given. In this work is represented the Father of Creation, supporting the heavens and the earth—nay, the whole uni verse—by the force of his hand, and Buonamico, willing to explain the picture in verses similar to the paintings of that time, wrote a sonnet with his own hand, in capital letters, beneath the pictures. I add these verses here, for the sake of their antiquity, and also that the reader may be made acquainted with the simple modes of speech proper to those days; otherwise I do not think them likely to give much pleasure, although they may perhaps be welcome, as shewing of what the men of those times were capable:— “ Voi che avvisate questa dipintura Di Dio pietoso soramo creatore, Lo qual fe tutte cose con amore, Pesate, numerate, ed in misura.


 * In nove gradi angelica natura

In ello empirio ciel pien di splendore. Colui che non si muove, ed e motore Ciascuna cosa fecie buona e pura.


 * Levate gli occhi del vostro intelletto,

Considerate quanto e ordinato Lo mondo universale; e con atfetto


 * Lodate lui che l’ha si ben creato:

Pensate di passare a tal diletto Tra gli angeli, dove e ciascun beato.


 * Per questo mondo si vede la gloria,

Lo basso e il mezzo, e l’alto in questa storia.”