Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/214

200 whole affair. He found the latter perfectly willing to accede to this arrangement, Taddeo having a great love for Simon, who had been his fellow-disciple under Giotto, and had ever continued his valued friend and affectionate companion. Oh! truly noble spirits! Ye, who without envious emulation or ambition, did indeed regard each other with brotherly affection, rejoicing each in the honour and advantage of his friend, as in his own! The work, then, was thereupon divided—three of the walls being given to Simon, as we have related in his life; the fourth, with the vaulted ceiling, being reserved for Taddeo, who divided the latter into four compartments, or sections, in accordance with the form of the ceiling. In the first of these divisions w^as represented the Resurrection of Christ, and in this painting the artist seems to have attempted to produce an emission of light from the splendour of the glorified body itself; this we perceive by the effects visible on a town and certain masses of rock, which form part of the accessories. But Taddeo did not pursue the idea with respect to the figures and other portions of the pictures, warned, perhaps, by the difficulties which he anticipated, and doubtful of his ability to conduct this project to a successful conclusion. In the second compartment, he represented Jesus delivering St. Peter from shipwreck: the apostles, who manage the boat in this picture, are certainly very beautiful; and among other things may be remarked, a figure standing on the shore and fishing with a line (a subject previously treated by Giotto in the Navicella of St. Peter’s), in which there is extraordinary force and animation. In the third section of the ceiling is the Ascension of Christ, and the fourth represents the descent of the Holy Spirit: in this picture are certain Jews, seeking to press through the doorway, who exhibit much beauty and variety of attitude. On the wall beneath, the master has depicted the seven sciences, with their names, and an appropriate figure, or group of figures, under each. Grammar is pourtrayed in the form of a woman instructing a child, the writer Donatus being seated at her feet. After Grammar follows Rhetoric, and at her feet is a figure, which places two hands on