Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/215

Rh different books, while it draws a third hand from beneath its mantle, and applies it to its mouth. Logic has a serpent, under a veil, in the hand, with Zeno Eleates, seated, reading at the feet. Arithmetic holds the tables of the Abbacus; Abraham, the inventor of which, is seated at her feet. Music has the appropriate instruments around her, with Tubalcain seated below; he is striking an anvil, with two hammers, and is listening intently to the sounds he is producing. Geometry has the square and compass, with Euclid beneath; and Astronomy, bearing the celestial globe in her hand, has Atlas under her feet. The remainder of the space is occupied by seven theological sciences, the figure beneath each representing that condition of men considered most appropriate—the pope, the emperor, kings, cardinals, dukes, bishops, marquises, and others. The face of the pope in this series is the portrait of Clement Y. In the middle and highest place is St. Thomas Aquinas, who had been devoted to the study of all these sciences; he has certain heretics lying beneath his feet, as, for example, Arius, Sabellius, and Averroes; while around him are, Moses, Paul, John the Evangelist, and other figures; above whom are the three theological and four cardinal virtues, with many other figures and innumerable accessories, to all of which Taddeo has given infinite grace and truth of expression. The whole work, indeed, may be considered the best, as to composition, that Taddeo has left us, and is in better preservation also than any other.

In the same church of Santa Maria Novella, this artist painted St. Jerome robed in the vestments of a cardinal, he having an especial devotion to that saint, and having chosen him for the protector of his house. Accordingly, at a later period, Agnolo, son of Taddeo, after the death of his father, caused a tomb to be constructed for their common descendants beneath this painting; the covering of the tomb was of marble, with the arms of the Gaddi family. And for these descendants, St. Jerome the Cardinal, moved by the excellence of Taddeo, and by the merits of his posterity, has obtained from God the most honourable offices in the Church,