Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/220

206 seated in the midst of a meadow, enamelled with flowers and beneath the shade of orange-trees, forming a delicious grove; frolicsome Cupids are sporting among the branches of these trees, and hovering about the company beneath them, they joyously fly around the young girls of the party; all these figures thus seated are manifestly portraits, and were taken from the noble ladies and great personages of that day, but from the length of time that has now elapsed, they can no longer be recognized. The Cupids appear to be shooting their arrows at the young maidens, near whom are knights and nobles occupied in listening to music and songs, or in watching the dances of youths and maidens, who rejoice in the gladness of their youth and love. Among these nobles Orgagna has pourtrayed Castruccio, lord of Lucca; he is represented as a handsome youth, wearing a cap of azure blue, and holding a falcon on his hand, with other nobles of the same period near him, but whose names are not known. In short, he depicted with all possible diligence, in this first part of his work, whatever the world has to offer of most joyous and delightful, so far as the space would permit, and in accordance with the requirements of the art. On the other side of the same picture is a high mountain, on which Andrea has represented the life of those who, moved by repentance of their sins, and by desire for salvation, have retired from the world to that Solitude, which is occupied by holy hermits, whose days are passed in the service of God, and who are pursuing various occupations, with most animated expression and truth of effect; some, reading or praying, seem wholly intent on a life of contemplation; others, labouring to gain their bread, are actively employed in different ways; one hermit is seen milking a goat, nor would it be possible to imagine a more truthful and animated figure than he presents. On the lower part of the hill is St. Macarius, calling the attention of three kings, who are riding forth to the chase, accompanied by their ladies, and followed by their train, to human misery, as exhibited in three monarchs lying dead, but not wholly decayed, within a sepulchre. The living potentates, in varied and beautiful attitudes, regard this spectacle with serious attention, and one might almost say that they are reflecting with regret on their own liability shortly to become such as those they are looking