Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/331

Rh and beauty; in the basement or predella, are stories in mezzorelievo, placed beneath each saint, and representing events from the life of each. This part, also, is greatly and deservedly admired; for the master, with much discernment, has made the figures retiring gradually on the different planes, diminishing them as they fall into the background. His example had the effect of increasing the courage of other artists, and inciting them to enhance the grace and beauty of their works by new and original inventions. When preparing the sepulchres of that Federigo for whom the abovenamed work was executed, he pourtrayed the likenesses, taken from nature, of Federigo himself and his wife, in bassorilievo, on two large stones. On these stones are also the following words:—

At a later period Jacopo again proceeded to Florence, where the wardens of Santa Maria del Fiore, moved by the high reputation he had acquired, appointed him to execute the decorations which surmount the of that church on the side towards the Nunziata. Here, within a lengthened oval (mandorla), the sculptor represented the Madonna borne to heaven by a choir of angels, who are singing to the sound of various instruments. The movements and attitudes of these figures are exceedingly beautiful, their flight exhibiting a force of motion and air of triumph such as had never before been displayed in a work of that character. The Virgin, also, is draped with so much grace and decorum, that nothing better could be imagined; the fall of the folds being soft and flowing, while the vestments are disposed with so much art, that the figure is sufficiently discerned, and they clothe the form without wholly concealing it. Beneath the Virgin is St. Thomas receiving the girdle; and the whole work was, in fine, completed by Jacopo in the space of four years, with all the perfection which he could possibly give it, seeing that he was incited to do his best, not only by his natural desire to acquit himself well, but also by the competition of Donato, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Lorenzo di Bartolo, from whose hands many highly-lauded works were