Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/371

Rh fresco, which decorate the angles. By the same master, the western cloister, above the garden of the Monastery degli Angeli, is also painted, in “terra-verde,” with a story from the life of St. Benedict the abbot, beneath every arch, representing all his most remarkable actions, to his death. There are many beautiful pictures in this work, and among them is one representing a monastery which is suddenly destroyed by the power of Satan, and under the ruins of which there is the body of a monk who has been killed by the fall of the building. Nor less remarkable is the expression of terror in another monk, whose vestments gracefully waving as he flies, display the form beneath most beautifully. From this painting the artists of the period received a new idea, which they afterwards frequently reproduced. The figure of St. Benedict is also very fine, as, with combined dignity and humility, he performs a miracle in the presence of his monks, by restoring their dead brother, before mentioned, to life. There are, in brief, many peculiarities throughout the whole work, most amply worthy of consideration, more especially as regards the perspective, the master’s knowledge of which has been frequently displayed throughout, even in his treatment of the slates and tiles of the roof. At the death of St. Benedict, moreover, while the monks are performing his obsequies, and bewailing their loss, certain aged and decrepit persons come to look on the dead body of the saint; these figures are admirably fine. There is also an old monk supported on two crutches, in whose face there is the evidence of infinite affection, with a lingering hope that he may possibly recover his health. In this work there are no landscapes, and not many buildings, neither is there so much as usual sacrificed to the conquest of difficulties in perspective, but, on the other hand, there is much good drawing, and numerous excellencies. Many houses in Florence possess small pictures by the hand of this master, which were painted to adorn couches, beds, and other articles of household use. In Gualfonda, i more especially, on a terrace of the garden which formerly I belonged to the Bartolini family, are four battle pieces, in wood, by his hand; the horses and armed men in splendid