Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/393

Rh of the intoxicated limbs is finely rendered, the love and consideration exhibited by the other sons of Noah are equally well expressed, and the attitudes of the latter are beautiful. The vine, the cask, with all the requisites of the vintage, are moreover exhibited, but with so much judgment and all so treated, that they do not impede the action of the story, but on the contrary increase its force and give it most appropriate ornament. For the fourth story of this compartment Lorenzo has chosen the appearance of the three angels in the valley of Mamre: these figures have a close resemblance to each other: the holy patriarch is seen in the act of adoration before his celestial visitors, his hands are folded, and the expression of his countenance is most life-like and appropriate. The servants with the ass, who are represented as awaiting Abraham at the foot of the mountain, whither he has gone to make the sacrifice of his son, are equally excellent. Isaac stands naked on the altar, while the father, with upraised arm, is in the act of proving his obedience, when he is prevented by the angel, who arrests his arm with one hand, while he points with the other to the animal which he is to offer in sacrifice, and thus delivers Isaac from death. This story is of a truth exceedingly beautiful, and among other matters worthy of observation is the great difference between the delicate limbs of Isaac and those of the more robust servants, insomuch that there does not seem to have been a touch given which had not been calculated with the nicest exactitude and the most perfect knowledge of art. In the difficult matter of representing the buildings, Lorenzo appears to have surpassed himself in this work: the birth of Isaac’s sons, Esau and Jacob, with the chase of the former, at the desire of his father, must also be particularized: Jacob conducted by Rebecca, is offering the prepared kid, the skin of which his mother has wrapped around his throat, while Isaac stretches out his hands towards him and bestows the benediction: all these things are admirably represented; there are besides many beautiful dogs in this picture, and the figures of Isaac, of Jacob, and of Rebecca, must needs exhibit precisely the effect produced in their actual life. Animated and exalted by the study of his art, its difficulties became daily more familiar to the master, and presented of Vasari,