Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/395

Rh third compartment, wherein he has pourtrayed Joshua proceeding against Jericho, and causing the river Jordan to flow backwards. He has here represented twelve tents, for the twelve tribes, all full of highly animated figures: and still more beautiful are some others, in basso-rilievo, who are proceeding with the ark around the walls of the aforesaid city, when those walls are overthrown at the sound of the trumpets, and Jericho is taken by the Hebrews. In this picture the relief of the landscape is gradually lowered, so that the distance is increased with great judgment, and the true proportions of the first figures to the mountains, with those of the mountains to the city, and of the city to the distant country, are observed with infinite care, the degrees of relief being regulated with the nicest judgment, and the whole work conducted to the utmost perfection: the experience of the master, and his power in his art, increasing from day to day. In the ninth picture he has represented the Giant Goliath, with David, in a proud yet childlike attitude, who cuts off the Philistine’s head, when the army of God destroys that of the pagan. Here the artist has represented horses, chariots, and all the other accessories appertaining to war. In another part is seen David returning with the head of Goliath in his hand, and received by the people, who meet him with songs and the sound of instruments, all pourtrayed with perfect truth and full of animation. There now remained for Lorenzo to put forth all his strength for the tenth and last picture, where the Queen of Sheba, with a splendid retinue, pays her visit to King Solomon. Here there is a building drawn in perspective, and exceedingly fine, with a variety of figures similar to those in the previous stories. Nor less carefully and perfectly executed are the decorations of the architraves and the framework surrounding these doors, among which are fruits and festoons of foliage finished with the accustomed excellence of the master. In this work, whether taken in detail or considered as a whole, we have proof of the wonders that may be accomplished by the fertile invention and practised ability of the