Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/403

Rh story representing the shipwreck of the Apostles, with that of St. Peter raising his daughter Petronilla from the dead, and in this he pourtrayed the last-named apostle going with St. John to the temple, and finding the sick beggar in the portico, whom, when he implored an alms, not being able to bestow either gold or silver, St. Peter liberates from his infirmity by making the sign of the cross. All the figures of this work are painted in a very grand manner and with much grace: they exhibit, moreover, great softness and harmony in the colouring, with considerable force of design. The entire work was infinitely admired for much in it that was new, many considerations having been kept in yiew by Masolino, which were wholly foreign to the manner of Giotto; but this undertaking remained incomplete, because the master was overtaken by death. Masolino da Panicale was a man of admirable genius, and his works, which it is manifest that he executed throughout with infinite love and care, are distinguished by their harmony and facility. His too zealous study and the fatigues to which he perpetually subjected himself, so weakened his frame that confirmed ill health ensued: his life was prematurely terminated, and the world was cruelly deprived of this master while he was still but at the early age of thirty-seven: thus were cut short the hopes and expectations which had been conceived by all from his labours. The paintings of Masolino da Panicale date about the year 1440. Paolo Schiavo, who painted the figure of the Virgin at the corner of the Gori, took great pains to imitate the manner of