Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/118

110 buildings in the same picture, wbich are extremely well drawn; there are, besides, many small animals and birds in various parts of the work, all of which are as natural and as animated as it is possible to imagine. The same master executed numerous castings of medallions, containing portraits of princes and other personages of his time. From these medallions, many likenesses in painting have since been made. And Monsignore Giovio, in a letter written in the vulgar tongue, which he sent to the Lord Duke Cosimo, and which may be read, printed with many others, has these words, when speaking of Vittore Pisano:—

“This master was exceedingly clever in the execution of basso-rilievo, a work esteemed most difficult by artists, because it holds the mean between the level surface of pictures and the full roundness of statues. There are many highly esteemed medals of great princes by his hand, they are in a large form, and of the same proportions with that reverse of the caparisoned and, barbed horse which Guidi has sent me. Among the works of this kind in my possession, is a portrait of the great King Alfonso, wearing no other head-dress than his hair; and on the reverse is the helmet of a general. I have besides, a medal with the portrait of Pope Martin, and bearing the arms of the house of Colonna on the reverse, with that of Sultan Mahomet, who took Constantinople, an equestrian figure; in a Turkish habit; holding a scourge in his hand^ Of Sigismundo Malatesta, likewise, I have the portrait, with that of Madonna Isotta, of Rimini, on the reverse; and one of Niccolo Piccinino, wearing an oblong barrett or cap on the head; with the reverse sent me by Guidi, and which I return. In addition to these, I have also a very beautiful medal of John Paleologus, Emperor of Constantinople, ivith that strange looking head-dress, after the Greekish manner, which the Emperors used to wear. This last was made by the same Pisano in Plorence, at the time