Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/126

118 mastery of his art; among other things he has painted an Ass, foreshortened, and placed in such a manner that it seems to turn on every side; this animal is considered very fine. The Birth of Moses follows, together with all the signs and prodigies that ensued, until the time when he led the people forth from Egypt, and fed them during so many years in the wilderness. Finally, Benozzo added to these certain other stories of the Hebrew people; as, for example, those of David and Solomon his son; and it may be truly afiirmed that, in this work, he displayed infinite persistence, and a spirit more than bold; for whereas so vast an undertaking might very well have appalled a whole legion of painters, he alone encountered the whole, and completed it with his own hand. He accordingly acquired a very great reputation by this work, and well merited the following lines which were appended to it in his honour:— Quid spectas volucres, pisees, et monstra ferarum,
 * Et virides silvas aethereasque domos?

Et pueros, juvenes, matres, canosque parentes,
 * Queis semper virum spirat in ore decus?

Non haec tam variis, finxit simulacra figuris
 * Natura ingenio foetibus apta suo:

Est opus artificis: pinxit viva ora Benoxus:
 * O superi vivos fundite in ora sonos”

Innumerable portraits, taken from the life, are scattered throughout this work, but as the subjects of all are not known, I shall speak of those pnly which are understood to be of important personages, or of those respecting which I have found authentic notices recorded. In the story of the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon there is the portrait of Marcilius Ficinus among various prelates, with those of Argiropolo, a learned Greek, and of Batista Platina, whose