Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/137

Rh with many other works which were sent abroad into various parts, as for example, to Lyons, in France. For San Miniato al Monte, a monastery of White Friars, outside of Florence, Lossellino was appointed to construct the monument of the Cardinal of Portugal, and this work he executed so admirably, with such extraordinary care and ability, that no artist can ever expect to see any thing which in grace and delicacy could possibly surpass it. Nay, to him who examines this work it appears not merely difficult, but almost impossible that it should have been brought to such perfection. There are angels who have so much grace and beauty of expression, wdth such an easy flow in the draperies, and so much art in the whole work, that they no longer seem to be of marble, but living beings. Of these angels, one holds the crown of chastity, which belonged to that cardinal, he having died, as it is said, in strict celibacy, the other bears the palm of victory, to intimate the conquest obtained by the Prelate over worldly things. Among other remarkable parts of this work is an arch in the stone called macigno, which supports a marble curtain, so finely arranged, that between the white of the marble and the grey of the macigno this drapery looks much more like real cloth than like marble. On the sarcophagus are figures of children which are truly beautiful, with that of the Prelate himself; there is a Madonna, moreover, in a medallion, which is also very well done: the tomb itself has the form of that constructed in porphyry, which is to be seen in Rome on the Piazza of the Rotunda. This monument to the Cardinal of Portugal was erected in the year 1459, and its form, with the architecture of the chapel, so greatly pleased the Duke of Malfi, nephew of Pope Pius II., that he caused one to be constructed for his wife in Naples by the same artist, and similar to that of the cardinal in all things, excepting only the figure of the dead.