Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/145

Rh Maria Novella, Desiderio constructed the marble sepulchre of the Beata Villana, a work wherein there are certain little angels which are very graceful, as is the portrait of the Beata herself, taken from the life. She does not seem to be dead, but merely asleep. For the Nuns of the Murate likewise he executed a small figure of the Virgin, to stand on a column in a tabernacle, which is also in a very pleasing and graceful manner, insomuch that both these works were always held in the utmost esteem, and are still very highly prized. Desiderio executed the marble tabernacle of the Sacrament in the church of San Pietro Maggiore, with his accustomed diligence; and although there are no figures in this work, it gives evidence, nevertheless, of a very fine manner, and has infinite grace, like all the other works by his hand.ì This artist sculptured the portrait of Marietta degli Strozzi, likewise in marble, and taken from the life, and, as the Lady was exceedingly beautiful, the bust is a very admirable one. The tomb of Messer Carlo Marsuppini, of Arezzo, in the church of Santa Croce, was also erected by this master, and the work not only caused amazement in the artists and other well-informed persons, who then examined it, but continues to surprise all who see it in the present day: Desiderio having executed foliage on the sarcophagus, which, although somewhat hard and dry, yet, as but few antiquities had at that time been discovered, was then considered a very beautiful thing. Again, among other particulars of this work, are certain wings which form part of the ornaments of the sarcophagus, and seem rather to be of actual feathers than of stone, a thing very difficult to produce in marble,