Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/147

Rh continued for a long time to be placed epigrams and sonnets, from the number of which it shall suffice me to insert the following:—

The works of Desiderio were performed about the year 1485. He left the sketched figure of a Magdalene in penitence, which was finished at a later period by Benedetto da Maiano, and is now in the church of Santa Trinita at Florence, on the right as you enter the church. This figure is beautiful beyond the power of words to express. In our book are certain drawings by Desiderio, which are very fine; his portrait I have obtained from some of his connections in Settignano.

When artists seek no more, in the works they produce, than to imitate their masters, or some other eminent person, whose manner may please them, in the attitudes of their figures, the air of their heads, or the folds of their draperies, and