Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/221

Rh circumstance. St. Elizabeth is in bed, and certain of her neighbours have come to visit her; the nurse is seated, feeding the child, when one of the women joyfully steps forward and takes him from her, to show to those around how fair a present the mistress of the house has made them in her old age: there is, besides, a peasant-woman bringing fruit and flasks of wine from the country, according to the custom in Florence: a very beautiful figure. In the fourth picture, which is beside this, is Zacharias, still dumb, but keeping good courage, and marvelling that the boy he is gazing at should be born to him; the bystanders are desiring to know what his name is to be, and Zacharias, writing on his knee, while still fixing his eyes on his son, who is in the arms of a woman, who has reverently placed herself on her knees before him, marks with his pen on the leaf, Giovanni sarà il suo nome (John shall be his name), not without manifest astonishment on the part of those around, some of whom appear to be in doubt whether the thing be true or not. The fifth story follows, wherein John is seen preaching to the multitude, and here the painter exhibits the attention which the populace ever gives when hearing some new thing; there is much expression in the heads of the Scribes who are listening to John, and whose mien and gestures betoken a kind of scorn, or rather hatred of what they hear. A large number of persons stand or sit around, men and women of diflerent conditions and variously attired.

In the sixth picture, St. John is seen baptizing Christ, the reverence displayed in whose countenance clearly shows the faith which we ought to place in that sacrament, and as this did not fail to produce a great efiect, numerous figures, already unclothed and barefoot, are seen waiting to be baptized, meanwhile showing the trust they entertain and the desire they feel in their countenances: one among these figures, who is drawing off his shoe, is life and movement itself. In the last story, that in the arch beneath the ceiling, is the sumptuous feast of Herod, and the dance of Herodias, with a vast number of attendants performing various services; the building, of extraordinary magnificence, which is seen in perspective, clearly proves the ability of the master, as indeed do all these paintings.