Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/224

216 he adorned the recess above the high altar in the cathedral, and performed various works in different parts of the city, as, for example, at the house of the wardens, where he depicted a story on one of the walls, representing King Charles portrayed from the life, who recommends the city of Pisa to the friendly consideration of the Florentines, He also painted two pictures in distemper in the church of San Girolamo, for the Frati Gesuati, that of the high altar, namely, and another. In the same place there is, besides, a picture representing San Rocco and San Sebastiano, from the hand of this master; it was presented to those fathers by I know not which of the Medici, and they have added to it, most probably on that account, the arms of Pope Leo X. Domenico is said to have possessed so accurate an eye, that when making drawings from the various antiquities of Rome, as triumphal arches, baths, columns, colossal figures, obelisks, amphitheatres, and aqueducts, he did all by the eye, using neither rule, nor compass, nor instruments of any kind; but afterwards, measuring what he had done, every part was found to be correct, and in all respects as if he had measured them. He drew the Colosseum in this manner by the eye, placing a figure standing upright in the drawing, by measuring which, the proportions of all the building will be found; this was tried by the masters after Domenico’s death, and found to be rigidly correct.