Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/276

268 foresliortened in a manner that has been much extolled; and although the draperies are somewhat hard, and the work has a certain dryness of manner, the whole is nevertheless seen to be executed with much art and great care. For the same marquis, Andrea painted the Triumph of Cassar, in a hall of the palace of San Sebastiano, in Mantua. This is the best work ever executed by his hand. Here are seen in most admirable arrangement the rich and beautiful triumphal car, with the figure, who is vituperating the triumphant hero; as also the kindred, the perfumes, the incense-bearers, the booty, and treasures seized by the soldiers, the well-ordered phalanx, the elephants, the spoils of art, the victories, cities, and fortresses, exhibited in admirably counterfeited forms, on huge cars, the numerous trophies borne aloft on spears, an infinite variety of helmets, corslets, and arms of all kinds, with ornaments, vases, and rich vessels innumerable. Among the multitude of spectators, there is a woman who holds a child by the hand, the boy has got a thorn in his foot, and this he shows weeping to his mother, with much grace and in a very natural manner. This master, as I may have remarked elsewhere, has displayed much judgment and forethought in this work, for the plane on which the figures stand being higher than the point of sight, he therefore placed the feet of the foremost on the first line of the plane, causing the others to recede gradually.