Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/298

290 satisfaction of persons who understood but little of such matters, to the end that they might have a more showy appearance, a thing which is most unsuitable to painting. Having depicted a story from the life of Santa Catarina in the above named apartments, he executed the triumphal arches of Rome therefore in relief, and painted the figures in such a manner that the objects which should diminish are brought more prominently forward than those which should be larger to the eye, a grievous heresy in our art.

In the Castle of St. Angelo, Pinturicchio painted a large number of rooms in what are called groitesche, but in the lower part of the great tower in the garden, he painted events from the life of Pope Alexander, wherein he portrayed Isabella the Catholic Queen (Isabella of Spain), Niccolo Orsino, Count of Pitigliano, and Gianiacomo Triulzi, with many other relations and friends of the same Pope, in particular Caesar Borgia, his brother and sisters, with many learned or otherwise distinguished men of that time.

At Monte Oliveto, in Naples, there is a picture of the Assumption, in the chapel of Paolo Tolosa, by the hand of Pinturicchio, who executed a large number of works in different parts of Italy, but as they were not of any great distinction, although displaying facility, I pass them over in silence. Pinturicchio used to say that the highest excellence attained by the painter was ever to be found in such works as were executed from his own inspiration, without the intervention of princes or others. This artist worked also in Perugia, but on few occasions only. In the church of