Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/36

28 certain stories, the small figures of which are extremely beautiful. But superior to all the other works of Fra Giovanni, and one in which he surpassed himself, is a picture in the same church, near the door on the left hand of the entrance: in this work he proves the high quality of his powers as well as the profound intelligence he possessed of the art which he practised. The subject is the Coronation of the Virgin by Jesus Christ: the principal figures are surrounded by a choir of angels, among whom are vast numbers of saints and holy personages, male and female. These figures are so numerous, so well executed, in attitudes so varied, and with expressions of the head so richly diversified, that one feels infinite pleasure and delight in regarding them. Nay, one is convinced that those blessed spirits can look no otherwise in heaven itself, or, to speak under correction, could not, if they had forms, appear otherwise; for all the saints, male and female, assembled here, have not only life and expression, most delicately and truly rendered, but the colouring also of the whole work would seem to have been given by the hand of a saint, or of an angel like themselves. It is not without most sufiicient reason therefore, that this excellent ecclesiastic is always called Frate Giovanni Angelico. The stories from the life of our Lady and of San Domenico which adorn the predella, moreover, are in the same divine manner, and I, for myself, can affirm with truth, that I never see this work but it appears something new, nor can I ever satisfy myself with the sight of it, or have enough of beholding it.

In the chapel of the Nunziata at Florence, Avhich Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici caused to be constructed. Fra Giovanni painted the doors of the armory or press, wherein the silver utensils for the service of the altar are deposited, the figures are made and executed with much care. He painted besides