Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/407

Rh of executing fanciful figures, calculated for the display of his knowledge in art, and wherein there is, of a truth, neither arrangement of events in consecutive order, nor even single representations, depicting the history of known or distinguished persons, whether ancient or modern. I, for my part, have never been able to understand what they mean, nor, with all the inquiries that I have made, could I ever find any one who did understand, or could explain them to me. Here there is a man, there a woman, in different attitudes; one has the head of a lion beside him, near another is an angel, but which rather resembles a Cupid, so that one cannot divine what it all means. Over the door which leads to the store-rooms for the wares, a seated figure of a woman is depicted; she has the head of a dead giant at her feet, as is the custom in representations of Judith, and this head she is raising with a sword, while speaking, at the same time, to a figure in the German habit, who is standing, still further beneath her. What or whom this figure may be intended to represent, I have never been able to determine, unless, indeed, it be meant for a figure of Germany; on the whole, however, it is, nevertheless, apparent that the work is well composed, and that the artist was continually adding to his acquirements: there are certain heads and other portraits of different figures in this work which are extremely well designed, and coloured with great animation. Giorgione has also laboured throughout to maintain the utmost fidelity to nature, nor is any trace of imitation to be discovered in the manner. This work is highly extolled in Venice, and is celebrated not only for the paintings executed by Giorgione, but also for the advantages presented by the edifice to the commerce of the merchants and for its utility to the public. Giorgione likewise executed a picture of Christ bearing his Cross, while he is himself dragged along by a Jew. This