Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/41

Rh works of art. Yet I would not here give occasion to the mistake that things rude and inept shall therefore be holy, and that the beautiful and attractive are licentious: this is the false interpretation of many who, when they see feminine or youthful figures adorned with more than common beauty, instantly consider them licentious, and therefore censure them; not perceiving how wrongfully they are condemning the sound j udgment of the painter; for the latter believes the saints, male and female, who are celestial, to be as much superior to mere mortals in beauty, as heaven is superior to things earthly and the work of human hands; and, what is worse, they at the same time betray the unsoundness and impurity of their own hearts, by thus deducing evil consequences from, and finding causes of otfence, in things which, if they were truly admirers of good, as by their'stupid zeal they desire to make themselves appear, would rather awaken in them aspirations towards heaven, and the wish to make themselves acceptable to the Creator of all things, from whom, as Himself, the highest and most perfect; beauty and perfection have proceeded. But what are we to suppose that such people would do if they were placed, or rather what do they when they are placed, where they find living beauty, accompanied by light manners, by seductive words, by movements full of grace, and eyes that cannot but ravish the heart not amply guarded? What are we to believe they then do, since the mere image, the very shadow, can move them so powerfully? Not that I would have any suppose me to approve the placing in churches of such figures as are depicted in all but perfect nudity; by no means: for in such cases the painter has not taken into consideration the reserve that was due to the place. He may have just cause for desiring to make manifest the extent of his power; but this should be done with due regard to circumstances, and not without befitting respect to persons, times, and places.

Fra Giovanni was a man of the utmost simplicity of intention, and was most holy in every act of his life. It is related of him, and it is a good evidence of his simple earnestness of purpose, that being one morning invited to breakfast by Pope Nicholas V., he had scruples of conscience as to eating meat without the permission of his prior, not considering that the authority of the pontiff was superseding