Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/414

406 painting was executed to be bound round by woodwork secured with irons, and, cutting it away by little and little, they saved their picture, and afterwards caused it to be built into a more secure place in another part of their convent. Over one of the gates of the city of Parma, Correggio depicted a figure of the Virgin, with the Child in her arms. This is a picture of astonishing beauty, the exquisite colouring of which has obtained the master infinite praise and honour from such strangers and travellers as have seen no other of his works than this fresco. In Sant’ Antonio also, a church of the same city, our artist painted a picture wherein there is a figure of the Virgin, with Santa Maria Maddalena: near them is a boy, representing a little angel, with a book in his hand, who is smiling so naturally that all who look on him are moved to smile also; nor is there any one, however melancholy his temperament, who can behold him without feeling a sensation of pleasure. In the same picture there is also a figure of San Girolamo, which is painted in a manner so admirable and so astonishing, that painters extol the colouring as something wonderful, affirming that it would be scarcely possible to paint better.

Antonio executed various pictures and paintings of different kinds for many nobles of Lombardy; among others of his works may be mentioned two painted in Mantua, for the Duke Federigo II., who sent them to the Emperor, a present