Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/429

Rh similar fate has befallen a picture of Mars and Venus, with Cupids and Vulcan, a work exhibiting evidence of consummate art, and finished with wonderful patience.

From Filippo Strozzi the elder, Piero di Cosimo received a commission to paint a picture with small figures, the subject being Perseus delivering Andromeda from the monster. This work, in which there are many fine qualities, is now in the palace of the Signor Sforza Almeni, first Chamberlain to the Duke Cosimo; it was presented to him by Messer Giovanni Battista, son of Lorenzo Strozzi, to whom his delight in works of painting and sculpture was well known; and very highly is it estimated by the Signor Sforza, nor without reason, since it is one of the best and most agreeable pictures ever executed by Piero di Cosimo; a more singular and fanciful specimen of a sea-monster could not easily be conceived, than that which Piero has here imagined and depicted, the attitude of Perseus is fierce and menacing, as lifting his sword in the air he is preparing to destroy the monster. Andromeda is seen bound, and trembling between hope and fear; her countenance, finely expressing these emotions, is very beautiful. In the foreground are numerous figures clothed in strange habiliments, and singing to the sound of various instruments; some of the heads of these figures, smiling in joy at the deliverance of Andromeda, are divinely beautiful; the landscape also is very fine, the colouring being exceedingly soft and graceful, every tint blended with the most perfect harmony; the whole work is, in short, executed with exceeding care.

This master likewise painted a picture wherein there is a nude Venus, with a Mars also nude, the latter lying asleep in a meadow enamelled with flowers; hovering around them are troops of Loves, who carry off the helmet, armlets, and other portions of the armour of Mars; a grove of myrtles forms part of the landscape, and here there is a Cupid, alarmed at the sight of a rabbit: the doves of Venus are also depicted, wdth other attributes and emblems of Love. This picture is at Florence, in the house of Giorgio Vasari,