Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/45

Rh tion of artists, but also because no other work of this master, so far as I know, has been found; nor should I have had notice of this indeed, had it not been for the affection borne to these noble acts by the very honourable M. Cosimo Bartoli, a Florentine gentleman, who made it known to me, to the end that the talents of Attavante should not remain buried, as it were, from the sight of men.

In this book, then, the figure of Silius has a helmet on the head, which is surrounded by a chaplet of laurel, and bears a plume, or crest of gold; he wears a cuirass of azure-blue, decorated with gold, after the manner of the ancients; in his right hand he carries a book, while with the left he is leaning on a short sword; over the cuirass he has a red mantle, or chlamys, adorned with gold; it is fastened in front, and hangs down from the shoulders. The inside of this chlamys seems to be of a texture changeable in colour, and is embroidered with rosettes of gold; the buskins are yellow, and the figure, supporting itself on the right foot, is placed within a niche. The following figure represents Scipio Africanus; the cuirass is yellow, the sword-belt and sleeves are blue, richly embroidered in gold. On its head this figure has a helmet, with two small wings and a fish, by way of crest. The countenance of the youth is very beautiful, the complexion fair; he raises the right arm proudly; a naked sword is in the right hand, while in the left he holds the scabbard, which is red embroidered with gold; the hose are green and quite plain; the chlamys which is azure, has a red lining and a border of gold; it is fastened at the throat, leaving the front entirely open, and falls backward with very graceful effect; the buskins are of blue embroidered in gold, and the figure stands within a niche of vari-coloured marbles, the head turned towards Hannibal, who stands opposite to him on the other page of the book, with an expression of indescribable fierceness. The figure of Hannibal is that of a man about thirty-six years old; his brows are folded in the manner of a person who is perplexed and angry, and he also looks fixedly at Scipio. On his head he wears a helmet of a yellow colour: the crest is a dragon, the colours of which are yellow and green; around the helmet is a serpent which