Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/459

Rh worthy of its beauty; and feeling convinced that Fra Bartolommeo would be exactly the person to execute what he wished, he used every possible means, by the intervention of friends, and by all other methods, to dispose the Monk to that undertaking. Fra Bartolommeo was then in his convent, exclusively occupied with his attention to the religious services, and to the duties imposed by the rule of his Order, although frequently entreated by the Prior, as well as by his own dearest friends, to commence some work in painting. Four years had now passed since he had refused to execute any labours of that kind, but on the occasion we are now describing, being pressed by the importunities of Bernardo del Bianco, he was at length prevailed on to begin the picture of St. Bernard. The Saint is represented as writing, when the Virgin appears to him, holding the Divine Child in her arms, and borne by numerous figures of children and angels, all painted by the master with exceeding delicacy. Beholding this appearance, St. Bernard is lost in adoring contemplation, and there is a certain inexpressible radiance of look, which is so to speak, celestial, in his countenance, and which seems, to him who considers the picture attentively, to become diffused over the whole work. There is, besides, an arch above this painting which is executed in fresco, and is also finished with extraordinary zeal and care. Fra Bartolommeo painted certain other pictures soon after that here described, for the cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici, with a figure of the Virgin, of exquisite beauty, for Agnolo Doni, which last is still on the altar of a chapel in his house. About this time the painter, Raffaello da Urbino, came to study his art in Florence, when he taught Fra Barto-