Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/462

454 the subject is Our Lady with saints around her. Fra Bartolommeo obtained much commendation for his manner of drawing figures, which he did with such remarkable softness of outline, that he added to the art by this means a great increase of harmony; his figures really aj)pear to be in relief, they are executed in the most animated manner, and finished with the utmost perfection.

Having heard much of the excellent works which Michael Angelo and the graceful Raphael were performing in Rome, and being moved by the praises of these masters, for the Monk was perpetually receiving accounts of the marvels effected by the two divine artists, he finally, having obtained permission of the Prior, repaired to Rome. He was there received and entertained by the Frate del Piombo, Mariano Fetti, for whom he painted two pictures, at the Convent of San Silvestro, on Monte Cavallo, to which Fra Mariano belonged, the subjects SS. Pietro and Paolo. But the labours undertaken by Fra Bartolommeo in the air of Rome, were not so successful as those executed while he breathed that of Florence; among the vast numbers of works, ancient and modern, which he there found in such overwhelming abundance, he felt himself bewildered and astounded; the proficiency in art which he had believed himself to possess, now appeared to him to be greatly diminished, and he de-