Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/463

Rh termined to depart, leaving to Raffaello the charge of completing one of the above-mentioned pictures, which he could not remain to finish, the San Pietro namely; that work, therefore, retouched in every part by the admirable Raffaello, was then given to Fra Mariano.

Thus Fra Bartolommeo returned to Florence, and as he had been frequently assailed there with declarations to the effect that he was not capable of painting nude figures, he resolved to show what he could do, and prove that he could accomplish the highest labours of the art as well as other masters; to this end he painted a San Sebastian, wholly undraped, by way of specimen; the colouring of this figure is like that of the living flesh, the countenance most beautiful, and in perfect harmony with the beauty of the form; the whole work, in short, is finished with exquisite delicacy, insomuch that it obtained him infinite praise from the artists.

It is said that when this painting was put up in the church, the Monks discovered, from what they heard in the confessionals, that the grace and beauty of the vivid imitation of life, imparted to his work by the talents of Fra Bartolommeo, had given occasion to the sin of light and evil thoughts; they consequently removed it from the church and placed it in the Chapter House, but it did not remain there long, having been purchased by Giovanni Batista della Palla, who sent it to the King of France. Fra Bartolommeo had often felt greatly displeased with the joiners who prepared the frames and external ornaments of his pictures, for these men had the custom then as they have now, of concealing one-eighth of the picture by the projection of their frames, he determined therefore to invent some contrivance by which he might be enabled to dispense with these frames altogether; to this end he caused the panel of the San Sebastiano to be prepared, in the form of a semicircle; on this he then drew a niche in perspective,