Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/466

458 proof of his power over the difficulties of his art, the perfection with which he knew how to manage the gradual diminution of the shadows, and the softening of the darker tints, imparting extraordinary relief to his work, and showing his admirable excellence in colouring, design, and invention; in a word, this is as perfect a picture as ever proceeded from his hands. In the same church he painted another picture also on canvas, the subject our Saviour with St. Catherine the Martyr, and St. Catherine of Siena, the latter in an ecstacy, rapt from earth, a figure than which it is not possible that anything better can be done in that manner,. Having returned to Florence Fra Bartolommeo occupied himself much with music, and finding great pleasure therein he would sometimes sing for his amusement. In Prato he painted a picture of the Assumption, opposite to the prison of the city; for the House of Medici also this master painted certain pictures of the Madonna, with other works for different persons: among these is a figure of the Virgin, which is now in the possession of Ludovico, son of Ludovico Capponi, with another, also of Our Lady holding the divine Child in her arms, and with the heads of two Saints beside her: this last belongs to the very excellent Signor Lelio Torelli, principal secretary to the most illustrious Duke Cosimo, by whom it is held in the highest estimation, not only for the