Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/483

Rh highest esteem among artists, insomuch that Filippo his master considered Ilaifaellino to be in some respects a much better painter than himself. Ilaifaellino had indeed acquired the manner of his master to such perfection that there were few who might not have taken his work for that of Filippo himself. Nay, after having left the latter, Eaffaellino added still further softness to his manner in the draperies which he depicted, and a higher perfection of finish to the hair, with increased delicacy to the features, &c., from all which the artists formed such flattering expectations of him, that while he continued to pursue this manner, he was considered to be the first among the young painters of his time.

It happened at this time, that the Capponi family had caused a chapel, called the Paradise, to be constructed on the declivity beneath the church of San Bartolommeo, on the Monte Oliveto, which is at a short distance from the gate of San Friano; when they entrusted the altar-piece of this chapel to Rafiaellino, whom they commissioned to paint it in oil. He accordingly represented the Resurrection of Christ, and in this work some of the soldiers who have fallen, as if dead, around the sepulchre, are figures of extraordinary truth and beauty: the heads also are as graceful as it is possible to imagine, and among them is the portrait of Niccolb Capponi, Avhich is indeed admirable. A figure of equal excellence is that of one on whom the stone cover of the sepulchre has fallen, he is crying aloud, and the head is as remarkable for the beauty as for the peculiarity of the expression. The Capponi family, perceiving the excellence of the work which Rafiaellino had produced, caused a richly carved frame to be placed around it, with a further decoration of round columns magnificently gilt, on a ground of burnished bole. Now it chanced some years after the work was completed, that the tower of the building was struck by lightning, which perforated the vault and fell close to the picture of Rafiaellino. The work being in oil, remained nevertheless entirely uninjured,