Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/59

Rh voting his days to the continual study of art, he daily became more excellent in his calling, as may be seen from certain designs by his hand in our book, and which are very well done. He found great pleasure in the delineation of the natural affections, fear, joy, sorrow, weeping, trembling, laughing, and the like; he expressed these passions admirably well, and his works, for the most part, abound with instances of this quality. An example may be seen in a small chapel painted by his hand in the church of San Gimignano at Arezzo, where there is a Crucifix, with our Lady, St. John, and the Magdalen at the foot of the cross; all of whom, depicted in various attitudes, express the grief they suffer with so much animation, that the work acquired great credit and renown for its author among his fellow citizens. For the Brotherhood of Sant’ Antonio, in the same city, Lazzaro painted a gonfalon, or standard, on cloth, which is carried in the processions; on this he depicted the figure of Christ at the column naked and bound; presenting the scene with so life-like an effect, that the figure seems really to tremble, the shoulders are drawn together, and the sufferer appears to be enduring with indescribable humility and patience the stripes inflicted on him by two Jews. One of the executioners, standing firmly on both feet, wields the scourge with his two hands, his back is partially turned towards the Saviour, and the expression of his countenance is that of extreme cruelty; the second is seen in profile, he has raised himself on the points of the feet, and grasping the scourge with both hands, he grinds his teeth and performs his office with a rancorous rage, beyond the power of words to describe. These two figures Lazzaro has clothed in torn garments, the better to display their naked forms; he has indeed left them very little covering. This work, although painted on cloth, having maintained its beauty for many years, and in fact down to our own day, at which I am greatly surprised, the men of that brotherhood, in consi-