Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/134

126 and the marble of which being entirely detached, affords a most natural representation of the object; the same may be said of the Dove which represents the Holy Spirit.

In this work there is a vase of flowers which is sculptured with such extreme delicacy by the most graceful hand of this master, that it would not be possible for words to describe its beauty and perfection; the plumes of the angels also, the soft flow of the hair, the loveliness of the countenances, the grace of the vestments, every part in short gives proof of such extraordinary excellence, that no praise bestowed on this divine work could be adequate to its deserts. Nor of a truth could that most holy place, which was the very home and habitation of the Mother of God’s divine Son, receive any more beautiful, rich, or worthy adornment (so far as the power of this world can extend or is in question) than it has obtained from the architecture of Bramante, and the sculpture of Andrea Sansovino. Nay, were the whole work of the most precious oriental jewels, the worth of it would be little or nothing in comparison with the innumerable merits of that which it now exhibits. Our artist expended an almost incredible amount of time on that portion of the work just described, insomuch that he had not leisure to complete the others which he had begun; for in addition to those we have already mentioned, he also commenced the Birth of Christ in a compartment on one of the side walls, where he represented the Shepherds with four Angels singing, figures which are all so finely executed, that they appear to be alive, and these he executed with his own hand: but the story of the Adoration of the Magi, which Andrea began immediately above that just mentioned, was afterwards completed by his disciple Girolamo Lombardo, and by others.

On the hindermost wall of the building, Andrea had designed the execution of two large representations, one above the other namely—in one of these is the death of the Virgin, and the Apostles are seen bearing her to her burial; in the air four angels are hovering, and beneath are numerous Jews who are plotting to steal that most holy corpse; this also was finished after Andrea had departed from life, by the