Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/22

14 disputations. There are certain astrologers standing apart who have made figures and characters of geomancy and astrology, on tablets which they send by beautiful angels to the evangelists, who explain them. Among the figures in this painting is Diogenes with his cup; he is lying on the steps, an extremely well-imagined figure, wrapt in his own thoughts, and much to be commended for the beauty of the form and characteristic negligence of the garments. There are likewise Aristotle and Plato in this work, the one with the Timasus, the other with the Ethics in his hand; around them is gathered in a circle a large school of philosophers. The dignity of those astrologers and geometricians who are drawing various figures and eharacters with the compasses on a tablet, is not to be described: among these is the figure of a youth of the most graceful beauty, who extends his arms in admiration and inclines his head, this is the portrait of Federigo, second Duke of Mantua, who was at that time in Rome. There is also a figure stooping to the ground and drawing lines with a pair of compasses which he holds in his hand; this is said to be the architect Bramante, and is no less life-like than that of Federigo previously described, or than it would be if it were indeed alive. Beside him is one whose back is turned towards the spectator, and who holds a globe of the heavens in his hand: this is the representation of Zoroaster; and near to this figure stands that of Raphael himself, the master of this work, drawn by his own hand