Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/23

Rh with the aid of a mirror; a youthful head of exceedingly modest expression wearing a black cap or barett, the whole aspect infinitely pleasing and graceful.

It would not be possible to describe the beauty and nobility of character which the master has imparted to the heads and figures of the Evangelists; there is a certain air of meditative thought and attentive consideration on the countenances, more especially of those who are writing, which is depicted with the utmost truth. This may be more particularly remarked in a St. Matthew, who is copying the characters from the tablet which an angel holds before him, these he is setting down in a book. Behind him is an old man who has placed a paper on his knee, and in this he is inserting what St. Matthew writes, as the latter makes his extracts from the tablet: intent on his occupation, he remains in this inconvenient attitude, and seems to be twisting his head and jaws as if to accompany the movements of his pen. And to say nothing of all these well-considered minutiae, of which there are nevertheless very many, the composition of the whole work displays so much beauty of proportion and such perfection of arrangement in every part, that the master did indeed give a notable example of his capabilities therein, and clearly proved himself to be one who had resolved to maintain the undisputed possession of the field against all who handled the pencil; furthermore the artist adorned this work with fine perspective views of magnificent buildings and with numerous figures, all finished in a manner so delicate and harmonious, that the excellence of the work caused Pope Julius to have all the stories of the other masters, whether old or new, destroyed at once, resolving that Raphael alone should have the glory of seeing his works preferred to all