Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/25

Rh her, as do those attending on the other figures, a group of richly varied beauty; and on this side Raphael afterwards painted the Mount Parnassus over the above-mentioned window.

In the circle which is over the picture wherein the holy doctors are reading mass, is a figure of Theology, with books and other objects around her, accompanied in like manner by the boys, which are no less beautiful than those before referred to; above the other window which looks towards the court, is placed the figure of Justice, in the fourth circle namely; she bears the balance in one hand and holds the sword raised aloft in the other; the boys are with her as with the previously cited figures, and are of supreme beauty. On the wall beneath is represented the delivery of the civil and canon law, as will be related in its due place.

In the angles of the ceiling Raphael likewise executed four historical pictures, designed and coloured with extraordinary care, but the figures are not of a large size: in one of these, that next the Theology, the master has depicted the sin of Adam in eating the apple, and this he has executed in a very graceful manner. In the second, which is above the Astrology, is the figure of that Science; she is assigning their due places to the planets and fixed stars. In the one belonging to the Mount Parnassus is the figure of Marsyas, fastened to a tree, and about to be flayed by Apollo; and near the picture which represents the promulgation of the Decretals, is the judgment of Solomon, when he decides that the infant shall be divided between the contending mothers. All these four delineations exhibit much thought and feeling; they are admirably drawn, and the colouring is pleasing and graceful.

But having now finished the description of the vaulting or ceiling of that apartment, it remains that we declare what was executed on each wall consecutively, and beneath the works indicated above. On the side towards the Belvedere, where are the Mount Parnassus and the Fountain of Plelicon, the master depicted a laurel grove of very deep shadows, and the verdure of the foliage is so finely painted that the spectator almost fancies himself to perceive each separate leaf