Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/254

246 ately without the gate of Bologna, a work by which he acquired very great fame and honour. After having completed that tomb, Alfonso prepared various stories in mezzo-rilievo, to decorate the sepulchre of San Domenico; these are on the predella of the altar; they are in marble, and the figures are very small; he likewise executed a Resurrection of Christ, which is exceedingly beautiful, for the door of San Petronio; this also is in marble, and the figures are in like manner small ones: it is on the left hand on entering the church.

But the work which more than all these delighted the people of Bologna was that of the death of Our Lady, in a composition of clay and gypsum made excessively stiff; the figures of this representation were in full relief, and it was placed in an upper apartment of the Spedale della Vita. There is one thing to be remarked among many others which are worthy of admiration in this performance, the story of the Jew namely, who leaves his hands appended to the bier of the Madonna. In the same material Alfonso likewise executed a large figure of Hercules with the Hydra dead beneath his feet; this work was destined for the Palazzo Publico or Town Hall, and was placed in an upper chamber of the governor’s apartments; it was made by the artist in competition with Zaccaria da Volterra, who was on this occasion very much surpassed by the ability and excellence of Alfonso.

For the Madonna of the Baracane this master executed two Angels in stucco, they are in mezzo-rilievo and are supporting a canopy. In the middle aisle of the church of San Giuseppe, Alfonso also executed half-length figures of the twelve Apostles in full relief; they are in medallions placed