Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/26

18 trembling in the gentle breeze: innumerable figures of naked Loves, with inexpressibly beautiful countenances, are hovering in the air, they are gathering branches of the laurel wherewith they weave garlands, which they then throw down and scatter on the mount, over which there does of a truth seem to be the spirit of the divinity breathing, such is the beauty of the figures, and the noble and elevated character of the whole picture, which awakens admiration and astonishment in all who behold it, when they consider that the human mind and mortal hand, with only the simple means of imperfect colours, and by the help of excellent drawing, has made a picture which appears as if it were alive. The figures of the Poets also, distributed over the mount, are all most truly animated. Some are standing, others seated, some are writing, or speaking, or singing, others are conversing together in groups of four or six, accordingly as it has seemed good to the master to arrange them. In this portion of the work there are portraits of the most renowned poets, ancient and modern, including among the latter several who had lived or were living at Raphael’s own time: some of the older poets were taken from statues, some from medals, many from old pictures; and others, who had lived in his own day, were taken from nature by Raphael himself. To begin with the one end, we have here the portraits of Ovid, Virgil, Ennius, Tibullus, Catullus, Propertius, and Homer: the last named, blind and with the head elevated, is pouring forth his verses, while there is a youth seated at his feet who writes them as he sings. There is also in one group Apollo with the Nine Muses; and in all these figures there is so much beauty, their countenances have an air of so much divinity, that grace and life seem to breathe from every feature. There is here portrayed the learned Sappho, and the most divine Dante; the graceful Petrarch, and the gay Boccaccio, who are all most truly animated and life-like. Tebaldero is also here, with