Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/27

Rh many other modern writers, who are grouped with infinite grace and painted with extraordinary care.

On one of the other sides the master has depicted Heaven, with Christ and the Virgin, San Giovanni Battista, the Apostles, the Evangelists, and the Martyrs, all enthroned amid the clouds; and above them is the figure of God the Father, who sends forth his Holy Spirit over them all, but more particularly on a vast company of Saints, who are celebrating the mass below, and some of whom are in disputation respecting the Host, which is on the altar. Among these are the four Doctors of the Church, who are surrounded by numerous saints, San Domenico namely, with San Francesco, St. Thomas Aquinas, S.S. Bonaventura, Scotus, and Nicolaus of Lyra; Dante, Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, and all the Christian theologians are also depicted, with a vast number of portraits from the life. In the air above are four Children, who are holding open the four Gospels; these are figures which it would not be possible for any painter to surpass, such is their grace and perfection. The Saints are seated in a circle in the air, and not only does the beauty of the colouring give them all the appearance of life, but the foreshortenings, and the gradual receding of the figures, are so judiciously managed, that they could not appear otherwise if they were in relief; the draperies and vestments are richly varied, and the folds are of infinite grace, the expression of the countenances moreover is celestial rather than merely human. This is more particularly to be remarked in that of the Saviour, which exhibits all the mildness and clemency of the divine nature that could possibly be presented to the human eyes by a mere painting. Raphael was indeed largely endowed with the power of imparting the most exquisite expression to his faces, and the most graceful character to the heads of his pictures: of this we have an instance in the Virgin, who with her