Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/275

Rh children, and in the act of sending down the Holy Spirit. This Yfork is remarkable for the excellence of the design as well as for its grace, animation, and relief; it is indeed considered by judicious artists as the best ever produced by the master in question.

In the Cathedral of Udine, Giovan Antonio decorated that part of the organ which is beneath the closing doors, and which had previously been painted by Pellegrino, with the history of Sant’ Ermagoras and Fortunatus; a work full of grace, and one of great merit as regards design. In the same city he painted the front of the Tinght Palace in fresco, and with the hope of making himself friends among the Nobles of that family. In this work he did his utmost to prove the ability which he possessed in architectonic inventions and embellishments, and in fresco painting generally, dividing his work into compartments, finely arranged, and adorned with niches, wherein were different figures with many other ornaments. In the centre of the work are three large compartments occupied by three stories in various colours, one on each side, namely, which is tall and narrow; and one in the middle, which is of a square form. In the latter is a Corinthian column with its base in the sea, and at the foot of the pedestal is a Syren, supporting the column on the right, with a nude figure of Neptune, which in like manner supports it on the left. Above the capital of this column is a Cardinal’s hat, the device, as it is affirmed, of Pompeo Colonna, who was a most intimate friend of the nobles to whom that picture belongs. In one of the two smaller pictures are the Giants whom Jupiter is destroying with his thunder-bolts, and some of whom lie dead on the earth. These figures are all admirably well done, and there are certain foreshortenings in this picture which are very fine. In the other lateral compartment is depicted the Olympic Heaven filled with the heathen Deities, and on the earth beneath them are two Giants with clubs in their hands; they are rushing to attack the Goddess Diana, who defends herself in an attitude of great boldness and animation,