Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/40

32 painted with extraordinary animation, as are the horses which they are riding: the same may be said of the court of Cardinals, and of the grooms who bear the canopy over the head of the pontiff. The latter. Pope Leo X., is on horseback, in full pontificals, and is no less truthfully portrayed than are the figures beforementioned. He is followed by numerous courtiers, the whole scene presenting an extremely beautiful spectacle, in which all-is finely appropriate to its place, and these details are exceedingly useful to those who practise our art, more particularly to such as are unprovided with the objects here represented.

About the same time a picture was executed by Raphael for Naples, and this was placed in the church of San Domenico, and in that chapel wherein is the crucifix which spoke to St. Thomas Aquinas. In this work, Raphael depicted Our Lady, San Girolamo, clothed in the vestments of a cardinal, and the angel Raphael, who is serving as the guide of the youthful Tobit. For Leonello da Carpi, Lord of Meldola, who is still living, and has attained the age of more than ninety years, he painted a picture, the colouring of which is most admirable, and the beauty of the whole work very remarkable; it is indeed executed with so much force, and in a manner so exquisitely graceful withal, that I do not think the art could possibly produce or exhibit a finer work. There is a divinity in the countenance of Our Lady, and a modest humility in her attitude, than which it would not be possible to conceive anything more beautiful. The master has depicted her with folded hands, in adoration of the divine Child, who is seated on her lap, and is caressing a little St. John; the latter is also adoring the Redeemer: