Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/42

34 of the veil and vestments, formed of cloth of gold and silver, with which Santa Cecilia is clothed, and beneath which is a garment of hair-cloth, also most admirably painted. In the figure of St. Paul likewise, the power and thought of the master are equally obvious: the saint is resting the right arm on his naked sword, the head is supported by the left hand, and the pride of his aspect has changed to a dignified gravity; the vestments of St. Paul consist of a simple cloth mantle, the colour of which is red, with a green tunic beneath, after the manner of the apostles; his feet are bare. St. Mary Magdalen also forms part of the group, and holds a vase, made of a very fine marble, in her hand. The attitude of this figure is singularly graceful, as is the turn of her head; she seems to rejoice in her conversion, and I do not think it would be possible that any work of the kind Could be more perfectly executed. The heads of St. Augustine and of St. John the Evangelist, which are both in this picture, are of equal excellence. It may indeed with truth be declared that the paintings of other masters are properly to be called paintings, but those of Raphael may well be designated the life itself, for the flesh trembles, the breathing is made obvious to sight, the pulses in his figures are beating, and life is in its utmost animation through all his works.

This picture secured the author many commendations and a great increase of fame, insomuch that numerous verses, both in Latin and the vulgar tongue, were composed to his honour; of these I will but insert the following, that I may not make a longer story than is needful:— “Pingant sola alii, referantque coloribus ora;
 * Caecilias os Raphael atque animum explicuit.”

At a later period our artist painted a small picture, which is now at Bologna, in the possession of the Count Vicenzio Ercolani. The subject of this work is Christ enthroned amid the clouds, after the manner in which Jupiter is so frequently depicted, but the Saviour is surrounded by the four Evangelists, as described in the book of Ezekiel. One in the form of a