Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/442

434 with the Cross on his shoulders, about to be be led to Calvary. The excellence of these works, which have here to support the comparison with those of his master, will ever secure to Paolo a place among the best artists.

In the basement, Cavazzuola painted half-length figures of Saints, which are for the most part portraits taken from the life. The first figure, which is in the habit of a Franciscan Monk, and representing a Beato, is the likeness of Fra Girolamo Recalchi, a Veronese noble. The figure beside this, and which is intended for San Bonaventura, is the portrait of Fra Bonaventura Recalchi, brother of the above-named Fra Girolamo. The head of San Giuseppe is that of a Steward of the Marquis Malespini, who had at that time been charged by the Brotherhood of the Cross to see the work executed; all these heads are works of extraordinary beauty and excellence. In the same church Paolo painted the altar-piece for the chapel of San Francesco, in which, the last work that he ever performed, the master surpassed himself. There are here six figures larger than life; Sant’ Elizabetta, of the third order of San Francesco, a beautiful figure, with a smiling expression and graceful aspect, having her lap filled with roses; she is looking all joyous at the sight of that miracle of God by which the bread which she herself, a great lady, was bearing to the poor, has been transformed into roses, in token that her humility and charity in thus serving the poor with her own hands, was highly acceptable to God. This Sant’ Elizabetta is the portrait of a gentlewoman who was a widow of the Sacchi family.

Among the other figures are the Cardinal San Bonaventura and the Bishop San Ludovico, both monks of San Francesco, and near them are St. Louis, king of France, St. Eleazer, in grey clothing, and St. Ivo, in his priestly vestments: above all is the Madonna enthroned in the clouds with San Francesco. The other figures which are around them are said not to be by the hand of Paolo, but by a friend of his, who assisted him with this picture. It is, indeed, easy to perceive that these figures are not of equal excellence with those beneath. The portrait of Madonna Caterina de’