Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/454

446 numerous figures, is highly esteemed by all, and exhibits among other things, a singularly beautiful landscape. But a circumstance, which is not unusual in our days, then awakened extraordinary admiration for the picture now in question; this was a tree, against which a large seat or tlirone whereon the Madonna is seated appears to be supported; this tree, which seems to be a laurel, projects considerably forward and overshadows the throne; but that which surprised all men at the time we refer to was, that, between the branches, which are not very thick, there appears the clear heaven so pure and beautiful that the tree really seems to be a real and living one; very graceful is it withal, and so natural, that birds, which have by chance entered the church through its different openings, have been many times seen to fly towards it for the purpose of alighting thereon, more particularly the swallows which have their nests among the beams of the roof, and which, as well as their little ones, have been seen to do this, as is affirmed by persons entirely worthy of credence and more times than one. Among others who declare this to be a fact is the Padre Don Giuseppe Mangiuoli, a Veronese, who has been twice General of his order, and is a person of a most holy life, who would not for all that the world could offer assert a thing that was not entirely true. The father Don Girolamo Volpini also, a Veronese, and many other persons relate the same thing.

For Santa Maria-in-Organo, where Girolamo had executed his first work, he painted one of the folding doors of the organ (the other being decorated by Francesco Morone his companion ), representing two Saints on the outside, and a Presepio, or the Manger of the Nativity, within. On a picture opposite to his first work moreover, he portrayed another Nativity, with the Shepherds, finelandscapes, and very beautiful trees; but more particularly natural and life-like are two Rabbits which are depicted in this work, and are finished with so much care that every separate hair may be distinguished in the skin. For the chapel of the Buonalivi he painted another picture, the subject of which is Our Lady seated between two other figures and with angels beneath,