Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/462

454 Granacci prepared many dramatic scenes in perspective for this spectacle, as he did for many others, both before and after. While with Grillandai he painted many standards for ships, with banners of various kinds, and devices for the different knights with their spurs of gold, who made part of the train who attended on the public entry of the Pope into Florence: all which was done at the cost of the chiefs of the Guelphic party, as was customary in those days, as we have seen done in our own days, and no long time since.

In like manner when the Potenze and tournaments were exhibited, Granacci was employed in their decorations. This was a kind of amusement peculiar to Florence, and is a very pleasing pastime; among other matters, it was not uncommon to see men standing almost upright on horseback in very short stirrups, and in that position they would break their lances with as much facility as do the warriors when they are fast seated in their saddles: all these things were done to celebrate the above-named arrival of Pope Leo in Florence, when Granacci displayed much richness of invention in the various habiliments and decorations required for that occasion. Among other things he also erected a very beautiful Arch of Triumph opposite to the gate of the abbey, covering it with historical representations in chiaro-scuro, and adorning the same, moreover, with fanciful ornaments of great beauty. This arch was much admired, partly for the fine invention displayed in its architecture, and partly for the judgment with which Granacci had selected an imitation of that very gate of the abbey itself, as the entrance to the Via del Palagio; and wherein he had copied the steps ascending thereto, with every other peculiarity, exhibited in perspective with so much fidelity that the painted and supposititious entrance was in no respect other than or dissimilar to the real and true one. Among the decorations of this arch were figures in relief executed by Granacci in clay with his own hand, and which were exceedingly beautiful, he placed