Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/49

Rh hands wherewith to extinguish the flames; the hair and clothing of these figures are blown about by the fury of a tempestuous wind; others, who are attempting to throw Avater on the burning masses, are blinded by the smoke, and appear to be in a state of bewilderment. At another part of the picture is a group, resembling that described by Virgil, of Anchises borne out of danger by ^neas. An old man being sick, is exhausted by his infirmity and the heat of the fire, and is carried by a youth in Avhose form the determination and power to save are manifest, as is the effort made by every member to support the dead weight of the old man helplessly hanging in utter abandonment upon his back. He is followed by an old woman bare-foot and with loosened garments, who is rushing in haste from the fire —a naked child goes before them. From the top of a ruined building also, is seen a woman naked and with dishevelled hair, Avho has an infant in her hands which she is about to throw down to one of her family; just escaped from the flames, the last-mentioned person stands in the road below raised on the points of his feet and stretching forth his arms to receive the child—an infant in swathing-bands, which the woman holds out to him: and here the anxious eagerness of the mother to save her child is no less truthfully expressed than is the suffering which she is herself enduring from the devouring flames, glowing around and threatening to destroy her. In the figure of the man who is receiving the child also, there is as clearly to be perceived the anxiety which he suffers in his desire to rescue it, with the fear he entertains for his OAvn life. Equally remarkable is the power of imagination displayed by this most ingenious and most admirable artist in a mother, who, driving her children before her, with bare feet, loosened vestments, girdle unbound, and hair dishevelled, bears a part of her clothing in her hands, and smites her children to hasten their flight from the falling ruins and from the scorching fury of the flames. There are besides other women, who, kneeling before the Pope, appear to be entreating that his Holiness will cause the fire to be staid.