Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/511

Rh

Marcantonio meanwliile continued Iiis engravings on copper-plate, and on plates of a small size lie represented the Twelve Apostles, in various attitudes, with many Saints, male and female; and this he did to the end that such poor painters as did not possess any great powers of design might avail themselves of the same in their need. He likewise engraved the nude figure of a young man, with a lion at his feet, and who is attempting to furl a large banner swollen by the wind, and driven in a direction contrary to that in which the youth would have it be; with another of a man who is bearing a load on his back, and a small one of San Jeronimo, in contemplation of Death, and placing a finger within the hollow of a skull which he holds in his hand. The invention and design of this last are worthy of Raphael himself. Marcantonio likewise engraved a figure of Justice, which he took from the tapestries of the chapel, and soon afterwards he executed another, representing Aurora in her chariot, drawn by two horses, on whom the Hours are placing the bridle. From the antique this master engraved the Three Graces, and he likewise delineated a figure of Our Lady ascending the steps of the Temple.

After these things, Giulio Romano, whose modesty would never permit him to have any of his own works engraved during the life-time of his master, lest he should seem to be attempting a competition with Raphael himself; Giulio Romano, I say, after the death of the divine Raphael, caused Marcantonio to engrave two combats of horses from his designs, on tolerably large plates, with all the stories of Venus, Apollo, and Hyacinth, which he had painted in the bath constructed at the Vigna of Messer Baldassare Turini, of Pescia. In like manner, Giulio Romano caused to be engraved the four Stories of the Magdalen and the Four Evangelists, those namely which are depicted on the ceiling of that chapel in the Church of the Trinity, which was originally erected by a courtezan, although it now belongs to Messer Agnolo Massini. A beautiful antique sarcophagus, with a Lion-hunt, which was formerly at Majano, but is now in the Court of San Pietro, was also designed, and subjected to the graver by the artist, with one of the stories in marble on the Arch of Constantine; and finally, many others which Raphael had designed for the corridor and loggie of the Palace.