Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/529

Rh liam, first named: six of these twenty-three plates relate to the life of David, eight to that of Solomon; in four he treats the Story of Balaam, and in five those of Judith and Susannah. From the New Testament this engraver took the subjects of twenty-nine plates, all of which he engraved himself, beginning with the Annunciation of the Yirgin, and proceeding through the 'whole of the Passion of Our Lord to his Death on the Cross. After the design of the same Martin, moreover, Jeronimo engraved plates of the seven works of Mercy, with that of Lazarus as a rich, and Lazarus as a poor man; he also published the Parable of the Samaritan fallen among Thieves in four plates, with that of the Talents, written by San Matteo, in the eighteenth chapter of his Gospel, in four others.

Liè Frynch soon afterwards entered into competition with Jeronimo, in rivalry of whom he engraved the Life and Death of San Giovanni Battista in ten plates, v/hen Jeronimo produced an equal number of plates exhibiting stories of the Twelve Tribes. In this work the artist has expressed Gluttony and Self-indulgence in the person of Reuben, whom he has shown mounted on a hog. Simeon 'wields a sword, to intimate Homicide, and the other heads of the Tribes are delineated with other attributes; such, namely, as the artist considered to be characteristic of each. In a finer and more delicate style of engraving, Jeronimo next put forth the Life and Acts of David, in ten plates, from the time when he was anointed by Samuel that is to say, to the moment when he appeared before Saul; and in six other plates he represented the Love of Ammon for Tamar his sister, with the Violation committed by the same Ammon, and his Death. Shortly after the completion of these plates, Jeronimo executed ten more of similar size; the subjects being chosen from the life of Job. He likewise took materials for five other plates of the same character from thirteen chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon.

Jeronimo subsequently engraved the Adoration of the Magi, with the Parable given in the twelfth chapter of St. Matthew, concerning those who, with various excuses