Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/57

Rh which he caused the Florentine sculptor Lorenzetto to execute two figures, these are still in his house situate in the Macello de Corvi in Rome. But the death'of Raphael, and afterwards that of Agostino, caused the execution of the sepulchre to he made over to Sebastiano Viniziano.

Raphael had now attained to such high repute, that Leo X. commanded him to commence the painting of the great hall on the upper floor of the Papal Palace, that namely wherein the victories of Constantine are delineated, and this work he accordingly began. The Pope also desired to have certain very rich tapestries in silk and gold prepared, whereupon Raphael made ready the Cartoons, which he coloured also with his own hand, giving them the exact form and size required for the tapestries. These were then despatched to Flanders to be woven, and when the cloths were finished they were sent to Rome. This work was so admirably executed that it awakened astonishment in all who beheld it, as it still continues to do; for the spectator finds it difficult to conceive how it has been found possible to have produced such hair and beards by weaving, or to have given so much softness to the flesh by means of thread, a work which certainly seems rather to have been performed by miracle than by the art of man, seeing that we have here animals, buildings, water, and innumerable objects of various kinds, all so well done that they do not