Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/59

Rh malignity of the spirit, the terror and pain of the possessed being rendered further manifest by his pallid colour and writhing gestures. This figure is supported by an old man in whose widely open eyes the light is reflected, he is embracing and seeking to comfort the afilicted boy, his knitted brow and the expression of his face show at once the apprehension he feels, and the force with which he is labouring to combat his fears; he looks fixedly at the apostles as if hoping to derive courage and consolation from their aspect. There is one woman among others in this picture who is the principal figure therein, and who, kneeling before the two just described, turns her head towards the apostles, and seems by the movement of her arms in the direction of the possessed youth, to be pointing out his misery to their attention. The Apostles also, some of whom are standing, some seated, and others kneeling, give evidence of the deep compassion they feel for that great misfortune.

In this work the master has of a truth, produced figures and heads of such extraordinary beauty, so new, so varied, and at all points so admirable, that among the many works executed by his hand, this, by the common consent of all artists, is declared to be the most worthily renowned, the most excellent, the most divine. Whoever shall desire to see in what manner Christ transformed into the Godhead should be represented, let him come and behold it in this picture. The Saviour is shown floating over the mount in the clear air; the figure, foreshortened, is between those of Moses and Elias, who, illumined by his radiance, awaken into life beneath the splendour of the light. Prostrate on the earth are Peter, James, and John, in attitudes of great and varied beauty, one has his head bent entirely to the ground, another defends himself with his hands from the brightness of that immense light, which proceeds from the splendour of Christ, who is clothed in vestments of snowy whiteness, his arms thrown open and the head raised towards heaven, while the essence and Godhead of all the three persons united in himself, are made apparent in their utmost perfection by the divine art of Raphael.

But as if that sublime genius had gathered all the force of his powers into one efibrt, whereby the glory and the majesty of art should be made manifest in the countenance of Christ;