Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/63

Rh never attain to the eminence of Michael Angelo; like a man of great judgment as lie was, he cxinsidered that painting does not consist wholly in the delineation of the nude form, but has a much wider field; he perceived that those who possess the power of expressing their thoughts well and with facility, and of giving effective form to their conceptions, likewise deserve to be enumerated among the perfect painters; and that he, who in the composition of his pictures shall neither confuse them by too much, nor render them poor by too little, but gives to all its due arrangement and just distribution, may also be reputed a judicious and able master.

But in addition to this, as Raphael rightly judged, the art should be further enriched by new and varied inventions in perspective, by views of buildings, by landscapes, by a graceful manner of clothing the figures, and by causing the latter sometimes to be lost in the obscurity of shadows, sometimes to come prominently forward into the clear light; nor did he fail to perceive the importance of giving beauty and animation to the heads of women and children, or of imparting to all, whether male or female, young or old, such an amount of spirit and movement as may be suited to the occasion. He gave its due value, likewise, to the attitudes of horses in battle scenes, to their movements in flight, and to the bold bearing of the warriors: the due representation of animals in all their varied forms, did not escape his consideration, still less did that of so portraying the likenesses of men that they may appear to be alive, and may be known for those whom they are intended to represent. Raphael perceived in like manner that innumerable accessories of other kinds and of all sorts were equally to be taken into account, as for example the ornament of the work by well arranged and beautiful draperies, and vestments of every kind; by due attention to the helmets and other parts of armour, to the appropriate clothing of the feet, and to the head-dresses of women: he saw that equal care should be accorded to the hair and head of figures, to vases, trees, grottoes, rocks, fires, the air, either turbid or serene, clouds, rains, tempests, lightnings, dews, the darkness of niglit, the moonlight, the sunshine, and an infinite variety of objects beside, to every one of which attention is demanded by the requirements of painting: all these things, I say, being well con-