Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/83

Rh in imitation of those executed by Michael Angelo in the Sistine chapel. He was indeed so fullj possessed with the desire to attain excellence in that branch of art, and to that end made etforts so zealous, that although then fifty years old he nevertheless improved by steady and constant progression, to such an extent, that he gave as manifest proof of power to understand the beautiful, as he had in his works furnished evidence of delight in the imitation of the good. In the three large vaultings he had represented the earlier events recorded in the beginning of the Old Testament, wherefore he afterwards depicted those related in the commencement of the New: and what was herein effected by Guglielmo gives me reason to believe, that every man of genius who is determined to attain perfection, will be found to possess the power (if he will but endure the labour) of approaching those limits which have been set to the endeavours of men, in any science. It is true that this master was at first somewhat alarmed at the magnitude of his undertaking, and at a labour in which he had so little experience; for which cause he iuduced the French miniature painter Maestro Giovanni, to leave Rome and join him in Arezzo, when the latter, having reached that city, painted the picture of Christ in fresco on an arch above Sant’ Antonio: he also executed the banner which the Brotherhood of Sant’ Antonio are wont to bear in procession, and these works, for which he had received his commission from the Prior, he conducted to completion with great diligence.

At the same time, Guglielmo painted the round window of the Church of San Francesco, a work of great importance. In this he depicted the Pope in Consistory with the Conclave of Cardinals. San Francesco also, is here portrayed bearing the Roses of January to the Pope and proceeding to Rome, whither he repairs to obtain confirmation for the Rule of his Order. In this painting the master has shown the perfection to which he understood the composition of his works; insomuch that one may safely affirm him to have been born for