Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/9

 LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS.

THE FLORENTINE PAINTER AND ARCHITECT, RAPHAEL SANZIO OF URBINO. The large and liberal hand wherewith Heaven is sometimes pleased to accumulate the infinite riches of its treasures on the head of one sole favourite, showering on him all those rare gifts and graces, which are more commonly distributed among a larger number of individuals, and accorded at long intervals of time only, has been clearly exemplified in the well-known instance of Raphael Sanzio of Urbino

No less excellent than graceful, he was endowed by nature with all that modesty and goodness which may occasionally be perceived in those few favoured persons who enhance the gracious sweetness of a disposition more than usually gentle, by the fair ornament of a winning amenity, always ready to conciliate, and constantly giving evidence of the most refined consideration for all persons and under every circumstance. The world received the gift of this artist from the hand of Nature when, vanquished by Art in the person of Michael Angelo she deigned to be subjugated in that of Raphael, not by art only but by goodness also. And of a truth, since the greater number of artists had up to that period derived from nature a certain rudeness and eccentricity which not only rendered them uncouth and fantastic, but often caused the shadows and darkness of vice to be more conspicuous in their lives than the light and splendour of those virtues by which man is rendered immortal; so was there good cause wherefore she should, on the contrary, make all the rarest qualities of the heart to shine resplendently in her Raphael, perfect-