Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/334

326 tion, represented by a young girl of most graceful form and aspect; she is partially draped, and is sustained by a figure of Charity, who is also represented as suckling children. Beneath the oval and within the parapet is a figure signifying Language, or Grammar, and engaged in teaching children to read.

Beginning again at the upper part of the building, we find Mercury holding his Caduceus, and accompanied by his appropriate sign; in the oval is Childhood, represented by numerous children, some of whom are proceeding to school, while others are engaged in play. This oval is sustained by Truth, represented by a figure of the purest simplicity and beauty; a very young girl namely, entirely nude; beside her is a male figure with trussed up garments, to represent Falsehood: his countenance is exceedingly beautiful, but the eyes are cast to the earth. Beneath the oval and between the windows is Faith, who is administering the rite of Baptism to an infant from a shell filled with water, while in the left hand she holds a Cross: beneath is a figure representing Logic; she is covered with a veil, and has the serpent beside her. Next follows the Sun, represented by a figure of Apollo, with his Lyre in his hand, and his attributes in the ornament above.

In the oval beneath this figure is Boyhood, intimated by two figures of equal age, one of whom, holding an olivebranch in his hand, is climbing a mountain, which is illumined by the sun, while the other is pausing midway to admire the beauties which are exhibited from the middle upwards by a figure of Fraud; he not perceiving that she conceals a most abhorrent countenance behind her smooth and fair-looking mask, and being consequently conducted by her flatteries and attractions to the brink of an abyss, down which he must fall headlong. This oval is supported on one side by a heavy and corpulent figure, who nods sleepily over his task, and represents Indolence, the nude figure resembling that of a Silenus; and on the other by a powerful laborious peasant, surrounded by the implements of agriculture, and intended to personify labour. In the decoration between the windows is Hope, with her Anchor at her feet; and beneath this figure is that of Music, with various musical instruments around her.