Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/357

Rh painting was highly commended at the time, and by all who understand the subject is much admired in our own day.

About the same period, our artist executed various pictures and small stories in oil on that chariot which the masters of the Mint, from whom he received the commission, are accustomed to send every year to make part of the procession of San Griovanni, the chariot having been constructed by the hand of Marco del Tasso. For the company of Cecilia moreover, Jacopo likewise painted a fresco, a figure of that Saint namely, with roses in her hand: this also is an exceedingly beautiful thing, it stands over the portal of the Company’s house on the heights of Fiesole, and is so well suited to its position, that for a work of such a kind it may be considered among the best examples of fresco to be seen.

These works being made known to Maestro Jacopo, the Servite monk, his desire to have the paintings of the Court of the Servites finished by Puntormo was greatly increased, and he determined to ensure their completion by that artist without delay, persuaded that the emulation awakened by the works of the other masters who had laboured there would incite him to produce something extraordinarily beautiful in that which remained to be done. Having set hand to the work accordingly, Jacopo did indeed labour no less for the attainment of glory and honour, than from desire of gain, and executed a story, the subject of which was the Visitation of the Madonna, which he treated in a manner somewhat more animated and lively than it had previously been his wont to do, thereby adding an infinite amount of beauty to the many other excellencies presented by his works. The women, the children, the youths, and the old men, are painted in this fresco with a softness and harmony of colouring which is really wonderful. The flesh-tints, more especially in a child seated on a flight of steps, are