Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/361

Rh Passion, and the other supporting the sinking head of the Saviour; on one side stands St. John the Evangelist, weeping, and with extended arms; on the other is St. Augustine in his episcopal robes; he is supporting himself on his pastoral staff, and in an attitude of the deepest sadness, is contemplating the dead body of the Saviour. For Messer Spina, a friend of Giovanni Salviati, our artist painted the arms of that Giovanni, which Messer Spina desired to have depicted in the court-yard of his dwelling, and opposite to the principal door; Giovanni Salviati, having in those days been created Cardinal by Pope Leo X., the Cardinal’s red hat was painted above, with two beautiful boys standing upright: for a work in fresco this is a very fine one, and, as being by the hand of Puntormo is highly valued by Messer Filippo Spina.

Jacopo likewise took part in the decoration of those apartments which, as we have before related, were adorned with magnificent ornaments, in wood-work as well as painting, for Pier Francesco Borgherini; this Puntormo did in competition with other masters, and, to speak more particularly, he painted two large coffers, or cabinets, with stories from the life of Joseph, which he executed in minute figures of incomparable beauty.

But whoever shall desire to see the best work ever performed in his whole life by Jacopo da Puntormo, and who shall propose to himself to ascertain what the genius of that master was capable of effecting, whether as regards the power of invention displayed, the grouping of the figures, the animation of the heads, or the variety and beauty of the attitudes, let him examine one angle of those apartments of the before-mention''Ed. Flor.''ntine noble, Borgherini; that on the left namely as you enter the door, where there is a story of which the figures are small, although the work itself is of fair size, and this is indeed of admirable excellence. The nota