Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/367

Rh by Jacopo to be entirely in accord with his character and genius; they were indeed so pleasing to him that he resolved to seize that occasion for making an effort in his art, and hoped to prove to the world that he had acquired a more varied manner and higher perfection than his works had ever before displayed. No long time previously there had been brought from Germany to Florence, a large number of plates, very finely executed on wood and copper by the burin of Albert Diirer, a most excellent German painter, and very remarkable engraver, both on copper and wood. Among other subjects and stories, great and small, was the Passion of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, in which were exhibited all the excellence and perfection of engraving with the burin, that can possibly be attained.

Now Jacopo was to paint that portion of Our Saviour’s history in those angles of the cloister, and he determined to avail himself of these inventions of Albert Diirer, with the full persuasion that he should not only satisfy himself, but the greater part of the Florentine artists also; for they were all with one voice and of common consent extolling the ability of Albert and the perfection of these productions.

But devoting himself to the imitation of that manner and seeking to impart to his figures that vivacity in the air of the heads, and that variety which were the characteristics of Albert’s works, he proceeded to such an extremity, that all the softness and grace of his own manner, all the charm wherewith he had been endowed by Nature, was lost. The study of that new manner and the force of those German engravings, had thus so great an effect on the performance of Puntormo, that although this work is without doubt -a very beautiful one, there is but little of the grace which up to that time Jacopo Puntormo had always imparted to his figures.

At the entrance to the cloister in question, the master depicted Our Saviour Christ in the garden; the time is night, but the picture is so beautifully illuminated by the light of the Moon, that it appears almost as the day. Our Lord is kneeling in prayer and at no great distance from him are Peter, James, and John, lying asleep and executed in a manner so entirely similar to that of Diirer that it is a kind of marvel. Not far off is seen Judas Iscariot leading the Jews to