Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/388

380 display so much movement as Puntormo has here displayed and attributed thereto. Opposite to the altar and between the windows, on the central wall that is to say, there is a range of nude figures, each of them clinging to the one above him with hands and feet, and so forming a kind ot ladder to ascend into paradise, the chain thus formed reaching from earth to heaven. Beneath lie numerous dead bodies and on each side are two dead corpses entirely draped, with the exception of the arms and feet, these two bodies holding a lighted torch in each hand. In the upper part of the central fa9ade, and above the windows Puntormo depicted Our Saviour Christ in his glory surrounded by innumerable spirits and angels, all nude; he is raising those dead from their graves that he may call them to judgment.

I cannot say that I have myself ever been able fully to comprehend all the meaning of this story, although I know that Jacopo was a sufficiently ingenious person himself, and was besides in close intercourse with many sage and learned men; I do not understand, that is to say, what he meant to signify in that part where he has exhibited Our Saviour Christ on high, recalling the dead to life, while beneath his feet is the figure of God the Pather engaged in the creation of Adam and Eve. In one of the lateral portions also, where stand the four Evangelists, nude figures with books in their hands, it does not appear to me that there is any order or measure observed; nay, of all parts indeed it may be affirmed, that there is but little merit in the arrangement or composition, nor do we find the order of time observed. There is an absence of all variety in the heads too, the colouring of the flesh is all of one tint, and at a word, there is neither rule nor proportion; even the laws of perspective have been neglected, and the work is crowded at all points with nude figures; the arrangement, design, composition, colouring, and the whole picture in short being entirely after his own fashion and of his own invention, but all so melancholy and giving so little pleasure to those who examine the performance, that I am determined, since I do not myself understand it, although I also am a painter, to let every one who shall see the work form his own judgment thereof. I believe indeed, that in doing otherwise, I should but incur the risk of becoming utterly bewildered, and involving my