Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/42

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For the German, Jacob Fugger, the same artist painted an exceedingly beautiful picture in oil, to be placed in a chapel of the church of Santa Maria dell’ Anima in Rome. The subject of the work is Our Lady with Sant’ Anna, San Giuseppe, San Jacopo, San Giovanni as a child, and San Marco Evangelista, kneeling with a lion at his feet: the animal is holding a book and the hair on his body is turned in accordance with the position he has taken, a very difficult and well-considered thing; he has besides wings on his shoulders, and the plumage of these wings is so downy and soft, that one scarcely comprehends how it is possible for the hand of the artist to produce so close an imitation of nature. There is likewise a building of a circular form and decorated in the manner of a theatre, with statues so beautiful in themselves and so well arranged, that nothing better could be seen. There is a woman moreover who is spinning, and is at the same time looking at a hen with her chickens; nothing can be more natural than this figure. Above Our Lady, are hovering, angels in the form of children, they hold a canopy over her head and are exceedingly graceful and beautiful. This picture also, having been too heavily loaded with dark tints has become excessively dark, but for which it would be indeed most admirable. The black has however caused the labour of the master to be almost entirely lost, for although it has been covered with varnish, this black nevertheless destroys the best qualities of the work, having in it a consuming dryness, whether it be from charcoal, burnt ivory, lamp-black, or burnt paper.