Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/510

502 his age he resolved to marry. This he had not done more than a year, when he fell seriously ill, and lost the sight of his right eye, nor was he without fear and much danger of losing the other. He then recommended himself to God, and made a vow to wear grey clothing ever after, as, in effect, he did, when by the grace of God the sight of the left eye was preserved to him so perfectly, that the works executed by Garofalo in his sixty-fifth year are so well done, so delicately finished, and evince so much care, that they are truly wonderful. Respecting this master there is further to relate, that the Duke of Ferrara was on a certain occasion displaying a work in oil, by Benvenuto, to Pope Paul III., the Triumph of Bacchus namely, five braccia long, with another representing the Calumny of Apelles, both executed at that age by Garofalo, after the designs of Raffaello da Orbino, and each placed over a certain chimney-piece in the palace of his Excellency the Duke; he was showing them, I say, to Pope Paul, when that Pontiff declared himself to be struck with astonishment, that works of such extent and beauty should have been executed by a man of so advanced an age; one, too, who had but a single eye.

On every festival day during twenty years, Benvenuto worked without intermission, for the love of God, and accepting no payment for his labour, at the convent belonging to the nuns of San Bernardino, where he executed many works of importance in oil, in tempera, and in fresco; this was certainly a very remarkable thing, and full proof of his sincerity and good nature; the rather as he had no competitors in that place, yet gave as much care and study to all that he did, as he could have done had he been labouring in a much frequented district. These works of San Bernardino are very good compositions, and the heads have considerable beauty of expression, the grouping is free from confusion, and the figures are in a soft and good manner.

Benvenuto had many disciples, but although he taught