Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/550

542 to pursue the same mode of proceeding in the cathedral of Milan, and eventually to devote himself wholly to architecture, although his first and principal vocation had been painting. In the monastery of the Grrazie for example, Bernardino depicted four stories of the Passion of Our Lord, as we have before said. These works are in fresco; they are in one of the cloisters, and there are others, also by the same artist, in another cloister: these last are in chiaro-scuro.

It was by Bernardino da Trevio that the sculptor Agostino Busto, called Bambaja, was brought forward and powerfully assisted: of this Bambaja mention has been made in the Life of Baccio da Montelupo; there are works by his hand at Santa Marta, a convent of nuns in the city of Milan; and here I have myself seen, although it is not without difficulty that permission to enter that place is procured, the tomb of Monsignore Foix, who died at Pavia. This monument is constructed of numerous pieces of marble carved in low relief, and presenting ten stories, the small figures of which are sculptured with infinite care: these stories consist principally of the various battles, victories, and other deeds of that noble; the storming of fortified places among others: finally, are represented his death, burial, and sepulture, and to say all at a word, they are such, that, regarding it in great astonishment, I stood for a while considering how it has been found possible to produce by means of hand and chisel so delicate and extraordinary a work: for in this monument we have decorations consisting of trophies, arms of every kind, chariots, artillery, and many other engines and implements of war, all carved with the most surprising perfection, and lastly the figure of Monsignor Foix himself, the size of life, wearing his armour, and with a countenance which seems almost to rejoice, even in death, over the victories gained by his hand.

It is indeed greatly to be lamented that this work, which is truly worthy to be accounted among the most astonishing