Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/99

Rh that the master derived from it a very great increase of reputation; and although he had executed many works, and the world had certainly not then to learn what might be expected from that exalted genius in his vocation, wherewith Perino was endowed, yet he was from that time held in much greater account than had previously been the case. For this reason the Cardinal Santiquattro, Lorenzo Pucci, having made the acquisition of a chapel on the Santa Trinità, which is a monastery of the Calabresi and Franciosi, who wear the habit of Francesco di Paolo, that Lorenzo, I say, having taken this chapel, which was beside the principal chapel, and to the left of the same, made it over to Perino, to the end that he might paint the life of Our Lady therein. The master commenced the work accordingly, and finished the whole of the ceiling, with that portion of the wall moreover, which is beneath the arch; on the outer side, and over an arch of the chapel, he painted two figures of Prophets, which were not less than four braccia and a half high. These figures represent Isaiah and Daniel, and in their grand proportions they display all that knowledge of art, that excellence in design, and beauty of colouring, which can only be found in their perfection in the pictures of a great artist. And this will be perceived by all who shall examine these figures, but more particularly the Isaiah; the prophet is reading, and the deep thought which he gives to the subject of his study, with the zealous earnestness of the researches in which he is engaged, and his desire for the attainment of increased knowledge, are all clearly manifest; his eyes are riveted to his book, and he leans his head on his hand in all the absorption of a man profoundly occupied with his subject. The attitude of Daniel is equally fine, his figure is immoveable, and with the head raised to heaven he seems lost in celestial contemplation, and in the effort to resolve the doubts of his people.

Between the Prophets are two Boys who support the escutcheon of the cardinal, the shield of these arms is of a singularly beautiful shape, and the children are not only