Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/147

Rh himself for some time, he recommenced his labours, and the first works which he executed were portraits; those of Messer Griovanni Graddi namely, and of Messer Annibale Caro, both of whom were his very intimate friends: having finished these, he painted an exceedingly beautiful picture for the Chapel of the Clerks of the Chamber in the Papal Palace.

In the Church of the Germans also, Francesco commenced a Chapel in fresco for a merchant of that nation, painting the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit in the vaulting above, and in a picture which reaches to about half the lieight of the wall, he represented Our Saviour Christ arising from the dead and surrounded by the sleeping soldiers. These figures are lying about near the tomb in various attitudes, and are foreshortened in a very bold and beautiful manner. On one side of this picture is the figure of San Stefano, and on the other that of San Giorgio; they stand in two niches, and are by the same Francesco. Beneath is San Giovanni Elemosinario bestowing alms on a naked beggar; on one side of the Saint is the figure of Charity, and on the other is the Carmelite Monk, Sant’ Alberto, placed between figures intended to represent Logic and Prudence. Finally, Francesco painted the figure of the Dead Christ with the Maries, as the Altar-piece of that Chapel.

Now Salviati had formed a friendship with the Florentine goldsmith, Piero di Marcone; and having become his gossip, sent to his other gossip, the wife of this Piero, the present of a very beautiful design, on the occasion of her giving birth to the child for whom he stood godfather. The subject was intended for painting in one of those circular trays on which food is presented to a woman in child-bed, and represented, in a square compartment, subdivided into upper and lower ranges, the whole history of the human life; the figures were of great beauty, and each was accompanied by a garland or festoon appropriate to the respective ages and