Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/152

140 among the Egyptians, and on the other the Moon in a similar manner; between them is Good Fortune or Prosperity, signified by a nude figure of a youth placed on the summit of a wheel, beside which are represented, on one side, Envy, Hatred, and Malevolence; on the other. Honour, Pleasure, and all the other delights of life, as described by Lucian.

Above the windows is a frieze consisting of nude figures the size of life; they are of great beauty, and exhibit various forms as well as attitudes: there are likewise certain stories, all from the life of Camillus. Opposite to the figure of Peace burning the arms of War, as before described, is that of the River Arno; it holds the Cornucopia with one hand, and, lifting the edge of a curtain with the other, it displays the city of Florence, with all the Pontiffs and other great men of the House of Medici. Francesco furthermore added a kind of socle which passes entirely around the Hall beneath the pictures and niches, the decoration thereof consisting of terminal figures in the form of women sustaining festoons of fruit and flowers. In the centre of the basement are oval compartments filled with figures engaged in adorning the Sphynx and the River Arno.

Now in this work Francesco was desirous of leaving to his native land a memorial worthy of himself and of so great a Prince; he therefore devoted the utmost care and attention which he could possibly command to the execution of the same, and although he had to encounter many vexations in the course of its progress, he did finally bring it to a fortunate completion. Francesco was of a melancholy temperament, and when he was painting he did for the most part feel very unwilling to have any one near him. On this occasion, however, almost doing violence to his nature, he compelled himself to be more liberal, and affecting an unwonted sociability at the commencement of the work, he suffered Tasso, and others of his friends who had done him any service, to come about him with much familiarity, permitting them to stand and look on while he worked, Francesco meanwhile showing them all the courtesies that he could think of But when he had gained a footing in the Court, and thought himself in favour, he returned, as they say, to his usual habits, indulging his choleric and sarcastic nature, and no longer showing the least respect to any one. Nay, what is worse