Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/17

Rh the other a Madonna surrounded by Saints. In the Church of San Gallo he depicted Our Saviour Christ, bearing his Cross and accorapained by a large body of soldiers; the Madonna and the other Maries, weeping in bitter grief, are also represented, with San Giovanni and Santa Veronica, who presents the handkerchief to Our Saviour; and all these figures are delineated with infinite force and animation. This work, in which there are many beautiful portraits from the life, and which is executed with much love and care, caused Ridolfo to acquire a great name; the portrait of his father is among the heads, as are those of certain among his disciples, and of some of his friends—Poggino, Scheggia, and Nunziata for example, the head of the latter being one of extraordinary beauty.

Now this Nunziata, although he was but a painter of puppets, was nevertheless a man of distinguished ability in certain things, more especially in the preparation of fireworks, and those Girandoli, which, as we have said, were made every year for the festival of St. John. He was besides a most amusing and facetious person, insomuch that every one had pleasure in conversing with him. A citizen came to him one day, and, bemoaning the displeasure caused him by such painters as knew only how to produce improprieties, desired that Nunziata would make him a Madonna, and such a one as should be decent and proper, of respectable years that is to say, and not likely to move any one to light thoughts, whereupon Nunziata depicted him a Madonna with a beard. Another, wishing to have a Crucifix for a room on the ground floor of his house, in which he was accustomed to pass the months of summer, could find nothing to say but, I want a Crucifix for summer,” when Nunziata, perceiving the man to be a simpleton, painted him a figure, wearing no other drapery than a pair of stockings.

But we return to Ridolfo, who, having received the com-