Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/226

214 shall represent Heaven (as the Cardinal has judiciously decided); the remainder of the vaulting shall appear as if not separated from the rest of the chamber, but shall be adorned with fine architectural ornaments, which you will devise. The four lunettes I would have also appear to be concave; and since the oval represents Heaven, these shall represent Air, Earth, and Sea, as though these were seen beyond the chamber by those within it. But since the ceiling is not a lofty one, and the lunettes are too small to contain any but minute figures, I would have each divided longitudinally into three parts, suffering the outermost part to continue in the line of the corbels, and deepening the centre beneath that line, in such sort that this should appear to be a high window, through which figures and stories of correctly proportioned size should appear as if seen, as I have said above, on the outside of the room by those within it. The two extremities of the lunettes (which we will henceforth call their Horns), shall remain level, and on each of them shall be a figure seated or recumbent, and seeming to be either inside or outside of the room, as you shall find advisable.

“And now, to speak again of the chamber as a whole, I would say that I think it ought to be somewhat obscure in itself and receive no light but from the concave oval and the lunettes: the light that is to say being partly from the celestial bodies, and partly from the fires of the earth, which shall be made as I will describe hereafter. I would also have you to observe, that from the half of the room downwards I wish the obscurity to increase in proportion as you approach ‘the foot,’ where the Night shall be: as also of the upper half, in proportion as you approach ‘the head,’ or where the Aurora shall be, so is all gradually to become clearer and clearer.

“Having thus disposed of the whole, let us now consider the parts, giving to each its due place. In the oval of the ceiling there shall be made the Aurora at ‘the head’—as I have said; and I find that this may be done in many ways; but I select that which appears to me the most gracefdl for painting. Let there be figured then, a maiden of such beauty as the poets labour to express by their words, composing her of roses, of gold, of purple, of dew, and of such like charms of colour and complexion. As to her vestments, we have to consider, if out of many we would select the