Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/227

Rh most suitable, that, as this maiden has three seasons and three distinct colours, so also has she three different names; Alba (white),yermiglia (red), and Rancia (orange). This justly •weighed, I would make her a vest to the girdle that should be of a clear white and very slight texture, nay, as it were transparent: from the girdle to the knee, she should have a tunic of scarlet, with knobs and escaloped edges to imitate the reflections which are seen in the clouds, when the dawn is of an empurpled colour. From the knee to the foot, her vestment should be of a golden tint, to represent the daybreak, when it has become orange. But I warn you that these vestments must be open from above the knee downwards, that they may show the nude limbs; and the vest as well as tunic, must be moved by the wind, forming folds and waving about. The arms must be naked and rosy; fair coloured wings must rise from the shoulders; on the head must be a crown of roses, and in the hands a lamp or lighted torch, or perhaps it were better to let a Cupid bearing a torch go before her, while another coming after her shall awaken Tithon with his torch. She must be seated on a golden seat in a chariot, also gilded, and drawn by a winged Pegasus or by two horses, for she is depicted in both ways. The colours of the horses must be, one a shining white, the other a radiant red, to denote the names given to them by Homer of Lampos and Phaeton. She shall be represented as rising from a tranquil Sea, which shall appear to be rippled, luminous, and glancing. In the right horn of the lunette, on the wall behind her, shall be Tithon her husband, and in the left horn of the same shall be Cephalus her lover. The first a gray-beard reclining on a golden bed, or better still, lying in a cradle, as one who from extreme age has returned to childhood, and letxhis attitude be that of one who would gladly retain Aurora, and who looks after her as if her departure grieved him. But let Cephalus be a most beautiful youth, wearing a short doublet, and with half-boots on his feet; he shall have a javelin with a gilded point in his hand, and with his dog beside him shall be about to enter a grove, as not caring for Aurora, because of the love which he bears to his Procris.

Between Cephalus and Tithon, in the window of tne lunette behind Aurora, there shall be seen to appear some few rays of the Sun exhibiting a splendour more radiant