Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/274

262 dead, and the action of which is so perfect, that Nature herself could show nothing more life-like.

Nor vrould it be easy adequately to describe the Story of Noah, lying inebriated before his sons, one of whom derides the helplessness of the Patriarch, while the other two throw their mantles over him; this is a work of incomparable excellence; it could be surpassed by none but the master himself, and as if encouraged by what he there perceived himself to have accomplished, he subsequently prepared for yet greater efforts, proving his superiority in art, more than ever indisputably, by the figures of the five Sybils and seven Prophets, each of which is more than five braccia high; the variety of attitude, the beauty of the draperies, and every other detail, in short, exhibits astonishing invention and judgment; nay, to those who comprehend the full significance of these figures, they appear little less than miraculous. The Prophet Jeremiah is seated with the lower limbs crossed, and holding the beard with one hand, the elbow of that arm being supported by the knee, while the other hand is laid on his lap: the head is bent down in a manner which indicates the grief, the cares, the conflicting thoughts, and the bitter regrets which assail the Prophet, as he reflects on the condition of his people. There is evidence of similar power in the two boys behind him; and in the first Sybil, that nearest the door namely, in whom the artist has proposed to exhibit advanced age, and not content with enveloping the form in draperies, has been anxious to show that the blood'has become frozen by Time, and has furthermore placed the book which she is reading very close to her eyes; by way of intimating that her power of sight is weakened by the same cause.

After the first Sybil follows the Prophet Ezekiel, a very old man, whose attitude is singularly noble and beautiful; he too is much wrapped in draperies, and holding a scroll of his prophecies in the one hand, he raises the other, and turns his head at the same time, as in the act of preparing to utter high and holy truths; behind him are two Boys, who hold his books. The Sybil following Ezekiel is in an attitude exactly opposite to that of the Erethryan Sybil first described; she is holding her book at great distance, that is to say, and is about to turn a leaf; her limbs are crossed over each other, she is deeply pondering on what she is preparing to