Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/375

Rh god Arno, which lay at the feet of Michelagnolo in a most graceful attitude, and with features of singular beauty.

This picture, which was by the hand of Alessandro Allori, the disciple of Bronzino, an excellent painter and most worthy scholar of so great a master, was very highly extolled by all who beheld it. In the space of the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament, at the end of the cross aisle, was a picture five braccia long and four broad, wherein was Michelagnolo surrounded by all the School of the Arts; little children, boys and young men of every age up to twenty-four, all offering to him, as to something sacred and divine, the first-fruits of their labours, paintings, sculptures, models, &c., all which he was courteously receiving, instructing them at the same time in questions of Art, while they gave ear to his precepts with reverent attention, and were looking at him with exquisite expressions of countenance, and in attitudes truly beautiful and graceful. In effect the composition of this picture is such that it could not in a certain sense have been done better; nor, as respects some of the figures, could anything more beautiful be desired; for which cause Battista, the disciple of Pontormo, by whom it was painted, received infinite praise. The verses at the foot of this picture were as follows;— Tu pater et rerum inventor, tu patria nobis Suppeditas praecepta tuis ex, inclyte, chartis. Descending from this picture towards the principal door of the Church, just before you arrived at the organ, was another, six braccia long and four broad, in the space of a Chapel, and on this was depicted the extraordinary favour conferred by Julius III., when, desiring to avail himself of the great master’s talents, he invited him to the Yigna Julia, and caused him to be seated beside himself. Plere then Michelagnolo was seen in conversation with the Pontiff, while the cardinals, bishops, and other great personages of the Court remained standing around them. This event, I say, was here depicted with such admirable composition and so much relief, the force and animation of the figures was so remarkable, that it could not perhaps have been much better had it proceeded from the hand of an old and experienced master. Wherefore, Jacopo Zucchi, a young disciple of Giorgio Vasari, by whom it was executed in so good a