Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/39

Rh that in this sort of paintings, Giovanni da Udine has far surpassed all those who have best imitated Nature in works of a similar kind; for, to say nothing of other matters, it was the custom of our artist to depict every object, even to the flowers of the elder, the fennel, and other things, however minute, with an exactitude that is most amazing. In the lunettes, which are surrounded by the above-mentioned garlands, or festoons, are large numbers of anihials, with figures of children holding the attributes of the Gods in their hands; but more than all the rest are admired, a lion and a seahorse; these are foreshortened in a manner which is so beautiful that they are held to be all but miraculous.

The works here in question being completed, Giovanni decorated a bath-room of much beauty, in the Castello Sant’ Angelo, and performed many other less important works in the Palace of the Pope; but these, for the sake of brevity, we leave undescribed. The death of Raphael, which grieved Giovanni very much, then ensued, and Pope Leo having also departed, the Arts of Design, with every other kind of talent, were found to have no longer any place in Rome; and Giovanni da Udine employed himself for many months in painting certain matters of little moment, for the Yigna of the above-named Cardinal de’ Medici. On the arrival of Pope Adrian in Rome, Giovanni did but prepare the small flags for the Castle, and these he had twice renewed during the pontificate of Leo X., together with the great Standard which floats on the summit of the highest tower.

It is true that Giovanni painted four square banners, when the said Pope Adrian canonized Sant’ Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, with St. Hubert, who had been Bishop of I know not what city in Flanders: and of these banners, one, on which is the figure of the above-named Sant’ Antonino, was given to the Church of San Marco, in Florence, where the body of that Saint is deposited: another of the banners, bearing the figure of St. Hubert, was placed in the Church of Santa Maria dell’ Anima, which is the Church of the Germans in Rome, while the remaining two were sent into Flanders.

But when Clement YII. was created High Pontiff, Giovanni, who had at that time left Rome to avoid the pestilence then raging there, and had gone to Udine, returned instantly