Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/458

446 guished and able men, having heard the fame and seen the works of this artist, took him into his service, and there he has remained ever since, even to his present advanced age. For this Signore, Don Giulio has executed a vast number of most beautiful illuminations and miniatures, but of these I propose to name a part only, since to mention them all would be impossible. In one of his small pictures he has painted the Madonna with the Divine Child in her arms, and Pope Paul III. kneeling before her; the last is a portrait from the life, and so good a resemblance that this minute form appears to be living, nor do the other figures want anything but the actual breath of life. This picture was sent, as the extraordinary work that it really is, to the Emperor Charles V., then in Spain, and that Monarch was quite astonished at the beauty and excellence thereof.

The Cardinal then caused our artist to commence the miniature stories and illuminations for an Office of the Madonna, written in fine letters by Monterchi, who is very clever at that work. For this production Don Giulio resolved to put forth his utmost efforts, and gave so much care to every part of it that no work of the kind could ever receive more; he has, in fact, here effected such amazing things with his pencil, that one fails to comprehend how the eye and hand can have gone so far. The series is divided into twenty-six small stories arranged in pairs, and representing the symbol with that which is symbolized: each picture is surrounded by a delicate bordering of figures and fancies, in harmony with the subject represented, nor will I refuse to take the trouble of briefiy describing them, seeing that it is not every one who can obtain a sight of this work.

The first plate, where the office for Matins commences, represents the Angel of the Annunciation, and the border is formed of children whose beauty is miraculous; on the opposite plate is Isaiah speaking to the Hebrew King. In the second, which is for the Lauds, we have the Visitation, the frame-work of which imitates metal; and on the opposite plate are Justice and Peace embracing each other. For the Primes there is the Birth of Christ, with Adam and Eve eating the apple in the terrestrial Paradise on the opposite plate, the frames of both are filled with figures nude and draped, some human, others of animals. At the Horary office called the Terza, are the Shepherds with the Angels