Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/460

448 miraculous; the picture opposite to this shows King David in his repentance, the framework being composed of grotteschine and other ornaments.

But let him who has a mind to be utterly amazed, cast an eye on the Litanies, where the artist has minutely interwoven the letters which form the names of the Saints; and in the margin above is the Most Holy Trinity in Heaven, surrounded by innumerable Angels, together with whom are the Apostles and other Saints. Opposite to this is the Madonna, also in Heaven with the Holy Virgins; and in the margin beneath is the Procession in which Rome performs the Solemnity of the Corpus Christi. Here we have the various officials bearing torches, with the bishops, the Cardinals, and the Holy Sacrament, carried by the Pope, who is followed by the remainder of the Court, and the Guard of Lancers; finally there is the Castel Sant’ Angelo, whence they are firing salutes; the whole being a thing well calculated to astound and awaken the admiration of the most acute intellect.

In the commencement of the Office for the Dead, we have Death himself, who is represented as triumphing over Kingdoms and the mighty of the Earth, as over those of the lowest degree. Opposite to this is the Resurrection of Lazarus, and herein is Death again perceived in combat with certain figures on horseback. For the Office of the Crucifixion, the artist has depicted Christ on his Cross, opposite to which is Moses lifting aloft the brazen Serpent; and for that of the Holy Ghost he has chosen the Descent of the Spirit on the Apostles, with the building of the Tower of Babel by Nimrod placed opposite thereto.

Nine years did Don Giulio labour over this work, which could never be paid for, so to speak, whatever the price that might be given for it; the variety of fanciful ornaments, the divers attitudes and movements of the figures, nude and draped, male and female, placed in the most appropriate manner for the embellishment of the whole, with the beauty of every detail, and the studious care given to all points, are not to be described; the diversity and excellence of this production are indeed such as to make it seem not of human so much as of divine origin. The figures, the buildings, and the landscapes are all made duly to recede by the art of the master, and the nice arrangement of his colours; the laws of