Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/54

42 exactly in the proportions required, to say nothing of the truth to be observed in perspective, of landscapes and many other parts, which all demand the utmost care for the production of a good picture. He who takes from the works of others, moreover, should be careful to do so in such sort that the portions borrowed shall not be too easily recognized. Battista therefore discovered, when it was too late, that he had been expending his time unduly over the minutiae of muscles, &c., and in drawing with an over-strained diligence, .while he did not give sufficient regard to the demands of the art in its other departments.

Having completed the picture above-mentioned, for which he obtained but little commendation, Battista transferred himself to Urbino, where, by the intervention of Bartolommeo Genga, he entered the service of the Duke. By that sovereign he was then commissioned to paint a large vaulting in the Church and Chapel attached to the Palace of Urbino, and setting hand instantly to the work, without further consideration, and without making any division by compartments, he began to prepare the designs, as the idea of the work presented itself, but taking the invention from the Judgment of Buonarroti: he thus made a Glory in Heaven, in imitation of that work, with Saints resting *on clouds, which were scattered over the whole surface of the vaulting, and with all the choir of angels assembled around a figure of Our Lady, who, being in the act of ascending into heaven, is there awaited by Jesus Christ, who is about to place a crown on her head. Standing around in divers groups are the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Sybils, the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, and the Virgins; all which figures, in their various attitudes, appear to be rejoicing and congratulating each other on the arrival of that glorious Virgin Mother.

Now this was a subject which certainly presented a most happy occasion for Battista to have proved himself an able artist, as he might have done, had he chosen a better path, taken pains to obtain practice in the handling of fresco colours, and governed himself'with better order and more judgment in his labours than he displayed. But in this work he proceeded much as he had done in all those previously