Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/138

The Sienese painter, Baldassare Peruzzi, was never weary of extolling this picture, and one day, as I was looking at the same in company with him, on a certain occasion when I was passing through Siena, I stood myself amazed therewith, as I did also at five small stories, which are depicted on the Predella, and which are executed in tempera after a most judicious and beautiful manner. Domenico likewise undertook to paint a picture in the city of Siena, for the nuns of Ognissanti: in the upper part of this work is Our Saviour Christ seen amidst the clouds; he is crowning the glorified Virgin; and beneath them are San Gregorio, Sant’ Antonio, Santa Maria Maddalena, and the virgin martyr St. Catherina. On the Predella are certain small figures in tempera, which are very beautiful.^[1]

In the house of the Signor Marcello Agostini,^[2] Domenico painted some very beautiful pictures on the ceiling of an apartment, which has three Lunettes on each side, and two at each end, with a frieze entirely around it. Two paintings occupy the centre of the ceiling.^[3] In the first is the imitation of a silken arras, which appears to depend from the framework; and herein, as if woven in that tapestry, is the figure of Scipio Africanus, who restores the young wife uninjured to her husband. In the second is the renowned painter Zeuxis copying the several nude figures, from which he composed his picture for the Temple of Juno. In one of the Lunettes are small figures of not more than about half a braccia high, but exceedingly beautiful; they represent the two Roman Brothers, who, having been enemies, consent to become friends for the sake of the public welfare, and the good of their country.

In the following picture is Torquatus giving an example of obedience to the laws by permitting one of his own eyes to be put out, in order to save an eye for his son, who had been condemned to lose both his eyes, and who is, by this

from the High Altar. The Padre Della Valle considers the figures who are struggling amidst the flames to present too tranquil an aspect.

1. They are now in the Sacristy of the Church of Santo Spirito.
2. This is the House which now belongs to the Bindi Sergardi family,
3. The description given by Vasari of this apartment has several inaccuracies, which the reader may correct by reference to Bottari.—Roman Edition of Vasari.