monument consisted principally of the nude figure of Jonas[1] proceeding from the mouth of the whale, as a type of the resurrection, and of another figure, representing Elias;[2] who, by the grace of God, is supported beneath the juniper tree, by means of bread baked in the ashes, and the cruse of water. These figures, I say then, were completed by Lorenzo with all the resources of his art, and all the care that could possibly bo bestowed on them; they exhibit accordingly a very high degree of beauty; but he did not obtain for them the reward which the necessities of his family required, and which the vast amount of labour that he had bestowed on his work well merited. This happened from the fact that death having closed the eyes of Agostino and of Raphael likewise, almost at the same time, the carelessness of Agostino’s heirs permitted these statues to remain in the workshops of the artist, where they continued to stand during many years. It is true that they are now being fixed in their place on the tomb of Agostino in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo; but Lorenzo, deprived of all hope by the negligence of the heirs and the death of his protector Raphael, as we have said above, perceived, for that time at least, that his labours and the days expended on those statues had been thrown away.
The dispositions made by the will of Raphael having then to be put into execution, Lorenzo was appointed to prepare a figure in bronze of Our Lady, four braccia high,[3] to be placed on the sepulchre of Rafiaello in the Church of Santa Maria Ritonda, and where the tabernacle was restored, as had been commanded by the departed master. At the Church of the Trinita in. Rome, Lorenzo also constructed a tomb for a merchant of the Perini family, adorning the same with two Children in mezzo-rilievo. In architecture he gave the
- ↑ It is believed that Raphael not only gave the design, but also prepared the model for this admirable statue, the excellence of which has indeed caused some to declare it a work of his own hand.
- ↑ The figure of this prophet, though much inferior to the Jonas, yet betrays the influence of Raphael. A third work of Lorenzetto, representing a Dolphin bearing a dead child, was also executed after a model by Raphael. The marble group has disappeared, but a cast of it may be seen at Dresden. See Jahn, in the Kunstblatt, for 1837, No. 62. See also Passavant, Rafael von Urbino, vol. i. p. 240.
- ↑ Called the Madonna del Sasso, because the foot is placed on a stone. This figure has not the height attributed to it by Vasari.
