Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/72

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lives of the artists.

position. In like manner, all who do their best to emulate his labours in art, will be honoured on earth, as it is certain that all who resemble him in the rectitude of his life will receive their reward in heaven.

The following epitaph was written on Raphael by the Cardinal Bembo.

d. o. m.
raphaeli. sancto. joan. f. vrbinati.
pictori eminentiss. vetervmq aemvlo,
cvivs spiranteis prope imagineis
si contemplere,
natvrae. atqve artis foedvs
facile inspexeris,
ivlii ii. et leonis x. pont. max.
pictvrae et architect. operibvs
gloriam avxit.
vixit. an. xxxvii. integer. integros.^[1]
qvo. die natvs est, eo esse desiit.
vii. id. april. mdxx.
ille hic. est. raphael, timvit. quo. sospite. vinci
rerum. magna. parens, et moriente. mori.

The Count Baldassare Castiglione also wrote respecting the death of this master in the manner following:—

Quod lacerum corpus medica sanaverit arte,
Hippolytum, Stygiis et revocarit aquis;
Ad Stygias ipse est raptiis Epidaurius undas;
Sic -precium vitae mors fuit artifici.
Tu quoque dum ioto laniatam corpore Romam
Componis miro, Raphael, ingenio;
Atque Vrbis lacerum ferro, igni, annisque cadaver,
Ad vitam, antiquum jam revocasque decus.

↑ “For the greater exactness,” remarks Pungileoni, we might here add,
dies viii.” And in so short a life did Raphael find time to execute all the
pictures enumerated by Vasari, with many others, which he has omitted: to
render himself accomplished in architecture to such an extent, that he was
found capable of succeeding Bramante in the direction of the building of
St. Peter’s; to study the works of antiquity, and to pursue the most rigid
and minute inquiry into those found in and around Rome. Nay, so passionate a lover, and so zealous a student was Raphael of these antiquities,
that he wrote to Leo X. concerning them, in these memorable words:
‘ But with what justice can we complain of the Goths and Vandals, and
other perfidious enemies, if those who should defend these feiv relics of old
Rome, as fathers or guardians, have themselves been long found engaged in
efforts to destroy them V ” &c. It is even believed that Raphael collected
materials for the history of the artists wdio had preceded him, since Vasari,
as we have before said, admits himself to have -profited by the writings of
Raphael among those of other authors.

[1] “For the greater exactness,” remarks Pungileoni, we might here add,
dies viii.” And in so short a life did Raphael find time to execute all the
pictures enumerated by Vasari, with many others, which he has omitted: to
render himself accomplished in architecture to such an extent, that he was
found capable of succeeding Bramante in the direction of the building of
St. Peter’s; to study the works of antiquity, and to pursue the most rigid
and minute inquiry into those found in and around Rome. Nay, so passionate a lover, and so zealous a student was Raphael of these antiquities,
that he wrote to Leo X. concerning them, in these memorable words:
‘ But with what justice can we complain of the Goths and Vandals, and
other perfidious enemies, if those who should defend these feiv relics of old
Rome, as fathers or guardians, have themselves been long found engaged in
efforts to destroy them V ” &c. It is even believed that Raphael collected
materials for the history of the artists wdio had preceded him, since Vasari,
as we have before said, admits himself to have -profited by the writings of
Raphael among those of other authors.

[1]