The subject of this work was an Adoration of the Magi; it comprised a vast number of figures, which in that solitary place I was enabled to execute with great pains and study, imitating, as well as I could, the varieties existing between the followers of each King’s Court, those of all the three being mingled together; but their complexions, vestments, and decorations, render it easy to decide to which King every courtier and follower belongs. The central portion of the picture is accompanined by two others, one on each side; these contain such parts of the Courts as could not find place in the first, with horses, elephants, and giraffes. For the different Chapels also I painted separate figures of Prophets, Sybils, and Evangelists in the act of writing. In the Cupola or Tribune I painted four large figures, all singing the praises of Christ and the Virgin, Orpheus and Homer namely, who have mottoes in Greek; with Virgil, having the motto. Jam redit et virgo, &c.; and Dante, who has the following lines:—
Nobilitasti sì, che il suo fattore
Non si sdegno difarsi tua fattura.[1]
There are, besides, many other circumstances and accessories which need not be mentioned here.[2]
Continuing meanwhile to proceed with my book, I painted at this same time a large picture in oil for the Church of San Francesco in Kimini; it was intended for the High Altar, and represents the Saint receiving the Stigmata from Christ at the Mountain of La Vernia, which is given as it is in Nature, but as those rocks are entirely grey and San Francesco with his companion are also clothed in grey vestments, I caused Our Saviour Christ to appear in a splendour of Glory, within which are numerous Seraphim also; the work is thus varied; and the Saint, with other figures, being wholly illumined with the light of that glory, while the landscape, lying in shadow, exhibits a variety of changing colours; many persons declared themselves not displeased with the
- ↑
- Thou, thou art she who hast ennobled high
- The human nature, so that He who formed
- Hath not disdained through Thee to live as man.
- ↑ One of the finest of our author's paintings, and still (1846) in good preservation; but the pictures of the Cupola have disappeared; the intonaco had peeled off, according to Piacenza, and the walls were therefore whitewashed.
