Zitierlink:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/vasari1851bd4/0053
GIULIO ROMANO.
45
flying towards the centre : the artist never departing from
the purpose he had proposed to himself in any portion of the
picture; by this invention of the fire for example, he gave an
appropriate as well as beautiful character to his chimney-
piece ; and the same may be said of every other part of the
painting.*
To render his work still more fearful and terrible, Giulio
has exhibited many of the giants, who are of the most
extraordinary forms, as well as of immense stature, in the act
of falling to the earth, some backwards, others on their faces,
as they are differently struck and wounded by the lightnings
and thunder-bolts ; some are already dead, others writhing
with their wounds, and still more lying crushed and partially
covered by the mountains and edifices which have fallen
upon them. Wherefore let none believe that he could ever
behold any work of the pencil better calculated to awaken
fear and horror, or more truly natural and life-like, than that
before us ; nay, whosoever enters that chamber and sees all
the doors, windows, and other parts, constructed as they are
awry, and as it were on the point of falling with the build-
ings, and even the mountains tumbling around in ruin, cannot
fail to be in doubt whether all be not about tc topple down
upon him, and the rather as he sees the very gods in heaven,
some rushing here, and others there, but all taking to
flight.-]-
Another circumstance remarkable in this work is the fact,
that it has neither beginning nor end; the whole is neverthe-
less well connected in all its parts, and continued throughout
unbroken by division or the intervention of frame-work or
decorations, so that all the objects which are near the build-
ings appear to be of great size, while those at a distance and
scattered about the landscapes^ seem to diminish gradually,
* The chimney was closed up, the fires made in it doing injury, by the
smoke they threw out, to the pictures above. These were cleaned towards
the year 1786 by the painter Carlo Bottani, the author of the Descrizione
Storica, before cited.
+ Pietro Santi Bartoli gives eight engravings of the pictures in this room,
but would seem to have copied from the Cartoons of Giulio Romano, since
the engravings do not strictly follow the paintings, in which the master is
known to have made several changes from the original designs.
t According to Gaye, the Landscape in this work is by Fermo of
Caravaggio
45
flying towards the centre : the artist never departing from
the purpose he had proposed to himself in any portion of the
picture; by this invention of the fire for example, he gave an
appropriate as well as beautiful character to his chimney-
piece ; and the same may be said of every other part of the
painting.*
To render his work still more fearful and terrible, Giulio
has exhibited many of the giants, who are of the most
extraordinary forms, as well as of immense stature, in the act
of falling to the earth, some backwards, others on their faces,
as they are differently struck and wounded by the lightnings
and thunder-bolts ; some are already dead, others writhing
with their wounds, and still more lying crushed and partially
covered by the mountains and edifices which have fallen
upon them. Wherefore let none believe that he could ever
behold any work of the pencil better calculated to awaken
fear and horror, or more truly natural and life-like, than that
before us ; nay, whosoever enters that chamber and sees all
the doors, windows, and other parts, constructed as they are
awry, and as it were on the point of falling with the build-
ings, and even the mountains tumbling around in ruin, cannot
fail to be in doubt whether all be not about tc topple down
upon him, and the rather as he sees the very gods in heaven,
some rushing here, and others there, but all taking to
flight.-]-
Another circumstance remarkable in this work is the fact,
that it has neither beginning nor end; the whole is neverthe-
less well connected in all its parts, and continued throughout
unbroken by division or the intervention of frame-work or
decorations, so that all the objects which are near the build-
ings appear to be of great size, while those at a distance and
scattered about the landscapes^ seem to diminish gradually,
* The chimney was closed up, the fires made in it doing injury, by the
smoke they threw out, to the pictures above. These were cleaned towards
the year 1786 by the painter Carlo Bottani, the author of the Descrizione
Storica, before cited.
+ Pietro Santi Bartoli gives eight engravings of the pictures in this room,
but would seem to have copied from the Cartoons of Giulio Romano, since
the engravings do not strictly follow the paintings, in which the master is
known to have made several changes from the original designs.
t According to Gaye, the Landscape in this work is by Fermo of
Caravaggio