se, wherein is the Transfiguration of Christ with Moses and
Elias, imagining how great must have been the splendour that dazzled
them, he fashioned the three Disciples with extraordinary and beautiful
attitudes, and enveloped in draperies in a manner that it is seen that
he went on trying to do something that had never been done
before--namely, to suggest the nude form of the figures below new kinds
of folds, which, as I have said, had not been thought of even by Giotto.
Under this arch, wherein he made a Christ delivering the woman
possessed, he drew a building in perspective, perfectly and in a manner
then little known, executing it in good form and with better knowledge;
and in it, working with very great judgment in modern fashion, he showed
so great art and so great invention and proportion in the columns, in
the doors, in the windows, and in the cornices, and so great diversity
from the other masters in his method of working, that it appears that
there was beginning to be seen a certain glimmer of the good and perfect
manner of the moderns. He invented, among other ingenious ideas, a
flight of steps very difficult to make, which, both in painting and
built out in relief--wrought in either way, in fact--is so rich in
design and variety, and so useful and convenient in invention, that the
elder Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, availed himself of it in
making the outer staircase of the Palace of Poggio a Cajano, now the
principal villa of the most Illustrious Lord Duke. In the other little
arch is a story of Christ when he is delivering S. Peter from shipwreck,
so well done that one seems to hear the voice of Peter saying: "Domine,
salva nos, perimus." This work is judged much more beautiful than the
others, because, besides the softness of the draperies, there are seen
sweetness in the air of the heads and terror in the perils of the sea,
and because the Apostles, shaken by diverse motions and by phantoms of
the sea, have been represented in attitudes very appropriate and all
most beautiful. And although time has eaten away in part the labours
that Stefano put into this work, it may be seen, although but dimly,
that the Apostles are defending themselves from the fury of the winds
and from the waves of the sea with great energy; which work, being very
highly praised among the moderns, must have certainly appeared a miracle
in all Tuscany in the time of him who wrought it. After this he painted
a S. Thomas Aquinas b