re of which one almost sees the leaves quivering in the gentle
zephyrs; and in the air are vast numbers of naked Loves, most
beautiful in feature and expression, who are plucking branches of
laurel and with them making garlands, which they throw and scatter
about the mount. Over the whole, in truth, there seems to breathe a
spirit of divinity, so beautiful are the figures, and such the
nobility of the picture, which makes whoever studies it with
attention marvel how a human brain, by the imperfect means of mere
colours, and by excellence of draughtsmanship, could make painted
things appear alive. Most lifelike, also, are those Poets who are
seen here and there about the mount, some standing, some seated,
some writing, and others discoursing, and others, again, singing or
conversing together, in groups of four or six, according as it
pleased him to distribute them. There are portraits from nature of
all the most famous poets, ancient and modern, and some only just
dead, or still living in his day; which were taken from statues or
medals, and many from old pictures, and some, who were still alive,
portrayed from the life by himself. And to begin with one end, there
are Ovid, Virgil, Ennius, Tibullus, Catullus, Propertius, and Homer;
the last-named, blind and chanting his verses with uplifted head,
having at his feet one who is writing them down. Next, in a group,
are all the nine Muses and Apollo, with such beauty in their aspect,
and such divinity in the figures, that they breathe out a spirit of
grace and life. There, also, are the learned Sappho, the most divine
Dante, the gracious Petrarca, and the amorous Boccaccio, who are
wholly alive, with Tibaldeo, and an endless number of other moderns;
and this scene is composed with much grace, and executed with
diligence.

On another wall he made a Heaven, with Christ, Our Lady, S. John the
Baptist, the Apostles, the Evangelists, and the Martyrs, enthroned
on clouds, with God the Father sending down the Holy Spirit over
them all, and particularly over an endless number of saints, who are
below, writing the Mass, and engaged in disputation about the Host,
which is on the altar. Among these are the four Doctors of the
Church, who have about them a vast number of saints, such as
Dominic, Francis, Thomas Aquinas, Buonaventura, Scotus, and Nicholas
of Lira, with Dante, Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, and all the
Christian theologians, with an infinite number of portraits from