rence_)

_Brogi_]

Emboldened by his study of the art, which was making it ever easier to
him, he tried his genius on matters more complicated and difficult;
wherefore, in the sixth square, he made Joseph cast by his brethren into
the well, and the scene when they sell him to the merchants, and where
he is given by them to Pharaoh, to whom he interprets the dream of the
famine; together with the provision against it, and the honours given by
Pharaoh to Joseph. Likewise there is Jacob sending his sons for corn
into Egypt, and Joseph recognizing them and making them return for their
father; in which scene Lorenzo made a round temple, drawn in perspective
with great mastery, wherein are figures in diverse manners which are
loading corn and flour, together with some marvellous asses. Likewise
there is the feast that Joseph gives them, and the hiding of the gold
cup in Benjamin's sack, and its discovery, and how he embraces and
acknowledges his brethren; which scene, by reason of the many effects
and the great variety of incidents, is held the most noble, the most
difficult, and the most beautiful of all his works.

And in truth, having so beautiful a genius and so good a grace in this
manner of statuary, when there came into his mind the compositions of
beautiful scenes, Lorenzo could not but make the figures most beautiful;
as it is apparent in the seventh square, where he represents Mount
Sinai, and on its summit Moses, who is receiving the Laws from God.
Reverently kneeling, half-way up the mountain, is Joshua, who is
awaiting him, and at the foot are all the people, terrified by the
thunder, lightning, and earthquakes, in diverse attitudes wrought with
very great vivacity. After this, he showed diligence and great love in
the eighth square, wherein he made Joshua marching against Jericho and
turning back the Jordan, and placed there the twelve tents of the twelve
Tribes, full of very lifelike figures; but more beautiful are some in
low-relief, in the scene when, as they go with the Ark round the walls
of the aforesaid city, these walls fall down at the sound of trumpets,
and the Hebrews take Jericho; and here the landscape is ever diminished
and made lower with great judgment, from the first figures to the
mountains, from the mountains to the city, and from the city to the
distant part of the landscape, in very low relief, the whole being
executed with great perfection. And since Lorenzo became from day to day
more p