[Footnote: Vasari's
_Lives_, vol. iii. p. 224.] Even now he worked in a desultory
manner, doing it bit by bit, but in the end producing a marvellous
work.
The refectory is a long vaulted hall, and the frescoed table, with its
life-size figures, fills the whole arch of the wall opposite the door.
One's natural impulse on entering it is to exclaim, "How life-like!"
There is a great and living animation in the figures; the characters of
the Apostles are written on their expressive faces. Judas is not placed
away alone, as in many renderings of the subject, but is next to
Christ, the contrast of the two faces being thus emphasized by
proximity. S. Peter, though old, has all the vehemence and intensity of
his character. Add to the feeling a brilliancy of colour of which
Andrea alone had the secret, for without deep shadows, and keeping up
the same intensity of tone throughout, he yet obtained great harmony
and full relief where others would have produced a clash and flatness.
Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle say with justice, "From the
contemplation of the _Cena_, at Milan, we should say that the
painter is high bred; looking at that of S.
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