Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/163

1461] painted these frescoes in oils, is partly borne out by entries in the account books of the hospital, which speak of large quantities of linseed oil being supplied to the artist while he was engaged upon these works; and although a certain admixture of oil in fresco painting was common as early as Cennino's time, there seems little doubt that Domenico made experiments in this medium. We know that Piero dei Franceschi, the Umbrian pupil who had accompanied him from Perugia and worked as his assistant in S. Maria Nuova, adopted this practice in his turn, and twenty years later agreed to paint a banner in oils for a church in Arezzo.

Unfortunately, a singular fatality has attended all Domenico's most important works. His figures in the Casa Baglioni, his frescoes in S. Egidio, and another series which he and Piero dei Franceschi were invited to paint in the Sacristy of the Santa Casa of Loreto, about 1450, have all perished. His most important work now remaining is the altar-piece which he painted for S. Lucia de' Bardi, and which, according to Vasari, he finished shortly before his death. This picture, now in the Uffizi, represents the Madonna and Child enthroned under a triple loggia between the Baptist and St. Francis on one side, and St. Nicholas and S. Lucia on the other, and bears the signature of the artist, with the words, "O mother of God, have mercy upon me!" It is a typical Quattrocento work, and shows the great progress which art had made in many directions during the last fifty years. The niches and cornices of coloured marbles, the fine modelling and strong relief of the heads, the thorough knowledge of anatomy and