Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/167

1461] woman's portrait by Domenico is mentioned among the pictures in the Palazzo Medici, and a fine bust of a man in red cap and vest, now in the Pitti, belongs to his last years.

Domenico's work at Loreto was interrupted by an outbreak of the plague, and by May 1455, he was back in Florence, where he rented a house in the parish of S. Paolo. After this we hear no more of him until he died, on the 15th of May 1461, and was buried in S. Piero Gattolini. And in 1462, the architect Filarete, in the Dedication of his Treatise to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, mentions Domenico da Venezia, together with Andreino and Francesco di Pesello, as three excellent artists who had lately died in Florence. The high reputation in which Domenico was still held at Perugia is proved by the fact that when Bonfigli executed his frescoes in the Palace of the Commune, an express condition was made that the work was to be valued by Fra Angelico, Fra Filippo and Domenico of Venice. The frescoes, however, were not completed until 1461, by which time both Angelico and Domenico were dead, and Fra Filippo alone remained to decide the question. A gentle and amiable character, Domenico made himself generally beloved, and was noted for his musical gifts, taking delight both in singing and playing the lute. But neither his artistic talents nor his fame succeeded in bringing him wealth. He never acquired a house or property of his own in Florence, and died poor, if we are to believe the following notice affixed to his name in the margin of the account books of S. Maria Nuova: "and if any more was paid to Domenico da Venezia, it is lost, for he has left nothing."