Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/244

204 was now to be adorned by the best Florentine masters. On the 27th of October, 1481, Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, Cosimo Rosselli, and Perugino signed a contract, by which they agreed to paint ten frescoes from the Old and New Testament, on the chapel walls, in the space of six months. According to Vasari, Sandro was appointed Director of the Works, and we recognise his hand in the early figures of the frieze of Popes which runs along the upper part of the walls, as well as in three of the large compositions from the life of Moses and Christ, the type and anti-type. The first of these, generally known as the Temptation of Christ, occupies the central place on the wall, immediately opposite the papal throne, between Pinturicchio's Baptism and Ghirlandajo's Calling of the Apostles. Satan is seen in the habit of a Franciscan friar, first pointing to the stones at the feet of Christ, then standing at His side on a pinnacle of the temple, and finally hurled into space by the word of the Lord. But these three scenes, which connect Sandro's fresco with the rest of the series, are only introduced as minor incidents, and the real subject of the picture, as Dr. Steinmann has lately shown, is the Purification of a Leper according to the law of Moses. The rites in use on this occasion are minutely depicted. On the right, the leper's wife is seen bringing her offering of two doves, a girl, bearing wood for the burnt offering, advances on the left, and in the centre of the picture the high priest receives the blood of the victim in a golden bowl from the hands of a youth, while the leper, still feeble and suffering, is slowly led up the steps of the altar by his friends. The Renaissance temple in the background is an exact reproduction of the façade of the