Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/283

1494] patron, the banker, Francesco Sassetti, with his bright-eyed boy at his side, in Mr. Benson's collection, and the beautiful profile of Giovanna Tornabuoni, with the fair hair and red coral beads, which he painted in 1488. This bust, one of the finest Italian portraits in existence, was formerly the property of Mr. Henry Willett, who lent it to the National Gallery, but has lately passed into the collection of Mr. Pierpont Morgan. During the last year of his life, Ghirlandajo painted many altarpieces for churches at Lucca and Pisa, and for the Camaldolese abbey of S. Giusto, which had been granted to Lorenzo de' Medici's son, the young Cardinal Giovanni, afterwards Pope Leo X. In 1492, he began a large picture of Christ in Glory, for a convent at Volterra, but never lived to finish it; for in the prime of life, and in the full tide of his renown, he was suddenly struck down by mortal disease, and died of the plague in January 1494. The sad event is recorded in the following entry, which may be found in the archives of the Confraternity of St. Paul:—

Ghirlandajo was not yet forty-five at the time of his death, and had been twice married. His first wife,