Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/337

1517] Louvre, and the Nativity and Circumcision in the Uffizi, were probably among the devotional pictures which he painted, according to Vasari, for private oratories and houses in these days of revived religious enthusiasm. The last-named panels were originally intended for the doors of a tabernacle containing a Virgin, by Donatello, which Filippino's patron, Piero del Pugliese, held among his choicest treasures, and are remarkable for their exquisite finish and tender devotion. The portrait of Savonarola, which Baccio, "moved by his ardent love for the Friar," painted about this time, is said to be still preserved in a private collection at Prato, and bears the inscription, Hieronymi Ferrariensis missi a Deo, prophetæ effigies, which was discovered under a coat of paint, with which the words were concealed in the days of persecution. A copy of this interesting picture, which shows the Friar's powerful head and striking features in all their rugged grandeur, may be seen in the cell formerly inhabited by Savonarola in San Marco. The young painter himself took an active part in the piagnone movement. Together with Lorenzo di Credi and many other artists, he laid his nude studies on the pyre erected on the Piazza at the Carnival of 1497, and saw the flames consume them. And he was among the gallant little band of defenders who rallied round their beloved leader on the fatal night when the furious mob stormed the convent and dragged the Frate to prison and death. The terrible events of these days, and the months of misery and despair that followed, were a crushing blow to the ardent young painter, who had looked on the Friar as the prophet sent from God to be the deliverer of