Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/172

158 among these was the Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod, wherein he has given remarkable energy of expression both to the executioners and other figures; some of the mothers and nurses tearing their children from the grasp of the murderers, defend them with their hands, their nails, and their teeth, exhibiting in every movement of their bodies the rage and fury, as well as the grief, with which their hearts are filled.

This monastery is now destroyed, and the only relic of the work remaining is a coloured drawing in my book of designs, where the scene just described is depicted by the hand of Buonamico himself. While this work for the nuns of Faenza was in progress, those ladies sometimes took a peep at the painter through the screen that he had raised before his work. Now Buffalmacco was very eccentric and peculiar in his dress, as well as manner of living, and as he did not always wear the head-dress and mantle usual at the time, the nuns remarked to their intendant, that it did not please them to see him appear thus in his doublet; but the steward found means to pacify them, and they remained silent on the subject for some time. At length, however, seeing the painter always accoutred in like manner, and fancying that he must be some apprentice, who ought to be merely grinding colours, they sent a message to Buonamico from the abbess, to the effect, that they would like to see the master sometimes at the work, and not always himself. To this Buffalmacco, who was very pleasant in manner, replied, that as soon as the master came to the work, he would let them know of his arrival; but he perceived clearly how the matter stood. Thereupon, he placed two stools, one on the other, with a water-jar on the top; on the neck of the jar he set a cap, which was supported by the handle; he then arranged a long mantle carefully around the whole, and securing a pencil within the mouth on that side of the jar whence the water is poured, he departed. The nuns, returning to examine the work through the hole which they had made in the screen, saw the supposed master in full robes, when, believing him to be working with all his might, and that he would produce a very different kind of thing from any that his predecessor in the jacket could accomplish, they went away contented, and thought no more of the matter for some days. At length, they were