Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/188

174 tures by this master in the small hospital called Mona Agnesa in Siena, where he painted a historical work of which the composition displayed new qualities that were greatly admired. On one of the walls of the great hospital also, he painted the Nativity of the Virgin in fresco, with a second picture, representing her approaching the Temple with others of her age. The chapter-house of the Angustine friars, in the same city, was also enriched by Lorenzetti, who painted the Apostles on the ceiling of that edifice. Each holds a tablet, whereon that part of the Creed composed by the said Apostle is written. Beneath each figure is a small representation, which exhibits in painting the subject written on the scrolls above. Near these works, and on the principal facade, are three stories; one of them is from the life of St. Catharine the Martyr, and represents her holding a disputation with the tyrant in the Temple; another is the Crucifixion of Christ, with the Thieves on the Cross, and the Maries beneath, the latter supporting the Virgin, who has fainted,—all which display much grace and a good manner. In one of the large halls of the palace of the Signoria in Siena, Ambruogio represented the War of Asinalunga § with the various events of the peace which succeeded; in this work he introduced a map, which for those times was perfect. In the same palace, Lorenzetti executed eight historical pieces in terra verde, most exquisitely finished. He is also said to have sent a picture in distemper to Volterra, in which city it wras very highly esteemed; and at Massa,