Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/254

240 reward of Berna’s conscientious labours, celebrating him with their pens who had done them honour by his pictures. , a scholar of Berna, completed the work thus left unfinished. The same artist executed certain paintings in the hospital of Siena, with others in the ancient palace of the Medici, from which he acquired some reputation. The Sienese painter, Berna, laboured about the year 1381. In addition to what I have said of him, he deserves to be lauded and held in honour by all artists, as having been the first who began to depict animals well. A specimen of his talents in this way, may be seen in a sketch filled with wild beasts from different regions, and preserved in our book. His drawings, generally, are of considerable merit. The Sienese painter, was also a disciple of Berna. This Luca painted many pictures in Siena and throughout Tuscany, more particularly the chapel of the Dragomanni family, in the church of San Domenico, in Arezzo, with its altar-piece. The chapel, which is of Gothic architecture, was indeed admirably adorned by this picture, and the frescoes which Luca the Sienese, with great judgment and ability, executed therein.