Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/266

252 executed on a ground of ultramarine, but it is now nearly ruined. On the walls beneath, and on the pilasters, he then painted numerous miracles performed by the Madonna, with other pictures, which are recognized by their manner. Having completed this undertaking, Jacopo returned to Casentino, whence, after producing many works in Prato Vecchio, Poppi, and other places in that valley, he repaired to Arezzo. This city was then under its own government, with a council of sixty citizens, chosen from the most esteemed and richest, to whose care the whole administration of public affairs was committed. Here Jacopo depicted a story from the life of St. Martin, in the principal chapel of the cathedral; and in the Duomo Vecchio, which is now destroyed, he painted various pictures, among which, in the principal ehapel, was the portrait of Pope Innocent IV. In the church of St. Bartholomew, moreover, this master painted on the wall the pictures above the high altar, with the chapel of St. Mary of the Snows, a work executed for the chapter-house belonging to the canons of the deanery. For the ancient confraternity of San Giovanni di Peducci, also, Jacopo di Casentino painted numerous stories from the life of that saint, but these works have been covered with whitewash. He decorated the chapel of San Cristofano in the church of San Domenico, in like manner, taking for his subject the Beato Masuolo liberating from prison a merchant of the Fei family, by whom the chapel was erected. This Beato Masuolo, who was a prophet, had predicted many misfortunes while he was yet alive, to the people of Arezzo. In the church of St. Augustine, also, Jacopo painted stories in fresco from the life of San Lorenzo, in the chapel and at the altar of the Nardi family, a work in which he displayed an admirable method and extraordinary facility.

This master gave his attention to architecture likewise,