Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/269

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The society being established in this manner, Jacopo di Casentino, with the consent of the captains and other members, prepared the altar-piece of their chapel, choosing for his subject the evangelist St. Luke, who is painting a picture of the Virgin. In the predella are the men of the society on one side, and on the other the women, all kneeling. From these beginnings, sometimes assembling together and sometimes not, the Company of painters has continued until it has arrived at its present condition, as is narrated in the new canons of the same, approved by that benignant protector of the arts of design, our most illustrious lord, Duke Cosmo. At length, laden with years, and worn with many labours, Jacopo returned to Casentino, and died at Prato Vecchio, in his eightieth year; he was buried by his kindred and friends in Sant’ Agnolo, an abbey belonging to the order of Camaldoli, and close to Prato Vecchio. His portrait, by the hand of Spinello, was in the Duomo Vecchio, in an Adoration of the Magi; and in our book will be found a specimen of his manner in drawing.

On one of the many occasions when the Ghibellines were driven out of Florence, Luca Spinelli fixed his dwelling in Arezzo, where a son was born to him, whom he called Spinello. This child was so powerfully impelled to become a