Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/305

Rh the Virgin, on the wall, beneath a portico, with numerous saints, all very creditably done. Being afterwards appointed by the Martini family to paint a chapel in the church of San Marco in Florence, Lorenzo depicted various stories from the life of the Madonna, on the walls, with a figure of our Lady, surrounded by different saints, on the altar-piece. In the same church, and above the chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista, which belongs to the Landi family, he painted a fresco of the angel Raphael with Tobit. The succeeding year, 1418, he executed a very large work in fresco for Ricciardo di Messer Nicolo Spinelli, on that façade of the convent of Santa Croce, which is turned towards the piazza. This represents St. Thomas seeking the wound in the side of Christ, with all the other apostles around, and who, reverently kneeling, are attentively regarding the occurrence. Near to this story, and also in fresco, is a figure of St. Christopher, twelve braccia and a half high, which is a rare thing, for with the exception of the St. Christopher of Buffalmacco, no larger picture had ever then been seen; nor, being so large, had there ever been one more truly proportioned in all its parts, or of better execution, although the manner is certainly not good. Both these works were moreover painted with so much care and ability, that although they have been for many years exposed to the air, and swept by the rains and storms — the aspect being north—they have lost nothing of the freshness of their colouring, nor have they suffered injury in any part. The same master also painted a Crucifixion, with several figures, within the door, which stands between the above-mentioned works, and which is called the Porta del Martello; thishe did at the request of that Ricciardo before mentioned and of the intendant of the convent: on the walls around he further depicted the Confirmation of the