Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/402

388 intention and earnest study which will be perceived and acknowledged in the little that he may have completed. Masolino da Panicale of Valdelsa, was a disciple of Lorenzo di Bartoluccio Ghiberti, and in his early years was a very good worker in gold: among all those who assisted Lorenzo in the labour of the doors of San Giovanni, Masolino was the most efficient as respected the draperies of the figures, in the finishing of which he displayed great ability and an excellent manner: in the use of the chisel also his intelligence and judgment was evinced in the softness and perfection of roundness which he imparted to the human form, as well as to the vestments. At the age of nineteen Masolino attached himself to painting, and to this art his life was ever afterwards devoted: he acquired the principles of colouring under Gherardo della Starnina, and having repaired to Rome for the purpose of studying there, he painted the hall of the ancient palace of the Orsini family in Monte Giordano, while dwelling in that city. But his health being injured by the air of Rome, which painfully affected his head, he returned to Florence, where, in the church of the Carmine, he painted the figure of San Piero beside the chapel of the Crucifixion, a work which is still to be seen in that place. This San Piero was greatly commended by contemporary artists, and caused Masolino to receive a commission for painting the chapel of the Brancacci family, in the same church. Here he depicted stories from the life of St. Peter, and part of these he completed with equal zeal and success: the four Evangelists on the ceiling, namely, the story of Christ calling Andrew and Peter from their nets, that which depicts the repentance of the latter for the sin he had committed in denying his master, and the preaching of the same apostle for the conversion of the Gentiles. By Masolino is likewise the