Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/411

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Within the city of Arezzo, and in the choir used by the monks in the church of Sant’ Agostino, this master painted various figures in fresco, which are known, by the manner of the draperies, and by those lengthened, slender, and bendingfigures described above, to be by the hand of Spinelli. In the church of San Giustino, he also painted a St. Martin on horseback, cutting off a portion of his vestments to bestow it on a beggar; with two other saints. In the Episcopal church of the same city, Parri depicted an Annunciation in fresco; this is now half ruined, the wall on which it was painted having been many years exposed to injury. In the capitular church of Arezzo, moreover, this master painted a chapel, that namely which is now near to the hall of the Intendants, and this also has been almost wholly destroyed by the humidity of the place. The misfortune of this poor painter, as regards the preservation of his works, has indeed been truly great, the larger part of them having been ruined by damp, or destroyed in the demolition of the buildings which they adorned. On a round column of the last-mentioned church, Spinelli painted a figure of San Vincenzio; and in the church of San Francesco, he pourtrayed certain saints around a Madonna, in mezzo-rilievo, for the Viviani family; in the arch above this work, he painted the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit, with other saints in the ceiling, near which is a figure of Christ bearing his cross, and pouring blood from his side into a chalice. The figure of the Saviour is surrounded by angels, which are admirably done. Opposite to this picture, Spinelli painted one for the guild of the stonecutters, masons, and carpenters, in their chapel dedicated to the four Crowned Saints, and wherein he depicted Our Lady with the saints before-mentioned, who hold the instruments of the above-named trades in their hands. Beneath this and also in fresco are two stories from the lives of the same holy men, with others representing them when decapitated