Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/413

Rh brotherhood considered themselves to have been very well served by Parri, in respect of this work, they therefore caused him to paint a picture in distemper, representing Our Lady with the divine child in her arms, while certain angels hold back her mantle, beneath which are the people of Arezzo; with the martyrs San Laurentino and San Pergentino below. This picture is carried forth every year on the second day of June, and is borne in solemn procession by the brotherhood of the Misericordia, to the church dedicated to those saints; there is then placed on it a casket of silver, made by the goldsmith Forzore, the brother of Parri, and within which are the bodies of the above-named saints, Laurentino and Pergentino; it is carried forth, I say, and an altar is erected under covering of a tent, beside the cross near which the said church stands, because the church itself being small, could not contain the concourse of people which assembles for this festival. On the predella on which the aforesaid picture is placed, the martyrdom of those two saints is depicted in very minute figures, so admirably done, that, for so small a thing, it is almost miraculous. Under the balcony of a house in the Borgo-a -Piano is a tabernacle, within which is an Annunciation, in fresco, from the hand of Parri Spinelli, a work much commended. There is, moreover, a fresco of the virgin martyr St. Catherine, painted by this master for the Brotherhood of the Puraccioli, in the church of Sant’ Agostino, which is most beautiful. In the church of Muriello also he painted a Santa Maria Maddalena, three braccia high, for the Confraternity of the Clerks; and in the church of San Domenico, near that door of entrance where the bell-ropes are, Parri decorated the chapel of San Niccolo in fresco, painting therein a large crucifix, with four figures so admirably executed that they might be supposed to have been painted in our own day. Here also he represented stories from the life of San Niccolo; one pourtraying the Saint when he throws the golden balls to the virgins, and another showing the same holy man de-