Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/111

Rh amusements as usual, under the pretext that he had to prepare certain drawings of importance. Domenico, having thus gone forth alone to his recreations, Andrea, disguising his person, set himself to wait for his companion’s return at the corner of a street; and when Domenico, on his way home, arrived at the place, he fell upon him with a certain leaden weight, and therewith crushed the lute and chest of his victim with repeated blows. But even this did not appear to him sufficient for his purpose, and with the same weapon he struck his victim heavily on the head; then, leaving him lying on the ground, he returned to his room in Santa Maria Nuova, where, having locked the door, he sat down to his drawing as he had been left by Domenico.

Meanwhile the noise had been heard, and the servants hastening out, and, finding what had happened, went first to call Andrea, and to relate the bad news to the traitor and murderer himself; who, running to where the others all stood around Domenico, was not to be consoled, nor did he cease from crying, “Alas my brother! alas my brother!” Finally, the murdered man expired in his arms, and in spite of all the efforts made to discover who had committed that homicide, it was never known, nor would the truth ever have been made manifest, if Andrea himself, finding his death approaching, had not divulged it in confession. In San Miniato-fra-le-Torri, in Florence, Andrea dal Castagno painted a picture, the subject of which is an Assumption of the Virgin, with two figures; and in a tabernacle at Lanchetta, beyond the gate of the Croce, he painted another, also representing Our Lady. The same