Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/197

Rh riveted to the cross; he is striking his breast, and the force of the passions, still raging in that excessively attenuated form, is rendered clearly manifest. An immense crag is represented in this work with other rocks; among the clefts of which certain stories, from the life of the saint, are depicted in small figures of extraordinary grace. In the church of Sant’ Agostino, this master painted a Coronation of Our Lady in fresco, in a chapel belonging to the Nuns of the Third Order, as they were called; a work which was much commended, and was indeed very well done. Beneath this work, in another chapel, is a very large picture of the Assumption, by this master, with numerous angels, singularly well dressed in textures of extreme tenuity. This work has been highly extolled, for a picture executed in tempera, and certainly does exhibit very good design, and is finished with great care. In the lunette over the door of the church of San Donato, in the fortress of Arezzo, Don Bartolommeo painted the Virgin with the Child in her arms: she is accompanied by San Donato, and San Giovanni Gualberto; all these figures are exceedingly beautiful. In the abbey of Santa Flora, in the same city, there is a chapel painted by our artist; near the principal door of the church; in this is a figure of San Benedetto, and other saints, all executed with much grace, facility, and softness. For Gentile of Drbino, bishop of Arezzo, who was his most trusted friend, and with whom he lived in close intimacy, Don Bartolommeo painted a Dead Christ in one of the chapels of the episcopal palace, and in a Loggia, he executed the portrait of the bishop, with that of his vicar, and of the notary Ser Matteo Francini, who is reading a bull to him. He painted his own portrait there in like manner, with those of certain canons of that city. For the same bishop this master designed a Loggia which joins the palace to the episcopal church, and is level with the floor