Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/213

Rh her. This picture, than which nothing better could be executed in tempera, was at that time in the church belonging to the above-named friars, without the gate which opens on the road to Pinti; but that building having been afterwards destroyed, as will be related elsewhere, it is now in the church of San Giovannino, within the gate of San Pietro Gattolini, where the convent of the Ingesuati is situated. In the church of the Cestello, Domenico commenced a picture which was completed by his brothers David and Benedetto; the subject of this work is the Visitation of Our Lady, and in it there are certain female heads which are most graceful and beautiful. For the church of the Innocenti, Domenico painted a picture of the Magi, in tempera, which has been highly extolled; here, too, are many very beautiful heads, both old and young, the attitude and expression finely varied. In the countenance of Our Lady, more particularly, there is the manifestation of all the modesty, grace and beauty that can be imparted to the Mother qf the Son of God by the painter’s art. There is likewise a work by this master in the church of San Marco, in the middle aisle, with a Last Supper in the strangers’ refectory of the cloister, both executed with much care. In the palace of Giovanni Tornabuoni, Domenico painted the Adoration of the Magi, also very carefully executed. And in the smaller Hospital he painted the Story of Vulcan for Lorenzo de’ Medici; in this work there are many figures undraped and wielding heavy hammers, as they labour in the fabrication of thunder-bolts for Jupiter. In the church of Ognissanti, in Florence, Domenico painted, in competition with Sandro Botticelli, a St. Jerome, surrounded by various instruments and books, such as are used by the learned: this fresco is