Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/214

206 now beside the door -wliich leads into the choir, having been removed, together with that of Botticelli, by the monks, who desired to make alterations in the choir; and being secured by means of iron bars, &c., they were both transported without injury into the centre of the church; this was done at the moment when these Lives were in course of being printed for the second time.

The lunette over the door of Santa Maria Ughi was painted by Domenico Ghirlandajo, who likewise executed a small Tabernacle for the guild of the Joiners, and in the above-mentioned church of Ognissanti, he painted a figure of St. George killing the Dragon, which is very finely done. And of a truth this master was exceedingly well versed in the execution of mural paintings, which he treated with extraordinary facility; he was nevertheless remarkably careful in the composition of his works.

Ghirlandajo was invited to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV., to take part with other masters in the painting of his chapel, and he there depicted Christ calling Peter and Andrew from their nets, as also the Resurrection of the Saviour, which is now almost entirely ruined; for being over a door, the architecture of which it has been found necessary to restore, the painting has suffered much damage. Francesco Tornabuoni, a rich and eminent merchant, who was a friend to Domenico, was at that time in Rome, and his wife, having died in childbirth, as has been related, in the life of Andrea Verrocchio, he, desiring to do her all the honour befitting their station, caused a tomb to be constructed in the church of the Minerva, and commissioned Domenico Gliirlandajo to paint the whole face of the wall around it. He likewise caused a small picture to be executed by that master for the same place. The mural paintings consisted of four stories, two from the life of John the Baptist, and