Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/239

Rh had chosen, Sandro so closely followed the directions and imitated the manner of his master, that Fra Filippo conceived a great love for him, and instructed him so effectually, that Sandro rapidly attained to such a degree in art as none would have predicted for him. While still a youth he painted the figure of Fortitude, among those pictures of the Virtues which Antonio and Pietro Pollaiuolo were executing in the Mercatanzia, or Tribunal of Commerce in Florence. In Santo Spirito, a church of the same city, he painted a picture for the chapel of the Bardi family: this work he executed with great diligence, and finished it very successfully, depicting certain olive and palm-trees therein with extraordinary care. Sandro also painted a picture in the Convent of the Convertites, with another for the Nuns of San Barnaba. In the Church of Ognissanti he painted a Sant’ Agostino, in fresco, for the Vespucci: this is in the middle aisle, near the door which leads into the choir; and here Sandro did his utmost to surpass all the masters who were painting at the time, but more particularly Domenico del Ghirlandajo, who had painted a figure of St. Jerome on the opposite side. Sparing no pains, he thus produced a work of extraordinary merit. In the countenance of the Saint he has clearly manifested that power of thought and acuteness of perception which is, for the most part, perceptible in those reflective and studious men who are constantly occupied with the investigation of exalted subjects and the pursuit of abstruse inquiries. This picture, as we have said in the life of Domenico Ghirlandajo, has this year (1561) been removed entire and without injury from the place where it was executed.