Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/26

18 his mother had died, and in the deanery there, he painted two saints in fresco, within the central door, which are considered extremely beautiful. In a convent belonging to the monks of Sant' Agostino, this master painted the, which was a much esteemed work. He likewise painted a Virgin in fresco for a society, or, as they call themselves, a brotherhood, of the Misericordia; and in the palace of the Conservators he executed a Resurrection, which is held to be the best of his works in that city; nay, of all that he ever performed. At Santa Maria di Loretto, Piero commenced a work in company with Domenico of Venice: this was the decoration of the sacristy, but as he left it incomplete from fear of the plague, it was afterwards finished by Luca da Cartona, a disciple of Piero della Francesca, as will be related in the proper place. Departing from Loretto, and proceeding to Arezzo, Piero there painted the chapel of the Bacci family in the church of San Francesco, the chapel is that near the high altar, and the work was executed for Luigi Bacci, a citizen of Arezzo, The ceiling of the chapel had already been commenced by Lorenzo di Bicci: the subject represented is the, from the moment when, at the burial of Adam by his sons, the seed of the tree from which the wood of the cross was afterwards taken, was placed beneath the tongue of the patriarch by their forethought, to the time when the exaltation of the cross itself was solemnized by the Emperor Heraclius, who, supporting it on his shoulders and walking