Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/299

Rh Ara Coeli, he painted the chapel of San Bernardino, and’ in Santa Maria del Popolo, where, as we have already said, he painted two chapels ; he likewise executed figures of the four Doctors of the Church, on the ceiling of the principal chapel.

When Pinturicchio had attained the age of fifty-nine, he received a commission to paint a picture of the Birth of the Virgin for San Francesco, in Siena, and having commenced the work, a room was appropriated to his use by the monks, which was given up to him, as he desired it should be, entirely empty and denuded of every thing, a massive old chest alone excepted; this they left in its place, finding it too heavy for removal. But Pinturicchio, like a strange self-willed man as he was, made so much clamour, and repeated his outcries so often, that the monks set themselves at last, in very des¬ peration, to carry the chest away. Now in dragging it forth, such was their good fortune, that one of the sides was broken, when a sum of 500 ducats in gold was brought to light : this discovery caused Pinturicchio so much vexation, and he took the good fortune of those poor friars so much to heart, that he could think of nothing else, and so grievously did this oppress him, that not being able to get it out of his thoughts, he finally died of vexation. His paintings were executed about the year 1513.