Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/306

298 success in fresco. Now at that time Messer Giovanni Bentivoglio had caused his palace to be decorated with paintings by different masters from Ferrara, Bologna, and Modena; but having seen the attempts of Francia in fresco, he resolved that the latter should paint the walls of an apartment which was one of those used by himself. Here the master represented the Camp of Holofernes, with numerous Sentinels on foot and on horseback, who are watching the tents. While the attention of these guards is given to other parts, a woman, clothed in the garb of a widow, is seen to approach the sleeping Holofernes; she has seized his hair, heavy with the damps of sleep and the heat of wine, in her left hand, and Avith the right she is striking the blow that is to destroy her enemy; close beside her there stands an old wrinkled handmaid, in Avhose face there is, of a truth, the expression of most faithful servitude; she fixes her eyes intently on those of her mistress, Avhom she seeks to encourage, and she bends herself down as she holds a basket, in which to receive the head of the sleeping lover. This Avas considered one of the best and most finely executed pictures ever painted by Francia, but was destroyed when the palace was demolished, on the departure of the Bentivogli, together with one in the apartment aboA^e. The subject of the last-mentioned work, Avhich Avas coloured to resemble bronze, was a disputation of philosophers; it Avas admirably executed, and expressed the thought of the master Avith great effect. All these works caused Francia to be held in the highest esteem and admiration by Messer Giovanni and every one of his house, nay, not only by them, but by all the citizens of Bologna.

In the chapel of Santa Cecilia, which is attached to the church of San Jacopo, Francesco painted two historical pictures in fresco; in one of these he represented Our Lady, espoused by Joseph; and in the other the death of Santa Cecilia, a work held in very great estimation by the people