Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/318

310 having then been adopted. It is related that Francesco del Pugliese offered to give the Nuns three times as much as they had paid Pietro for that picture, and to cause another exactly like it to be executed for them by the same hand; but they would not consent, because Pietro had told them that he did not think he could equal the one they possessed. In the convent of the Frati-Gesuati, also, beyond the Pint! Gate, there were various works by this master, and, as that monastery and church are both destroyed. I will not refuse the labour of describing them, but will take this occasion, before proceeding further with the life before me, to say a few words concerning them. The architecture of the church was due to Antonio di Giorgio, of Settignano; it was forty braccia long and twenty broad. At the upper end, four steps or stairs conducted to a platform of six braccia, on which stood the high altar, magnificently decorated with ornaments of cut stone; and over this altar, also in a richly adorned frame-work, was a picture by the hand of Domenico Ghirlandajo, as we have before related. In the midst of the church was a screen, or wall of separation, in the centre of which was a door worked in open work from the middle upwards. On each side of this door stood an altar, and over each altar was a picture by the hand of Pietro Perugino, as will be related hereafter. Over the door, also, was a most beautiful Crucifix by Benedetto da Maiano, on OTie side of which was a Madonna, and on the other a figure of San Giovanni, both in relief. Before the platform of the high altar, and against the screen abovementioned, was a choir of the Doric order, admirably carved in walnut-wood, and over the principal door of the church was another choir, or gallery, supported on a strong wood-work, the under part of which as seen from below represented a canopy, overlaid with a rich decoration in beautifully arranged compartments; a balustrade was added, by way of