Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/341

Rh it chanced that the monks were obliged to make alterations in that part of the church, but they removed the head of this Madonna with great care, and placed it in one of the chapels of the transept, that of Sant’ Ursula namely, which belongs to the family de’ Recuperati, and where there are some paintings in fresco by the same master. In the church of San Francesco, likewise, on the right hand of him who enters by the principal door, there is a range of chapels, built in former times by the noble family Della Ramma, in one of which this master has depicted seated figures of the four Evangelists on the ceiling; behind them, in the manner of a background, are espaliers of roses, with a wicker-work of oval form, above which are sev(U'al trees and shrubs of different kinds;' among these are seen birds, but more especially peacocks; there are, besides, some very beautiful angels in this work. In the same church Stefano painted a figure of Santa Maria Maddalena, of the natural size, on a column to the right of the entrance, and in the street called Rompilanza, in the same city, he painted a Madonna, with a Child in her arms, over the door of a palace; this is a fresco: there are angels kneeling before the Virgin, and in the background are trees covered with fruit.

These, then, are the works that I find to have been executed by Stefano, although, as he lived to a tolerably advanced age, it may well be supposed that he produced many others; but I have not been able to discover any of them, nor can I ascertain his family name, nor the baptismal name of his father; neither have I obtained liis portrait, or any further particulars. Some affirm that, before he came to Florence,'he was the disciple of the Veronese ])ainter, Maestro Liberale, but this is of little consequence; it is sufficient to observe, that he learnt all we find good in him in Florence from Agnolo Gaddi.

Of the same city of Verona was Aldigieri da Zevio, who