Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/361

Rh extraordinary constancy of soul, uttering no complaint and shedding no tear, he painted the portrait of his dead child, to the end that he might still have the power of contemplating, by means of the work of his own hands, that which nature had given him, but which an adverse fortune had taken away.

Being invited by Pope Sixtus to work in the chapel of his palace in competition with the numerous masters occupied there, Luca painted two pictures in that place accordingly, and these, even among so many, are considered the best: the first represents the Parting Bequest of Moses to the Hebrew people, after he had obtained a view of the promised land; the second exhibits the Heath of that Lawgiver.

Finally, having executed works for almost all the princes of Italy, and having become old, Luca Signorelli returned to Cortona, where, in his last years, he worked for his pleasure, rather than from any other motive, and because, having ever been accustomed to labour, he could not prevail on himself to live in idleness. In this his old age then he painted a picture for the Nuns of Santa Marghereta, in Arezzo, and one for the brotherhood of San Girolamo, the last being partly at the cost of Messer Niccolo Gamurrini, doctor of laws and auditor of the Iluota, whose portrait, taken from the life, is in the picture; he is kneeling before the Madonna, to whose protection he is recommended by San Niccolo, who is also depicted in the same painting. In the same work are figures of San Donato and San Stefano, with that of San Girolamo (St. Jerome) undraped, beneath; there is likewise a figure of David, singing to a Psaltery, with two Prophets, who are seen, by the written scrolls which they hold in their hands, to be engaged in a conference on the conception of the Virgin. This work was transported from Cortona to Arezzo by the members of that brotherhood, who bore it on