Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/38

30 and in Cortona he painted a small arch over the door of the church which belongs to his order, as also the picture of the high altar.

In Orvieto, Fra Giovanni began to paint certain prophets in the Cathedral; on the ceiling of the chapel of our Lady: these were afterwards finished by Luca da Cortona. For the Brotherhood of the Temple in Florence, he painted a picture representing the Dead Christ, and in the church of the Monks of the Angeli, he executed a Paradiso and Inferno, the figures of both which are small. Fra Giovanni proved the rectitude of his judgment in this work, having made the countenances of the blessed beautiful and full of a celestial gladness; but the condemned, those destined to the pains of hell, he has depicted in various attitudes of sorrow, and bearing the impress and consciousness of their misdeeds and wretchedness on their faces: the blessed are seen to enter the gate of paradise in triumphal dance, the condemned are dragged away to eternal punishment in hell, by the hands of demons. This work is in the church abovementioned, on the right hand, as you approach the high altar, near where the priest is wont to sit while the Mass is sung. For the Nuns of St. Peter the Martyr, who now occupy the monastery of San Felice in Piazza, which formerly belonged to the Order of Camaldoli, Fra Giovanni painted a picture wherein are represented the Virgin, St. John the Baptist, St. Dominick, St. Thomas, and St. Peter the Martyr, with many small figures. In the centre aisle of Santa Maria Nuova, is also to be seen a picture by the hand of this master.

These many and various labours having rendered the name of Fra Giovanni illustrious throughout all Italy, he was invited to Borne by Pope Nicholas V., who caused him to adorn the chapel of the palace, where the pontiflT is ac-