Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/467

Rh sake of Fra Bartolommeo, but also from the love which he had ever borne to the art, and to those who are distinguished in it, whom he constantly favours, as he does all men of genius.

In the house formerly belonging to Pier Pugliese, now that of Matteo Botti, a Florentine citizen and merchant. Fra Bartolommeo painted a figure of St. George, in a recess on the summit of a staircase; the Saint is on horseback, armed and engaged in conflict with the dragon. The picture, which is a highly animated work, is a chiaro-scuro in oil: it was a frequent custom with this master to treat his paintings in that manner, or to sketch them in the manner of a cartoon, shading them with ink or asphalte before he coloured them, as may still be seen by many things which he left unfinished at his death. There are also numerous drawings in chiaro-scuro by Fra Bartolommeo still remaining, the greater part of which are now in the monastery of Santa Caterina of Siena, which is situate on the Piazza of vSan Marco; they are in the possession of a nun, who occupies herself with painting, and of whom mention will be made in due course. Many of the same kind, and also by his hand, enrich our book of designs, and others are in the possession of the eminent physician, Messer Francesco del Garbo.

Fra Bartolommeo always considered it advisable to have the living object before him when he worked; and the better