Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/155

Rh picture of the Nativity of Christ, with the shepherds and numerous angels: in this work may be remarked among many things the pains which the master has taken to imitate certain plants, and these he has copied so exactly that they seem to be not feigned but real. In the same place he painted a picture of Santa Maria Maddelena doing penance; and in another work, which is now in the palace of Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici, he represented the Virgin; this lastnamed picture being of a circular form. There is a work by Lorenzo di Credi, in the church of San Friano likewise, and in San Matteo, and the church of the Hospital of Lelmo he painted several figures, with a picture of San Michele, in the church of Santa Reparata. For the Company of the Barefooted Brethren, he painted a picture which is executed with infinite care: there are besides many pictures of the Virgin, and other works by this master, dispersed throughout Florence, in the houses of different citizens.

By these numerous labours, Lorenzo ultimately got together a sufficient sum of money, and being a man who desired quiet rather than riches, he fixed himself at Santa Maria Nuova, in Florence,where he abode, and had a commodious dwellingplace to the end of his days. Lorenzo was a devoted adherent to the sect of Fra Girolamo Savonarola; he constantly lived the life of an upright and honourable man, giving proof of courteous friendliness to all, whenever the occasion was presented to him. Finally, having arrived at the seventyeighth year of his age, he died of the debility attendant on his advanced years, in 1530, and was buried in the church of San Piero Maggiore.