Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/464

456 The drawing of these two figures by the hand of Granacci himself is in our book, with some others also by that artist. On each side of the above-mentioned picture are figures of San Pietro, San Lorenzo, San Jacopo, and San Giovanni, wdiich are all so admirably beautiful that this is considered to be the best work ever performed by Granacci, and it is certain that this alone would suffice, even though he had never painted another, to secure him the reputation of being, as he was, a most excellent painter j In the church of San Gallo, which is outside the gate of that name, and formerly belonged to the Eremite Friars of Sant’ Agostino, there is a picture by this master, representing Our Lady with two children, San Zanobi, Bishop of Florence, and San Francesco. This work, which was in the chapel of the Girolami, to which family San Zanobi belonged, is now in the church of San Jacopo-tra-fossi at Florence.

Now Michelagnolo had a niece who was a nun in the Convent of Sant’ Apollonia at Florence, and he had, therefore, prepared the ornamental framework for the high altar of the same, with a design for the altar-piece. Granacci then painted certain stories in oil in the same place, some of the figures being large and others small; all which gave great satisfaction at the time, not to the nuns only, but to artists also. Another work of this master, executed in the same church, but somewhat lower down, was destroyed by inadvertence in the leaving of lights burning on the altar, the picture with certain tapestries of great value being one night burnt to ashes; this was a great misfortune, seeing that the work was one which had been highly commended by the artists.