Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/163

Rh the Signora Duchess Leonora, were in Arezzo, GiovanAntonio, preparing all the scenery anew, was compelled to have it again recited before their Excellencies, the stage being erected on the Piazza of the Episcopate. Nor did those who recited give less satisfaction to the Signor Duke than they had done on the occasion of the previous performance, nay, rather they pleased him so greatly that they were invited to Florence during the following Carnival, to the end that they might once again perform their comedy in that city.

In the preparation of these scenic decorations, I say then that Lappoli acquitted himself exceedingly well, receiving high commendations for the same. His next undertaking was a decoration in the form of a Triumphal Arch adorned with historical representations, the colour of bronze, which was erected at the altar of the Madonna delle Chiavi. GiovanAntonio had now settled himself in Arezzo, and having a wife and children, he determined to roam no more, but living on his revenues and on the proceeds of such offices as in that city are conferred on the citizens thereof, he thus continued without working to any great extent. It is true that about this time he did make an attempt to obtain the commission for two pictures which were to be painted in Arezzo, one for the church and brotherhood of San Rocco, the other for the High Altar of San Domenico, but he did not succeed, seeing that the commissions for both were adjudged to Giorgio Vasari, his design having given more satisfaction than any one of all the many others that were made for those works.

For the brotherhood of the Ascension in Arezzo, GiovanAntonio painted a Gonfalon, or banner, to be borne in procession; the subject of the one side is the Resurrection of Our Lord, around whose sepulchre are seen many soldiers; and on the other side is the Ascension of the Saviour into Heaven, with the Madonna in the midst of the twelve apostles, a very good and carefully executed work. In the Castello della Pieve also, Giovan-Antonio Lappoli painted the Visitation of Our Lady with numerous saints around her, in a picture in oil; and in a picture for the deanery of San Stefano he painted another figure of the Virgin with other