Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/397

Rh There is, besides, a large escutcheon of the Arms of Pope Clement VII. in macigno stone, also by his hand, at one corner of the Palace of the Priors.

A chapel of the Corinthian Order was likewise built in macigno stone under the direction and partly from the designs of Simone, who executed a portion of the fabric himself; it was erected in the Abbey of Santa Fiore, a tolerably handsome monastery in Arezzo, which belongs to the Black Friars, and was constructed at the expense of Bernardino di Cristofano da Ginovi. Now in this chapel the master of the same would fain have had an Altar-piece which he intended to have painted, first by Andrea del Sarto and next by Rosso, but he could not bring the matter to bear, for these masters, being first prevented by one thing and then by another, could never do him that service.

Bernardino finally turned himself to Giorgio Vasari, but had considerable difficulty with him also; and there was no little trouble in finding a method by which the affair could be arranged; for this chapel was dedicated to the two saints Jacopo and Cristofano, and Bernardino desired to have depicted there, not only Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, but also the Giant St. Christopher, with another and very small figure of our Saviour Christ on his shoulder. But this idea seemed altogether absurd, besides that a giant of six braccia high could scarcely find room in a picture of which the total height was but four braccia. Yet since Giorgio was very much disposed to serve Bernardino, he prepared for him a design after the following manner:—

Enthroned amidst the clouds is Our Lady, with a Sun behind her, and on the earth beneath is San Cristofano, kneeling at one side of the picture, with one of his legs in the water, and the other in the act of moving, he being about to raise himself up, while the Virgin has placed the Infant Christ upon his shoulder, the Saviour holding the globe of the world in his hands: San Jacopo was also to be brought into the remaining space of the picture, with other Saints,