Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/157

Rh taught to several boys, who, having now arrived at mature age, are at this time producing most excellent works in tapestry for the Duke. An exceedingly beautiful picture of the Madonna, painted in oil, was also executed by Drancesco, and is now in the chamber of Messer Alessandro, son of Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici.

For the above-mentioned Messer Pasquino Bertini, Francesco made another picture of Our Lady on cloth with the Divine Infant, and San Giovanni, also a child; they are smiling, and amusing themselves with a parrot which they have in their hands; a very fanciful and graceful work.

For the same person he likewise made a most beautiful and graceful design of a Crucifix, about one braccio high; with a Magdalen at the feet thereof: this is in a manner so new and pleasing that it is considered quite a wonder; the design was given by Messer Salvestro Bertini to his intimate friend Girolamo Razzi, who is now Don Silvano, when two pictures were painted from it by Carlo da Loro, who subsequently executed many more from the same design. These works are now dispersed about Florence.

Now Giovanni and Piero d’Agostino Dini had caused a very rich chapel in macigno to be constructed in the Church of Santa Croce, at the right hand as 3'’OU enter the church, with a sepulchral monument for Agostino and others of their house, and gave the altar-piece for the same to Francesco: he depicted thereon Our Saviour Christ taken down from the Cross by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus; at the foot is Our Lady, who has fainted, and is surrounded by San Giovanni, the Magdalen, and the other Maries. This work was completed by Francesco with so much art and care, that not only is the nude figure of Our Lord Christ a most beautiful one, but the other figures also are so well disposed, and have a force of relief and a beauty of colouring so remarkable, that they cannot well be sufficiently extolled. It is true that the work was at first much cen-