Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/20

8 is to say, with the Church of the Hermitage of Camaldoli in his hand. No long time aft.er having completed the above, Hidolfo furthermore executed a very fine picture of the Last Supper for the same monks; this work, which is a fresco, is at the upper end of their Refectory: for that painting our artist received his commission from the Abbot Don Andrea Dossi, who had formerly been a monk in the monastery, and who caused his own portrait to be painted in one of the lowermost corners of the picture.

In the little Church of the Misericordia, on the Piazza of San Giovanrri, Ridolfo painted three most beautiful Stories, from the Life of Our Lady, on a gradino or predella, and these are so delicately executed that they appear to be miniatures. For Matteo Cini the same artist painted a Tabernacle at the corner of his house which is near the Piazza of Santa Maria Novella; the subject of the work is Our Lady with St, Matthew the Apostle and San Domenico; two little sons of Matteo Cini, portraits from the life, are represented as kneeling before the Virgin; this picture although but a small one, is exceedingly pleasing and graceful.

For the Nuns of San Girolamo, of the Order of San Francesco de’ Zoccoli, who have their Convent on the height of San Giorgio, this.artist depicted two Stories, the one representing San Girolamo in the act of doing penance, while the Nativity of Our Saviour Christ is set forth in the lunette above; and the other, which is opposite to the first, being an Annunciation; in the lunette above the same is Santa Maria Maddalena receiving the sacrament. In the palace, which is now the property of the Duke, Ghirlandajo painted the Chapel, wherein the Signori hear mass, depicting the Most Holy Trinity in the centre of the vaulted ceiling, with figures of Angels in the form of children, and bearing the mysteries of the Passion, in some of the divisions thereof. There are besides the heads of the twelve Apostles, and in the four angles are the whole-length figures of the Four Evangelists; while on the principal wall of the Chapel is the Angel