Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/480

468 into the Chapter House. That on the outside has a Pietà, with two Angels in fresco; that within is a nude figure of San Lorenzo extended on the gridiron: the last is painted in oil on the wall. These paintings gave the first proofs of that excellence which was seen in the works of Bronzino, when arrived at mature age. Por the chapel of Ludovico Capponi, in the Church of Santa Felicita, at Florence, this artist painted two Evangelists within two circular compartments, as we have said before; and in the Ceiling of that chapel he also painted certain figures. In the Abbey of Florence, which belongs to the Black Friars, Bronzino painted a fresco in the upper Cloister; this represents St. Benedict cast naked among thorns, and is an admirable work. In the garden of the Nuns, called the I^overine^ he painted a beautiful Tabernacle in fresco, depicting therein Our Saviour Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen in the form of the Gardener; and in the Church of the Trinità, which is also at Florence, there is a picture in oil by the same hand, on the first pilaster to the right, representing the Dead Christ, Our Lady, San Giovanni, and Santa Maria Maddalena, all figures which are executed in an admirable manner and with great care. He painted numerous portraits and other pictures at the same time, from which he obtained a very great reputation.

The siege of Florence being at an end, and the agreement having been made, as we have related, Bronzino repaired to Pesaro, where, in addition to the beautiful Case of the Harpsichord before alluded to, as executed for the Duke Guidobaldo, of Urbino, he painted the portrait of that sovereign; and took, besides, the likeness of a Daughter of Matteo SolFeroni, which last was a truly exquisite and deservedly extolled painting. Bronzino also worked at the Imperiale, a villa of the above-named Duke, where he painted certain figures in oil on the corbels of a Ceiling, and would have done more had he not been recalled to Florence by his master Pontormo, for the purpose of assisting the latter in completing the Hall of Poggio-a -Cajano.

Arrived in Florence our artist painted, as it were for pastime, and in his leisure hours, a small picture of our Lady; this work, which he did for Messer Giovanni de Statis, Auditor of the Duke Alessandro, was very highly commended. Shortly