Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/568

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The picture of this my Chapel is very similar in its form to that of the Bosco mentioned above, which has partly caused me now to recollect it, for this also is isolated, and has in like manner two pictures, one of which, already alluded to elsewhere, is in the front;, and the other, representing San Giorgio, is behind. On each side of them are, furthermore, figures of certain saints, and beneath are the lives of the same, depicted in small compartments: while in a rich tomb, under the altar, are their remains, with some of the principal relics belonging to the city of Arezzo. In the centre, moreover, there is a Tabernacle for the Sacrament, which is well and handsomely arranged, seeing that it corresponds with both the Altars, but is adorned wuth such stories from the Old Testament as have relation to that Mystery, and of which we have made some mention elsewhere.

Now I had forgotten to say that in the year preceding, when I had first gone to Rome to kiss the feet of the Pontiff, I had taken my way by Perugia, for the purpose of fixing in their appointed places three large pictures, which I had painted for the Black Friars of San Piero in that city, and which were then appended in their Refectory. The central picture of these three represents the Marriage of Cana in Galilee, when Christ performed the miracle of changing, water into wine: in that on the right hand is the prophet Elisha, who, throwing meal into the bitter compound which his disciples could not eat, caused every hurtful quality of that which had been spoiled by the coloquinth to disappear. The third picture exhibits San Benedetto, who, in a time of grievous famine, and when all means of nourishment for his monks had failed him, receives from a laybrother the announcement that camels loaded with corn are at the door, and who sees that the Angels of God are miraculously bringing a large quantity of flour to his relief.

For the Signora Gentilina, mother of the Signor Chiappono and of the Signor Paolo Yitelli, I painted a large picture in Florence, which I afterwards sent to her at Citta