stairs, of very difficult execution. These, whether painted or erected, were so excellent in design, displayed so much invention, and were so commodious, that they served as the model to the magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici the elder, when he constructed the external staircase of the palace of Poggio a Cajano, now the principal villa of the most illustrious our lord the duke.[1] In the third arch, is the story of Christ saving St. Peter from shipwreck, so perfectly done, that the spectator fancies he hears the voice of Peter crying, “Domine salva nos, perimus.” This painting is considered much superior to the others; for, besides the graceful flow of the draperies, there is great sweetness in the air of the heads, with manifest terror of the sea: the attitudes of the apostles also, agitated by various emotions and by the marine ohenomerfa around them, are entirely appropriate and extremely fine. The work is partly destroyed by time, yet we clearly perceive the energy with which the apostles are defending themselves from the fury of the winds and waves. The painting has been greatly commended by the moderns, and at the time when it was completed, must certainly have seemed something wonderful to all Tuscany.[2] At a later period, Stefano painted a St. Thomas Aquinas in the first cloister of Santa Maria Novella, and near one of the doors; where he also executed a Crucifixion, which has been greatly injured by other painters, who have attempted to restore it.[3].
- ↑ Vasari should rather have said by Giuliano da San Gallo, who was the arehitect of the staircase at Poggio Cajano; but the counsels of Lorenzo may have determined this choice of a model. Antonio da San Gallo availed himself of the same in Orvieto.—Masselli.
- ↑ These paintings have now entirely perished.—Ibid.
- ↑ Still existing, but in much worse condition than when seen by Vasari; it is placed over the door which leads from the “Green Cloister” to the “ Great Cloister”, and has the figure of St. Domenico on one side, with that of St. Thomas on the other. Some compensation for the injury suffered by this painting, and for the loss of the others, may perhaps be considered to have been obtained by the discovery, which we have ourselves made, of a picture by this rare master, and one which remained unknown even to Vasari, although mentioned by Ghiberti. It will be found immediately on passing within the door which leads from the crypt to the most ancient cloister of the convent, and is in the lunette over a door, now walled up in the suppressed chapel of St. Thomas. It represents this saint—a half-length—with the pen in his right-hand, and an open book in his left, wherein are written the following words:—“ Verbum caro panem veri verbo carnem efficit.’'
