and possessed many of Orgagna’s paintings, which he prized greatly. During his pontificate, the jubilee of one hundred years was changed to one of fifty. Also among the blessed is Messer Dino del Garbo,[1] an eminent physician of that time, attired as was then customary among physicians, and wearing a red cap lined with grey miniver; an angel holds him by the hand. There are, besides, other portraits, of which the originals are not known. Among the condemned, Orgagna has placed Guardi, serjeant of the commune of Florence, whom the devil drags along by a hook; he is distinguished by the three red lilies in his white cap, then the accustomed head-dress of sergeants, beadles, and others of that class. This Andrea did because Guardi had seized his goods for debt. The judge and notary who had acted against him on the same occasion were similarly represented by the painter among the sinners of the Inferno. Near Guardi is Cecco d’Ascoli,[2] a famous magician of that day; and a little above him, towards the centre of the painting, is a hypocritical friar, who issues from a tomb, and seeks furtively to mingle with the good, but is discovered by an angel, who drives him into the midst of the condemned.[3]
Andrea Orgagna had another brother, besides Bernardo, who was called Jacopo, and who devoted himself to sculpture, but with no great success; for this brother Andrea sometimes made designs in relief, and while thus working in clay, he conceived an inclination to do something in marble, and to ascertain if he yet remembered the principles of that art, to which he had given his attention, as we have seen, in Pisa. He now, therefore, applied himself earnestly to this study and profited so greatly, that he afterwards availed himself of these labours, very much to his credit, as shall be related in the sequel. Andrea next devoted himself, with the utmost
- ↑ For an account of this physician and medical writer, see Tiraboschi, Storia Litteraria.
- ↑ Cecco d’Ascoli, a distinguished mathematician, poet, and physician, was publicly burnt in Florence, for heresy, on the 16th September 1327. The physician Dino del Garbo is accused of having caused, or at least contributed to, this fearful catastrophe. For further details respecting these Florentines, see Villani, Storie, lib. x, cap. xxxix. See also Mazzuchelli, Scrittori Italiani, where a much more circumstantial account of this tragedy will be found.
- ↑ These pictures no longer exist.
