executed so carefully, that it would seem to have been the work of one day, rather than of many months, as was the fact.[1] Near the above-named pontiff is the portrait of Messer Barone, taken from the life, in the dress of those times, and painted with infinite judgment and ability. Having finished this chapel, Spinello executed various frescoes in the chapel of St. James and St. John the apostles, in the church of the Carmine, where, among other subjects, he represented the wife of Zebedee and mother of James demanding of Jesus that he should cause one of her sons to sit on the right hand of the Father in the kingdom of heaven, and one on the left, while immediately beyond are Zebedee, James, and John, who abandon their nets to follow Christ, all which is depicted with admirable truth and grace. In another chapel of the same church, which is near the principal chapel, Spinello painted stories from the life of the Madonna, also in fresco. The particular subjects chosen are the miraculous appearance of the apostles before the Virgin when she is approaching her death; and the moment of her departure, when she is borne to heaven by angels. This picture is very large, and as the chapel is but ten braccia in length and five in height, it could not contain the whole story; it was necessary therefore to continue that part representing the Assumption of the Virgin on one of the sides, where Christ and the angels receive her, an arrangement which was managed by Spinello with great ability. In a chapel of Santa Trinita this artist painted an extremely beautiful Annunciation, and in the church of Sant’ Apostolo he executed a picture in distemper for the high altar, wherein he depicted the Holy Spirit descending on the apostles in tongues of fire. In Santa Lucia de’ Bardi, Spinello painted a small picture, with one of larger size, for the church of Santa Croce; this last was for the chapel of St. John the Baptist, which had been painted by Giotto.[2]
After these things, the great name which Spinello had ac-
- ↑ Certain commentators consider this an equivocal kind of praise; but the meaning of Vasari is sufficiently elucidated by his remarks on fresco painting, in the life of Antonio Viniziano. Bottari observes, that these works were destroyed in his time, with the exception of those in the choir; and these also have since been covered with whitewash, as we are informed by the latest Florentine editors.
- ↑ Of all the works here enumerated, none now remain. — Ed. Flor. 1846.
