There is a painting, moreover, by the hand of Spinello, on
one of the walls of the hospital of the Spirito Santo; it
represents the Holy Ghost descending on the apostles, and is
a very fine work; the same may be said of the two paintings
beneath this descent of the Holy Spirit, where SS. Cosimo
and Damiano are represented cutting off the sound leg of a
dead Moor, to apply it to the body of a patient from whom
they have just taken an injured limb. The NoU me tangere
also, which is between these two paintings, merits equally to
be praised, and is exceedingly beautiful.[1] Spinello likewise
painted an admirable Annunciation for the Brotherhood of
the Puracciuoli,[2] on the piazza of Sant Agostino; it will be
found in one of the chapels: the colouring of this work is
beautiful, and in the cloister of the same convent Spinello
executed a Virgin in fresco, with St. James, and St. Anthony. On his knees before these figures is a soldier armed,
with these words
“Hoc opus fecit fieri Clemens Pucci di Monte Catino, cujus corpus jacet
hic, etc. Anno Domini 1367, die 13 mensis Maii.”[3]
The picture, in the same church, representing St. Anthony
with other saints, is also perceived, by the manner, to be from
the hand of Spinello, who shortly afterwards painted, at the
hospital of San Marco (which building has now been given
to the nuns of Santa Croce, their convent, which was outside
of the city, having been demolished), an entire portico, with
many figures, among whom he has placed the portrait of
Pope Gregory IX, taken from nature, and representing the
Pontiff St. Gregory standing beside a Misericordia.[4]
The chapel of SS. Jacopo and Filippo, in the church of San Domenico, in the same city (Arezzo), the first chapel, that
- ↑ These paintings of the hospital are now almost entirely obliterated. Ed. Flor. 1832.
- ↑ This Brotherhood is that which takes charge of foundlings, and infants otherwise friendless. The Annunciation is still preserved. — Rom. Ed. and that of 1846.
- ↑ The figure of the soldier still remains. Of the inscription, a more accurate copy has been furnished to us by the courtesy of the sculptor, Signor Ranieri Bartolini:—“Hoc opus fecit fieri Clemens Pucci di Monte Catino, cujus corpus jacit hic tumulatum, SS. Jesu Christi anni Domini mccclxxvii, die xv mensis Martii.” Vasari is therefore in error, both as regards the year and month.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
- ↑ These paintings have perished. — Masselli.
