their convents any more than do the nuns and sisters of our own days. This close seclusion continued until the year 1470.
But to return to Don Lorenzo: that master taught his art to the Florentine, Francesco, who, after his death, painted the Tabernacle at the corner of Santa Maria Novella, at the upper end of the Via della Scala, going towards the hall of the pope.[1] He had, besides, another disciple, who was a Pisan, and who painted a portrait for the chapel of Rutilio di Ser Baccio Maggiolini, in the church of San Francesco, at Pisa. The subject of this work was a Virgin, with San Piero, San Giovanni Batista, San Francesco, and San Ranieri; and on the predella of the altar were three stories in small figures; it was finished in 1315,[2] and was held to possess considerable merit for a work in distemper.[3] In my book of drawings I have the Theological Virtues, done in “chiaroscuro,” by Don Lorenzo; they are well drawn, in a beautiful and graceful manner, insomuch that they are perhaps better than the drawings of any other master whatsoever belonging to those times. There was a tolerably good painter who flourished in Don Lorenzo’s day, Antonio Vite, of Pistoja, namely, who painted, among other pictures (as we have said in the life of Stamina), various stories in the palace of the Ceppo, at Prato, from the life of Francesco di Marco, founder of that pious place.[4]
- ↑ This tabernacle is still to be seen, somewhat injured, it is true, but not so much as to prevent our perceiving the force of design, delicacy of execution, and grace of colouring, exhibited by the painter.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
- ↑ This is obviously an error of the press. Vasari must have written 1415.—I.
- ↑ The church being suppressed, this work has most probably perished. —Montani.
- ↑ In the first edition of Vasari, the life of Don Lorenzo terminated
thus:—“Fra Lorenzo was sincerely mourned by the monks of his monastery, who deposited him in their usual sepulchre, etc.; nor was there
wanting one who honoured him after his death with the following
epitaph;—
“Egregie minio novit Laurentius uti
Ornavit manibus qui loca plura suis
Nunc pictura facit fama super aethera clarum,
A:tque animi eundem simplicitasque boni.”Ed. Flor. 1846-49.
