PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS.
from the 'Life of Alexander,' which adorn the state
bedroom in the Villa Farnesina. Of these the finest still existing are 'The Marriage of the Hero to Roxana,' and 'The Family of Darius kneeling at his feet.' The former, in spite of numerous faults, is one of the chefs-d'ceuvre of the Italian Renaissance, and is almost unrivalled. It is generally supposed that in 1517 he painted in the cloister of St. Fran- cesco, in Siena, that stupendous, but alas 1 cruelly injured 'Christ bound to the Column,' of which but a fragment remains in the Siena Picture Gallery. In the following year he executed, in rivalry with Domenico Beccafumi and Girolamo del Pacchia, three scenes from the 'Life of the Virgin' (the 'Presentation,' the 'Visitation,' and the 'Assump- tion'), and three figures of Saints ('Francis of Assisi,' 'Anthony of Padua,' and 'Louis of Toulouse ') in the Oratory of St. Bernardino in Siena; completing the series fourteen years later (1532) with the 'Coronation.' Here again, amid much careless work, there are some exquisitely beautiful heads and figures. In that same year he painted, for two brothers of the name of Arduini, the mag- nificent panel of the 'Adoration of the Magi,' now in the Piccolomini Chapel in St. Agostino, at Siena, and also a panel of the ' Roman Lucretia stabbing herself,' presented to Pope Leo X., who conferred upon the artist in reward the title of Cavalier of Christ. Between the years 1518 and 1525 he seems to have been absent from Siena, perhaps in Lombardy, to which fact certain docu- ments and pictures seem to point. In 1525 he, assisted by various pupils, adorned the now desecrated church of the Compagnia di Santa Croce. Two fragments of these works, now in the Siena Gallery, ' The Descent into Limbo ' and the 'Agony in the Garden,' are of extraordinary beauty. The figure of Eve in the former and of the sleeping Apostle in the latter being worthy of special note. In this same year also the lay com- pany of St. Sebastiano, in Camollia, commissioned him to execute that wonderful banner which now hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence : a figure of their patron saint uusurpassed, or even equalled, by any other artist On the back is a Madonna and Child in glory with saints and worshippers, inferior in merit, but full of charm. This work, we learn, was left uncompleted by Bazzi, and was finished by his rival Beccafumi. In 1526 were executed the famous frescoes from the ' Life of St. Catherine of Siena,' in the chapel in St. Domenico, where is preserved her head, one of which, her ' Fainting when receiving the Stigmata ' (Lo Svenimento), is perhaps the most celebrated and best known of the painter's works. Between the years 1529 and 1537 he painted a number of works in fresco in the Palazzo Pubblico, viz. single figures of SS. Ansano and Vittorio, and the Blessed Bernardo Tolomei, the Resurrection, and the Madonna and Child, with SS. Ansano and Galgano. In the chapel of the same place there is also a panel, painted at about the same period, representing ' The Holy Family with St Leonard,' originally executed for the altar of St. Calixtus, in the Duomo. In 1530 the Spanish residents in Siena engaged him to decorate their chapel in St. Spirito. Here are frescoes of SS Sebastian, Anthony the Abbot, and James on horseback trampling on the Turks, and panels of SS. Michael and Nicolo di Tolentino ; while in a lunette, on another panel, the Virgin, attended by various female saints, is clothing St. Ildefonso in an episcopal habit This picture is said to have been much admired by the Emperor Charles V., who, at about this date, conferred on the painter the rank of Count Palatine. During the next 3-ear he accomplished the enormous, but now almost entirely destroyed, fresco of the 'Nativity' over the Porta Pispini of the city. In 1536 he was visiting and working for, though none of his work there is now to be found, his benevolent friend and patron, James V., Prince of Piombino ; and in 1540 he was visiting also Lorenzo di Galeotto dei Medici at Volterra, where again all artistic trace of him is lost, except the figure of the Infant Christ, inserted by him into the large painting of the ' Circumcision,' by Signorelli (now in the National Gallery, London). Thence, in 1541, he went to Pisa, where he painted two pictures (the 'Sacrifice of Isaac 'and the 'Entomb- ment') for the Duomo, and a ' Madonna and Saints,' now in the Pisa Public Gallery, for St. Maria della Spina. The first of these three pictures was carried to Paris by Napoleon in 1811, and remained there three years. He then visited Lucca, and finally returned to Siena, where he died on Feb. 14, 1549 ; though probably not, as Vasari tries to make out, in poverty and distress.
Although Bazzi introduced an entirely new life into Sienese art, falling, as it was fast doing, into narrow antiquated grooves, and although his influence is very strongly marked throughout all subsequent art in that city, it would be incorrect to say that he in any sense founded a school. His actual pupils were very few — he was far too erratic to keep any for long together — though his followers and imitators were many. His chief merits are ease of drawing, a certain poetic feeling that runs through all his work, and the irresistible charm of his beautiful heads, espe- cially those of women, youths, and children. His schemes of colour are frequently very pleasing, particularly in his frescoes, which are his strongest point ; but in panels and canvases it has too often become blackened and discoloured by the action of time and weather on ill-chosen and prepared pigments. That he was very much influenced by Leonardo, and, to some extent perhaps, also by Raphael, is evident from the fact that his works — drawings especially — have been often attributed to these more celebrated masters. Vasari evidently cordially disliked him, for, though compelled in justice to praise him sometimes, he loses no oppor- tunity of raking up and inventing malicious reports about him, some of which are palpably untrue. Besides the works already mentioned, the following are worthy of note :
Siena. Picture Gallery. Holy Family with an Angel {tondo).
„ „ Four Bier heads for the Compagnia di Fonte-Giosta. „ Gallery of St. Maria sotto U Volte del Ospedale.
„ Chapel of SS. Giotanifio & Gennaro. Four Bier-heads.
„ Chapel of the Piazza. Madoana with Saints (fresco) Holy Family,
„ Casa Bambagini Galletti (outside). Pieta. ' Madonna del Corvo' (fresco).
Florence. Uffizi. Portrait of himself. „ „ Ecce Homo. „ Pitti. Portrait.
„ „ Ecce Homo.
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