Urban V,[1] taken from the life, with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul; and it was from this portrait of pope Urban that Fra Giovanni di Fiesole took that which he has placed in a picture of his own in the church of San Domenico, at Fiesole—a very fortunate circumstance, since the portrait of Urban, in St. Mark, was afterwards covered with whitewash; as were many other pictures, in different parts of that church, when the convent was taken from the monks,[2] who originally possessed it, and given to the Preaching Friars, by whom the whole were whitewashed over, with little feeling or consideration.
On his return to Rome, Cavallini visited Assisi, not only to see the buildings erected, and other notable works performed there by his master and some of his co-disciples, but also that he might leave something by his own hand in that city. He, therefore, painted a fresco in the lower church of San Francesco, in the transept, near the sacristy; the subject being the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ,[3] with men on horseback, armed in different fashions, and clothed in a great variety of extraordinary vestments, after the manner of divers foreign nations. In the air are many angels, who, resting on their wings, in various attitudes, are weeping bitterly; some strike their breasts, others wring their hands, while some fold them, as in prayer, but all display excessive grief for the death of the Son of God. The figures of these angels, from the middle downwards, melt away into the air. The colouring of this work, which is still fresh and life-like,[4] is admirable, and the junctions of the plaster are so well managed, that the whole might be supposed to have been completed in one day. I have discovered the arms of Gualtieri, duke of Athens, on this picture; but as there is neither date, nor any other writing, I cannot affirm them to have been placed there by Cavallini; yet the manner is so exactly that of Pietro, that it could not well be more so; and
- ↑ Della Valle is of opinion that this should be Urban IV.
- ↑ The Silvestrine monks.—Bottari.
- ↑ His most extraordinary work. See the hundred and twenty-fifth plate of D’Agincourt.
- ↑ More particularly the azure, concerning which Lanzi, speaking of this picture, which is still well preserved, has the following words: “It presents, to use the language of our poets, a heaven of oriental sapphire.” —History of Painting, vol. i, p. 332.
