painted a picture for Jacopo Chedini, in the church of San Gicvanni-in-Monte; the subject of this work was Our Lady, accompanied by San Giovanni Evangelista, Sant’Agostino, and other saints;[1] it was placed in a chapel within which Chedini proposed to be interred after his death. In the church of San Francesco he painted a picture of the Nativity, with St. James and St. Anthony of Padua;[2] and, in the church of St. Piero he commenced the decoration of a most beautiful chapel for Domenico Garganelli, a noble and citizen of Bologna; but, whatever may have been the cause, he had but executed some few of the figures on the ceiling, when he left the work unfinished, or rather scarcely begun.[3]
In Mantua, besides the works executed for the Marquis, as mentioned above, Lorenzo Costa painted a picture of Our Lady in the church of St. Silvester; on one side of the Virgin is St. Silvester, who recommends the people of that city to her care; on the other are St. Sebastian, St. Paul, St. Elizabeth, and St. Jerome. From what I am told, it should appear that this picture was placed in the church of St. Silvester after the death of Costa, who, having finished his days in Mantua, where his descendants have remained ever since, desired to have a burial-place in that church for himself, and those who should follow after him.[4] This
- ↑ This picture is still in the church of San Giovanni—in Monte, in the seventh chapel namely, that formerly in the possession of the Chedini family, afterwards in that of the Ercolani and Segni. Another painting by Lorenzo Costa, said to have been designed by Francia, is on the high altar of the same church.
- ↑ The church of San Francesco, turned into the Dogana (custom-house) at the commencement of the present century, has of late years been restored to its original use, but the work of Costa is lost. The lunette, which stood above it, has, however,been preserved. The painting is by the same master, and represents the Dead Christ between two angels. It is now in the Pinacoteca of the Academy of Bologna.—Ed. Flor., 1849.
- ↑ Of this chapel Vasari makes further mention in the Life of Ercole Ferrarese.
- ↑ This picture was given to the church by Lorenzo, as appears from the inscription beneath it. Costa fecit et donavit, mdxxv. When the church of St. Silvester was destroyed in 1788, the picture was placed in that of Sant’ Andrea.
The latter engraved by Count Pompeo Litta, in this Famigli celebri Italiani. The triumphs mentioned by Vasari are two, that of Life, whose car is drawn by elephants; and that of Death, represented in a chariot drawn by buffaloes.
