secco.[1]) Domenico likewise painted numerous figures of Florentine Saints, in the hall wherein the wonderful clock of Lorenzo della Volpaja stands, adding many rich and beautiful embellishments.[2] This artist found so much pleasure in his labours, and was so willing to satisfy all who desired to possess his works, that he commanded his scholars to accept whatever commission was brought to the Bottega, even though it were hoops for women’s baskets, declaring that if they would not paint them he would do it himself, to the end that none might depart from his workshops dissatisfied. But when household cares were laid upon him, he complained bitterly, and committed the charge of all expenditure to his brother David, saying to him, “Leave me to work, and do thou provide, for now that I have begun to get into the spirit and comprehend the method of this art, I grudge that they do not commission me to paint the whole circuit of all the walls of Florence with stories thus proving the resolved and invincible character of his mind in whatever he undertook.
In Lucca, Domenico painted a picture of San Pietro, and San Paolo, for the church of San Martino;[3] and in the Abbey di Settimo, near Florence, he painted the principal chapel in fresco, with two pictures in tempera for the middle aisle of the church. This master, moreover, executed various works for different parts of Florence, pictures round and square, which are dispersed through the houses of the citizens, and are therefore not seen beyond them.[4] In Pisa
- ↑ The little chapel is still in existence, hut the paintings are in a deplorable condition. — Ed. Flor., 1832.
- ↑ The clock of Lorenzo Volpaja is now in the Florentine Museum of Natural History. The hall here alluded to is called the Hall of the Lilies, being decorated with those flowers in gold, on a ground of blue. The paintings still exist, but are said by the latest Florentine annotators (1850) to have been very badly treated.
- ↑ It is still preserved, and is in the sacristy of the church. The Virgin sits enthroned in the centre, with the Child standing upright on her knee. In the fore-ground, are St. Peter and St. Paul, somewhat behind whom stands the Pope St. Clement, with St. Sebastian in the habit of a warrior. In the lunette is a pietà, and on the predella are five stories. This picture was restored in 1835.
- ↑ One of these round pictures (tondi) is three braccia in diameter. Perhaps the most majestic and ijeautiful of all the paintings of that kind executed by Domenico, is now in the gallery of the Uffizj, it represents the Adoration
