executed in Santa Maria Novella, on the external wall of the chapel of San Gilio, and was much commended, among other things, for a figure of Sant’ Egidio, which was considered to be a very beautiful one.[1] He likewise painted the chapel of Santa Trinita in fresco, together with the altarpiece, which is in tempera, for Messer Gherardo and Messer Bongianni Gianfigliazzi, most honourable and very wealthy gentlemen of Florence. The subject chosen was from the Old Testament,[2] and Alesso sketched the stories in fresco, but finished them a secco, tempering his colours with the yolk of eggs mingled with a liquid varnish, prepared over the fire: by means of this vehicle he hoped to defend his work from the effects of damp, but it was so exceedingly strong, that where it has been laid on too thickly the work has in several places peeled off; and thus, when the artist thought he had discovered a valuable and remarkable secret, he found himself deceived in his expectations.
This master drew very well from nature, and in the chapel above-named, wherein is the story of the queen of Sheba proceeding to hear the wisdom of Solomon, he has depicted the magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici, father of Pope Leo X. In the same picture is Lorenzo della Volpaja, a most excellent master in the art of making watches, and a distinguished astrologer, by whom that most beautiful clock was made for Lorenzo de’ Medici, which the most illustrious Duke Cosimo now has in his palace, and whefein all the movements of the planets are perpetually shown by means of wheels, a very rare thing, and the first that was made in that manner.[3] In the picture opposite to this of the queen of Sheba, Alesso depicted Luigi Guicciardini the elder, Luca
- ↑ From a MS. Memoriale by Francesco di Giovanni Baldovinetti, a notice is cited by Manni to the effect that in this chapel Alesso had painted his own portrait dressed in a short tunic, and holding a javelin, but when the chapel was restored these pictures were destroyed.
- ↑ The paintings of this chapel also were destroyed to remodernize the choir about the year 1760, Among the many portraits introduced in them was one of Alesso himself. This Giovanni di Poggio Baldovinetti, who added marginal notes to a copy of Vasari’s Lives in 1747, declares himself to have had copied in 1730.
- ↑ It is now in the Florentine Museum of Natural History, but the Italian commentators accuse Vasari of “making a mere gratuitous assertion, when he declares it to be the first of its kind.”
