from small commencements gradually proceeded to copy the works of the best masters, and ultimately attained the power of producing such performances, that she has awakened astonishment even in artists themselves. There are two pictures by her hand in the church of the above-named convent of Santa Caterina, one of which, that namely wherein are represented the Magi in adoration of Christ, is more particularly extolled.[1]
In the convent of Santa Lucia at Pistoja, there is a large picture by Sister Plautilla in the choir, it represents the Madonna holding the divine Child in her arms, with San Tommaso, Sant’ Agostino, Santa Maria Maddalena. Santa Caterina of Siena, Sant’ Agnese, Santa Caterina the Martyr, and Santa Lucia. Another large picture by the same hand was sent abroad by the director of the Hospital of Lelmo. In the refectory of the above-named convent of Santa Caterina in Florence, there is a large picture of the Last Supper by Sister Plautilla;[2] and in the hall wherein the nuns are wont to assemble for their various labours, there is also a painting by the same artist, with so many pictures dispersed about among the houses of the Florentine gentry, that it would take me too long if I were to enumerate them all.
The wife of the Signore Mondragone, a Spaniard by birth, has in her possession an Annunciation by the Sister Plautilla, and Madonna Marietta de Fedini has one of a similar kind. There is a small picture by this paintress in the church of Santa Maria del Fiore; with the predella of an altar, likewise by her hand: on the latter are depicted events from the life of San Zanobi, which are extremely beautiful delineations. But this venerable and well-endowed Sister, before she had begun to execute works of importance, had occupied herself with minature painting; in this department of art therefore many very beautiful little pictures by her hand may still be seen in the possession of different persons, but of these it is
- ↑ Of the two pictures here mentioned, the one, a Deposition from the Cross, is in the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts; the other, that representing the Adoration of the Magi namely, has disappeared, but there is a somewhat inferior copy of it in the corridor by which the Pitti Palace is connected with the Uffizj.
- ↑ The Convent of Santa Caterina now' belongs to the Academy of Fine Arts, and the refectory, in which was the Last Supper of the Sister Plautilla, is now the Library of the Academy
