At the same time Rosso, who was a very obliging and friendly person, made numerous designs for pictures and buildings both in the city of Arezzo and its neighbourhood; among others, one for the Rectors of the Fraternita, and which consisted of a chapel[1] constructed at the lower end of the Piazza, and in which is now the Yolto Santo. He had also prepared a design of a picture, which he was to execute for that chapel and for the same persons; the subject chosen being Our Lady, under whose mantle a people is depicted as taking shelter. This design, which was not executed, is now in our book, with many other very beautiful drawings by the hand of this master.
But to return to the work which was to have been performed by Rosso in the Madonna delle Lagrime. His most faithful and affectionate friend, the Aretine Giovanni Antonio Lappoli, who had laboured to do him service in all ways and by every means in his power, had offered himself as his security for the due completion of this contract. But in the year 1530, when the city of Florence was closely besieged, the people of Arezzo, being freed from all restraint, in consequence of the want of prudence betrayed by Papo Altoviti, invested the citadel, and razed it to the ground. Our artist, therefore, knowing that the people of Arezzo were by no means friendly to the Florentines, would not confide his safety to the former, and departed to Borgo-a -San Sepolcro, leaving his cartoons and designs for the works above-named stowed away in the citadel.
Now the people of Gastello, from whom Rosso had received the commission for a picture, as we have said before, were anxious that he should finish his work, but, remembering the sickness he had endured there, the master would not return to Castello; he completed their picture at Borgo therefore, nor would he ever permit them to enjoy the pleasure of seeing it while in course of execution. The subject represented was a vast crowd of men with Our Saviour Ghrist in the air receiving the adoration of four figures[2] in this
- ↑ The chapel, the model, and the cartoons are alike destroyed.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ A Transfiguration of Christ, that is to say. The picture is still in the Cathedral of Citta di Castello, where it occupies a place in the Chapel of the Sacrament, but is not in a good light. Lanzi reprehends, and with
