church behind the monastery of the Servites in Florence, where he painted a fresco representing the Visitation of the Madonna, in a tabernacle which is placed in an angle of that church: in this figure of the Virgin, the benignity of Our Lady is rendered clearly apparent, and in that of the older woman there is the manifestation of the utmost reverence. In the picture of San G-iobbe (St. Job) the saint is depicted in his condition of poverty and leprosy as well as in his state of riches and health, and the performance thereof presented so clear a proof of the painter’s ability that it secured him great credit and reputation.[1] The men who were then chief and rulers of that church and brotherhood, therefore commissioned him to paint the picture of the High Altar, in which Francia acquitted himself still better; the countenance of San Giovanni Battista in this work is the portrait of Francia himself, the picture also represents Our Lady and San Giobbe in his state of poverty.[2]
The chapel of San Niccolo, in the church of the Santo Spirito in Florence, was at that time in course of construction, and herein had been placed the statue of the above-named saint, carved in wood after the model of JacojDO Sansovino, when Francia painted angels in two pictures in oil, which were placed one on each side of the statue and were much commended;[3] in two medallions also he painted a story of the Annunciation, adorning the predella with delineations from the life of St. Niccolo; the figures of very small size, but the work executed with so much care that it well merits the highest praise.[4] In San Pietro Maggiore, near the door and at the right hand on entering the church, is an Annunciation by this master, wherein the angel is seen hovering in the air, while the Madonna receives his salutation kneeling in a most graceful attitude: the building likewise, which he has here represented in perspective, has been greatly extolled as being very ingeniously made out.[5] And of a truth, al-
- ↑ This work is no longer in existence.—Masselli.
- ↑ Now in the Florentine Gallery of the Uffizj, in the larger Hall of the Tuscan School.
- ↑ Still in the place here indicated.
- ↑ These works had disappeared fifty years before the time of Bottari.
- ↑ The fate of this painting cannot now be ascertained with any certainty; it disappeared on the demolition of the church, which has been destroyed. —Ed. Flor. 1832-8.
