merit as a picture, and also as a memorial of the prelate by whom it was presented.[1]
Niccolo himself repaired to Arezzo with Cardinal di Monte, and remaining almost ever afterwards in that city, then made acquaintance with Domenico Pecori, who was there engaged with the picture of the Circumcision of Christ, which he painted for the Brotherhood of the Trinity; the friendship between these artists subsequently became so intimate, that Niccolo painted for Domenico in that picture a building in perspective, which exhibits a ceiling supported by columns and arches, and decorated with rosettes, according to the custom of that time; a portion of the work, which was then held to be exceedingly beautiful. For the same Domenico, Niccolo Soggi likewise painted on canvas and in oil, a picture of a circular form, which was destined to serve as a canopy, to be borne by the Brotherhood of Arezzo; the subject depicted thereon was the Madonna, with the people of the city in her protection; but the work was consumed by fire, during a festival held in the church of San Francesco, as I have related in the life of Domenico Pecori.[2]
Niccolo afterwards received the commission for painting a chapel in the above-named church of San Francesco, the second, that is to say, after entering the building, and on the right hand. There he painted the figure of Our Lady, with San Giovanni Battista, San Bernardo, Sant’ Antonio, and San Francesco, all in tempera; three Angels hovering in the air, and singing, with a figure of the Almighty Father in the Tympan which surmounts the picture, complete the work which Niccolo executed wholly in tempera, and, as it were, with the point of the pencil. The whole work may, nevertheless, be considered labour lost, since the strength of the tempera has caused it to peel away; but this Niccolo hazarded for the sake of trying new methods. Ultimately he acknowledged that the true mode of mural painting, was to work in fresco, and seizing the first opportunity that presented itself, he undertook to paint in fresco a chapel in the church of Sant’ Agostino in that city;[3] the chapel, which is beside the
