tioned ornaments, I also painted, by commission from the excellent Maestro Andrea Pasquali, physician to the Signor Duke, a Resurrection of our Lord Christ, which I have brought to completion in such sort as it has pleased God to inspire me with the ability to effect, for the satisfaction of the same Maestro Andrea, who is my very good friend.
The same great Duke has commanded that similar changes shall be made in the vast Church of Santa Croce, in Florence; that the screen shall be removed namely; the Choir placed behind the High Altar, bringing the latter somewhat forward, and placing upon it a rich Tabernacle for the holy Sacrament, to be newly constructed in carved stone-work, richly adorned with gilding, stories, and figures.[1] There are, furthermore, to be fourteen Chapels made beside the walls, as in Santa Maria Novella, but at greater cost and with richer ornaments than those, because Santa Croce is much larger than Santa Maria Novella. In the pictures which are to be in these Chapels, and which are to correspond with the two by Salviati and Bronzino,[2]all the principal events in the Passion of Our Lord are to be depicted, down to the moment when he sends his Holy Spirit on the Apostles. With this last named picture, the Descent of the Holy Spirit namely, I am even now employed, painting it for Messer Agnolo Biffoli, Treasurer-general of the Princes, and my singular good friend;[3] the design for the Chapels, and the ornaments in stone, I have already made. No long time since I finished two large pictures which are in those buildings, beside San Pietro Scheraggio, that belonging to the Court of Conservators; in one of these is the Head of Christ, and in the other a Madonna.
But since it would take me too far were I to describe minutely the many other Pictures, or to enumerate the
- ↑ Moisè, in his Illustrazione Storico-artistica di Santa Croce, has published a letter, wherein Vasari describes to Duke Cosinio with his own hand the mode in which he proceeded with this work. The Altar and Tabernacle are in wood, and were carved by Dionisio Nigetti.
- ↑ The picture of Bronzino is in the Uffizj; that of Salviati retains its place in the church.
- ↑ The pictures painted by Vasari for Santa Croce were three; they all remain in the church, and represent Christ bearing his Cross, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and St. Thomas touching the wounded side of Our Lord. There is besides a fourth, the Last Supper namely, as mentioned in a previous note.
