destroyed, together with many other buildings and a strong fortress called San Chimenti, by Duke Cosmo de’ Medici, who demolished not only those edifices, but many others[1] situated around the whole circuit of the city ; for the duke determined to replace the old walls, restored by Guido Pietramalesco, formerly bishop and lord of Arezzo, by others much stronger, and furnished with bastions and curtains, stronger and less extended than the others, to the end that they might not require so large a force to maintain them. In these frescoes of Margaritone, in San Clemente, were numerous figures, both small and great, and though in the Greek manner, they were admitted to evince much judgment, as well as love of art, as may be inferred from such works of this master as still remain in Arezzo, more particularly from a picture now in San Francesco, with a modern frame. It is in the chapel of the Conception, and one part of it is a Madonna, held in high veneration by the brotherhood. In the same church, and also in the Greek manner, Margaritone executed a large crucifix, now placed in that chapel, in which is the superintendents’ room ; he made besides many more of these crucifixes for that city.[2] For the nuns of Santa Margarita this artist executed a work now in the transept of their church ; this is on panel covered with canvas, it represents passages from the life of the Virgin, and that of St. John the Baptist, and comprises many small figures, of better manner than those of larger size, designed with more grace and finished with greater delicacy ; and this work deserves consideration, not only because the little figures are so carefully done that they look like miniatures, but also for the extraordinary fact, that a picture on canvas should have continued in such good preservation during 300 years.[3] Margaritone executed an endless number of pictures
- ↑ Among them the Duomo Vecchio, mentioned in the life of Arnolfo, with the churches of Santa Giustina and San Matteo, referred to in the life of Giovanni da Ponte.
- ↑ The Madonna and crucifix here described are still in existence.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
- ↑ This work, which all the commentators declare to be lost, we believe ourselves to have recognized among the pictures collected in Florence by the Signors Francesco Lombardi and Ugo Baldi ; it is one of the most characteristic and important of the pictures of Margaritone still remaining.—Ed. Flor. 1846.
