the same over land and sea, nntil it is brought to Lucca. In this picture are many portraits, more particularly that of Paolo Guinigi, which Cosimo took from one executed in terra by Jacopo della Fonte, when he constructed the tomb of Paolo’s wife.[1] There is also a painting by this master in the chapel of the silk-weavers, in the church of San Marco at Florence; in the centre is the Holy Cross, and on either side are San Marco, San Giovanni Evangelista, Sant’ Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, and other figures.[2]
Being afterwards invited, with other masters, by Pope Sixtus lY., to take part in the works which that pontiff caused to be executed in the chapel of his palace,[3] Cosimo Rosselli repaired to Rome, where he laboured in company with Sandro Botticello, Domenico Ghirlandajo, the Abate di San Clemente, Luca da Cortona, and Piero Perugino. The pictures painted by Cosimo were three; one representing the Submersion of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the second, Christ Preaching to the People on the shores of Lake Tiberias,[4] and the third, the Last Supper of the Saviour with his Apostles. In the last of these pictures he drew an octangular table in perspective, the ceiling above it having also eight compartments, and in the angles of this he gave proof that he possessed as much knowledge of perspective as any of the other masters[5] It is said that Pope Sixtus had
- ↑ See the life of Jacopo, vol. i.
- ↑ The fate of this picture is not known, but Bottari declares it to have been white-washed over when the church was restored, from which it would seem to have been a fresco.
- ↑ The Sistine Chapel.
- ↑ The landscape in this picture was painted by Pier di Cosimo, disciple of Rosselli, as is related hereafter.
- ↑ These stories are still well preserved in the Capella Sistina. See Platt--
the Volto Santo, which, according to the tradition, was carved in wood, by Nicodemus, the disciple of Christ, who was assisted in his work by angels, and was thereby enabled to produce an exact likeness. When discovered in the Holy Land, it was consigned to a bark, and set afloat without a pilot or steersman, in the port of Joppa, whence it was borne by the winds and waves, without human assistance, to the haven of Luni; there it was laid on a car, to which two young oxen, never before yoked, were attached, and by these animals, left to themselves, and without any driver, it was drawn to the city of Lucca. The Florentines quarrel with Vasari for what they call “his incorrect syntax” in the description of this picture, and refer their readers to Ridolfl, for a more exact description of the whole work. — See Scritti varj di Belle Arti, Lucca, 1844, pp. 148—154.
