Over a door of the cemetery of Santa Maria Nuova, Domenico painted a San Michele armed, in fresco; this is a very beautiful picture, and exhibits the reflection of light from the armour in a manner rarely seen before his time.[1] For the abbey of Passignano, which belongs to the monks of Vallombrosa, Domenico executed certain works[2] in company with his brother David and Bastiano of Gemignano. The two latter, finding themselves ill-treated and poorly fed by the monks before the arrival of Domenico, had recourse to the abbot, requesting him to give orders that they should have better food, since it was not decent that they should be treated like bricklayers’ hod-men. This the abbot promised them to do, and excused himself by saying, that what they complained of had happened more from the ignorance of the monk who had the charge of strangers, than from evil intention. But when Domenico arrived, the same mismanagement still continued; whereupon David, seeking the abbot once more, apologized for pressing him, with the assurance that he did it not on his own account but for his brother’s sake, whose merits and abilities deserved consideration. The abbot, however, like an ignorant man as he was, made no other reply. In the evening, therefore, when they sat down to supper, the monk entrusted with the care of strangers, came as usual with a board, whereon were porringers in the usual fashion, and coarse meats fit only for common labourers. Whereupon David rose in a rage, threw the soup over the friar, and seizing the great loaf[3] from the board, he fell upon him therewith, and belaboured him in such a fashion that he was carried to his cell more dead than alive. The abbot, who had already gone to bed, arose on hearing the clamour, believing the monastery to be falling down, and finding the monk in a bad condition, began to reproach David. But the latter replied in a fury, bidding him begone from his sight, and declaring the talents of Domenico to be worth more than all the hogs of abbots of his sort that had ever inhabited the monastery. The
