Bologna, this master painted two pictures, which were very carefully executed,[1] and for the Misericordia, outside the gate of Strà Castione;[2] he also painted one, at the request of a lady of the Manzuoli family: in this he depicted Our Lady with the Child in her arms, San Giorgio, San Giovanni Batista, San Stefano, and Sant’ Agostino, with an angel beneath: the hands of the last mentioned are folded in an attitude of so much grace that he seems, indeed, to belong to Paradise.[3] For the Brotherhood of San Francesco, in the same city, Francia painted a picture,[4] as he also did one for the Brotherhood of San Girolamo. [5] This master lived in close intimacy with Messer Polo Zambeccaro, and, for the sake of that friendship, the latter requested him, as a memorial of himself, to paint a tolerably large picture representing the Birth of Christ: this work was much extolled, and is among the most celebrated of his performances,[6] for which cause Messer Polo commissioned him to paint two hgures in fresco, at his villa, and these also are exceedingly beautiful.[7]
Another admirable work in fresco was executed by Francia in the Palace of Messer Geronimo Bolognino:[8] it comprises many varied and beautiful figures, and all these things had obtained for the master so extraordinary a degree of reverence in that city that he was held to be a kind of god,[9]
- ↑ See note (§) p. 299. These pictures are those there mentioned.
- ↑ Porta Castiglione.
- ↑ After having been for some time in Milan, this picture was restored to Bologna, and is now in the Academy of the Fine Arts in that city_ Masselli.
- ↑ Representing that saint with St. Jerome, and said to be nowin the Royal Gallery of Berlin. —Ibid.
- ↑ San Girolamo di Miramonte that is; this picture, considered one of Francia's best, is now in the Gallery of Bologna.
- ↑ In the Oratory of the Company of Gesu Christo, there was a Presepio (Birth of Christ), which was afterwards given in exchange to the city of Forli. This is supposed to be the work here alluded to. In the figure of one of the shepherds is said to be the portrait of Francia. — Schorn, German edition of Vasari. —See also Calvi, Memorie di Francia, &c.
- ↑ These frescoes have perished.
- ↑ These works are also destroyed.
- ↑ Padre della Valle remarks, to the honour of the Bolognese, that en of genius have everi been protected and honoured il that city.
1840, and is now in the National Gallery, forming two pictures (Nos. 179, 180). Of the latter portion, there is a replica, according to Dr. Waagen, in the Berlin Gallery.
