and supporting her; thej are accompanied by the saints, Cosimo and Damiano.[1] It is said that in the figure of San Cosimo, Fra Giovanni depicted his friend Nanni d’Antonio di Banco, the sculptor, from the life. Beneath this work, in a frieze over the back of the seats, the master executed a figure of San Domenico standing at the foot of a tree, on the branches of which are medallions, wherein are all the popes, cardinals, bishops, saints, and masters in theology who had belonged to Fra Giovanni’s order of the Preaching Friars, down to his own day. In this work the brethren of his order assisted him by procuring portraits of these various personages from different places, by which means he was enabled to execute many likenesses from nature. These are, San Domenico in the centre, who is grasping the branches of the tree; Pope Innocent V.; a Frenchman; the Beato Ugone, first cardinal of that order; the Beato Paolo the patriarch, a Florentine; Sant’ Antonino,[2] a Florentine; Bishop Giordano, a German, and the second general of the order; the Beato Niccolo; the Beato Remigio, a Florentine; and the martyr Boninsegno, a Florentine; all these are on the right hand. On the left are Benedict XL,[3] of Treviso; Giandominico, a Florentine cardinal; Pietro da Palude, patriarch of Jerusalem; the German Alberto Magno; the Beato Raimondo, of Catalonia, third general of the order; the Beato Chiaro, a Florentine, and Provincial of Rome; SanVincenzio di Valenza; and the Beato Bernardo, a Florentine; all these heads are truly graceful and very beautiful. In the first cloister. Fra Giovanni then painted many admirable figures in fresco over certain lunettes, with a crucifix, at the foot of which stands San Domenico, which is greatly esteemed;[4]
- ↑ This picture is still in good preservation, but the vestments of the Virgin have unhappily suffered from the restorers.—German Edition of Vasari, vol. ii. p. 315.
- ↑ “It is certain that Fra Giovanni did not paint Sant’ Antonino, who was then living, the name of the Archbishop was substituted at a later period for that of the personage whom Fra Giovanni had represented;” so far Baldinucci. This appears to have been done in the case of other personages here depicted; indeed, the whole of the inscriptions, according to the German commentators, are of a date later than that of the painting. The latter has suffered to some extent from having been retouched.
- ↑ In the Giunti and succeeding editions, this is Benedict II.
- ↑ The Crucifix is still in good preservation, as are also the paintings in the cells.
