Angelico was interred by the brethren of his order in the church of the Minerva at Rome, beside the lateral door which opens on the sacristy. On his tomb, which is of marble and of a round[1] form, is the portrait of the master taken from nature; and on the marble is engraved the epitaph, which may be read below:
Non mihi sit laudi, quod eram velut alter Apelles,
Sed quod lucra tuis omnia. Christe, daham:
Altera nam terris opera extant, altera coelo
Urbs me Joannem flos tulit Etruriae.[2]
In Santa Maria del Fiore are two very large books richly decorated with miniatures most admirably executed by the hand of Fra Giovanni Angelico; they are held in the utmost veneration, are most sumptuously adorned, and are only suffered to be seen on occasions of high solemnity.[3] At the same time with Fra Giovanni lived the renowned Florentine painter in miniature, Attavante,[4] of whom I know no other name. This master, among other works, illustrated a Silius Ttalicus with miniatures; it is now at San Giovanni e Paolo, in Venice, and I will here give certain particulars relating to this work, not only because they merit the atten-
- ↑ Bottari says, “The form of the tomb is not round but square.’’
- ↑ In relation to this epitaph, an Italian commentator has the following. When Fra Giovanni deuarted to contemplate in heaven those beloved forms which he had so divinely depicted on earth, the inscription on his tomb was dictated, as some writers affirm, by the pontiff himself (Nicholas V.); but Vasari, who has cited it, has omitted a part which was inscribed above the lines given by him: we here supply the omission: “Hic jacet Ven. Pictor, Fr. Jo. de Flor. Ord. P. mcccclv.
- ↑ The German commentators inform us that certain highly decorated choral books were transferred from Santa Maria del Fiore to the Biblioteca Laurenziana, but of those here mentioned they declare that no authentic account can be obtained. The latest Florentine writers on this subject record their failure in the same search as follows: “Among the many and admirable books now in the Duomo, it has not been given to us to behold any one from the hand of Fra Giovanni.”
- ↑ Sometimes called Vante. See Lettere Pittoriche, where there are two letters from this artist to Niccolo Gaddi. See also Gaye, Carteggio inedito, 2, 455, note.
vanni, but Della Valle, Storia del Duomo d’Orvieto, p, 123, confirms the assertion of Vasari. An important work of this master, formerly attributed to Orgagna, has been restored to its author by Gaye (vol. ii, pp. 4, 7). This is the celebrated picture of the Florentine cathedral, wherein is the full-length figure of Dante.
