sake of Fra Bartolommeo, but also from the love which he had ever borne to the art, and to those who are distinguished in it, whom he constantly favours, as he does all men of genius.
In the house formerly belonging to Pier Pugliese, now that of Matteo Botti, a Florentine citizen and merchant. Fra Bartolommeo painted a figure of St. George, in a recess on the summit of a staircase;[1] the Saint is on horseback, armed and engaged in conflict with the dragon. The picture, which is a highly animated work, is a chiaro-scuro in oil: it was a frequent custom with this master to treat his paintings in that manner, or to sketch them in the manner of a cartoon, shading them with ink or asphalte before he coloured them, as may still be seen by many things which he left unfinished at his death. There are also numerous drawings in chiaro-scuro by Fra Bartolommeo still remaining, the greater part of which are now in the monastery of Santa Caterina of Siena, which is situate on the Piazza of vSan Marco; they are in the possession of a nun,[2] who occupies herself with painting, and of whom mention will be made in due course. Many of the same kind, and also by his hand, enrich our book of designs, and others are in the possession of the eminent physician, Messer Francesco del Garbo.
Fra Bartolommeo always considered it advisable to have the living object before him when he worked; and the better
- ↑ The house of the Pugliese family was in the Via Chiara, hut the St. George has been whitewashed; at what time this happened cannot now be ascertained. — Bottari.
- ↑ The convent of St. Catherine was suppressed in 1812, when the building was added to that of the Academy of the Fine Arts. The Nun here alluded to is the paintress, Sister Plautilla Nelli; the drawings formerly in her possession, as well as those belonging to Francesco del Garbo, and to A^asari himself, are now dispersed. Some very precious remains of these collections are, however, in the Florentine Gallery; others, said to be a portion of those belonging to the Nun Plautilla, were in the collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence; these treasures are said to have been rescued from the ignorant Sisterhood of St. Catherine, after the death of Plautilla, but not until the Nuns had consumed many of them for the kindling of their kitchen fires! They were then sold to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, from whose library they were tranferred to England and fell into the hands of Sir Benjamin West. On his death they were purchased by Sir Thomas Lawrence, and were afterwards in the possession of the King of Holland. For good copies of many of these works see Mety, Imitations of Drawings; see also Mr. Young Ottley’s Italian Schools of Design.
