these heads from fancy, but in some he placed the portraits of certain among the older monks then in the monastery, bringing down the series until he came to the above-named Era Domenico da Leccio, who was then General, as we have said, and from whom he had received his commission for the work. But some of these heads, having subsequently had their eyes put out, while others had been also injured in various parts, the Bolognese Fra Antonio Bentivogli caused them all, and for very good reasons, to be taken away.
While Giovan-Antonio was occupied with these paintings, a Milanese gentleman had gone to take the habit of a monk in that monastery; he was at the time wearing a yellow cloak, bordered and trimmed with black cords, as was the fashion of the period; and when the gentleman had taken the habit, this cloak was given by the General to Mattaceio, when the latter, putting it on his back, drew his own portrait, thus clothed, with the aid of a mirror, in the picture wherein San Benedetto, when little more than a child, miraculously mends and makes whole the pail or tub of his nurse, which she had broken. At the feet of his own portrait B Mattaceio painted those of his raven, with a baboon, and some other of his animals.[1]
This work being finished, Giovan-Antonio painted a picture, the subject of which was the Miracle of the five loaves and two fishes, in the Refectory of Sant’ Anna, a house belonging to the same Order, and at the distance of about five miles from Monte Oliveto, with other figures in other parts of the monastery.[2] When this work was finished, Bazzi returned to Siena, where he decorated in fresco the façade of the house of the Sienese Messer Agostino de’ Bardi, which is situate at the Pustierla: in this painting were many things worthy of praise, but much of it has been destroyed by time and the action of the air.
In the meantime Agostino Chigi, a very rich and most
- ↑ In this picture the artist placed the portraits of his wife and daughter as well as his own.—German Translation of Vasari.
- ↑ The large picture in the Refectory of Sant’ Anna is also in tolerably fair preservation, but the smaller paintings executed over the seats of the Monks have been scratched by piles of wood which have been reared against them, this Refectory having become the magazine or store-room of a wood-seller. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
