This being finished I painted a picture, eight braccia high, for the High Altar of the Church; the subject, Our Ladypresenting the Infant Christ to Simeon in the temple;[1] a work of which the invention and arrangement were new. And here it may be allowable to remark the somewhat extraordinary fact, that there had been no masters since Giotto, who in that great and noble city had accomplished works in painting of any importance; although it is also true that productions from the hand of Perugino and Paffaello da Urbino had been transported thither. Wherefore I now laboured to the very utmost of my power, in the hope of producing something that might arouse the genius of men in that country, and incite them to attempt works of high and honourable character. Subsequently then, whether from this cause or from others, from that time to this there have been many beautiful productions completed in those lands, whether in stucco-work or painting.
In addition to the pictures above-mentioned, I painted frescoes on the ceiling of the Strangers’ Lodgings in the same Monastery; Christ bearing his Cross namely, with numerous Saints, who, in imitation of their Lord, are also bearing their crosses on their shoulders; the figures are of the size of life: and in this work I desired to intimate that he who would truly follow Christ must learn to bear the adversities of the world, and that with enduring patience. For the General of the Order I painted a large picture of Christ walking on the waves and extending his hand to Peter, who, having gone to meet him, is in fear of drowning; and in another picture, painted for the Abbot Capeccio, I delineated the Resurrection.
These works completed, the Signor Don Pietro di Toledo, Yiceroy of Naples, commissioned me to paint in fresco a Chapel, which he had in his Garden at Pozzuolo, adding other ornaments in very delicate stucco-work. Directions had been given by the same noble for the construction of two great Loggie, but that design did not take effect for the following cause: between the Viceroy and the Monks there had arisen a dispute, and the civil magistrate, with his followers, had come to the Monastery to apprehend the Abbot and some of his Monks, who had quarrelled for precedence with the Black Friars, when the two bodies had met in a
- ↑ The Presentation is also in the Borbonico.
