with a fiery gesture, and below him are many
Turks, dead and wounded. Below all this, on the sides of the altar,
are painted in fresco S. Anthony the Abbot and a nude S. Sebastian at
the Column, which are held to be passing good works.

[Illustration: S. FRANCIS

(_After the fresco by =Giovanni Antonio Bazzi [Il Sodoma]=. Siena: S.
Bernardino, Oratory_)

_Alinari_]

In the Duomo of the same city, on the right hand as one enters the
church, there is upon an altar a picture in oils by his hand, in which
there are Our Lady with the Child on her knee, S. Joseph on one side,
and S. Calixtus on the other; which work is likewise held to be very
beautiful, because it is evident that in colouring it Sodoma showed
much more diligence than he used to devote to his works. He also
painted for the Company of the Trinity a bier for carrying the dead to
burial, which was very beautiful; and he executed another for the
Company of Death, which is held to be the most beautiful in Siena; and
I believe that the latter is the finest that there is to be seen, for,
besides that it is indeed much to be extolled, it is very seldom that
such works are executed at much cost or with much diligence. In the
Church of S. Domenico, in the Chapel of S. Caterina da Siena, where
there is in a tabernacle the head of that Saint, enclosed in one of
silver, Giovanni Antonio painted two scenes, which are one on either
side of that tabernacle. In one, on the right hand, is that Saint
when, having received the Stigmata from Jesus Christ, who is in the
air, she lies half-dead in the arms of two of her sisters, who are
supporting her; of which work Baldassarre Peruzzi, the painter of
Siena, after considering it, said that he had never seen anyone
represent better the expression of persons fainting and half-dead, or
with more similitude to the reality, than Giovanni Antonio had
contrived to do. And in truth it is so, as may be seen, apart from the
work itself, from the design by Sodoma's own hand which I have in my
book of drawings. On the left hand, in the other picture, is the scene
when the Angel of God carries to the same Saint the Host of the most
Holy Communion, and she, raising her head to Heaven, sees Jesus
Christ and Mary the Virgin, while two of her sisters, her companions,
stand behind her. In another scene, which is on the wall on the right
hand, is painted the story of a criminal, who, going to be beheaded,
would not be converted or commend himsel