risty of that monastery,
besides the panel in distemper for the altar, many scenes in fresco of
the life of S. Benedict, with great mastery and with much vivacity of
colouring, learnt by him by means of long practice and of labouring
continually with zeal and diligence, even as in truth all must do who
wish to acquire any art perfectly.

[Footnote 2: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]

After these works, the said Abbot departed from Florence, having been
made Governor of the Monastery of S. Bernardo, of the same Order, in his
own country, precisely when the building was almost wholly finished on
the site conceded by the Aretines to those monks, just where there was
the Colosseum; and he caused Spinello to paint in fresco two chapels
that are beside the principal chapel, and two others that are one on
either side of the door that leads into the choir, in the tramezzo[3] of
the church. In one of these, which is beside the principal chapel, is an
Annunciation in fresco, made with very great diligence, and on a wall
beside it is the Madonna ascending the steps of the Temple, accompanied
by Joachim and Anna. In the other chapel is a Christ Crucified, with the
Madonna and S. John, who are bewailing Him, and a S. Bernard kneeling,
who is adoring Him. He made, also, on that inner wall of the church
where there is the altar of Our Lady, the Virgin herself with her Son in
her arms, which was held a very beautiful figure; together with many
others that he made for that church, over the choir of which he painted
Our Lady, S. Mary Magdalene, and S. Bernard, very vividly. In the Pieve
of Arezzo, likewise, in the Chapel of S. Bartolommeo, he made many
scenes of the life of that Saint; and opposite to it, in the other
aisle, in the Chapel of S. Matteo (which is below the organ, and was
painted by Jacopo di Casentino, his master), he made in certain
medallions on the vaulting--besides many stories of that Saint, which
are passing good--the four Evangelists in a bizarre manner, seeing that,
making the busts and members human, he gave to S. John the head of an
eagle, to Mark the head of a lion, to Luke that of an ox, and to Matthew
alone the face of a man, or rather, of an angel.

[Footnote 3: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]

Without Arezzo, also, in the Church of S. Stefano, erected by the
Aretines on many columns of granite and of marble in order to honour
and to preserve the memory of many martyrs who were put to death by
Julian the Apostate