le to confirm Vasari's judgment,
for the tints have faded, in some parts leaving the undercolouring
exposed, in others it is corroded even down to the white of the
plaster ground work.

The Virgin is enthroned, holding on her lap the child, whose right
hand is uplifted to bless, while the left holds a globe. Beside the
throne are groups of angels, in front on the right St. Dominic, St.
Francis and St. Peter Martyr; on the left St. Laurence, St. Paul and
St. Mark; above them kneel Sts. Cosmo and Damian, protectors of the
Medici family, placed here in homage to the liberality of the Medici
towards the Order.

[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ANGELS AND SAINTS.
(Ancient and Modern Gallery, Florence.)]

In the predella, now divided, were represented various stories
relative to the lives of Sts. Cosmo and Damian, which may be
recognised in two little pictures (Nos. 257-258, Catalogue of 1893) at
the Belle Arti, and in those now at the Gallery at Munich (Nos. 989,
990, 991).

In the first of the two at Florence, the saints have cut off the leg
of a sick man, and placed that of a negro in its stead. In the second
is represented their burial together with the brethren. In those at
Munich the scenes are:--the saints constrained by the judge Lisia to
sacrifice to idols; the saints thrown into the sea and saved by
angels, while the judge is liberated from two demons by their prayers;
and lastly their crucifixion, while stones and arrows are aimed
against them, but rebound on the executioners.[43]

Other similar subjects are represented in six "stories" divided into
two panels (No. 234, Catalogue of 1893) in the Belle Arti. In the
first the saints are seen exercising the healing art without receiving
payment; they cure Palladia, who in her gratitude prays St. Damian in
the name of God to accept a gift, her brother being wrathful not
knowing the cause. In the second the judge Lisia obliges the saints
and their three brethren to sacrifice to idols; in the third the
angels save them from drowning; in the fourth they are condemned to be
burnt alive, and sing psalms in the midst of the flames; in the fifth
is the stoning; and lastly the decapitation.

These works, however, do not always show equal execution, therefore we
might judge that the artist sometimes availed himself of the hand of
an assistant.

From the records remaining to us, it does not appear that Fra Giovanni
worked at any other pictures for his church, so i