the Chapel of S. Girolamo in the Vittoria, a church and convent of
certain Eremite Friars, he executed at the commission of the
Scaltritegli family an altar-piece of S. Jerome in the habit of a
Cardinal, with a S. Francis and a S. Paul, all much extolled. And in the
tramezzo[5] of the Church of S. Giovanni in Monte he painted the
Circumcision of Christ and other works, which were destroyed not long
since, because it was considered that the tramezzo impaired the beauty
of the church.
Being then summoned to Siena by the General of the Monks of Monte
Oliveto, Liberale illuminated many books for that Order; and in these he
succeeded so well, that he was commissioned in consequence to illuminate
some that had been left unfinished--that is to say, only written--in
the library of the Piccolomini. He also illuminated some books of
plain-song for the Duomo of that city, where he would have remained
longer, executing many works that he had in hand; but, being driven away
by envy and persecution, he set off to return to Verona, with eight
hundred crowns that he had earned, which he lent afterwards to the Monks
of Monte Oliveto at S. Maria in Organo, from whom he drew interest to
support him from day to day.
Having thus returned to Verona, he gave his attention for the rest of
his life more to illumination than to any other kind of work. At
Bardolino, a place on the Lake of Garda, he painted a panel-picture
which is now in the Pieve; and another for the Church of S. Tommaso
Apostolo. For the Chapel of S. Bernardo, likewise, in the Church of S.
Fermo, a convent of Friars of S. Francis, he painted a panel-picture of
the first-named Saint, with some scenes from his life in the predella.
In the same place, also, and in others, he executed many nuptial
pictures, one of which, containing the Madonna with the Child in her
arms marrying S. Catharine, is in the house of Messer Vincenzio de'
Medici at Verona.
On the corner of the house of the Cartai, on the way from the Ponte
Nuovo to S. Maria in Organo, in Verona, he painted a Madonna and S.
Joseph in fresco, a work which was much extolled. Liberale would have
liked to paint the Chapel of the Riva family, which had been built in
order to honour the memory of Giovanni Riva, a captain of men-at-arms at
the battle of the Taro, in the Church of S. Eufemia; but he did not
receive the commission, which was given to some strangers, and he was
told that he was too old and that his sight was f
|