Giorgio Vasari

“ Despair is, in like manner, seen to be vanquished by Hope, and other Virtues also subjugate the Vices which are their opposite. In another compartment St. Thomas is seated in the Professor’s chair, defending the Church against a School of heretics, and beneath his feet lie conquered Sabellius, Arian, Averroes, and others; the draperies of all these figures are exceedingly graceful and appropriate. In our book of drawings we have the whole of the story above described, by Filippo himself, with several others by the same hand, all so ably executed that they could not be improved. ”

“ Filippino prepared a design accordingly in a very good manner; and, after that design, Lorenzo caused the monument to be richly and handsomely constructed, as we have already related. [20] Arrived in Rome, Filippo painted a Chapel for the above-named Cardinal Caraffa, in the church of the Minerva; he there depicted events from the Life of St. Thomas Aquinas, with certain poetical compositions, all of which were ingeniously invented by himself, to whom Nature was at ail times propitious in such matters. ”

“ Helmets, for example, banners, trophies, vases, buskins, ornaments of the Temples, head-dresses of various kinds, draperies of different sorts, mantles, armour, the toga, swords, scimitars, and other matters of similar kind, so varied and beautiful, that those who follow are under great and perpetual obligation to Filippo for the rich embellishment which he has thus added to this department of art. ”

“ In this work there are Moors and Indians, in singularly arranged dresses, and a hut or cabin, of the most fanciful character imaginable. [29] In a Loggia, at Poggio a Caiano, Filippo commenced a Sacrifice, in fresco, for Lorenzo de’ Medici, but this work remained unfinished. [30] For the nuns of San Girolamo, on the acclivity of San Giorgio, in Florence, he also commenced a picture for the high altar; this was successfully continued after his death by the Spanish painter Alonzo Berughetta, but was finished by other artists, the Spaniard having returned to his native land before its completion. ”

“ In the same story, moreover, and among the numerous figures of women, variously apparelled, is a boy, who, terrified by the attack of a little red and white spaniel, which has seized him by his tunic, turns round to the mother, and, hiding himself among the folds of her garments, seems as entirely possessed by his fear of being bitten by the dog, as the woman is with her amazement, and a sort of dread and horror, as she witnesses the resurrection of Drusiana. ”

“ For the church of the abbey of Florence, Filippo painted a very beautiful figure of San Girolamo;nota and commenced a Deposition from the Cross, for the friars of the Nunziata: of this latter work he finished the figures from the middle upward only,nota seeing that he was then attacked by a violent fever, and by that constriction of the throat commonly called quinsy, or squinancia,nota of which he died in a few days, in the forty-fifth year of his age. ”

“ In the predella is the Dead Christ, supported by an Angel with four Saints, SS. Francesco, Domenico, Agostino, and Celestino, namely. ↑ A painting by Filippino is still in the Town Hall of Prato, but the figure of San Sebastian is not one of those portrayed in it. ”

“ Opus Filippini Flor. Pict., a. s., m ccccci.— Bianconi, Guida di Bologna. ↑ Of the pictures here mentioned as painted for Tanai de’ Nerli, and Piero del Pugliese, no authcTitic account can be obtained. ”