Giorgio Vasari

“ LORENZO DI BICCI, PAINTER, OF FLORENCE.
[born 1350—died 1427.]
When men who distinguish themselves in any honourable vocation, join excellence of character and the grace of pleasing manners to their abilities for action ”

“ Being afterwards appointed by the Martini family to paint a chapel in the church of San Marco in Florence, Lorenzo depicted various stories from the life of the Madonna, on the walls, with a figure of our Lady, surrounded by different saints, on the altar-piece. In the same church, and above the chapel of San Giovanni Evangelista, which belongs to the Landi family, he painted a fresco of the angel Raphael with Tobit. ”

“ This picture, which was the largest that had then been executed, was completed in all its parts with so much accuracy of design and facility of treatment, according to the degree of knowledge possessed by those times, that I do not wonder at the many distinguished artists who have found means to profit by the study of certain qualities to be seen in this work, many parts of it exhibiting, with much truth, all the various emotions awakened by nature in those who are made to suffer a violent death. ”