which can be
desired in this world. This was the case with Lorenzo di Bicci,
painter of Florence, born in Florence in the year 1400, at the very
moment when Italy was beginning to be disturbed by the wars which
ended so badly for her, was in very good credit from his earliest
years; for under his father's discipline he learned good manners, and
from Spinello's instruction he acquired the art of painting, so that
he had a reputation not only of being an excellent painter, but of
being a most courteous and able man. While he was still a youth,
Lorenzo did some works in fresco at Florence and outside to gain
facility, and Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, having remarked the
excellence of his style, employed him to paint in the hall of the old
house of the Medici, which afterwards was left to Lorenzo, natural
brother of Cosmo the Ancient, after the great palace was built, all
those famous men who may still be seen in a fairly good state of
preservation. This work being completed, Lorenzo di Bicci was
anxious, like the doctors who experiment in their art on the skins of
poor rustics, to have practice in the art of painting in a place
where things are not so closely criticised, and for some time he
accepted everything which presented itself; hence, outside the gate
of S. Friano at the ponte a Scandicci, he painted a tabernacle, as it
may now be seen, and at Cerbaia under a portico he painted very
agreeably a Madonna and many saints on a wall. Afterwards a chapel in
S. Marco at Florence was allotted to him by the family of the
Martini, and on the walls he painted in fresco a number of scenes
from the life of Our Lady, and on the altar picture the Virgin
herself in the midst of many saints. In the same church over the
chapel of St John the Evangelist, of the family of the Landi, he
painted in fresco the angel Raphael and Tobias. In the year 1418 for
Ricciardo di M. Niccolo Spinello, on the piazza front of the convent
of S. Croce he painted a large scene in fresco of St Thomas examining
the wounds of Jesus Christ in the presence of all the other apostles
who are kneeling reverently at the sight. Next to this scene and also
in fresco he did a St Christopher, twelve and a half braccia high,
which is a rare thing, because with the exception of the St
Christopher of Buffalmacco, a larger figure had never been seen, and
although the style is not good it is the most meritorious and best
proportioned representation of the saint. Besides