cility in his
works and gave longer life to pictures in fresco, seeing that, having
laid the colours in their places, he would blend them together with a
rather thick and soft brush, and would execute his works with so high a
finish that nothing better can be desired; and his colouring has no
equal.

Parri, then, having been absent many years from his country, was
recalled by his relatives, after the death of his father, to Arezzo,
where, besides many works which it would take too long to recount, he
made some which do not in any way deserve to be passed over in silence.
In the Duomo Vecchio he made in fresco three different figures of Our
Lady; and within the principal door of that church, on the left hand as
one enters, he painted in fresco a story of the Blessed Tommasuolo, a
sack-cloth hermit and a holy man of that time. And since this man was
wont to carry in his hand a mirror wherein he saw, so he declared, the
Passion of Christ, Parri portrayed him in that story kneeling, with that
mirror in his right hand, which he was holding uplifted towards Heaven.
And painting Jesus Christ above on a throne of clouds, and round him all
the Mysteries of the Passion, with most beautiful art he made them all
reflected in that mirror, in such wise that not only the Blessed
Tommasuolo but all who beheld that picture could see them, which
invention was truly fanciful and difficult, and so beautiful that it
taught those who came after him to counterfeit many things by means of
mirrors. Nor will I forbear to tell, now that I am dealing with this
subject, what this holy man did once in Arezzo; and it is this.
Labouring continually, without ever ceasing, to induce the Aretines to
live at peace with one another, now preaching, and now foretelling many
misadventures, he recognized finally that he was wasting his time.
Whereupon, entering one day into the Palace where the Sixty were wont to
assemble, the said Blessed Tommasuolo--who saw them every day
deliberating, and never coming to any resolution save such as injured
the city--when he saw that the Hall was full, placed a quantity of
burning coals into a great fold in his robe, and, advancing with these
towards the Sixty and all the other magistrates of the city, he threw
them boldly at their feet, saying: "My lords, the fire is among you;
take heed lest ruin come upon you;" and this said, he went his way. Such
was the effect of the simplicity, and, as it pleased God, of the good
coun