ld the
capital, and with the other they seek to place the column, which stands
at the foot on the base, below the capital to support it; which work is
done with extraordinary care. In the arch above the altar-piece he
painted two Sibyls in fresco, which are the best figures in the whole
work; and those Sibyls are one on either side of the window, which is
above the centre of the altar-piece, giving light to the whole chapel.
The vaulting of the chapel is divided into four compartments by bizarre,
well varied, and beautiful partitions of stucco-work and grotesques made
with new fantasies of masks and festoons; and in those compartments are
four stories of the Cross and of S. Helen, the mother of Constantine. In
the first is the scene when, before the Passion of the Saviour, three
Crosses are constructed; in the second, S. Helen commanding certain
Hebrews to reveal those Crosses to her; in the third, the Hebrews not
consenting to reveal them, she causes to be cast into a well him who
knows where they are; and in the fourth he reveals the place where all
three are buried. Those four scenes are beautiful beyond belief, and
executed with great care. On the side-walls are four other scenes, two
to each wall, and each is divided off by the cornice that forms the
impost of the arch upon which rests the groined vaulting of the chapel.
In one is S. Helen causing the Holy Cross and the two others to be drawn
up from a well; and in the second is that of the Saviour healing a sick
man. Of the pictures below, in that on the right hand is the same S.
Helen recognizing the Cross of Christ because it restores to life a
corpse upon which it is laid; to the nude flesh of which corpse Daniello
devoted extraordinary pains, searching out all the muscles and seeking
to render correctly all the parts of the body, as he also did in those
who are placing the Cross upon it, and in the bystanders, who are all
struck with amazement by the sight of that miracle. And, in addition,
there is a bier of bizarre shape painted with much diligence, with a
skeleton embracing it, executed with great care and with beautiful
invention. In the other picture, which is opposite to the first, he
painted the Emperor Heraclius walking barefoot and in his shirt, and
carrying the Cross of Christ through the gate of Rome, with men, women,
and children kneeling, who are adoring it, many lords in his train, and
a groom who is holding his horse. Below each scene, forming a k