ose his mind and resign
himself to live in his native place. And so, after parting company with
the Dossi, who had worked with him up to that time, he painted by
himself in the Church of S. Francesco, in a little chapel, the Raising
of Lazarus, a work filled with a variety of good figures, and pleasant
in colouring, with attitudes spirited and vivacious, which brought him
much commendation. In another chapel in the same church he painted the
Massacre of the Innocents, cruelly done to death by Herod, so well and
with such spirited movements in the soldiers and other figures, that
it was a marvel. Very well depicted, in addition, are different
expressions in the great variety of heads, such as terror in the mothers
and nurses, death in the infants, and cruelty in the slayers, and many
other things, which gave infinite satisfaction. It is worthy of remark
that in executing that work Benvenuto did a thing that up to that time
had never been done in Lombardy--namely, he made models of clay, the
better to see the shadows and lights, and availed himself of a
figure-model made of wood, jointed in such a way that the limbs moved in
every direction, which he arranged as he wished, in various attitudes,
with draperies over it. But what is most important is that he copied
every least detail from life and nature, as one who knew that the true
way is to observe and imitate the reality. For the same church he
executed the altar-piece of a chapel; and on a wall he painted in fresco
Christ taken by the multitude in the Garden.

For S. Domenico, in the same city, he painted two altar-pieces in oils;
in one is the Miracle of the Cross and S. Helen, and in the other is S.
Peter Martyr with a good number of very beautiful figures, wherein it is
evident that Benvenuto departed considerably from his first manner,
making it bolder and less laboured. For the Nuns of S. Salvestro he
painted an altar-picture of Christ praying to His Father on the Mount,
while the three Apostles are lower down, sleeping. For the Nuns of S.
Gabriello he executed an Annunciation, and for those of S. Antonio, in
the altar-piece of their high-altar, the Resurrection of Christ. For the
high-altar of the Frati Ingesuati, in the Church of S. Girolamo, he
painted Jesus Christ in the Manger, with a choir of Angels on a cloud,
held to be very beautiful. In S. Maria del Vado, in an altar-piece by
the same hand, very well conceived and coloured, is Christ ascending
into Heave