that he had not achieved the
success that he had promised himself, he returned to Bologna. There he
and the others mentioned above, in competition one with another,
executed each a scene from the Lives of Christ and His Mother in the
Chapel of the Madonna in S. Petronio, near the door of the facade, on
the right hand as one enters the church; among which little difference
in merit is to be seen between one and another. But Bartolommeo acquired
from this work the reputation of having a manner both softer and
stronger than the others; and although there is a vast number of strange
things in the scene of Maestro Amico, in which he depicted the
Resurrection of Christ with armed men in crouching and distorted
attitudes, and many soldiers crushed flat by the stone of the Sepulchre,
which has fallen upon them, nevertheless that of Bartolommeo, as having
more unity of design and colouring, was more extolled by other
craftsmen. On account of this Bartolommeo associated himself with Biagio
Bolognese, a person with much more practice than excellence in art; and
they executed in company at S. Salvatore, for the Frati Scopetini, a
refectory which they painted partly in fresco and partly "a secco,"
containing the scene of Christ satisfying five thousand people with five
loaves and two fishes. They painted, also, on a wall of the library, the
Disputation of S. Augustine, wherein they made a passing good view in
perspective. These masters, thanks to having seen the works of Raffaello
and associated with him, had a certain quality which, upon the whole,
gave promise of excellence, but in truth they did not attend as they
should have done to the more subtle refinements of art. Yet, since there
were no painters in Bologna at that time who knew more than they did,
they were held by those who then governed the city, as well as by all
the people, to be the best masters in Italy.

[Illustration: THE HOLY FAMILY WITH SAINTS

(_After the panel by =Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo=. Bologna: Accademia,
133_)

_Anderson_]

By the hand of Bartolommeo are some round pictures in fresco under the
vaulting of the Palace of the Podesta, and a scene of the Visitation of
S. Elizabeth in S. Vitale, opposite to the Palace of the Fantucci. In
the Convent of the Servites at Bologna, round a panel-picture of the
Annunciation painted in oils, are some saints executed in fresco by
Innocenzio da Imola. In S. Michele in Bosco Bartolommeo painted in
fresco the Cha