s and fellow-conspirators, it was
ordained by the Signoria that all those who had shared in the plot
should be painted as traitors on the wall of the Palace of the Podesta.
This work was offered to Andrea, and he, as a servant and debtor of the
house of Medici, accepted it very willingly, and, taking it in hand,
executed it so beautifully that it was a miracle. It would not be
possible to express how much art and judgment were to be seen in those
figures, which were for the most part portraits from life, and which
were hung up by the feet in strange attitudes, all varied and very
beautiful. This work, which pleased the whole city and particularly all
who had understanding in the art of painting, brought it about that from
that time onwards he was called no longer Andrea dal Castagno but Andrea
degl' Impiccati.[13]

[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD

(_After the fresco by =Domenico Viniziano=. London: National Gallery,
1215_)

_Mansell_]

Andrea lived in honourable style, and since he spent his money freely,
particularly on dress and on maintaining a fine household, he left
little property when he passed to the other life at the age of
seventy-one. But since the crime that he had committed against Domenico,
who loved him so, became known a short time after his death, it was with
shameful obsequies that he was buried in S. Maria Nuova, where, at the
age of fifty-six, the unhappy Domenico had also been buried. The work
begun by the latter in S. Maria Nuova remained unfinished, nor did he
ever complete it, as he had done the panel of the high-altar in S. Lucia
de' Bardi, wherein he executed with much diligence a Madonna with the
Child in her arms, S. John the Baptist, S. Nicholas, S. Francis, and S.
Lucia; which panel he had brought to perfect completion a little before
he was murdered.

Disciples of Andrea were Jacopo del Corso, who was a passing good
master, Pisanello, Marchino, Piero del Pollaiuolo, and Giovanni da
Rovezzano.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] _I.e._, hung up.

GENTILE DA FABRIANO AND VITTORE PISANELLO OF VERONA

LIVES OF GENTILE DA FABRIANO AND VITTORE PISANELLO OF VERONA[14]

PAINTERS

Very great is the advantage enjoyed by one who follows in the steps of a
predecessor who has gained honour and fame by means of some rare talent,
for the reason that, if only he follows to some extent the path prepared
by his master, he seldom fails to arrive without much fatigue at an
honourable goal; wherea