asimo, destroyed, as it is said, in the tenth
century. It was built by the monks of Vallombrosa, and was therefore in
the hands of Benedictines. Here, in the Cappella Sassetti, Domenico
Ghirlandajo has painted the Life of S. Francis; but it is not with his
commonplace treatment, often irrelevant enough, of a subject which
Giotto had already used with genius, that we are concerned, but perhaps
with the fresco above the altar, and certainly with the marvellous
portraits of Sassetti and Nera Cosi his wife, on either side. Here in
this portrait for once Ghirlandajo seems to have escaped from the
limitations of his cleverness, and to have really expressed himself so
that his talent becomes something more than talent, is full of life and
charm, and only just fails to convince us of his genius.

Many another delightful or surprising thing may be found in the old
church, which has more than once suffered from restoration. In a chapel
in the right aisle Lorenzo Monaco has painted the Annunciation, while,
close by, you may see a beautiful altar by Benedetto da Rovezzano. Over
the high altar is the crucifix which bowed to S. Giovanni Gualberto,
who forbore to slay his brother's murderer; but the chief treasure of
the church is the tomb in the left transept of Benozzo Federighi, Bishop
of Fiesole, by Luca della Robbia. It was in the year 1450 that Luca
finished his most perfect work in marble--begun and finished, as it is
said, within the year--the tomb of Bishop Federighi. And here, as one
might almost expect, remembering his happy expressive art in many a
terra-cotta up and down in Italy, he has thought of death almost with
cheerfulness, not as oblivion, but as just sleep after labour. Amid a
profusion of natural things--fruits, garlands, grapes--the old man lies
half turned towards us, at rest at last. Behind him Luca has carved a
Pieta, and beneath two angels unfold the name of the dead man. The tomb
was removed hither from S. Francesco di Paolo.

Passing now under the Column of the Trinita across the Piazza between
the two palaces, Bartolini Salimbeni and Buondelmonte on the left, and
Palazzo Spini on the right, you come into Borgo Santi Apostoli, where,
facing the Piazzetta del Limbo, is the little church de' Santi Apostoli,
which, if we may believe the inscription on the facade, was founded by
Charlemagne and consecrated by Turpin before Roland and Oliver. However
that may be, it is, with the exception of the Baptistery, the