some stories of S. James in the Abbey of
Settimo, in the chapel that is in the cloister, and dedicated to that
Saint, on the vaulting of which he made the four Patriarchs and the four
Evangelists, among whom S. Luke is doing a striking action in blowing
very naturally on his pen, in order that it may yield its ink. Next, in
the scenes on the walls, which are five, there are seen beautiful
attitudes in the figures, and the whole work is executed with invention
and judgment. And because Buonamico was wont, in order to make his
flesh-colour better, as is seen in this work, to make a ground of
purple, which in time produces a salt that becomes corroded and eats
away the white and other colours, it is no marvel if this work is spoilt
and eaten away, whereas many others that were made long before have been
very well preserved. And I, who thought formerly that these pictures had
received injury from the damp, have since proved by experience, studying
other works of the same man, that it is not from the damp but from this
particular use of Buffalmacco's that they have become spoilt so
completely that there is not seen in them either design or anything
else, and that where the flesh-colours were there has remained nothing
else but the purple. This method of working should be used by no one who
is anxious that his pictures should have long life.

Buonamico wrought, after that which has been described above, two panels
in distemper for the Monks of the Certosa of Florence, whereof one is
where the books of chants are kept for the use of the choir, and the
other below in the old chapels. He painted in fresco the Chapel of the
Giochi and Bastari in the Badia of Florence, beside the principal
chapel; which chapel, although afterwards it was conceded to the family
of the Boscoli, retains the said pictures of Buffalmacco up to our own
day. In these he made the Passion of Christ, with effects ingenious and
beautiful, showing very great humility and sweetness in Christ, who is
washing the feet of His Disciples, and ferocity and cruelty in the Jews,
who are leading Him to Herod. But he showed talent and facility more
particularly in a Pilate, whom he painted in prison, and in Judas
hanging from a tree; wherefore it is easy to believe what is told about
this gay painter--namely, that when he thought fit to use diligence and
to take pains, which rarely came to pass, he was not inferior to any
painter whatsoever of his times. And to show that