at fire. All this is
painted with such beauty and grace of manner, that it appears that this
marvellous work, in its thick darkness, is illuminated by the fire;
wherefore it is held to be a rare picture. Baldassarre Peruzzi of Siena,
an excellent painter, could never have his fill of praising it, and I
myself, one day that I saw it uncovered in his company, while passing
through Siena, was struck with astonishment by it, as I also was by the
five little scenes that are in the predella, painted with distemper in a
judicious and beautiful manner. For the Nuns of Ognissanti in the same
city Domenico painted another altar-piece, in which is Christ on high in
the heavens, crowning the Glorified Virgin, and below them are S.
Gregory, S. Anthony, S. Mary Magdalene, and S. Catharine the
Virgin-Martyr; and in the predella, likewise, are some very beautiful
little figures executed in distemper.

In the house of Signor Marcello Agostini Domenico painted some very
lovely works in fresco on the ceiling of an apartment, which has three
lunettes on each main side and two at each end, with a series of friezes
that go right round. The centre of the ceiling is divided into two
quadrangular compartments; in the first, where a silken arras is
counterfeited as upheld by the ornament, there may be seen, as if woven
upon it, Scipio Africanus restoring the young woman untouched to her
husband, and in the other the celebrated painter Zeuxis, who is copying
several nude women in order to paint his picture, which was to be placed
in the Temple of Juno. In one of the lunettes, painted with little
figures only about half a braccio high, but very beautiful, are the two
Roman Brothers who, having been enemies, became friends for the public
good and for the sake of their country. In that which follows is
Torquatus,[29] who, in order to observe the laws, when his son has been
condemned to lose his eyes, causes one of his son's and one of his own
to be put out. In the next is the Petition of ...,[30] who, after
hearing the recital of his crimes against his country and the Roman
people, is put to death. In the lunette beside that one is the Roman
people deliberating on the expedition of Scipio to Africa; and next to
this, in another lunette, is an ancient sacrifice crowded with a variety
of most beautiful figures, with a temple drawn in perspective, which has
no little relief, for in that field Domenico was a truly excellent
master. In the last is Cato k