iveto. In one of these, on the
outer side, Francesco painted a S. Benedict clothed in white, and S.
John the Evangelist, and on the inner side the Prophets Daniel and
Isaiah, with two little Angels in the air, and a ground all full of very
beautiful landscapes. And then he executed the great altar-piece of the
altar of the Muletta, painting therein a S. Peter and a S. John, which
are little more than one braccio in height, but wrought so well and with
such diligence, that they have the appearance of miniatures. The
carvings of this work were executed by Fra Giovanni da Verona, a master
of tarsia and carving.

In the same place, on the wall of the choir, Francesco painted two
scenes in fresco--one of Our Lord riding on an ass into Jerusalem, and
the other of His Prayer in the Garden, wherein, on one side, is the
armed multitude coming to take Him, guided by Judas. But more beautiful
than all the rest is the vaulted sacristy, which is all painted by the
same master, excepting only the S. Anthony being scourged by Demons,
which is said to be by the hand of his father, Domenico. In this
sacristy, then, besides the Christ and some little Angels that are seen
in foreshortening on the vaulting, he painted in the lunettes, two in
each niche, and robed in their pontifical vestments, the various Popes
who have been exalted to the Pontificate from the Order of S. Benedict.
Round the sacristy, below the lunettes of the vaulting, is drawn a
frieze four feet high, and divided into compartments, wherein are
painted in the monastic habit various Emperors, Kings, Dukes, and other
Princes, who have abandoned the States and Principalities that they
ruled, and have become monks. In these figures Francesco made portraits
from life of many of the monks who had their habitation or a temporary
abode in that monastery, the while that he was working there; and among
them are portraits of many novices and other monks of every kind, which
are heads of great beauty, and executed with much diligence. In truth,
by reason of these ornaments, that was then the most beautiful sacristy
that there was in all Italy, since, in addition to the beauty of the
room, which is of considerable size and well proportioned, and the
pictures described above, which are also very beautiful, there is at the
foot of the walls a range of panelled seats adorned with fine
perspective-views, so well executed in tarsia and carving, that there is
no work to be seen of those tim