, with many
others, of whom there is no need to make mention here.

[Illustration: THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH S. CATHARINE IN A ROSE
GARDEN

(_After the panel by =Stefano da Verona (da Zevio)=. Verona:
Gallery, 559_)

_Brogi_]

To begin with the first, I start by saying that Stefano Veronese, of
whom I gave some account in the Life of Agnolo Gaddi, was a painter
more than passing good in his day. And when Donatello was working in
Padua, as has been already told in his Life, going on one of several
occasions to Verona, he was struck with marvel at the works of
Stefano, declaring that the pictures which he had made in fresco
were the best that had been wrought in those parts up to that time.
The first works of this man were in the tramezzo[7] of the Church of
S. Antonio at Verona, at the top of a wall on the left, below the
curve of a part of the vaulting; and the subjects were a Madonna
with the Child in her arms, and S. James and S. Anthony, one on
either side of her. This work is held very beautiful in that city
even at the present day, by reason of a certain liveliness that is
seen in the said figures, particularly in the heads, which are
wrought with much grace. In S. Niccolo, a parish church of that
city, likewise, he painted a S. Nicholas in fresco, which is very
beautiful. On the front of a house in the Via di S. Polo, which
leads to the Porta del Vescovo, he painted the Virgin, with certain
very beautiful angels and a S. Christopher; and over the wall of the
Church of S. Consolata in the Via del Duomo, in a recess made in the
wall, he painted a Madonna and certain birds, in particular a
peacock, his emblem. In S. Eufemia, a convent of the Eremite Friars
of S. Augustine, he painted over the side-door a S. Augustine with
two other saints, and under the mantle of this S. Augustine are many
friars and nuns of his Order; but the most beautiful things in this
work are two half-length prophets of the size of life, for the
reason that they have the most beautiful and most lifelike heads
that Stefano ever made; and the colouring of the whole work,
having been executed with diligence, has remained beautiful even to
our own day, notwithstanding that it has been much exposed to rain,
wind, and frost. If this work had been under cover, it would still
be as beautiful and fresh as it issued from his hands, for the
reason that Stefano did not retouch it on the dry, but used
diligence in executing it well in fresco; as it