hich has slain the son of the King with its stench, to come forth
from below the altar. In certain steps the painter depicted the hole
through which the serpent issued from beneath the altar, and so well
did he paint the cleft in one of the steps, that one evening one of
Filippo's lads, wishing to hide something, I know not what, from the
sight of someone who was knocking for admittance, ran up in haste in
order to conceal it in the hole, being wholly deceived by it.
Filippo also showed so much art in the serpent, that its venom,
fetid breath, and fire, appear rather real than painted. Greatly
extolled, too, is his invention in the scene of the Crucifixion of
that Saint, for he imagined to himself, so it appears, that the
Saint was stretched on the cross while it lay on the ground, and
that afterwards the whole was drawn up and raised on high by means
of ropes, cords, and poles; which ropes and cords are wound round
certain fragments of antiquities, pieces of pillars, and bases, and
pulled by certain ministers. On the other side the weight of the
said cross and of the Saint who is stretched nude thereon is
supported by two men, on the one hand by a man with a ladder, with
which he is propping it up, and on the other hand by another with a
pole, upholding it, while two others, setting a lever against the
base and stem of the cross, are balancing its weight and seeking to
place it in the hole made in the ground, wherein it had to stand
upright. But why say more? It would not be possible for the work to
be better either in invention or in drawing, or in any other respect
whatsoever of industry or art. Besides this, it contains many
grotesques and other things wrought in chiaroscuro to resemble
marble, executed in strange fashion with invention and most
beautiful drawing.

[Illustration: S. JOHN THE EVANGELIST RAISING DRUSIANA FROM THE DEAD

(_After the fresco by =Filippo Lippi [Filippino]=. Florence: S.
Maria Novella, Strozzi Chapel_)

_Anderson_]

For the Frati Scopetini, also, at S. Donato, without Florence, which
is called Scopeto and is now in ruins, he painted a panel with the
Magi presenting their offerings to Christ, finished with great
diligence, wherein he portrayed the elder Pier Francesco de' Medici,
son of Lorenzo di Bicci, in the figure of an astrologer who is
holding a quadrant in his hand, and likewise Giovanni, father of
Signor Giovanni de' Medici, and another Pier Francesco, brother of
that Signor Gi