st faithful slave, and with her
eyes fixed on those of her Judith in order to encourage her, was
bending down and holding a basket near the ground, to receive
therein the head of the slumbering lover. This scene was one of the
most beautiful and most masterly that Francia ever painted, but it
was thrown to the ground in the destruction of that edifice at the
time of the expulsion of the Bentivogli, together with another scene
over that same apartment, coloured to look like bronze, and
representing a disputation of philosophers, which was excellently
wrought, with his conception very well expressed. These works
brought it about that he was loved and honoured by Messer Giovanni
and all the members of his house, and, after them, by all the city.

In the Chapel of S. Cecilia, which is attached to the Church of S.
Jacopo, he painted two scenes wrought in fresco, in one of which he
made the Marriage of Our Lady with Joseph, and in the other the
Death of S. Cecilia--a work held in great esteem by the people of
Bologna. And, indeed, Francia gained such mastery and such
confidence from seeing his works advancing towards the perfection
that he desired, that he executed many pictures, of which I will
make no mention, it being enough for me to point out, to all who may
wish to see his works, only the best and most notable. Nor did his
painting hinder him from carrying on both the Mint and his other
work of making medals, as he had done from the beginning. Francia,
so it is said, felt the greatest sorrow at the departure of Messer
Giovanni Bentivogli, for he had received such great benefits from
Messer Giovanni, that it caused him infinite grief; however, like
the prudent and orderly man that he was, he kept at his work. After
his parting from his patron, he painted three panels that went to
Modena, in one of which there was the Baptism of Christ by S. John;
in the second, a very beautiful Annunciation; and in the last, which
was placed in the Church of the Frati dell' Osservanza, a Madonna in
the sky with many figures.

[Illustration: FRANCESCO FRANCIA: PIETA

(_London: National Gallery, 180. Panel_)]

The fame of so excellent a master being spread abroad by means of so
many works, the cities contended with one another to obtain his
pictures. Whereupon he painted a panel for the Black Friars of S.
Giovanni in Parma, containing a Dead Christ in the lap of Our Lady,
surrounded by many figures; which panel was universally held to