Volltext Seite (XML)
282 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. VIII. of Alexander the Sixth, and took the name of Pius the Third. Had his arms been placed in the ceiling after that time, they would have been decorated with the tiara and not with the cardinal’s hat. 1 Anticipating the ap proach of death as early as April 30.* 1503, the Cardinal made a will in which he expressed a desire “that the works allotted to Pinturicchio should be carried on by his heirs, if they were not perfected in his lifetime”. 2 We may therefore conclude that the ceiling of the Piccolo- mini library was begun and finished between May and September 1503. The death of Pius, on the 18 lh of Oc tober, interrupted the further progress of the undertaking and forced Pinturicchio to seek other patrons. He was fortunate enough to find one in Alberto Arin- ghieri, a knight of S. John of Rhodes, who then filled the office of rector in the cathedral of Sienna; for whom, by the middle of 1504, he had carried out a series of frescos in the circular chapel of S. Giovanni in the Duomo. 3 It pleased Alberto, to be represented young as he took the habit of a knight of S. John to the left of the entrance, and to the right as an old and bearded man in civic dress. Both figures kneel; between them are two com partments with the Nativity and Decapitation of S. John; in an upper course, the Baptist in the desert, the Bap tism of Christ, the Visitation, and the Sermon of John. 1 This remark has very justly been made by Passavant (Raphael ub. sup. 1.72.3.), but before him by Pungileoni. Raphael, ub. sup. note to p. 60. 2 See the extract from his will in Passavant (ub. sup. note to p. 73)andin annot. (Vas.V.291), also a longer and fuller in Pungileoni. Raphael, note to p. 59. 3 August 14. 1504. Archiv. Duo mo of Sienna annot. Vas. V. 291. price 700 lire. — The name of the patron is given inLanducci; codex MS. in Sienna library C. H. 30. p. 82, but besides, read the following on the floor of the chapel: “D. O.M. Quidam D. Albertus d. Francisci aringherii Eques Rhodi nitidm de templi hujus decoration! Instaurationique solerti cura ac • industria. Operarii officio functus IIII et XX annis. Insudans, sacellumque hoc divo Bapt. Joanni Extrucns. Hoc sibi ut ergastulum vivens liber Tradatur, sponte curavit A. D. MDIIII ”