Chap. XIII. FRA BARTOLOMMEO DELLA PORTA. 471 of S. Filippo. 1 He also tried Pian’ di Mugnone for the last time, leaving there a Vision of the Saviour to the. Mag dalen, which is almost equal in power to anything pre vious, 2 and then he came back to Florence, where on the 8 1 ' 1 of October 1517 lie died of a malignant fever. His death, at the early age of forty-two, was an irrepar able loss to the Dominicans, who buried him with great honour in S. Marco. 3 His furniture and tools, which would have passed to Mariotto had he been living, were hoarded as treasures for a long time. Many of the cartoons were used by Fra Paolino and others, and Bugiardini even completed some of the unfinished pieces. But upon this point some er rors may have been handed down to us. It has been usual to follow Vasari in affirming that the Pieta at the Pitti 4 received its last touches from Bugiardini; yet the evidence of this is not to be found in the execution. It is admitted that the composition is one of those that Fra Bartolommeo carried out most com pletely. The naked corpse of the Messiah is raised from a recumbent to a half erect position by S. John Evange list, whilst the Virgin with excessive love supports his head and left arm, the Magdalen embracing his legs in an agony of grief. The group realizes at once all the precepts considered as final in the sixteenth century. It is a modification and an advance upon Perugi- no’s, combining all the tenderness of the Umbrian with greater selection, astonishing individuality, pure nature, and refined feeling. It is not possible to cite an instance in which a lifeless form is rendered with more flexibility, or with more anatomical accuracy. As 1 Vas. VII. 171. j scape are grand; and the scene is 2 The fresco is in a small chapel I impressed with a stamp of unusual near the entrance to the Ospizio life and truth. The fresco is a lit- of Pian’ di Mugnone. The Sa-I tie spotted and eaten away by time, viour holding a hoe, turns away ! 3 Oujus obitus.. magno fuit om- from the longing Magdalen: his | nibus detrimento .... Erat autem frame is broad and square as com- j Diaconus. Obituary in Marchcse, pared to hers, her features ex- j II. 369. pressive. The lines of the land-1 4 Pitti. gall. No. 64.