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Chap. XV. FKANCIA BIGIO. 503 of Apelles in the Pitti. Reminiscent still of the masters we have mentioned, and extremely smooth in surface, they are, all three, in a state that almost forbids cri ticism, but the Calumny is put together with figures of good though short and fat proportions, and outlined with a view to reproduce a well-fed and somewhat puffy, not a finely bred or noble, nature. 1 That neither Del Sarto nor Francia Bigio were asked to paint the curtains of the altarpiece by Filippino and Perugino at the Servi, as Vasari pretends, 2 is testified by the records of the convent which contain the payment of % that work to Andrea di Cosimo. 3 That Francia Bigio was employed at the Servi in 1513, is testified by docu ments. It is credible that about that time a partnership existed between him and Del Sarto; and it cannot be denied that he had then acquired much more skill than is shown in the panels of his younger days. In the court of the Servi, the high priest unites Joseph and Mary in front of a noble palace, on the walls of which bas-reliefs represent the Sacrifice of Isaac, Adam and Eve near the tree of knowledge, and Moses receiving the tables of the law. The joy of the grey-haired S. Jo seph is tempered by the expectation of the buffet from the best man who stands behind him. The despair of the unsuccessful suitors is well depicted in one who wrings his hands to the left, as well as in a second, who sits and breaks the rod that would not blossom. To the right, 1 The first of those, No. 1204, I wood, oil, life size, at the Uffizi, was originally in S. Giobbe (Vas. IX. 97) and is much dimmed by time and restoring. It hangs so high that one cannot see the ini tials: F. B. C. that are said to be on it. The two angels likewise no ticed by Vasari (IX. 97) are half as large as life, one with a lily, the other with a book; the surface cracked or blackened in the sha dows. The Calumny, No. 427, at the Pitti, a small piece, has become sombre, -and is excessively re touched, but was originally of the same class as the foregoing. The initials: F. B. are on the plinths of the distant pillars, and an inscrip tion at the base runs thus: “Clau- dite, qui recitis populus his voci bus aures sic manibus lapsus nos- tris pinxit Apelles”. * Vas. VIII. 253. 3 Biffoli, in annot. Vas. IX. ill.
