56 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. III. Domenico. The angel and Virgin annunciate are stamped in his mould likewise; and Vecchietta’s creations are re called to mind in each case. A predella, comprising the crucifixion and four scenes from the life of the Baptist, exhibit the essential liveliness and animation, the vehe mence and grimace of the Siennese school. Certain types assume a family likeness to those of Piero della Francesca, whose Umbrian tendency they might explain and illustrate. The drawing is minute and precise, but the colour resembles that of the Asciano pictures. 1 Were it even recorded that this was the fruit of Domenico’s labour, his stay at Borgo S. Sepolcro would still be un certain. Yet a ruined fresco in a tabernacle at the cor ner of the Via di Mezzo seems to prove the presence at least of the artist who painted the greater part of the panels in S. Giovanni Evangelista. 2 Domenico devoted five consecutive years (1435—40) to the lost decorations of the sacristy in the Sienna Duomo, 3 completing in the interval the orders for Asciano and Perugia. No knowledge is attainable respecting his oc cupations during 1440—2. In the middle of 1444, he had finished seven subjects on the walls of the Pellegrinaio in the Spedale di S. M. della Scala at Sienna: a sick ward; alms-giving; marriage of the foundlings of the establishment; the Pope’s indulgence for enlarging the hospital; the building of the annexes, and a Virgin of 1 The altarpicce described in the text remains, minus its centre, in the sacristy of S. Giovanni Evange lista. S. Paul and S. Peter stand under a niche fringed with a leaf ornament in gilt relief, above which the pinnacles are filled with rounds inclosing the angel and Virgin an nunciate. Three saints of not im- pleasant aspect stand above each other in pilasters at the flanks. In the predella are: the Birth and Sermon of the Baptist on one side of the Crucifixion, the Imprison ment and Martyrdom of the precur sor oh the other. The heads of the principal saints are aged, their foreheads high and their eyes ex travagantly open. The large hands and feet are bony and skinny. The crucified Saviour is fair enough, whilst the dancing daughter ofHe- rodias boasts a springy, and slen der form. One sees in fact a certain association of pictorial and sculp tural qualities in her; 1 !— an'asso- ciation already suggested by the SS.PauI and Peter which resemble statues by Vecchietta. 2 The half of a Virgin and child appear in a painted niche, but the remains are in bad condition. 3 Doc. Sen. II. 172.