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Ciiap. III. VECCHIETTA. G5 Mariano Soccino (1467) at the Uffizi, 1 SS. Catherine, Bernardino, Paul, and Sebastian, 2 in silver for the Sienna cathedral, were produced at intervals up to 1478. Two years previous to this date, Yecchietta, who at last had struck a vein of prosperity, proposed to furnish a bronze Christ and a picture of the Virgin, child, and saints to the Spedale di S. M. della Scala, if the superintendents of that edifice should give him a chapel, and consecrate it with his name. Upon that consideration also he consented to leave all his property after his second wife’s death to the foundation. 3 The proposal was accepted; and Veccliietta’s best casting now adorns the high altar of the hospital. 4 Its broken action and coarse bony forms are not better than of old; nor is the altarpioce, which now hangs at the Sienna Academy, entitled to any additional praise. 5 Both pieces are dated 1479, and are the last efforts of the artist, who died in the middle of the following year. The narrative of his career would be incomplete with out an allusion to an occupation with which he varied his usual labours. Between 1467 and 1470, he was en trusted with the fabrication of models for the fortresses for those two figures. Doc. Sen. II. 311. 1 No. 394. Galerie des bronzes modernes. 2 Years respectively 1473, 1475, 1478. Doc. Sen. II. 350. 370. 3 Doc. Sen. II. 3G7. 8. 4 It is signed: “Laurentii Petri pietoris al. Veechietta de Senis. M.CCCCLXXVI (1476) p. sua de- votione fecit hoc opus.” The ta bernacle in which it stood was transferred in 1506 to the Duomo, where it now stands, by Pandolfo Petrucci (Vas. notes to p. 210. Yol. IV). A sketch of the taber nacle, on panel, by Yecchietta, is No. 335 in the Sienna Academy. 5 No. 195. It represents the Vir gin and child, between the erect von. in. SS. Peter and Paul, the kneeling Cosmo and Damian, with the in scription: “Opus Laurentii Petri alias Veechietta ob suam devotio- nem.” An altarpiece in San Nic- colo di Valdorcia, signed with Veccliietta’s name, is noticed by the annotators of Vasari (II. 212). Old Sienna guides speak also of terra cottas by him. ib. The fol lowing numbers are assigned to him in Mr. Kamboux’s collection at Cologne, No. 124—8, 164—5; but little value can be assigned to the pieces so catalogued. A Virgin and child enthroned amongst angels between SS. Cathe rine and Bartholomew bears the name of Veechietta in the Museum of Carlsruhe. It is numbered 164, and is of the older period after Lippi and Barna. 5
