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12 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART. Chap. I. are still in the gallery of Sienna, 1 the wings in the gal lery of Mr. Ramboux at Cologne. 2 On the pediments of these are the words: “Magister. Simon Cini. de Florentia. intaliavit. Gabriellus. Saraceni de Senis. auravit MCOC.LXXX . . . .” The names of the carver and gilder, two different per sons in that age, are thus duly recorded. That of Spi- nello, the painter, is absent. His signature, however, may have been on the central panel, as Vasari completes the inscription, adding that the date was 1385. 3 The fragments of predella and pinnacle at Sienna 4 * have all the breadth of Spinello, and are much injured, but are not different in this from the sides at Cologne. Little more than two years after this, the sacristy, a lofty square chamber on the South side of the choir of S. Mi- niato al monte near Florence, was completed in accord ance with the' last will of Nerozzo degli Alberti; and Don Jacopo D ? Arezzo, for whom Spinello had already executed the altarpiece of Monte Oliveto, ordered of the artist the frescos of the walls, 6 on which he represented the legend of S. Benedict. In the delineation of these subjects Spinello showed his usual vigour and skill, and surpassed himself in the last scene of all, depicting S. Benedict extended on his couch and bewailed by his brethren in various degrees of af fliction, in a composition of a grand and decorous order. He was, indeed, more than usually successful in the 1 Siennese Cat. 12. 2 82 to 87 of Ramboux Catalo gue. 82; — S.S.Nemesius and John the Baptist with predella, con taining the decapitation of the former, and Herods’ feast, and Isaiah in the gable point. 83; — S.S. Benedict and Lucilla with a predella on which are the death of S. Benedict, and the decapitation of S. Lucilla. 84; — S. Philip hold ing a hook. 85. S. James with staff and hook. 86. An apostle with a book. 87. A saint in monk ish dress. 3 Yas. Yol. II. p. 194. 4 Fragment of pediment is num bered 245 in the cat. of 1860, that of the pinnacle 246. The subject of the predella is the death and transit, that of the pinnacle the coronation of the Virgin. 5 Vas. Vol. II. p. 190. By the will of Nerozzo, dated 1377, we have the exact period when these frescos were commissioned of Spi nello. Vide Cenni Storici di S. Miniato, ub. sup. p. 156 and fol lowing.
