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Chap. IX. PAINTERS OF PARMA. 259 Vestiges of paintings in the vaulted ceiling of the tran sept in the Duomo of Cremona display a common hand and are curious only as regards costume. They are assigned to one Polidoro Casella supposed to have lived in 1345. 1 After the middle of the thirteenth century, when, as has been noted elsewhere, the Baptistery of Parma was decorated with frescos announcing an effort to improve on the degenerate art of the period, artists of a still mediocre character flourished in succession in that city. In the Baptistery itself the lower walls are covered with rude productions, the least defective of which is a frag ment of a figure of S. Lucy, to the right of the entrance, above which the curious may read the words: “B tolin (? Bartolin) de Placen. f.” 2 1 The character of paintings of this period may be found in a colossal erect Virgin holding the infant and adorned by a kneeling patron inscribed: “Benedictus Fo- drius hanc ex voto anno Salutis MCCCLXX.” The figure of the pa tron is repainted in the style of Boccaccino. The dress of the Vir gin is renewed, tho figure long, slender, of angular, forms, falsely assigned to Giotto and possibly by Casella. 2 A crucifixion with saints, more modern, and painted at the close of the 14 th or rise of the 15 th cen tury reveals the slow progress of Parmesan art at that time. Setting aside the rude paintings of the latter period in the chapels of the Parma Duomo, the spectator may pause to notice the wall decora tions of the sacristies. In that of the “Canonici” a ceiling with the Saviour in benediction, side walls with a partially renewed “nativity of the Virgin”, pro phets in the arch of the entrance, an annunciation with a kneeling donor and a much injured “Spo- salizio” may repay examination. In that called “Del Consorzio”, of old, Cappella S. Martino, sc-[ cond rate productions are a Ma donna adored by a bishop intro duced by his patron saint, in the ceiling, on the side, S. John the Baptist with two angels above him, and in other spaces figures of prophets. If, as tradition vouches, the kneeling bishop be Monsignor Rusconi whose episcopal reign at Parma lasted from 1380 to 1412, the date of these paintings may be fixed with some certainty, the chapel having been erected by his orders and being sacred to his remains. A Madonna on a pilaster in the choir of the Duomo is without any specific character. Later works may be found in the ex-church of S. Francesco of Parma, one of which, in part ob literated, represents a kneeling patron in front of the Virgin and child enthroned betweenS.S. John the Baptist and Francis. An in scription reveals the following: “H«c figura fecit fieri magister de Mociis de Cotignana murator 1448.” Of the same feeble class is a remnant of a crucifixion, the only remaining production in an edi fice of which the walls have re cently been whitewashed.