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FLORENCE.
authority of the Pope to release him from it. He avoided all worldly
business, and living in purity and holiness, he so loved the poor, as, I
believe, his soul now loves Heaven ; he worked continually in his Art ;
nor would he ever paint other things than those which concerned the
saints. He might have been rich, but he cared not for riches ; nay, he
was wont to say, that true riches consist entirely in being content with
little. He might have had command over many, and would not, saying,
that to obey others was less troublesome and less liable to error. It was
in his choice to have honour and dignities in his convent and beyond it;
but they were valueless to him, who affirmed that the only dignity he
sought was to avoid Hell and to reach Paradise ; and what dignity is
to be compared to that which all ecclesiastics, and indeed all men,
ought to seek, and which is found only in God and in a virtuous life?
He was most kind, and living soberly and chastely, he freed himself
from the snares of the world, frequently repeating that the Painter had
need of quiet and of a life undisturbed by cares, and that he who does
the things of Christ should always be with Christ. That which appears
to me a very wondrous and almost incredible thing is, that among his
brethren he was never seen in anger : and it was his wont, when he
admonished his friends, to do it with a sweet and smiling gentleness.
To those who asked for his works, he invariably answered, with in¬
credible benignity, that they had only to obtain the consent of the Prior,
and then he would not fail to do their pleasure. . In fine, this monk,
whom it is impossible to praise overmuch, was in his words and works
humble and modest, and, in his pictures, of ready skill, and devout; and
the saints which he painted have a more saint-like air and semblance
than those of any other painter whatever. It was his rule not to re¬
touch or alter any of his works, but to leave them just as they had shaped
themselves at first ; for he believed, and he used to say, that such was
the will of God. It is supposed that Fra Giovanni never took up a
brush without a previous prayer. He never painted a Crucifix without
bathing his own cheeks with tears, and therefore it is that the expressions
and attitudes of his figures clearly demonstrate the sincerity of his great
soul for the Christian Religion. He died in 1455 in the 68th year of
his age. —Vasari.
The Dormitory of the convent is divided into cells, with
a passage down the middle. Each cell has its own exquisite
fresco. Turning to the left, those in the cells on the left are
all by Fra Angelico, those on the right, by his brother Fra
Benedetto. In the Corridor, on the right, is a large fresco,
once a tabernacle, of the Virgin and Child enthroned, with,
on the right, SS. Mark, Thomas Aquinas, Laurence, and