THE CERTOSA OF FLORENCE 



he has breathed his parting sigh, and his eyes have 

 closed in their last slumber ; but a happy smile still 

 plays on his features, the brightness of the long life 

 spent in doing good shining on his countenance. The 

 mere sight of his face is enough to take away all terror 

 from the thought of death. It is all so easy and 

 natural, just as if he had laid down to rest, a little 

 tired with his long journey, and in that sleep had 

 found all his soul desired. 



" He was ninety-five years old when he died," said 

 the monk who stood with me by the tomb, and then 

 turned away, as if this explained everything. 



Of about the same date as Buonafede's tomb is 

 the stained glass in one of the cloisters representing 

 scenes from the life of St. Bruno, and ascribed to 

 Giovanni da Udine, the friend of Raphael, who spent 

 some years at Florence, and designed the windows of 

 the Laurentian Library, before returning to die at 

 Rome and be laid by the side of Raphael, " never 

 again to be divided from him whom living he had 

 refused to leave" (Vasari). St. Bruno's history 

 appears again in a number of frescoes executed by 

 Bernardino Poccetti, that prolific artist whose works 

 in Florentine churches and convents have rendered 

 him, in the eyes of modern travellers, a type of the 

 decadence of Italian painting. 



More interesting are the series of busts by Gio- 

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