SIENA 



Sassetta paints the story of SL Francis and the Wolf Sassetta, 

 of Gubbio (collection of Comte de Martel, Chateau de ^392-1450 

 Beaumont). The beast, of which only the forepart is 

 shown, holds out a paw to say " done " to the Saint, 

 who had undertaken its conversion to a better way 

 of life.i 



The goldfinch is very frequently placed in the hands 

 of the Holy Child by painters of this school.^ They are 

 not easily referred to, as the names of most of them are 

 lost; but one by Andrea Vanni (Siena, Santo Stefano), 

 and another by Sano di Pietro in the collection of the 

 King, may be mentioned. 



In a Holy Family by Bernardino Fungai, in the 

 National Gallery (on loan from South Kensington 

 Museum), a goldfinch is painted picking at a plum, 

 which it steadies with one foot. 



Domenico di Bartolo, painting in the Ospedale della 

 Scala, Siena, the appropriate subject of helping the sick, 

 pictures a busy scene. People are being washed and 

 medically treated, some sitting up, some in bed ; and a 

 dog and cat (irresistible subject !) fight in the already 

 overcrowded ward, 



^ Fioretti^ ch. xxi. 



- In the apocryphal gospel of the Infancy it is told how, when the Child 

 Jesus was seven years old, and His playfellows were making animals out of 

 clay, He also made figures of birds and sparrows, which flew when He 

 ordered them to do so. — Evang-elzum htfaiitiae Arabicuni^ ch. xxxvi., ed. 

 Tischendorf (Lipsias, 1S76). 



51 



