dorla disappeared. A complete representation of the subject includes two parts: above is the figure of Christ standing on a cloud which is held by cherubs; below are the Apostles who either look at the scene in dismay or pray. The Virgin is often represented with them, symbolizing the Church which Christ left on earth. At times Christ holds the vexillum of the Resurrection and his right hand is raised in a benediction. Bartolo Buonpedoni, Blessed Born in San Gimignano (1228 ca.1300), the only child of the Buonpedoni Counts, he opposed his family’s will who wanted an arranged marriage for him and went to the Benedictines of San Vito in Pisa, where he served the monastery taking care of the sick. Jesus, in a vision, suggested he should not become a monk, but rather live for twenty years in pain. He then went to Volterra, where he joined the Franciscan Third Order. Once a friar he fell incurably ill with leprosy and, for the following twenty years till he died, he comforted the sick in San Gimignano’s leper hospital, annexed to the parish church of Cellole, in compliance with God’s will. He endured his illness so patiently that he was given the epiteth of the “Tuscan Job”. Pope Pius X approved his cult only in 1906. Botticelli, Sandro, Sandro Filipepi, known as (Florence 1445-1510) His pictorial work is evidence of a precocious synthesis between the linear fluidity of Filippo Lippi and the la gerusalemme di san vivaldo
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plastic compositive strength of Verrocchio, who was his master. The vibrant and subtly intellectual language which characterizes his works from the years 1470-1485, emblematically reflects the fantastic tension of the humanistic Florence, aiming at a Platonic transfiguration of reality into beauty and myth. The rhythmic and expressive tension, which characterizes Botticelli’s later works, expresses instead the tensions and limits of the humanistic ideals in the context o f a renewed pietistic spirituality derived from Savonarola. Among this artist’s work we shall mention the renowned Spring (14771478), the Birth of Venus the Madonna of the Magnificat (1481-1482), housed in Florence at the Uffizi, and among his late works the Pietà (1495), today at the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan. Botticini, Francesco (Florence 1446-1498) A painter who was a pupil of Neri di Bicci. He worked with Cosimo Rosselli and was influenced by Andrea del Castagno, showing a sensibility for the light and shade effects which resembles that of Verrocchio’s early works. In his best works he tried to mingle the styles of Verrocchio and Botticelli with Flemish realism. A documented work is the Tabernacle of the Holy Sacrament (1484-1491) for the Collegiate Church of Empoli (now at the Museum), on which his son Raffaello also worked. The latter’s works show a less careful style than his father’s and they reveal a generic