John_ in the Corsini Gallery, Florence, and another of the same
subject in the Antinori Palace. He painted also at San Gimignano, Pian
di Mugnone, and Pistoja, and died of sunstroke in 1547.
He had as a follower a Suor Plautilla Nelli, born 1523, daughter of a
noble Florentine, Piero di Luca Nelli. She took the vows at the age of
fourteen, in the convent of S. Caterina di Siena, in Via Larga (now
Cavour), Florence. Her sister, Suor Petronilla, in the same convent,
was a writer, and her life of Savonarola is still extant. Suor
Plautilla taught herself to paint. Legend says, that in order to study
the nude for a Christ, she drew from the corpse of a nun--which might
account for the weak stiffness of her design. Fra Paolo, though there
is no record of his having taught her, left her as a legacy the designs
and cartoons of Fra Bartolommeo, one of which, the _Pieta_, she
has evidently made use of in the painting in the Belle Arti. The
grouping is that of the _Pieta_ of Fra Bartolommeo, now in the
Pitti, of which she must have had the original sketch, for she has put
in the two saints in the background, which have been painted out in
that of the Frate, but we will give her the entire credit of the
colouring, which is extremely crude; the contrasting blues and yellows
are in inharmonious tones, the shading harsh, and the whole picture
wanting in chiaroscuro.
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