Another is _S, Benedict investing a youth with the habit of the
order_. In the church of the same monastery he painted a beautiful
_Madonna and Child, with Angels_, above the holy water vase, and
_S. Romualdo with the Camaldolese Hermitage in his Hand_, in a
lunette in the cloister. All these were done as a brotherly gift, and
after they were finished, the abbot, Don Andrea Dossi, gave him a
commission to paint a _Last Supper_ in the refectory, which he
did, placing the portrait of the abbot in the corner.
Ridolfo, like his father, regarded art rather as a means of livelihood
than with any aesthetic feelings, and this is probably the reason of
his never attaining true excellence. His "bottega" was really a shop
where any one might order a work of art, or of artisanship, and he gave
as much attention to painting a banner for a procession as to composing
an altar-piece. He had a great many assistants, whom he called on for
help in various undertakings. They assisted him to prepare the Medici
Halls for the reception of Pope Leo X., and later for the marriages of
Giuliano and Lorenzo, not disdaining to paint scenes for the dramas
which were then given.
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