The olive-brown robe of one saint is
balanced by the rich red of the other. In the Virgin, a deep blue and
mellow orange are combined by a crimson bodice. The price paid to the
painter for this was low because he asked little; but a century or two
later, Ferdinando de' Medici, son of Cosmo III., spent 20,000 scudi to
restore the church, and had a copy of the picture made in return for a
gift of the original, which is now the gem of the Tribune in the
Uffizi.
8. The _Disputa, di S. Agostino_ is another masterpiece, showing
as much power as the last-named work displays of softness. It was
painted at the order of the Eremite monks of San Gallo for their church
of San Jacopo tra Fossi, where it was injured by a flood in 1557, and
removed later to the Hall of Saturn in the Pitti Palace. The
composition is level, the four disputing saints standing in a row, the
two listeners, S. Sebastian and Mary Magdalen, kneeling in front. S
Agostino, with fierce vehemence, expounds the mystery of the Trinity;
S. Stephen turns to S. Francesco interrogatively, S. Domenico (whom
Vasari, by the way, calls S.
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