Beside the matters
of his art and a very few books, almost the only object to be noticed
in Chiaro's room was a small consecrated image of St. Mary Virgin
wrought out of silver, before which stood always, in summer-time, a
glass containing a lily and a rose.
It was here, and at this time, that Chiaro painted the Dresden
pictures; as also, in all likelihood, the one--inferior in merit, but
certainly his--which is now at Munich. For the most part, he was calm
and regular in his manner of study; though often he would remain at
work through the whole of the day, not resting once so long as the
light lasted; flushed, and with the hair from his face. Or, at times,
when he could not paint, he would sit for hours in thought of all the
greatness the world had known from of old; until he was weak with
yearning, like one who gazes upon a path of stars.
He continued in this patient endeavour for about three years, at the
end of which his name was spoken throughout all Tuscany. As his fame
waxed, he began to be employed, besides easel-pictures, upon
paintings in fresco: but I believe that no traces remain to us of any
of these latter. He is said to have painted in the Duomo: and
D'Agincourt mentions having seen some portions of a fresco by him
which originally had its place above the high altar in the Church of
the Certosa; but which, at the time he saw it, being very
dilapidated, had been hewn out of the wall, and was preserved in the
stores of the convent.
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