BLOSIO Palladio's poem expresses his admiration for two well-known works of the Roman high renaissance, Andrea Sansovino's statue of St Anne, the Virgin and Child and Raphael's fresco of the Prophet Isaiah, both in the Church of Sant' Agostino. A contract dated 13th December 1510, which is transcribed at the end of this article, tells us that these works were originally part of a funerary ensemble commissioned by Johann Goritz of Luxemburg, Apostolic Protonotary and celebrated humanist.' The ensemble decorated the third pier of the left nave arcade of Sant' Agostino, midway down the nave on the way to the high altar. The pier was, as we shall see presently, originally divided horizontally into three zones; the top third was occupied by Raphael's fresco, the middle range by Sansovino's sculpture, the lower third by the altar; the patron, Goritz, was to be buried in the church floor. Carved inscriptions were placed beneath the statue.

IN their report, Il restauro del Crocifisso di Santo Spirito, Ugo Procacci and Umberto Baldini, both authorities in the field of restoration, made the following important statement: 'il colore originale… appariva… in discrete condizioni. E poi nacho all'osservazione microscopic, appariva avertutte le caratteristiche, per smelt, per intensity e per stesura, di un tipico colore del trade quattrocento.' This passage and some other characteristics of the Santo Spirito crucifix come to mind, when reading Ulrich Middeldorf's stimulating article, The Crucifixes of Taddeo Curradi, in which the author attempts to attribute the figure to that master, of whom, unfortunately, no documented work has come to light so far. For information we must turn to Baldinucci's Vita of 'Taddeo di Franc. Curradi detto Taddeo Battiloro', which he placed at the end of a section opening with artists like Buontalenti, Santi di Tito and Giovanni Bologna. Baldinucci's chronological order suggests - and we shall return to the question - that Taddeo Curradi was active in the later decades of the cinquecento.

THE silver made for William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey between 1800 and 1822 which has been discussed in the first part of this article included some of the earliest examples of historicism in English silver. The extensive correspondence between Beckford and his general factotum, Gregorio Franchi, shows that Beckford took a close interest in the form and manufacture of his silver. The correspondence, combined with Franchi's surviving accounts and other material, produces an unusually clear picture of how this remarkable silver was designed, ordered and made.

THE earliest known reference to Paolo Uccello places him in the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti, among a large number of workers and assistants, who aided the goldsmith in his first set of bronze doors for the Baptistery in Florence. The information about Uccello is based upon two items from the Carte Strozziane, a seventeenth-century spoglio, the relevant part of which is conserved in the Florentine Archivio di Stato. The references to Uccello mention him first as a garzone in the shop and later at a more advanced stage in his career, probably that of a young maestro. The notices read: 'Pagolo di Dono garzone di bottega a florin…' 

IN an article in THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE of June 1979 R. W. Lightbown refers to the gold and enamel votive offering executed by Jean Petitot and presented by Henrietta Maria to the Santa Casa di Loreto in 1639.