[ [i37] Additions to the Life in Vasari, 53. My worthy friend, Mr. Rigaud, who has more than once seen the original picture, gives this account of it: “The cutting of the wall for the sake of opening a door, was no doubt the effect of ignorance and barbarity, but it did not materially injure the painting; it only took away some of the feet under the table, entirely shaded. The true value of this picture consists in what was seen above the table. The door is only four feet wide, and cuts off only about two feet of the lower part of the picture. More damage has been done by subsequent quacks, who, within my own time, have undertaken to repair it.”
[ [i38] Additions to the Life in Vasari, 53.
[ [i39] COPIES EXISTING IN MILAN OR ELSEWHERE.
No. 1. That in the refectory of the fathers Osservanti della Pace: it was painted on the wall in 1561, by Gio. Paolo Lomazzo.
2. Another, copied on board, as a picture in the refectory of the Chierici Regolari di S. Paolo, in their college of St. Barnabas. This is perhaps the most beautiful that can be seen, only that it is not finished lower than the knees, and is in size about one eighth of the original.
3. Another on canvas, which was first in the church of S. Fedele, by Agostino S. Agostino, for the refectory of the Jesuits: since their suppression, it exists in that of the Orfani a S. Pietro, in Gessate.
4. Another of the said Lomazzo’s, painted on the wall in the monastery Maggiore, very fine, and in good preservation.
5. Another on canvas, by an uncertain artist, with only the heads and half the bodies, in the Ambrosian library.
6. Another in the Certosa di Pavia, done by Marco d’Ogionno, a scholar of Leonardo’s, on the wall.
7. Another in the possession of the monks Girolamini di Castellazzo fuori di Porta Lodovica, of the hand of the same Ogionno.