Guidoccio Cozzarelli was the author of this design in 1483,[59] but here again there exists no record of the sum paid for it. We may suppose though that these designs were all paid for at about the same rate.[60] The expense of its restoration was 2,352 lire 16 c.
With the examination of the Libyan Sibyl, we find ourselves again at the Western end of the Church, and must betake ourselves back to—
6. THE NORTH TRANSEPT.
This Transept is covered with three large designs, all executed during the Rectorship of Alberto Aringhieri; two of which, at least, may have some political significance.
The first we come to is—
The Expulsion of Herod (No. 27).
This vast composition, designed by Benvenuto Giovanni del Guasta in 1484–85, and for which he received 78 lire,[61] is full of charming grouping and delightful suggestion. It not impossibly alludes to the expulsion, which had then but recently taken place, of Pandolfo Petrucci and his followers. It must be remembered that, though Siena at this period was not involved in important external historical events, her internal history was one long record of party faction and strife, in which Aringhieri himself played a not unimportant part. (Ill. IX.)
Benvenuto was a consummate draughtsman, and he was ably supported here by Bastiano di Francesco, who designed the delightful border of winged lions that frames the picture (Ill. XI.), and made sixty letters of marble for the same work.[62]
LOMBARDI PHOTO.]