Reading Andrea's heart, he played on all his strongest feelings, placed before him the glory he would win by covering the lunettes of the arches in the court of the fine church with frescoes which would carry his name down to posterity; he said that any other artist would pay much to obtain leave to paint upon historical walls like those, and how they would all envy the man who should obtain the coveted honour! Then, with a half-whispered hint that for one, Francia Bigio was dying to get the commission for nothing, the wily Frate went his way victorious. Andrea, scorning to make any pecuniary bargain, only stipulated that no one else should paint in that courtyard, and forthwith began the _Stories from the Life of S. Filippo Benizzi_, having only old Alesso Baldovinetti's _Nativity_, and Cosimo Roselli's _Miracle of S. Filippo_, as foils to his own. These two works were on the walls on each side of the church door; there were therefore three entire sides of the cloister to cover, excepting only the entrance into the courtyard from the Piazza, and no doubt he felt like Ghirlandajo, when "he wished he had the entire circuit of the city walls to paint." On the 16th of June, 1511, he began to paint with such vigour that in a few months the first three were uncovered. 1. _S. Philip at Viterbo with the Court, dressing a naked leper in his own cloak_. 2. _S. Philip going from Bologna to Modena_. He rebukes some gamblers, telling them the vengeance of God is near. A sudden thunderstorm and lightning destroy them, thus fulfilling the prediction. There is a great deal of fine action in this composition; the horror and disbelief struggling in the faces of the men, and the stormy landscape are all well rendered. A horse leaps away with strong, terrified action, there is a masterly grasp of his vivid subject, and a rugged strength in the execution which gives great life to it. 3. _S. Philip exorcises a Girl possessed of a Demon_. Here the composition is very tender, the mother and father support the sick girl, and form a very pleasing group; the figures of the spectators are full of life without exaggeration. These works have suffered much from exposure, but the colouring is still good. The praise that Andrea obtained for them was so great that he followed them up by the two in the next series. 4. _A Child brought to life by touching the bier of S. Philip_. This is a kind of double composition, the child being represented in a twofold condition in the foreground, first as dead, and then revived at the touch of the bier. The grouping around the dead saint is very suggestive of Ghirlandajo, and shews a deep study of his frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel. The colouring is peculiarly his own; there is the mingling of a great variety of bright tints of equal intensity, which by some necromancy are made to relieve each other, instead of being relieved by the art of chiaroscuro as in the handling of other masters.