IT was rare for a single patron in renaissance Italy to com- mission a large number of altar-pieces. The Florentine, Leonardo di Giovanni Buonafe (c. 1450-1545) was respon- sible with varying degrees of personal intervention for about fifteen. This article will deal principally with the painted altar-pieces with which he was concerned as director, between 1500 and 1528, of S. Maria Nuova, the most import- ant hospital in Florence. Examination of the hospital's ledgers permits, in most cases for the first time, firm docu- mentation of eight of the ten paintings ordered for altars under the hospital's jurisdiction during his tenure. Up to now the best known of these have been the two ordered by Buonafe late in life from Ridolfo Ghirlandaio and his pupil Michele Tosini: a Virgin and Child with Sts Jacob, Francis, Claire and Lawrence, for S. Jacopo on the Via Ghibellina in Florence, and a Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate with Sts Joseph and Leonard, for the oratory of the SS. Concezione dei Preti (Figs.1-2). Both include a donor portrait of Buonafé in their lower left corners, and they can be dated, on the basis of new documents, to c. 1531-44.

, for S. Jacopo on the Via Ghibellina in Florence, and a Meeting of Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate with Sts Joseph and Leonard, for the oratory of the SS. Concezione dei Preti (Figs.1-2). Both include a donor portrait of Buonafé in their lower left corners, and they can be dated, on the basis of new documents, to c. 1531-44.

OUR knowledge ofthe briefyet formative period Francesco Mazzola, better known as Parmigianino, spent in Rome between 1524 and 1527 relies almost entirely on the account given by Giorgio Vasari.* According to Vasari, the young artist travelled to Rome with an uncle. His presentation paintings found immediate and enthusiastic reception in the court of Clement VII, but the papal patronage he an- ticipated was not forthcoming. Nevertheless, Parmigianino managed to attract a number of more modest commissions before the Sack forced him to flee the city in 1527. In the absence of any documentation, the identification of these works and their Roman dating has been based largely on Vasari's descriptions and on stylistic evidence. The dis- covery of the contract for a major altar-piece painted by Parmigianino towards the end of his Roman sojourn - the so-called Vision of St Jerome, now in the National Gallery, London (Fig.15) - affiords the opportunity to put Vasari's authority to the test.  In addition, the documents published here expand our knowledge of the intended context and significance of Parmigianino's painting.

, now in the National Gallery, London (Fig.15) - affiords the opportunity to put Vasari's authority to the test.  In addition, the documents published here expand our knowledge of the intended context and significance of Parmigianino's painting.

CARL NORDENFALK who died on 13thJune 1992 was a scholar of the greatest distinction who, though his main contribution to art-historical studies lay in the medieval field, also published important work on later western European painting, on Rem- brandt, on Watteau and particularly on Van Gogh. His pro- digious energy and dedication to his work is demonstrated in the list of his publications included in the Festschrift presented to him in 1987. Starting in 1931, it totals three hundred and sixty items written in German, French and English as well as his native Swedish. That was achieved in addition to his being for most of the period a museum keeper, first at Goteborg from 1935 to 1944, then at the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, where he was in charge of Loans, Exhibitions, and Education until 1949, then of the Department of Painting and Sculpture until 1958, and finally as Director until 1968. In this post-war period he was responsible for a series of important exhibitions culminating in the Council of Europe show on Queen Christina of Sweden of 1966.