In 1938 a painting attributed by Bernard Berenson to the Bolognese painter Simone dei Crocefissi was presented to the Society of Antiquaries by G. McNeil Rushforth, who had been the first Director of the British School in Rome (1900- 03).' The rectangular panel (Fig.4) showed the Virgin asleep with an attendant reading at the foot of her bed and Christ crucified on a wooden cross rising from her body. Below her, a hand reaching down from the bed opens the gates of Limbo to release Adam and Eve (Fig.4). After hanging for many years in the obscurity of a rear staircase at Burlington House, the panel was sent in 1994 to the Department of Conserva- tion and Technology at the Courtauld Institute of Art for conservation and restoration. Cleaning and removal of later interventions have revealed it to be a fragment of great beauty and interest (Fig.3), undoubtedly by Simone dei Crocefissi, and have greatly increased our understanding of its nature and function.2 In particular, removal of the overpaint and later regilding that covered the entire background has clarified the unusual iconography of Redemption attained through the merits of the Virgin, revealing the figure of Christ to be a vision, crucified not on the cross, but on a golden Tree of Life. The complex cusped arch form of the panel that is now evident, comparable with that of a painting by Simone of the same subject in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara (Fig.9), suggests that it must once have been part of a large polyptych.

At first sight, the chronology of the works that Michelangelo undertook after his return from Rome to Florence in 1501 might seem fairly free of problems. For the great public undertakings of these first Florentine years - the marble David for the Opera del Duomo (Fig. 12), the second of twelve marble Apostles likewise for the Opera, and the bronze David for the republican government - contracts survive. As we should expect, each contained clear stipulations concerning the time allowed for completion. To summarise very familiar facts: in the contract of 16th August 1501, Michelangelo was allowed two years to complete the marble David; in that for the bronze David of 12th August 1502 he was allowed six months; and in that for the Apostles, dated 24th April 1503, he was bound to deliver one statue every year over the following twelve years.' Added to these projects was the obligation he had brought with him from Rome in the spring of 1501, to deliver fifteen statues destined for the Piccolomini altar in Siena Cathedral within the following three years. In the agreement signed by Michelangelo in Florence on 19th June 1501, he undertook to accept no other work prior to the completion of Cardinal Francesco Piccolomini's assignment.2 Just over eight weeks later, he signed the contract for the marble David.3