Barna's Crucifixion (1)

(In the late 1300's, veteran painter Barna of Siena was killed when
he fell from the scaffolding whilst working on "The Crucifixion", the
final panel of his fresco cycle in the Church of the Collegiata, in
San Gimignano, central Italy.) 

I'll mount the scaffold first, sir. Mind the rail -- 
at one point there, it's not reliable.
Oh, careful, sir. I'm flattered you should come
from -- Monteriggione, is it? -- here
to view the work in progress. As you see,
-- that rail, sir -- the scheme is an ambitious one.
You have the standard scriptural episodes
arranged before you. Here, my Crucifixion
-- unfinished, need I say? -- in pride of place.
The pinnacle, and culminating piece!
Oh sir, you're kind. You like the cobalt ground?
I know my limitations. No, it's true.
I'm past the time in life when confident morn
returns upon the awareness, like a song
remembered. See my hair? Once chestnut-gold,
where now it is not knotted with hard paint,
the years have slowly snowed the colour off.
I'll never go to Florence now. No, no,
I mean it. I'm no longer sure I want to. 

Author's Note

mount the scaffold first -- Barna has a visitor who wants to inspect the frescoes. He suggests going up first because the structure isn't safe (but he will "mount the scaffold first" in the sense that he will go to his death before the visitor)
that rail, sir -- in a few minutes' time, Barna will forget the weak point in his scaffolding -- and plunge to his death
unfinished, need I say? -- and it was to remain so
Photo -- the lovely and largely unchanged medieval town of San Gimignano in north central Italy