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LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS SCULPTORS AND ARCHITECTS BY GIORGIO
VASARI:

VOLUME VIII. BASTIANO TO TADDEO ZUCCHERO 1914

NEWLY TRANSLATED BY GASTON Du C. DE VERE. WITH FIVE HUNDRED
ILLUSTRATIONS: IN TEN VOLUMES

[Illustration: 1511-1574]

PHILIP LEE WARNER, PUBLISHER TO THE MEDICI SOCIETY, LIMITED 7 GRAFTON
ST. LONDON, W. 1912-15




CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII

                                                                    PAGE

    BASTIANO DA SAN GALLO, CALLED ARISTOTILE                           3

    BENVENUTO GAROFALO AND GIROLAMO DA CARPI, AND OTHER LOMBARDS      23

    RIDOLFO, DAVID, AND BENEDETTO GHIRLANDAJO                         59

    GIOVANNI DA UDINE                                                 73

    BATTISTA FRANCO                                                   89

    GIOVAN FRANCESCO RUSTICI                                         111

    FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI                                   133

    FRANCESCO SALVIATI                                               161

    DANIELLO RICCIARELLI                                             197

    TADDEO ZUCCHERO                                                  215

    INDEX OF NAMES                                                   265




ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME VIII

PLATES IN COLOUR

                                                             FACING PAGE

    ALESSANDRO BONVICINO (MORETTO DA BRESCIA)
        S. Justina
            Vienna: Imperial Gallery, 218                             22

    GAUDENZIO FERRARI
        Madonna and Child
            Milan: Brera, 277                                         56

    RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO
        Portrait of a Lady
            Florence: Pitti, 224                                      64

    JACOPO TINTORETTO
        Bacchus and Ariadne
            Venice: Doges' Palace, Sala Anticollegio                  96


PLATES IN MONOCHROME

    FRANCESCO UBERTINI (IL BACCHIACCA)
        The Baptist in Jordan
            Berlin: Kaiser Friedrich Museum, 267                      18

    BENVENUTO GAROFALO
        The Madonna and Child with Saints
            Ferrara: Pinacoteca, 1514                                 24

    BENVENUTO GAROFALO
        The Massacre of the Innocents
            Ferrara: Pinacoteca, 1519                                 26

    BENVENUTO GAROFALO
        The Adoration of the Magi
            Ferrara: Pinacoteca, 1537                                 30

    NICCOLO (NICCOLO DELL'ABATE)
        Scene from the AEneid
            Modena: Reale Galleria Estense                            34

    IL MODENA (ANTONIO BEGARELLI)
        The Madonna and Child with S. John
            Modena: Museo Civico                                      38

    IL MODENA (ANTONIO BEGARELLI)
        Four Saints
            Modena: S. Pietro                                         40

    GIULIO CAMPO
        The Purification of the Virgin
            Cremona: S. Margherita                                    42

    SOFONISBA ANGUISCIUOLA
        Portrait of the Artist
            Vienna: Imperial Gallery, 109                             44

    GIROLAMO ROMANINO
        The Madonna and Child with Saints
            Brescia: S. Francesco                                     46

    ALESSANDRO BONVICINO (MORETTO DA BRESCIA)
        The Coronation of the Virgin
            Brescia: SS. Nazzaro e Celso                              48

    GIAN GIROLAMO BRESCIANO (SAVOLDO)
        The Adoration of the Shepherds
            Brescia: Palazzo Martinengo                               50

    BRAMANTINO
        The Holy Family
            Milan: Brera, 279                                         50

    BRAMANTINO
        A Warrior
            Milan: Brera, 494                                         52

    CESARE DA SESTO
       Salome
           Vienna: Imperial Gallery, 91                               54

    GAUDENZIO (GAUDENZIO FERRARI)
        S. Paul
            Paris: Louvre, 1285                                       56

    RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO
        Christ bearing the Cross
            London: N. G., 1143                                       60

    RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO
        The Miracle of S. Zanobi
            Florence: Uffizi, 1275                                    62

    ANTONIO DEL CERAIOLO
        The Crucifixion with SS. Francis and Mary Magdalene
            Florence: Accademia, 163                                  66

    RIDOLFO GHIRLANDAJO
        The Madonna giving the Girdle to S. Thomas
            Prato: Duomo                                              70

    GIOVANNI DA UDINE
        Arabesques
            Rome: The Vatican, Loggia di Raffaello                    78

    JACOPO TINTORETTO
        The Pool of Bethesda
            Venice: S. Rocco                                          98

    JACOPO TINTORETTO
        The Last Judgment
            Venice: S. Maria dell'Orto                               102

    JACOPO TINTORETTO
        The Miracle of S. Mark
            Venice: Accademia                                        104

    JACOPO TINTORETTO
        The Apotheosis of S. Rocco
            Venice: Scuola di S. Rocco                               106

    GIOVAN FRANCESCO RUSTICI
        S. John Preaching
            Florence: The Baptistry                                  114

    FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI
        S. Cosmas
            Florence: S. Lorenzo, Medici Chapel                      136

    FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI
        Tomb of Andrea Doria
            Genoa: S. Matteo                                         144

    FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI
        Fountain of Neptune
            Messina: Piazza del Duomo                                146

    FRA GIOVANNI AGNOLO MONTORSOLI
        High Altar
            Bologna: S. Maria dei Servi                              150

    FRANCESCO SALVIATI (FRANCESCO DE' ROSSI)
        Portrait of a Man
            Florence: Uffizi, 1256                                   162

    FRANCESCO SALVIATI (FRANCESCO DE' ROSSI)
        Justice
            Florence: Bargello                                       174

    FRANCESCO SALVIATI (FRANCESCO DE' ROSSI)
        The Deposition
            Florence: S. Croce, the Refectory                        180

    FRANCESCO DAL PRATO
        Medal of Pope Clement VII.
            London: British Museum                                   190

    GIUSEPPE DEL SALVIATI (GIUSEPPE PORTA)
        The Reconciliation of Pope Alexander III and
        Frederick Barbarossa
            Rome: The Vatican, Sala Regia                            192

    DANIELLO RICCIARELLI
        The Descent from the Cross
            Rome: SS. Trinita dei Monti                              200

    DANIELLO RICCIARELLI
        The Massacre of the Innocents
            Florence: Uffizi, 1107                                   208

    FEDERIGO ZUCCHERO
        Portrait of the Artist
            Florence: Uffizi, 270                                    226




BASTIANO DA SAN GALLO, CALLED ARISTOTILE




LIFE OF BASTIANO DA SAN GALLO, CALLED ARISTOTILE,

PAINTER AND SCULPTOR OF FLORENCE


When Pietro Perugino, by that time an old man, was painting the
altar-piece of the high-altar of the Servites at Florence, a nephew of
Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo, called Bastiano, was placed with him
to learn the art of painting. But the boy had not been long with
Perugino, when he saw the manner of Michelagnolo in the cartoon for the
Hall, of which we have already spoken so many times, in the house of the
Medici, and was so struck with admiration, that he would not return any
more to Pietro's workshop, considering that his manner, beside that of
Buonarroti, was dry, petty, and by no means worthy to be imitated. And
since, among those who used to go to paint that cartoon, which was for a
time the school of all who wished to attend to painting, the most able
of all was held to be Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, Bastiano chose him as his
companion, in order to learn colouring from him, and so they became fast
friends. But not ceasing therefore to give his attention to that cartoon
and to work at those nudes, Bastiano copied all together in a little
cartoon the whole composition of that mass of figures, which not one of
all those who had worked at it had ever drawn as a whole. And since he
applied himself to it with all the earnestness that was in him, it
proved that he was afterwards able on any occasion to render an account
of the attitudes, muscles, and movements of those figures, and of the
reasons that had caused Buonarroti to depict certain difficult postures;
in doing which he would speak slowly and sententiously, with great
gravity, so that a company of able craftsmen gave him the name of
Aristotile, which, moreover, sat upon him all the better because it
appeared that according to an ancient portrait of that supreme
philosopher and confidant of Nature, Bastiano much resembled him.

But to return to the little cartoon drawn by Aristotile; he held it
always so dear, that, after Buonarroti's original had perished, he would
never let it go either at a price or on any other terms, or allow it to
be copied; indeed, he would not show it, save only as a man shows
precious things to his dearest friends, as a favour. Afterwards, in the
year 1542, this drawing was copied in oils by Aristotile, at the
persuasion of Giorgio Vasari, who was much his friend, in a picture in
chiaroscuro, which was sent through Monsignor Giovio to King Francis of
France, who held it very dear, and gave a handsome reward to San Gallo.
This Vasari did in order that the memory of that work might be
preserved, seeing that drawings perish very readily.

In his youth, then, Aristotile delighted, as the others of his house
have done, in the matters of architecture, and he therefore gave his
attention to measuring the ground-plans of buildings and with great
diligence to the study of perspective; in doing which he was much
assisted by a brother of his, called Giovan Francesco, who was employed
as architect in the building of S. Pietro, under Giuliano Leno, the
proveditor. Giovan Francesco, having drawn Aristotile to Rome, employed
him to keep the accounts in a great business that he had of furnaces for
lime and works in pozzolana and tufa, which brought him very large
profits; and in this way Bastiano lived for a time, without doing
anything but draw in the Chapel of Michelagnolo, and resort, by means of
M. Giannozzo Pandolfini, Bishop of Troia, to the house of Raffaello da
Urbino. After a time, Raffaello having made for that Bishop the design
of a palace which he wished to erect in the Via di S. Gallo at Florence,
the above-named Giovan Francesco was sent to put it into execution,
which he did with all the diligence wherewith it is possible for such a
work to be carried out. But in the year 1530, Giovan Francesco being
dead, and the siege of Florence in progress, that work, as we shall
relate, was left unfinished. Its completion was afterwards entrusted to
his brother Aristotile, who, as will be told, had returned to Florence
many and many a year before, after having amassed a large sum of money
under the above-named Giuliano Leno, in the business that his brother
had left him in Rome; with a part of which money Aristotile bought, at
the persuasion of Luigi Alamanni and Zanobi Buondelmonte, who were much
his friends, a site for a house behind the Convent of the Servites, near
Andrea del Sarto, where, with the intention of taking a wife and living
at leisure, he afterwards built a very commodious little house.

After returning to Florence, then, Aristotile, being much inclined to
perspective, to which he had given his attention under Bramante in Rome,
appeared to delight in scarcely any other thing; but nevertheless,
besides executing a portrait or two from the life, he painted in oils,
on two large canvases, the Eating of the Fruit by Adam and Eve and their
Expulsion from Paradise, which he did after copies that he had made from
the works painted by Michelagnolo on the vaulting of the Chapel in Rome.
These two canvases of Aristotile's, because of his having taken them
bodily from that place, were little extolled; but, on the other hand, he
was well praised for all that he did in Florence for the entry of Pope
Leo, making, in company with Francesco Granacci, a triumphal arch
opposite to the door of the Badia, with many scenes, which was very
beautiful. In like manner, at the nuptials of Duke Lorenzo de' Medici,
he was of great assistance in all the festive preparations, and
particularly in some prospect-views for comedies, to Franciabigio and
Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, who had charge of everything.

He afterwards executed many pictures of Our Lady in oils, partly from
his own fancy, and partly copied from the works of others; and among
them he painted one similar to that which Raffaello executed for S.
Maria del Popolo in Rome, with the Madonna covering the Child with a
veil, which now belongs to Filippo dell'Antella. And another is in the
possession of the heirs of Messer Ottaviano de' Medici, together with
the portrait of the above-named Lorenzo, which Aristotile copied from
that which Raffaello had executed. Many other pictures he painted about
the same time, which were sent to England. But, recognizing that he had
no invention, and how much study and good grounding in design painting
required, and that for lack of these qualities he would not be able to
achieve any great excellence, Aristotile resolved that his profession
should be architecture and perspective, executing scenery for comedies,
to which he was much inclined, on every occasion that might present
itself to him. And so, the above-mentioned Bishop of Troia having once
more set his hand to his palace in the Via di S. Gallo, the charge of
this was given to Aristotile, who in time carried it with much credit to
himself to the condition in which it is now to be seen.

Meanwhile Aristotile had formed a great friendship with Andrea del
Sarto, his neighbour, from whom he learned to do many things to
perfection, attending with much study to perspective; wherefore he was
afterwards employed in many festivals that were held by certain
companies of gentlemen who were living at Florence in those peaceful
times. Thus, when the Mandragola, a most amusing comedy, was to be
performed by the Company of the Cazzuola in the house of Bernardino di
Giordano, on the Canto a Monteloro, Andrea del Sarto and Aristotile
executed the scenery, which was very beautiful; and not long afterwards
Aristotile executed the scenery for another comedy by the same author,
in the house of the furnace-master Jacopo at the Porta S. Friano. From
that kind of scenery and prospect-views, which much pleased the citizens
in general, and in particular Signor Alessandro and Signor Ippolito de'
Medici (who were in Florence at that time, under the care of Silvio
Passerini, Cardinal of Cortona), Aristotile acquired so great a name,
that it was ever afterwards his principal profession; indeed, so some
will have it, his name of Aristotile was given him because he appeared
in truth to be in perspective what Aristotle was in philosophy.

But, as it often happens that from the height of peace and tranquillity
one falls into wars and discords, with the year 1527 all peace and
gladness in Florence were changed into sorrow and distress, for by that
time the Medici had been driven out, and then came the plague and the
siege, and for many years life was anything but gay; wherefore no good
could be done then by craftsmen, and Aristotile lived in those days
always in his own house, attending to his studies and fantasies.
Afterwards, however, when Duke Alessandro had assumed the government of
Florence, and matters were beginning to clear up a little, the young men
of the Company of the Children of the Purification, which is opposite to
S. Marco, arranged to perform a tragi-comedy taken from the Book of
Kings, of the tribulations that ensued from the violation of Tamar,
which had been composed by Giovan Maria Primerani. Thereupon the charge
of the scenery and prospect-views was given to Aristotile, and he
prepared the most beautiful scenery, considering the capacity of the
place, that had ever been made. And since, besides the beauty of the
setting, the tragi-comedy was beautiful in itself and well performed,
and very pleasing to Duke Alessandro and his sister, who heard it, their
Excellencies caused the author, who was in prison, to be liberated, on
the condition that he should write another comedy, but after his own
fancy. Which having been done by him, Aristotile made in the loggia of
the garden of the Medici, on the Piazza di S. Marco, a very beautiful
scene and prospect-view, full of colonnades, niches, tabernacles,
statues, and many other fanciful things that had not been used up to
that time in festive settings of that kind; which all gave infinite
satisfaction, and greatly enriched that sort of painting. The subject of
the piece was Joseph falsely accused of having sought to violate his
mistress, and therefore imprisoned, and then liberated after his
interpretation of the King's dream.

This scenery having also much pleased the Duke, he ordained, when the
time came, that for his nuptials with Madama Margherita of Austria
another comedy should be performed, with scenery by Aristotile, in the
Company of Weavers, which is joined to the house of the Magnificent
Ottaviano de' Medici, in the Via di S. Gallo. To which having set his
hand with all the study, diligence, and labour of which he was capable,
Aristotile executed all those preparations to perfection. Now Lorenzo di
Pier Francesco de' Medici, having himself written the piece that was to
be performed, had charge of the whole representation and the music; and,
being such a man that he was always thinking in what way he might be
able to kill the Duke, by whom he was so much favoured and beloved, he
thought to find a way of bringing him to his end in the preparations for
the play. And so, where the steps of the prospect-view and the floor of
the stage ended, he caused the wing-walls on either side to be thrown
down to the height of eighteen braccia, intending to build up in that
space a room in the form of a purse-shaped recess, which was to be of
considerable size, and a stage on a level with the stage proper, which
might serve for the choral music. Above this first stage he wished to
make another for harpsichords, organs, and other suchlike instruments
that cannot be moved or changed about with ease; and the space where he
had pulled down the walls, in front, he wished to have covered with
curtains painted with prospect-views and buildings. All which pleased
Aristotile, because it enriched the proscenium, and left the stage free
of musicians, but he was by no means pleased that the rafters upholding
the roof, which had been left without the walls below to support them,
should be arranged otherwise than with a great double arch, which should
be very strong; whereas Lorenzo wished that it should be sustained by
some props, and by nothing else that could in any way interfere with the
music. Aristotile, knowing that this was a trap certain to fall headlong
down on a multitude of people, would not on any account agree in the
matter with Lorenzo, who in truth had no other intention but to kill the
Duke in that catastrophe. Wherefore, perceiving that he could not drive
his excellent reasons into Lorenzo's head, he had determined that he
would withdraw from the whole affair, when Giorgio Vasari, who was the
protege of Ottaviano de' Medici, and was at that time, although a mere
lad, working in the service of Duke Alessandro, hearing, while he was
painting on that scenery, the disputes and differences of opinion that
there were between Lorenzo and Aristotile, set himself dexterously
between them, and, after hearing both the one and the other and
perceiving the danger that Lorenzo's method involved, showed that
without making any arch or interfering in any other way with the stage
for the music, those rafters of the roof could be arranged easily
enough. Two double beams of wood, he said, each of fifteen braccia,
should be placed along the wall, and fastened firmly with clamps of iron
beside the other rafters, and upon them the central rafter could be
securely placed, for in that way it would lie as safely as upon an arch,
neither more nor less. But Lorenzo, refusing to believe either Giorgio,
who proposed the plan, or Aristotile, who approved it, did nothing but
oppose them with his cavillings, which made his evil intention known to
everyone. Whereupon Giorgio, having seen what a terrible disaster might
result from this, and that it was nothing less than an attempt to kill
three hundred persons, said that come what might he would speak of it to
the Duke, to the end that he might send to examine and render safe the
whole fabric. Hearing this, and fearing to betray himself, Lorenzo,
after many words, gave leave to Aristotile that he should follow the
advice of Giorgio; and so it was done. This scenery, then, was the most
beautiful not only of all that Aristotile had executed up to that time,
but also of all that had ever been made by others, for he made in it
many corner-pieces in relief, and also, in the opening of the stage, a
representation of a most beautiful triumphal arch in imitation of
marble, covered with scenes and statues, not to mention the streets
receding into the distance, and many other things wrought with
marvellous invention and incredible diligence and study.

After Duke Alessandro had been killed by the above-named Lorenzo, and
Cosimo had been elected Duke; in 1536, there came to be married to him
Signora Leonora di Toledo, a lady in truth most rare, and of such great
and incomparable worth, that she may be likened without question, and
perchance preferred, to the most celebrated and renowned woman in
ancient history. And for the nuptials, which took place on the 27th of
June in the year 1539, Aristotile made in the great court of the Medici
Palace, where the fountain is, another scenic setting that represented
Pisa, in which he surpassed himself, ever improving and achieving
variety; wherefore it will never be possible to put together a more
varied arrangement of doors and windows, or facades of palaces more
fantastic and bizarre, or streets and distant views that recede more
beautifully and comply more perfectly with the rules of perspective. And
he depicted there, besides all this, the Leaning Tower of the Duomo, the
Cupola, and the round Temple of S. Giovanni, with other features of that
city. Of the flights of steps that he made in the work, and how everyone
was deceived by them, I shall say nothing, lest I should appear to be
saying the same that has been said at other times; save only this, that
the flight of steps which appeared to rise from the ground to the stage
was octagonal in the centre and quadrangular at the sides--an artifice
extraordinary in its simplicity, which gave such grace to the
prospect-view above, that it would not be possible to find anything
better of that kind. He then arranged with much ingenuity a lantern of
wood in the manner of an arch, behind all the buildings, with a sun one
braccio high, in the form of a ball of crystal filled with distilled
water, behind which were two lighted torches, which rendered the sky of
the scenery and prospect-view so luminous, that it had the appearance of
the real and natural sun. This sun, which had around it an ornament of
golden rays that covered the curtain, was drawn little by little by
means of a small windlass that was there, in such a manner that at the
beginning of the performance the sun appeared to be rising, and then,
having climbed to the centre of the arch, it so descended that at the
end of the piece it was setting and sinking below the horizon.

The author of the piece was Antonio Landi, a gentleman of Florence, and
the interludes and music were in the hands of Giovan Battista Strozzi, a
man of very beautiful genius, who was then very young. But since enough
was written at that time about the other things that adorned the
performance, such as the interludes and music, I shall do no more than
mention who they were who executed certain pictures, and it must suffice
for the present to know that all the other things were carried out by
the above-named Giovan Battista Strozzi, Tribolo, and Aristotile. Below
the scenery of the comedy, the walls at the sides were divided into six
painted pictures, each eight braccia in height and five in breadth, and
each having around it an ornamental border one braccio and two-thirds in
width, which formed a frieze about it and was moulded on the side next
the picture, containing four medallions in the form of a cross, with two
Latin mottoes for each scene, and in the rest were suitable devices.
Over all, right round, ran a frieze of blue baize, save where the scene
was, above which was a canopy, likewise of baize, which covered the
whole court. On that frieze of baize, above every painted story, were
the arms of some of the most illustrious families with which the house
of Medici had kinship.

Beginning with the eastern side, then, next to the stage, in the first
picture, which was by the hand of Francesco Ubertini, called Il
Bacchiacca, was the Return from Exile of the Magnificent Cosimo de'
Medici; the device consisted of two Doves on a Golden Bough, and the
arms in the frieze were those of Duke Cosimo. In the second, which was
by the same hand, was the Journey of the Magnificent Lorenzo to Naples;
the device a Pelican, and the arms those of Duke Lorenzo--namely, Medici
and Savoy. In the third picture, painted by Pier Francesco di Jacopo di
Sandro, was Pope Leo X on his visit to Florence, being carried by his
fellow-citizens under the baldachin; the device was an Upright Arm, and
the arms those of Duke Giuliano--Medici and Savoy. In the fourth
picture, by the same hand, was Biegrassa taken by Signor Giovanni, who
was to be seen issuing victorious from that city; the device was Jove's
Thunderbolt, and the arms in the frieze were those of Duke
Alessandro--Austria and Medici. In the fifth, Pope Clement was crowning
Charles V at Bologna; the device was a Serpent that was biting its own
tail, and the arms were those of France and Medici. That picture was by
the hand of Domenico Conti, the disciple of Andrea del Sarto, who proved
that he had no great ability, being deprived of the assistance of
certain young men whose services he had thought to use, since all, both
good and bad, were employed; wherefore he was laughed at, who, much
presuming, at other times with little discretion had laughed at others.
In the sixth scene, the last on that side, by the hand of Bronzino, was
the Dispute that took place at Naples, before the Emperor, between Duke
Alessandro and the Florentine exiles, with the River Sebeto and many
figures, and this was a most beautiful picture, and better than any of
the others; the device was a Palm, and the arms those of Spain.

Opposite to the Return of Cosimo the Magnificent (that is, on the other
side), was the happy day of the birth of Duke Cosimo; the device was a
Phoenix, and the arms those of the city of Florence--namely, a Red Lily.
Beside this was the Creation, or rather, Election of the same Cosimo to
the dignity of Duke; the device was the Caduceus of Mercury, and in the
frieze were the arms of the Castellan of the Fortress; and this scene,
which was designed by Francesco Salviati, who had to depart in those
days from Florence, was finished excellently well by Carlo Portelli of
Loro. In the third were the three proud Campanian envoys, driven out of
the Roman Senate for their presumptuous demand, as Titus Livius relates
in the twentieth book of his history; and in that place they represented
three Cardinals who had come to Duke Cosimo, but in vain, with the
intention of removing him from the government; the device was a Winged
Horse, and the arms those of the Salviati and the Medici. In the fourth
was the Taking of Monte Murlo; the device an Egyptian Horn-owl over the
head of Pyrrhus, and the arms those of the houses of Sforza and Medici;
in which scene, painted by Antonio di Donnino, a bold painter of things
in motion, might be seen in the distance a skirmish of horsemen, which
was so beautiful that this picture, by the hand of a person reputed to
be feeble, proved to be much better than the works of some others who
were able men only by report. In the fifth could be seen Duke Alessandro
being invested by his Imperial Majesty with all the devices and insignia
of a Duke; the device was a Magpie, with leaves of laurel in its beak,
and in the frieze were the arms of the Medici and of Toledo; and that
picture was by the hand of Battista Franco the Venetian. In the last of
all those pictures were the Espousals of the same Duke Alessandro, which
took place at Naples; the devices were two Crows, the ancient symbols of
marriage, and in the frieze were the arms of Don Pedro di Toledo,
Viceroy of Naples; and that picture, which was by the hand of Bronzino,
was executed with such grace, that, like the first-named, it surpassed
the scenes of all the others.

By the same Aristotile, likewise, there was executed over the loggia a
frieze with other little scenes and arms, which was much extolled, and
which pleased his Excellency, who rewarded him liberally for the whole
work. Afterwards, almost every year, he executed scenery and
prospect-views for the comedies that were performed at Carnival time;
and he had in that manner of painting such assistance from nature and
such practice, that he had determined that he would write of it and
teach others; but this he abandoned, because the undertaking proved to
be more difficult than he had expected, but particularly because
afterwards commissions to execute prospect-views were given by new men
in authority at the Palace to Bronzino and Francesco Salviati, as will
be related in the proper place. Aristotile, therefore, perceiving that
many years had passed during which he had not been employed, went off
to Rome to find Antonio da San Gallo, his cousin, who, immediately after
his arrival, having received and welcomed him