execute the works themselves in an effectual manner; for the finished picture possesses a more decided vitality than the mere sketch. In our collection of drawings we have many figures, studies in perspective, birds, and other animals, beautiful to a marvel, but the best of all is a kind of head-dress, (“mazzocchio”[1]) drawn in outline only, but so admirably done, that nothing short of the patience of Paolo could have accomplished the task. This master was a person of eccentric character, and peculiar habits; but he was a great lover of ability in those of his own art; and, to the end that their memory should remain to posterity, he drew, with his own hand, on an oblong picture, the portraits of five distinguished men, which he kept in his house as a memorial of them. The first of these portraits was that of the painter Giotto, as one who had given light and new life to the art; the second was Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, for architecture; the third was Donatello, for sculpture; the fourth was himself, for perspective and animals; the fifth was his friend Giovanni Manetti, for the mathematics. With this philosopher Paolo conferred very frequently, and held continual discourse with him concerning the problems of Euclid.[2]
It is related of this master that being commissioned to paint St. Thomas seeking the wound in the side of Christ, above the door of the church dedicated to that saint, in the Mercato Vccchio, he declared that he would make known in that work the extent of what he had acquired and was capable of producing, to which end he bestowed upon it the utmost care and consideration: he also caused an enclosure of planks to be constructed around it, that none might see the work until it should be entirely completed. One day Donato met him all alone, and asked him “what kind of a work is this of thine that thou art shutting up so closely?” To whom Paolo, answering, replied—“Thou shalt see it some day, let that suffice thee.” Donato would not press him to
- ↑ Varchi, in his Storia, iib. ix, describes the mazzocc.hio in the following words:—“The mazzocchio is a circlet of wood covered with cloth, which surrounds and binds the upper part of the head; it has a lining within it, and this being brought down in front and thrown back, then covers the whole head.”
- ↑ In the first edition of Vasari, this picture was attributed to Masaccio; it was then in the house of Giuliano da San Gallo; at the present day, all trace of it is lost.—Ed. Flor. 1849.
