heavy labour, he worked more for the sake of getting through with his task and obtaining the money, than with a view to fame; and this was the cause wherefore he made no further progress in art. Passing his life with joyous companions and lovers of pleasure, musicians, and light women, he resigned himself to the desires of his heart, and died at the age of fifty-two, in the year 1527, of the plague, which he had caught in the house of one whom he loved.
By this artist the colours were handled so well, and in a manner so harmonious, that he merits praise on that account more than on any other. Among his disciples was the Florentine Domenico Beceri, who also coloured exceedingly well, and executed his works in a very good manner.
THE SCULPTOR ANDREA OF FIESOLE, AND OTHER FIESOLAN ARTISTS.
[Flourished from the latter part of the fifteenth century, to about the middle of the sixteenth century.]
The sculptor is required to be as well acquainted with the use of the chisel as is the painter with the management of colours, but it will sometimes happen that those who are very capable of working in clay are afterwards found but poorly prepared for the carrying to perfection of such labours as require to be executed in marble. Others there are again, who on the contrary work exceedingly well in marble, although they have no knowledge of design, but are guided by a certain idea which they have, and the facility which they possess of pursuing a good manner, the imitation of which is derived from certain works which satisfy their judgment, and which being assimilated by the imagination, is then reproduced in their own performances. It is indeed almost wonderful to see the manner in which some sculptors, though not even knowing how to draw on paper, will yet execute works with their chisels, and will even bring the same to a good and praiseworthy conclusion; an instance whereof has been seen in the case of Andrea di Piero di Marco Ferrucci,[1] a sculptor
- ↑ At another part of the life this name is written Ferruzzi, but that the first is the correct form, we learn from a document cited by Gaye, Carteggio, &c.
