readily have agreed to such a request. He replied, nevertheless, that he would not fail to do as the duke wished, but remarked that as the frame was in a very bad condition, he would have a new one made, and when it had been gilt he would send the picture in all safety to Mantua. Then Messer Ottaviano, having done this, “to save the goat and the cabbage,’’ as we say, sent secretly for Andrea del Sarto, and told him how the matter stood, adding that there was nothing for it but to make an exact copy, with all the care that could possibly be devised, and send that to the duke, retaining, but in the strictest secresy, the work which had been performed by the hand of Raffaello.
Andrea having thereupon given a promise to do the utmost that his skill and knowledge could effect, a panel of exactly similar size, and in all respects like that of the original work, was prepared; the master then laboured secretly at his task in the house of Messer Ottaviano, and ultimately acquitted himself in such a manner, that although Messer Ottaviano was profoundly versed in matters of art, yet when Andrea had finished his work, he did not know the one picture from the other; nor could he distinguish the true and original painting from the counterfeit; the resemblance having been further secured by the fact that our artist had copied even to the spots of dirt as they were to be seen on the work of RaphaeL After they had hidden the picture of the latter therefore, they sent the one executed by the hand of Andrea del Sarto, in a frame like that of the original, to Mantua, where the duke received it with extreme satisfaction. Even Giulio Romano, though a painter and the disciple of Raffaello, was deceived by the resemblance, and bestowed on it innumerable praises, without perceiving any thing of what had been done; nor would he have known the truth, on the contrary, he would have always believed the work to be that of Raphael; but when Giorgio Vasari arrived in Mantua, he who had been the favourite and 'protege of Ottaviano in his childhood, and had seen Andrea working on the picture, discovered and made known the whole affair. For as it chanced that Giulio, who conferred many kindnesses and favours on Vasari, was showing him the various antiquities and paintings belonging to the duke, this work of Raffaello was exhibited among the latter
