decorations of stucco, as well as the pictures for the ceiling. Having presented the pictures he had brought with him to Pope Clement, and having received various gifts and favours in addition to the promise just mentioned, our artist, incited by the praises which he heard bestowed on him, and by the advantages which he hoped to obtain from being in the service of so great a Pontitf, commenced a picture of the Circumcision, which was an exceedingly beautiful one. The invention of this work was more particularly remarked, seeing that there were three lights of a very fanciful character, by which it was variously illuminated: the first of these emanated from the radiance of the Saviour’s countenance, and fell on the first or most prominent figures; those further removed received their light from others, who are walking up a flight of steps with lighted torches in their hands and bearing gifts to the sacrifice, while the more distant groups are discovered by the light of the opening dawn, which brings into view an exceedingly beautiful landscape with numerous buildings.
This picture being completed, Francesco presented it to the Pope, who did not dispose of this as he had done of the others, seeing that he had given the former to Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici, (who received the picture of Our Lady) and to the poet, Messer Pietro of Arezzo, his servant, who had the portrait in the mirror. The Circumcision, on the contrary. Pope Clement retained for himself, and it is believed that this work afterwards came into the possession of the Emperor. With respect to the portrait in the mirror, I remember to have seen it, when I was a youth, in the house of Messer Pietro at Arezzo, where it was shown to the strangers who passed through that city as an extraordinary thing, and a work of great merit. It afterwards fell, by what means I know not, into the hands of the carver in crystal, Valerio[1] Vicentino, and is now in the possession of Alessandro Vittoria,[2] a sculptor in Venice, and the disciple of Jacopo Sansovino.[3]
But returning to Francesco, we have to remark that while
