behind them, and having chanced upon a country where the people are lovers of talent, and friendly to foreigners; by the prudent regulation of their walk and life, have found themselves to be so amicably received and appreciated in such a manner, that they forget their earliest home and the cradle of their birth, choosing a new one for the repose of their last years, as Guglielmo chose Arezzo for his ultimate abiding place.
In his youth and while still in France, Guglielmo da Marcilla had given his attention to the arts of design, devoting himself more particularly to the painting cf glass windows, on which he depicted figures in various colours as softly blent as if the work had been a finely executed picture in oil.
Moved by the entreaties of certain among his friends, Guglielmo had suffered himself, while still in his native country, to be present at a brawl, which resulted in the death of one who was their enemy, for which cause he was compelled to take the habit of a Monk in the order of San Domenico, as the sole means of escaping from the vengeance of 'the court and the pursuit of justice; but although he never abandoned the religious habit, thus assumed in France, he continued his studies in art nevertheless, pursuing them indeed until he had attained to the highest perfection.
Pope Julius II. had commissioned the architect Bramante to cause numerous windows in painted glass to be prepared for his palace, when it chanced that the latter, making inquiry for the most distinguished among those employed in that branch of art, received intelligence respecting certain masters who were then executing admirable works of the kind in France, and had the opportunity of examining a specimen by means of the French ambassador, who was then at the Court of His Holiness: this was a window enclosed within a frame which the ambassador had in his study, and whereon was a figure painted with various colours on white glass, which had afterwards been submitted to the action of fire. Letters were thereupon written to France by order of Bramante, requesting those masters to proceed to Rome, and offering them liberal appointments. Maestro Claudio, therefore, a Frenchman, and the chief of that vocation,[1] having received this intelli-
- ↑ For details respecting the early history of painting on glass, see Gessert,
