Bartolommeo Bettino, and the work was one of marvellous beauty; but instead of being delivered to Bettino for the price which had been agreed to by Jacopo, it was seized on, almost by force, and taken from the hands of Puntormo by certain favour-seekers, who wished to do Bartolommeo a displeasure, and was given to the Duke Alessandro, the cartoon alone being restored to Bettino.[1] When Michelagnolo heard of this he was much displeased, on account of the regard which he bore to the friend for whom he had made the cartoon, and was exceedingly angry with Jacopo. But although it is true that the latter did receive fifty crowns from the Duke for the picture, yet he can scarcely be said to have defrauded Bettino, seeing that he did but resign the work at the command of him who wras his Lord: some affirm indeed that Bettino was himself the cause of all the mischief, since he had asked too great a price for the painting.
These sums of money enabling Puntormo to commence certain alterations which he desired to make in his house, he set hand to the work and began to build accordingly, but did not effect anything of much importance. It is true that many say he had the intention of spending very largely, according to his means, for that fabric, intending to construct a very commodious dwelling, for which, it is added, that he had made a design of some merit; but from all that one sees done, the place, whether from Jacopo’s not having enough to spend thereon, or from some other cause, would rather appear to have been contrived by a whimsical and solitary being, than likely to become a wellarranged habitation. To the room wherein Puntormo slept, for example, and in which he sometimes worked also, it wrns necessary to ascend by a ladder of wood, which by means of pulleys he then drew up, so that none could approach his chamber without his knowledge and permission.
But that which most displeased his contemporaries in this artist, was that he would never work but at such moments
- ↑ “This Venus,” says an Italian annotator, “is in the Guardaroba of the Grand Duke, but some painter of the seventeenth century has covered the nude form with drapery: the colouring is cold and the execution laboured, insomuch that it might be taken for a copy.” There is a picture in the Berlin Gallery, which is believed by certain German writers to be the original work, executed by Pontormo after Michael Angelo’s cartoon, as described in the text. It is said, moreover, to be still in admirable preservation. See the Kunstblatt for 1842, p. 42.
