Bastiano was well satisfied, therefore; and with that money, with the savings which he had made from his stipend, and with the sum received for the picture, which, as we related at the commencement, he had sent into France, he returned joyfully to Florence. Nay, although Michelagnolo, who was his friend, had intended to avail himself of Aristotile’s services in the building which the Romans were proposing to erect on the Capitol, he was not to be detained even by that offer, but determined to return at once to his native place.
This he did in the year 1547, and presenting himself to kiss the hand of the Signor Duke Cosimo, he begged his Excellency, since he had commenced the erection of numerous buildings, to be pleased to accept his services in aid of those works, and that Prince, having received him kindly, as he has never failed to receive all men of worth, commanded that he should be paid a stipend of ten crowns per month, assuring him that he should be employed as occasion might arise. Receiving this stipend, therefore, Bastiano lived peaceably some years without labour of any kind, and finally died at the age of seventy, on the last day of May in the year 1551, when he was buried in the church of the Servites. Some of the drawings of this artist are in our book, and others are in the hands of Antonio Particini; among the number are several plates with views in perspective, which are exceedingly beautiful.
Contemporaries and friends of Aristotile were two painters, of whom I will here make some brief mention, seeing that certain truly praiseworthy performances which they have produced, give them a right to be named among the masters here recorded. The first was Jacone,[1] and the second Bacchiacca[2] The works of Jacone were not very numerous, he being one of those men who pass their time in gossiping and jesting, and contenting himself with what little Fortune and his idleness permitted him to obtain, which was indeed often less than his necessities demanded. As lie had frequent intercourse with Andrea del Sarto, Jacone designed exceedingly well and with much boldness, he also showed considerable fancy and originality in the attitudes of his figures, turning and contorting the same in all directions, seeing that
