favour of so great a Noble, Taddeo resolved to give himself some quiet of mind, and determined no longer to accept, as he had hitherto done, all the most abject works that could be proposed to him in any part of Rome; being moved thereto principally by his desire to escape the reproaches addressed to him by many of the art, who declared that a certain avaricious rapacity had caused him to undertake whatever offered, that he might make large gains by the labour of others; whereas it would have been more creditable to him had he left these things to be done by those who were seeking support and opportunity for study from such works, as he had himself done in his first youth. But against these reproaches Taddeo defended himself by declaring that what he did was on account of Federigo, and of that other brother, the care of whom he had also on his shoulders, and for whom he wished to secure the means of learning his profession.
Having however, now resolved to restrict his operations, he set himself to serve the Farnese, and to finish the Chapel of San Marcello, but he procured from Messer Tizio da Spoleti, the Master of the Household to that Cardinal, a commission for his brother Federigo, the fa9ade of a house namely, which Messer Tizio had built on the Piazza of the Dogana, near Sant’ Eustachio, a circumstance which greatly rejoiced Federigo, who had long desired nothing more earnestly than to have some work which should be altogether his own.
On this front then, Federigo painted the Story of Sant’ Eustachio, causing himself to be baptized, together with his wife and children, and in the centre of the story, which is an excellent work, he represented the same Saint, when, being at the Chase, he beholds the figure of Our Saviour Christ on the Cross between the horns of a Stag.[1] But when Federigo executed this picture he was but twenty-eight[2] years old, wherefore Taddeo, who reflected that these paintings were in a very public place, and that the credit of Federigo was at stake, not only went often to see how he was proceeding, but would frequently retouch and amend certain parts with his own hands.
This was endured patiently for some time by Federigo, but one day he fell into a transport of rage, and seizing a
