cesco Salviati, and in certain other parts of this work, wherein fair occasions for the same have presented themselves; I will therefore not reiterate the same things. It is, however, well that I should repeat one fact, which is, that having copied whatever good pictures there are in the Churches of Arezzo, the first principles of Art were imparted to me with some order by the Frenchman, Guglielmo da Marsiglia, of whom we have described the Life and works in a previous page. In the year 1524 I was taken to Florence by desire of Silvio Passerini, Cardinal of Cortona, and there studied design for a short time under Michelagnolo, Andrea del Sarto, and others. But in the year 1527, the Medici, more particularly Ippolito and Alessandro, to whose service, thus in my childhood, I had been closely attached by means of the above-named Cardinal, ' being then exiled from Florence, my paternal uncle, Don Antonio, caused me to return to Arezzo, my father having died of the Plague but a short time previously.
Now the said Don Antonio, mine uncle, kept me at a distance from the city, in the hope of saving me from the infection of that pestilence; wherefore, that I might not be idle, I began to paint certain frescoes for the peasantry of the neighbourhood, although I had at that time scarcely ever touched colours: but in doing this I perceived that to exercise one’s powers in that manner, wholly alone and without aid, is of great use, teaching much and imparting considerable facility.[1]
In the year 1528, the Plague having ceased, I executed my first work in Arezzo, which comprises three half-length figures of SS. Agata, Pocco, and Sebastiano; this was seen by the much-renowned Painter Rosso, who came in those days to Arezzo, and he, perceiving something good in such parts as were taken from Nature, was pleased to say that he would willingly make my acquaintance; when he rendered me effectual aid, both with designs and counsels.
Nor did any long time elapse before I obtained by his means, a commission from Messer Lorenzo Gamurrini to
- ↑ At the end of the Life of Tomraaso di Stefano, called Giottino, Vasari declares himself to have profited greatly in his first youth by the repainting of certain figures; those of San Jacopo and San Filippo more particularly, which Giovanni Tossicani, a disciple of Giottino, had depicted in a Chapel of the Episcopal Church of Arezzo.
