to execute certain little pictures in oil, but they were not of any importance.
Meanwhile Don Miniato Pitti had been made either Abbot or Prior, I know not which, of Santa Anna, a Monastery of Monte Oliveto in the district of Siena, when he sent for me, and I painted for him as well as for Albenga, the General of his Order, several pictures and paintings of various kinds Subsequently, the same ecclesiastic being appointed to the Abbacy of San Bernardo in Arezzo, commissioned me to paint two pictures in oil, figures of Job and Moses namely, on the balustrade of the organ; and the work having pleased those Monks, they furthermore employed me to paint certain frescoes in the ceiling and on the walls of the Portico before their Church.[1] These were the four Evangelists, with a figure of the Almighty Father in the ceiling, and some other figures, the size of life, on the walls. And in these, although, as an inexperienced youth, I did not effect what might have been done by a more practised artist, yet I did what I could; and those Monks, having consideration for mine early years and small experience, were not displeased with my labours.
The work was but just completed, when the Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici, travelling to Pome, passed through Arezzo, and taking me to Rome in his service, I was there enabled, by the courtesy and favour of that Noble, to devote myself for many months to the studies of design, as I have related in the Life of Salviati. And here I may with truth affirm, that this advantage and the studies of that period were indeed my true and principal master in this art, although I had without doubt profited, and not a little, by the instructions received from those whom I have before mentioned, nor had an ardent desire to learn ever departed or been absent from my heart, insomuch that my perpetual care was to draw with unwearying diligence night and day.
A great advantage of that time was the competition with young men, then my equals and companions, who afterwards became for the most part most excellent in our arts; the desire of glory was indeed ever a sufficiently powerful stimulus to mine exertions, as was the sight of the extraordinary success, and the advancement to rank and honour, by which so many artists had been rewarded.
- ↑ These frescoes, which were executed by our author at the age of eighteen, are still in the Fortico of the church.
