to paint it; many said I might have made another for the Brotherhood, but I could not be sure of succeeding equally well.
No long time afterwards I painted a picture for Messer Annibale Caro, and which he had long before requested me to execute, in one of those letters of his which are now printed;[1] the subject, taken from Theocritus, is Adonis dying in the arms of Venus; this work, at a later period and almost against my will, was taken into France and given to Messer Albizzo del Bene, together with a Psyche, looking with a lamp at Love, who was sleeping, but, being touched by a spark from the lamp, is awakening. These figures, which were of life-size and entirely nude, caused Alfonso di Tommaso Cambi, then a most beautiful youth, and very learned and accomplished, as well as good, kindly, and courteous, to desire that I would make a Portrait of himself, also nude and of life-size, in the character of Endymion, that hunter beloved of the Moon; the fair form of the youth and a landscape, of fanciful composition, amidst which it is seen, receive their light from the splendour of the moon; which, penetrating or rather dissipating the darkness of the night, gives the view a tolerably natural and pleasing appearance, for I laboured with all diligence to imitate the peculiar tints communicated by the pale yellow light of the moon to such objects as are struck by the same.
At a later period I painted two pictures to send to Paugia, in one of these is a Madonna, in the other a Pieta; and shortly afterwards I painted Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, and Joseph beside her, in a large picture for Francesco Botti. This work, which I certainly executed with all the care of which I was capable, Francesco took with him into Spain. Having finished these labours, I went that same year to see the Cardinal Monti at Bologna, where he was Legate, and remained with him some days. There was one subject of conversation, among many others,
- ↑ This letter is the second in the second volume of the Lettere Pittoriche, and is in the first volume of those of Annibale Caro. At the end of it are a few words relating to the Lives of the Artists, and these afford a further proof that the work was wholly by Vasari, and by no other hand; they are as follows:—“Of your other work” (the Lives namely), “there needs not that I speak here, since you are determined that we shall read them over together; but meanwhile, do you finish them entirely, for I am convinced that I shall have little to do unless it be to praise them.”
