Now while I was occupied with these works, I took care to observe what the Pope was from time to time proposing to accomplish, and finally I became convinced that but little was to be expected from that Pontitf, for whose service one did but labour in vain; wherefore, although I had already prepared the Cartoons for painting in fresco the Loggia which is above the Fountain of the beforementioned Vigna, I resolved that nothing should thenceforth prevent me from entering the service of Duke Cosimo; more particularly as I was much pressed to do so by Messer Averardo Serrestori and the Bishop of Ricasoli, his Excellency’s Ambassadors in Rome, as well as by the letters of Messer Sforza Almeni, cupbearer and first chamberlain of the Duke.
Having therefore repaired to Arezzo, intending thence to pass on to Florence, I was compelled to paint a figure of Patience, the size of life, in a large picture for Monsignore Minerbetti, the Bishop of that city, who was my friend and very good lord. This figure was in the same manner with that afterwards used as the impress for the reverse of his medals by the Signor Ercole, Duke of Ferrara.[1] These things being completed, I hastened to kiss the hand of Duke Cosimo; by whom, in his kindness, I was received with much favour; and while the subject of what I was first to undertake was in consideration, I caused the Facade of Messer Sforza Almeni’s house to be painted in chiaroscuro by Cristofano Gherardi dal Borgo, after my designs and with the compositions described at length in another place.[2]
Now at that time I was one of the Signori Priors of Arezzo, whose office it is to govern the city, but being called to his service by the letters of the Signor Duke, I was released from the duties of that office; and on my arrival in Florence I found that his Excellency had commenced the construction of those apartments in his Palace which look towards the Piazza del Grano, and which were then in progress under the direction of the wood-carver Tasso, then
- ↑ This figure, which Vasari designed with the advice of Michael Angelo and Annibale Caro, is described by the biographer in Lettera xix. of his Epistles, as given in the Passigli edition. See vol. ii. p. 1439.
- ↑ In the Life of Gherardi, vol. iv. of the present work. Four letters respecting these frescoes, and addressed by Vasari to Sforza Almeni, will be found as above-cited; they are those numbered from 27 to 30.
