Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/355

1515] of their own. A Coronation of the Virgin, with two graceful cherubs, at Stuttgart, and two Virgin-Saints at Siena, also belong to this period. After the dissolution of the partnership between him and Fra Bartolommeo, Mariotto, in his first paroxysm of rage and disgust, vowed that he would never touch a brush again. For a little while he kept his resolution, married a wife named Antonia, whose father was the owner of a wine-shop, and himself opened a tavern near the Porta San Gallo. Here, at least, in this "bellissima osteria," Mariotto declared, he would lead a gay and joyous life, free from the cares of perspective and anatomy, and would hear his customers praising his good wine instead of blaming his bad drawing. But before many months were over, he grew tired of his new trade, and went back to his old calling.

In March, 1513, he painted a coat of arms adorned with figures of Faith, Hope and Charity, over the doors of the Medici Palace, in honour of Leo the Tenth's accession to the Papacy. A year later after Fra Bartolommeo's visit to Rome, he received an invitation to paint an altar-piece in the Dominican Convent of La Quercia at Viterbo, and went on to Rome, where Fra Mariano employed him to paint a Marriage of St. Katherine, in the Church of S. Silvestro. He returned to finish his work at La Quercia, but fell ill, and was brought back in a litter to Florence. Fra Bartolommeo hastened to his old friend's bedside as soon as he heard of his illness, and remained with him until he died, on the 5th of November, 1515. Albertinelli was buried in S. Piero Maggiore, and left one son, Biagio, who died