Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/304

290 this world, to their no small credit as well as advantage: and this was the case with the Florentine painter, Lorenzo di Bicci. This artist was born in Florence, in the year 1400, and precisely at the moment when Italy began to be tormented by those wars which, no long time afterwards, conducted her to her ruin: the foundation of his subsequent credit was laid almost in his childhood, seeing that he acquired excellent habits and manners under the discipline of his father, and was instructed in his art by Spinello, so that even from boyhood he enjoyed the reputation of being a good painter, and was moreover early considered a courteous and honourable, as as well as a clever man. Lorenzo, while still but a youth, had executed various works in fresco, in Florence, as well as the neighbourhood, by way of acquiring practice; these attracted the attention of Giovanni di Bicci of the house of Medici, who, remarking his good manner, commissioned him to paint those figures of eminent men which are still to be seen in tolerable preservation, in one of the halls of the old house of the Medici family, which fell into the possession of Lorenzo, brother of Cosmo the elder, when the great palace was built. This work being finished, the young painter, proceeding as do certain physicians, who make experiments in their art on the hides of the poor country-folks, took all occasions to practise himself in painting, where the work was not likely to be too minutely examined, and for some time accepted every opportunity of employment that fell into his hands; wherefore he painted a tabernacle at the bridge of Scandicci, outside the gate of San Friano, a work of which the manner may still be seen; and at Cerbaia he executed the figure of