Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/433

Rh hunger; next he would expatiate on the wretchedness of having to swallow syrups or potions of any kind; would enumerate the various martyrdoms endured from other curative processes, talk of the cruelty of being roused up to take physic when a man would rather sleep on, the torment of having to make a will, the wretchedness of seeing kinsfolk wailing around one, and the misery of being shut up in a dark room. Of death by the hand of justice, on the contrary, he would speak in terms of the highest commendation. It must be such a line thing to be led forth to one’s death in that manner; to see the clear, bright, open air, and all that mass of people; to be comforted, moreover, with sugar-plums and kind words; to have the priests and the people all praying for you alone, and to enter into Paradise with the angels. He considered the man who departed from this life suddenly to have singular good fortune, and thus would he dilate in a manner the most extraordinary, turning everything to the strangest significations imaginable.

Living thus peculiarly, in the midst of these eccentric fancies, he brought himself to such a state that he was found dead one morning at the foot of a staircase. This happened in the year 1521, when he received the rites of sepulture in San Piero Maggiore.

The disciples of this master were very numerous, and among them was Andrea del Sarto, who was in himself a host. I obtained the portrait of Piero di Cosimo from Francesco da San Gallo, an intimate friend and constant companion of Piero, who took it when the latter had already become old. And this Francesco is still in possession of a work by the hand of Piero (for I must not omit that), a most beautiful head of Cleopatra namely, with the asp twined round her neck. He has two portraits also, one of Giuliano, his father, the other of Francesco Giamberti, his grandfather, both of which might be supposed to be alive.