Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/472

464 palace. Among them were certain small tablets in mezzorilievo, which had been fixed beneath the Loggia in the garden on the side towards San Lorenzo, and these works Mariotto copied several times. In one of the rilievi here alluded to is the figure of Adonis with an exceedingly beautiful dog, and in another are two nude figures, one of which is seated and has a dog at his feet, the other is standing and leaning on a staff, the legs crossed one over the other. Both of these rilievi are wonderfully beautiful, and in the same place there are two others of similar size and almost equal beauty, one of the last mentioned representing two boys bearing the thunderbolts of Jupiter; the other displays the figure of an aged man, entirely nude, having wings at the feet as well as the shoulders, and holding a pair of scales in his hand, this figure is understood to represent Opportunity. In addition to the works here described; there were many others in that garden, which was, so to speak, full of fragments from the antique, torsi for instance of the human form, masculine and feminine, all which were the study, not of Mariotto only, but of all the sculptors and painters of his time. A good part of these works are now in the Guardaroba of the Duke Cosimo, others remain in the same place, as the two torsi of Marsyas for example, the heads over the windows, and those of the Caesars over the doors. By the study of these antiquities Mariotto made great progress in design, and the zeal with which he prosecuted his labours, having become known to Madonna Alfonsina, mother of the Duke Lorenzo, that lady was disposed to render him all the assistance in her power, and he executed several works at her command.

Employing himself in this maimer, now occupied with design, and anon with colouring, our artist finally obtained considerable facility, as may be seen from certain pictures