Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/473

Rh painted for Madonna Alfonsina, and which were sent by her to Rome, for Carlo and Giordano Orsini, but which afterwards fell into the hands of Caesar Borgia. Mariotto painted a likeness of the above-named lady, which was extremely well done, and he began to hope that by her means ho should make his fortune; but in the year 1494, Piero de Medici was banished, when the assistance and favour of that family failing him, the painter returned to the dwelling of Baccio della Porta. Here he employed himself assiduously in the preparation of models in clay, and in making studies from Nature; he also carefully imitated the works and method of Baccio, by which means he became in a few years an able and experienced master. Seeing his works thus improving and finally attaining to great excellence, Mariotto felt himself greatly encouraged, and imitating the manner and methods of his associate more and more closely, his hand was by many not unfrequently taken for that of Baccio della Porta himself.

But when the latter departed, with the resolution of becoming a monk, Mariotto had. well nigh gone out of his senses, so completely was he overwhelmed by the loss of his companion. The determination of Baccio appeared to him so extraordinary, that he fell into a state of desperation; for a long time he could take pleasure in nothing, his life was as a burden to him, and at that period, his love for Baccio would certainly have induced him to throw himself into the same convent, had it not been for the antipathy with which he always regarded all monks, of whom he was continually uttering the most injurious remarks: he had even attached himself to the party of those who opposed Fra Girolamo of Ferrara: but had not these obstacles prevented him, there is no doubt that he would have taken the habit of the Domenicans with his friend.

Mariotto was entreated by Gerozzo Dini, for whom the Last Judgment, which Baccio had left unfinished in the chapel of the Cemetery, was undertaken, to complete that