Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/95

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Fra Filippo drew exceedingly well, as may be seen in our book of the drawings of the most famous painters, more particularly in certain specimens wherein the picture of Santo Spirito is delineated, with others, which present drawings of the works in the chapel of Prato.

We are now to speak of Paolo Romano and of Mino del Regno,! who were contemporaries, and of the same profession, but very different in character and knowledge of art, Paolo being modest and possessing very good ability; Mino greatly inferior to him in talent, but so presumptuous and arrogant, that he not only displayed his self-sufficiency in his conduct, but even exalted and boasted of his own vforks without measure in all his discourse. On a certain occasion, when Pope Pius II. gave a commission to the Roman sculptor Paolo for the execution of a statue, Mino, envious of this good fortune, so persecuted and tormented Paolo, that the latter, who was a most kindly and diffident man, was nevertheless compelled to resent his proceedings; whereupon Mino, falling into sudden rage, offered to bet a thousand ducats that he would execute a statue equal to that of Paolo, and this he said with the utmost audacity and most offensive insolence, knowing the character of Paolo, who was never willing to engage in strife, and whom he did not expect to accept such a challenge. But he was mistaken, Paolo