Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/153

Rh so exact, it is finished with such extraordinary patience and care, that one finds a difficulty in conceiving, much more then in imitating it.

The zeal, diligence, and other excellent qualities of Lorenzo, caused him to be greatly beloved by his master Andrea Verrocchio, insomuch that when the latter went to Venice to cast the bronze horse and the statue of Bartolommeo da Bergamo, he left to Lorenzo the entire management and administration of all his affairs, with the control of his income and the care of all his statues, drawings, and rilievi, with the materials of every kind used in his art. Lorenzo on his part was most truly devoted to Andrea his master, and not only did he give his attention with inconceivable solicitude and affection to all his affairs in Florence, but even repaired more than once to his master in Venice, there to render him an account of his upright administration, wherein he acquitted himself so much to the satisfaction of Andrea that the latter would have made him his heir, if Lorenzo would have consented to accept that arrangement. Nor did Lorenzo show himself ungrateful for these proofs of good Avill; when Andrea died it was he who proceeded to Venice, whence he brought the remains of his master to Florence, he then consigned to the legal heirs whatever property Andrea had possessed, excepting only the designs, pictures, sculptures, and other matters connected with art.

The first paintings of Lorenzo were a circular picture of Our Lady, which was sent to the King of Spain, the design whereof was copied from one by Andrea his master, and a picture much superior to that just mentioned, which was also copied by Lorenzo from one by Leonardo da Vinci, and was likewise sent into Spain; but so exactly similar was this last to that of Leonardo, that the one could not be distinguished from the other. There is a Madonna by the hand of Lorenzo in a picture most admirably executed, which may be seen near the great church of San Jacopo at Pistoja with another, also representing the Madonna, by the same master,