Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/156

148 The works of this master were so carefully executed, and finished with so much delicacy, that every other painting looks but just sketched and left incomplete as compared with those from his hand. He left many disciples, and among them were Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, and Tommaso di Stefano. But as we shall speak of Sogliano in another place, I will here confine myself to a few remarks respecting Tommaso. This artist closely imitated the careful finish of his master, and executed many works in Florence, as well as in the neighbourhood of that city; he painted a picture representing the Birth of Christ, for Marco del Nero, at his villa of Arcetri, and this work he completed with great delicacy of finish. But the principal occupation of Tommaso ultimately became that of painting banners to be borne in procession, whence it resulted that he painted these standards better than any other artist.

The father of Tommaso had been a painter in miniature, and had also given some attention to architecture, wherefore his son, by way of following his example, undertook, after the death of his father, to reconstruct the bridge at Sieve, which is at the distance of about ten miles from Florence; that fabric having been destroyed by a flood. He likewise built the bridge at San Piero-a -Ponte, on the river Bisenzio, which is a very fine work; and, after having erected numerous buildings for monasteries, and in other places, he was ultimately appointed architect to the Guild of the