Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/166

158 happened in the year 1482, and in a few years, two ehildren were born to him; one, a boy, called Baldassare; the other a girl, named Virginia. Noav it chanced, that while thus desiring only peace and quiet, Antonio was nevertheless pursued by the evils of war; Yolterra being sacked, he was compelled to take refuge in Siena, and there, having lost nearly all that he possessed, he found himself reduced to live in a somewhat poor fashion.

Baldassare, meanwhile, was increasing in stature, and early gave token of the pleasure he found in the society of good and distinguished men; more especially delighting to frequent the workshops of the goldsmiths and others, who practised the arts of design. Wherefore, eventually finding these arts please him, he gave all his attention to drawing, and his father dying about that period, Baldassare devoted himself to the study of painting with so much zeal, that in a very short time he made the most extraordinary progress. Copying and imitating the works of the best masters, he yet gave his principal attention to nature and living objects, and thus early acquiring some little gain by his art, he found means to support himself while he aided his mother and sister, pursuing his studies in painting at the same time.

Among the first works of Baldassare (omitting to mention some few performed in Siena, which do not require more particular notice), was a small chapel near the Florentine Gate of Yolterra; here he painted certain figures with infinite grace, and these were the cause of a friendship which he contracted with the painter Piero of Yolterra, who dwelt for the most part in Rome, where he was employed in the execution of various works in the papal Palace, for Pope Alessandro YI. Baldassare consequently repaired with Piero to Rome, but Alessandro being dead, and Piero no longer finding employment in the Palace, Baldassare placed himself in the workshop of the father of Maturino, a painter of no great excellence, but who, at that period, was neverthe-