Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/298

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In our modern age of gold, for so may the fortunate pontificate of Leo X. be called, for all noble artists and men of ability,—in that our modern age of gold, I say, a distinguished position was obtained by Polidoro of Caravaggio in Lombardy, who took place among the highest in art, not by means of long and patient study, but because he had been born and produced by nature to be a painter.

This artist arrived in Home at the time when the Loggie of the Papal Palace were in course of construction, under the direction of Raffaello da Urbino, and there he carried the hod or pail for the masons up to his eighteenth year. But when Giovanni da Udine commenced the decoration of the Loggie, and the building and painting of work proceeded together, the great inclination for painting which had always been felt by Polidoro, who was strongly disposed to the arts of design, did not fail to render itself manifest. He so conducted himself, moreover, that after no long time he was admitted to the intimacy of many among the most able of the young men who there exercised the art; when observing their drawings, with the methods pursued by them in their work, he also began to attempt drawing.

But among all those who were then working in that place, Polidoro selected for his companion Maturino of Florence, who was at that time in the chapel of the Pope, and was considered to be an excellent designer of antiquities. By his intercourse with Maturino, therefore, the love of Polidoro for painting increased to such a degree, that in a few months he attained the power of performing works which sufficiently proved the extent of his abilities, and utterly astonished those who had so lately seen him in the condition we have described. Wherefore, as the works of the Loggie were continually proceeding, Polidoro found opportunity so zealously to employ himself in competition with the other young men working there, and he distinguished himself so creditably even among the best and most skilful of them, that he acquired his art to perfection,