Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/350

342 wherein the painter has placed the figure of David; the king is giving letters to the messengers who are to bear them to the camp, to the end that Uriah the Hittite may be exposed to death in the front of the battle: beneath a Loggia in this picture there is a royal banquet also, which is exceedingly beautiful. This work contributed greatly to the fame and honour of Francia Bigio, of whom it may be said, that though possessing much ability for the delineation of large figures, he was certainly still more remarkable for his execution of those of smaller size.

Francia Bigio also depicted many admirable portraits from life; among these may be more particularly mentioned one which he executed for his intimate friend Matteo SofiPeroni, and another, which was painted for a countryman, who was the steward of Pier Francesco de’ Medici, at the palace of San Girolamo in Fiesole. This last seems to be absolutely alive, and there were besides many others of great merit. This artist was not ashamed of doing any thing that appertained to his art, but would work at all manner of paintings and refused no work that was proposed to him, whence it sometimes happened that the hand of the master was given to objects of very inferior character; thus for the cloth-weaver, Arcangelo, whose dwelling is by the Porta Rossa, Francia Bigio painted a Noli me Tangere of extraordinary beauty on a tower which served this man as a terrace. He also executed other works of similar kind, seeing that his disposition was exceedingly obliging and he was ever ready to do a kindness, but of these we need make no further mention.

This master was a great lover of peace, and for that reason would never marry, but was frequently repeating the trite proverb which declares that He who takes a wife, May be sure of cares and strife.” He would never leave Florence, and having seen some of the works of Rafiaello da Urbino, which caused him to feel that he was not equal to so great a man, nor yet to some others