Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/358

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Andrea di Cosimo likewise performed many labours in the service of the house of Medici, to which he was constantly attached. For the marriage of the Duke Griuliano namely, he prepared innumerable ornaments in arabesque, as he did also for that of the Duke Lorenzo. In the obsequies of these princes moreover, this artist was largely employed. The artists, Francia Bigio, Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, and Pidolfo Ghirlandajo were continually availing themselves of his services; and Granacci, who could do nothing to any purpose without his help, employed him perpetually for the triumphal arches and other festal preparations with which he was engaged.

Andrea di Cosimo was the best and most worthy man that ever touched a pencil; modest and diffident by nature, he would never undertake any ivork above his strength, or even any indeed that was entirely on his own responsibility, partly because he feared to risk the payment for his labours. He delighted in his vocation, and would pursue it the whole day long, but abhorred all disputes and discussions of every kind; he therefore associated himself with Mariotto di Francesco Mettidoro, a person who was one of the most able and practised masters that had ever been known in his vocation, and was particularly acute in all business arrangements, understanding well the most advantageous modes of agreement for the various wmrks confided to him, as well as the gathering in of the payments and all other occasions demanding readiness and prudence. This Mettidoro furthermore induced Paffaello di Biagio to join himself to their company, the three labouring in common and dividing into three parts the gains made by all the works which they executed. This co-partnery endured while the lives of these artists lasted, and Mariotto was the survivor of the other two.

But returning to the works of Andrea di Cosimo, I have to relate that this artist received a commission from Giovanni Maria Benintendi, to decorate all the ceilings of his house, and to prepare all the ornaments for the ante-rooms, wherein are the stories painted by Francia Bigio and Jacopo da Pontormo. With the first-named of these masters Andrea went to Poggio, where he prepared the ornamental framework in terretta for the pictures there executed, in a manner