Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/421

Rh the beard: and this is indeed a most beautiful head. On the other side is San Rocco, which is also held to be a very fine figure, nay, the whole work is very deservedly considered to be one of great merit, being executed with infinite care, and exhibiting great harmony of colour.

In the church of the Madonna della Scala, and at the altar of the Sanctificazione, Francesco painted the figure of San Sebastiano, in a picture which he executed in competition with Paolo Cavazzuola, who painted the figure of San Rocco in another picture. He afterwards produced a painting, which was taken to Bagolino, a place in the mountains of Brescia. This master painted numerous portraits, and of a truth his heads are beautiful to a wonder; they are besides faithful resemblances of those for whom they are taken. In Verona he took the likeness of Count Francesco San Bonifazio, called, on account of his height, the Long Count, with that of one of the Franchi, a magnificent head. II Moro likewise painted the portrait of Messer Girolamo Verita, but since Francesco was rather dilatory in the execution of his works, this remains incomplete. In its unfinished state as it is, however, it is still in the possession of the sons of that good Signor Girolamo. Among many other portraits, he also took that of the Venetian, Monsignore de’ Martini, a knight of Rhodes, and to the same cavalier he sold a head of marvellous beauty and excellence, which he had painted many years previously, as the portrait of a Venetian gentleman, the son of one who was then a captain in Verona; but as this had been left in the hands of II Moro because the avarice of the owner had prevented him from paying for it, the former sold it, as we have said; having first changed it somewhat in character, for M-onsignor Martini, by giving it the dress of a shepherd or herdsman, in place of the Venetian habit. This head, which is as beautiful a thing as ever proceeded from the hands of an artist, is now in the house of the heirs of the above-named Monsignore de’ Martini, where it is held, as it well merits to be, in the highest admiration.