Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/430

422 his to present to the Marquis a beautiful dog, a bow and a quiver; whereupon the Marquis caused Francesco to paint the dog, the Turk who had brought it, and the other things in the Gonzaga Palace; and that being done, he desired to see whether the dog thus painted were sufficiently similar to the life, he consequently had one of the dogs of his court, which was of a breed inimical to that of the Turkish dog, conducted to the apartment where the work of Francesco was placed on a pedestal painted to imitate stone. The living dog, having been brought accordingly, no sooner beheld the painted one than, precisely as he would have done had the animal been real and the very creature that he mortally hated, he flew upon him with eager impetuosity to tear him in pieces, forcing along with him the man by whom he was led, and rushing forward with such rage that, striking his head against the wall, he dashed his skull to pieces.

A story somewhat similar is related of another work by Francesco, and is told by persons who were eye-witnesses of the scene. His nephew, Benedetto Baroni, had a small picture in oil, of little more than two palms high, in which Francesco had depicted Our Lady, a half-length of about the size of life, with the Infant Christ in the lowermost corner, the Divine Child being visible from the shoulder upwards only, and having one arm extended, in the act of caressing the Virgin Mother; now it chanced that while the Emperor was master of Verona, the renowned captain, Don Alonso di Castiglia and Alarcone was there on behalf of his majesty the Catholic King, and being in the house of the Veronese Count Ludovico da Sesso, expressed a great desire to see this painting. Having sent for it therefore one evening, the company were looking at it with a good light, and all were admiring the perfection of art displayed, in the work, when the Signora Caterina, wife of the Count, walked into the apartment with one of her little sons; the child had on his wrist one of those green birds called in Verona terrazzani because they make their nests on the earth, and are trained to sit on the wrist, as does the falcon. It happened then that as the lady was standing with the. rest to examine the picture, this bird, seeing the extended arm and hand of the painted child, flew forward to