Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/460

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Very great is the good fortune of those artists who, whether by their birth or by means of the conneetions which are formed in their childhood, are brought into close contact with those men whom Heaven hath elected to be distinguished and exalted above others in these our arts, seeing that infinite facilities are afforded to the acquirement of a good and fine manner by the habit of observing eminent men in their modes of operation, and by that of examining their completed works. There is, moreover, a vast influence exercised on our minds, as we have said in other places, by the rivalry and emulation which in such cases are excited.

Francesco Granacci, of whom there has already been some mention, was one of those who were placed by the magniflcent Lorenzo de’ Medici to study their art in his garden, whence it happened that, while yet but a boy, he had the opportunity of becoming acquainted wdth the power and the art of Michelagnolo; nay, when he had afterwards attained to a greater age, and began himself to produce rich results from his studies, he could never separate himself from the side of that great master, but constantly strove with the utmost respect and observance to follow in his footsteps; insomuch, that Michelagnolo was constrained to love him more than all his other friends, and conflded so entirely in him, that there was no one with whom he conferred more willingly in respect to his labours, or to whom he would more readily communicate what he had then acquired in matters of art. They worked together in the bottega, or studio of Domenico Grillandai; and Granacci, who w'as accounted to be the best of Domenico’s disciples, as having more grace in colouring a tempera, with more force of design, was appointed to assist Davidde and Benedetto Grillandai, the brothers of Domenico, in finishing the picture for the high altar of Santa Maria Novella, which had been left incomplete at the death of the last-mentioned artist. By the practice obtained while employed on this work, Granacci made considerable progress, and afterwards painted many pictures in the same manner