Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/483

Rh exactitude that the spectator imagines himself to behold it newly torn from the animal. Of another mark in the stone he has availed himself for the hair, and the white parts he has taken for the face and breast, which are executed with a wonderful mastery. This head Francis received with the other works performed for him by Matteo, and there is an impression from it at Yerona, in the possession of the goldsmith Zoppo, who was a disciple of our artist.

Matteo dal Nassaro was a man of the utmost liberality, and of a great spirit; he would rather have given his works away than sold them for an unworthy price; wherefore, having made a cameo for a certain baron, who proposed to pay him but a wretched sum for it, Matteo pressed him earnestly to accept it from him as a gift and mark of courtesy. This the baron refused to do, but persisted in his wish to have it for a vile price, whereupon the artist, falling into a rage, siezed a hammer, and, in the presence of the noble, he dashed his work to pieces.

Matteo prepared many cartoons as designs for tapestry, at the desire of King Francis, and with these he was compelled to go himself into Flanders, for so his Majesty would have it be, when he remained in that country until all had been woven in cloth of silk and gold; which being done, and the works taken to France, they were found to be most beautiful. Finally, Matteo returned, as do almost all men, to his native country, bearing with him many rare things peculiar to those distant lands, more especially certain landscapes painted in Flanders on cloth, some in oil and some in water-colours; but all executed by very good masters: they are now preserved with great care in Verona, as a memorial of Matteo dal Nassaro, by the Signori Luigi and Girolamo Stoppi.

Having thus returned to Verona, our artist arranged a dwelling for himself in a kind of cave dug out in a rock which is beneath the garden of the Frati Ingesuati, a habitation which, besides being very warm in winter and very cool in summer, has command of a most beautiful view. But Matteo was not permitted to enjoy this abode, which he had arranged so entirely after his own fancy, as he could have wished, seeing that King Francis had no sooner been released from his imprisonment, than he sent a special messenger to Matteo desiring him to return at once into France,