Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/133

Rh observed to employ himself, child as he was, in drawing sometimes on the stones, sometimes on other substances. Now it so chanced that Lorenzo Beccafumi one day remarked the child thus occupied; he had a pointed stick that is to say, wherewith he was drawing in the sand of a little stream, on the banks of which he was guarding his dock; Lorenzo thereupon requested the father to make over the boy to his care, intending that he should act as his servant, at the same time that he also received instruction. The child, who was then called Mecherino, was given up to Lorenzo by his father Pacio accordingly, and was conducted to Siena, where Lorenzo caused him for some time to spend whatever leisure remained to him from the duties of his service, in the workshop of a painter, not an artist of very great account, who was his neighbour. But what this painter did not know himself, he took care that Mecherino should acquire from certain drawings by eminent artists which he had in his possession, and of which he was in the habit of availing himself for his various necessities, as is the frequent habit of certain honest painters, who are not guilty of any very intimate acquaintance with design; Mecherino, pursuing his studies in this manner, soon gave evidence of the distinction which at a later period he was to acquire as a painter.

At that time Pietro Perugino, who was then a famous painter, arrived in Siena, where he executed two pictures as we have before related. His manner pleased Domenico exceedingly, wherefore, having set himself to study the same and to copy those two pictures, no long time had elapsed before he was found to have acquired the manner of Pietro to a very remarkable degree. Meanwhile, the chapel of Michelagnolo, and the works of Raphael in Rome, had been given to the world, and Domenico, whose sole desire was to learn, and who perceived that he was losing his time in Siena, took leave of Lorenzo Beccafumi, from whom he obtained his surname, and departed for Rome.

There he fixed himself with a painter who gave him his board and lodging, when Domenico executed numerous pictures in company with him, and at the same time employed himself in studying the works of Michelagnolo, Raphael, and other eminent masters, with the statues, buildings, and other admirable labours of antiquity. By these