Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/134

126 means Domenico soon became bold in design, amply stored with power of invention, and a very pleasing colourist, but during his abode in Rome, which did not extend beyond the space of two years, he performed no work entitled to remembrance, with the exception of an escutcheon of the arms of Pope Julius II., which he painted in various colours on the front of a house in Borgo.

Now at this time Giovan Antonio da Vercelli, then a young and able painter, had been invited to Siena by one of the Spannocchi family, who was a merchant, and being much encouraged by the gentlemen of that city (which was ever the friend and protectress of all distinguished men) he found considerable employment, more especially in the execution of portraits from the life. Domenico Beccafumi hearing this, and having an earnest wish to revisit his native city, soon returned thither accordingly, and perceiving that Giovan Antonio possessed great powers of design, in which he well knew the excellence of an artist to consist, he did not content himself with what he had acquired in Rome, but set himself studiously to follow in the footsteps of Giovan Antonio, devoting his time more especially to the study of anatomy, and to drawing the nude figure.

By all this Domenico profited to such an extent, that in a short time he began to be much esteemed in that most noble city. Nor was he less beloved for his rectitude and the purity of his life, than approved for his excellence in art; for whereas, Giovan Antonio, coarse, licentious, and eccentric as he was, had acquired the reputation of being one who wasted his time with infinite levity and with idle young men, and was even willing to accept that character; Domenico on the contrary, was most orderly and well conducted, lived as it beseemed a Christian man to do, and passed the greater part of his time alone. It will nevertheless sometimes happen that such as are called good fellows and merry companions, are more sought after than are the virtuous and upright, and so it happened in this case, as regarded the youth of Siena, who were for the most part great admirers of Giovan Antonio, extolling him as a very original person. And he was without doubt very fanciful, taking pains to please the