Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/228

220 advised by his kindred to choose that of his own father instead, he consented to give the boy the name of Piero. Having attained the age of three years, the infant presented a most beautiful aspect; he had a lovely countenance with rich curling hair, and displayed the most exquisite grace in all his movements; he gave proof likewise of extraordinary intelligence and vivacity of mind. At this time there came two intimate friends of Bartolommeo to Yinci, and were lodged in his house, Maestro Giuliano del Carmine namely, an excellent astrologer, and a priest, who was a chiromant or fortune-teller. These men therefore, having examined the forehead and the hand of Bartolommeo’s little son, predicted to the father, the astrologer and the chiromant together, that the genius of the child would prove to be very great; they added that he would make extraordinary progress in the mercurial arts and that in a very short time,but they declared that his life would be a very brief one. And too true was the prophecy of these men, since both in one respect and the other—but one would have sufficed—whether as regarded his art or his life, it was amply fulfilled.

Continuing to increase in stature, Piero had his father for his master in letters; but of himself, and without any master, he began to draw, and to form little figures in clay, which proved that the natural inclination and celestial influences perceived by the astrologer and the chiromant, were already awakening to life, and beginning to give evidence of their existence. Seeing this, Bartolommeo concluded that his prayer had been granted by God, and, believing that his brother had been restored to him in the person of his son, he began to think of removing the child from Yinci and taking him to Florence. This decided on, Bartolommeo took measures for effecting it without delay, and placed Piero, who had now reached the age of twelve, with Baccio Bandinello, persuaded that Baccio, as having formerly been the friend of Leonardo, would take due care of the boy, and would teach him his art with all diligence; the father believing himself to have