Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/343

Rh shoulders while another drew off the hose, Cristofano all the while abusing the clothes, and all who contrived such things, as well as Giorgio himself, declaring that those fashions kept men imprisoned as if in chains; nay, he threatened to get away by God’s blessing from them all and go back to San Justino, where they permitted him to live as he pleased, and where he was not subjected to those intolerable restraints; it was indeed not without great difficulty that he could be pacified.

Cristofano was a man who loved to speak but little, and liked that others also should be brief in discourse, he would even have had all the names of people be very short, greatly approving that of a slave belonging to Messer Sforza, and who was called M. “Yes,” said Cristofano, “such as those are good names, but your Giovan-Francesco and Giovan-Antonio! why one has to work for an hour before they can be brought out.” He was of a most amiable disposition, and saying these things, as he did, in his Borghesian dialect, it was enough to make Weeping itself laugh to hear him.

It was a favourite amusement with Cristofano to go on festival days to the places where legends and printed pictures are sold, and there he would remain the live-long day: he would generally buy some, but while he looked at the others he would for the most part lay down these purchases and leave them behind him. He would never mount a horse unless compelled to do so, although descended from a family of noble rank in his country, and possessing a fair amount of wealth. When his brother Borgognone died, Cristofano had to go to Borgo, and Vasari who had received a large amount of his stipend and had taken care of it for him, remarked to him, “Here, I have all this money of yours, you had better take it with you for your various requirements.” “Iwantno money,” replied Cristofano, “take it for yourself; it is enough for me to have the luck of being with you, and to have had leave to live and die by your side.” “That is not my way,” quoth Vasari, “to profit by other people’s labours, and if you will not take your money, I will send it to Guido your father.”

“By no means do that,” returned Cristofano, “for he would throw it away, according to his custom.” Finally, he took the money and set off for Borgo-a -San Sepolcro, but he departed