Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/391

Rh always lived alone, not choosing to have any one who should serve or even cook for him. In his last years however, he did receive into his house a young man of good understanding and character, Battista Naldini namely; and this person took as much care for the comfort of Jacopo, as the latter would permit him to take; and, at the same time, made no small progress under his discipline; nay, rather, he profited to such an extent by Jacopo’s instructions, that the best results are hoped for from him.

Among the friends of Puntormo, more especially towards the close of his life, were Pier Francesco Yernacci and Don Yincenzio Borghini: with them he would occasionally take some little recreation, and would sometimes dine with them, although very rarely. But above all others, he was always most especially attached to Bronzino, who returned his affection with equal love, grateful as he was for the advantages, and fully conscious of the benefits, which Puntormo had conferred on him.

Jacopo Puntormo was a man of the most kindly dispositions, and had exceedingly agreeable manners, although marked by some peculiarities; he was so grievously afraid of death, that he would not even hear the subject mentioned, and took great pains to avoid meeting a dead body: he would never go to festivals, or frequent any place where large masses of people assembled, abhorring the discomfort of 'being pressed in a crowd; he was indeed incredibly solitary in his habits of life. Sometimes, when about to commence his work, he would set himself to think so profoundly on what he was about to do, that at the end of the day he had to depart without having done any one thing beside thinking, through the whole course of those hours. And that this occurred to him very many times in the progress of that work of San Lorenzo, just described, may be easily believed, because when he had once determined on what he chose to do, being a most able and skilful painter, he made no loitering, but readily executed