Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/469

Rh duced in that island, and all which Giovan-Antonio then took with him to Siena.

Repairing subsequently to Florence, he was commissioned by a monk of the Brandolini family, who was then Abbot of the monastery of Monte Oliveto, which is situate outside the gate of San Friano, to paint certain pictures in fresco on the wall of the Refectory. But negligent and thoughtless as he was, Giovan-Antonio executed these works without care or study, and they proved to be so worthless that he was utterly shamed and treated with scorn for his follies by those who had been led to expect that he would produce some extraordinary work.

While Razzi was occupied with this painting, he sent a Barbary horse, which he had brought with him to Florence, to run at the race of San Bernaba; and, as fortune would have it, his horse ran much better than the others, and won the prize. But when the boys, who, according to the usual custom, followed the trumpeters after the race, to call out the name of the master to whom the winning horse belonged, came to Razzi inquiring what name they were to call out, he replied II Mattaccio, and the boys so called out accordingly; when that disreputable name being heard by certain grave old men, they began to complain of it and to say: “What unbeseeming thing is this, and what boldness is here, that there should be called through our city so opprobrious a name as this?” in such sort that a clamour arose, and the poor Mattaccio was within an ace of being stoned by the boys and people, together with his horse and the ape which he had with him on the saddle.

Giovan-Antonio had indeed won many races in the course of years (which had been gained by his horses as described above), and displayed indescribable vain-glory in the matter of his accumulated prizes, he would exhibit them to every one who came into the house, nay, he would very frequently make a show of them at his windows.

But we return to his works. For the Brotherhood of San Bastiano in Camollia, whose place is behind the church of the Umiliati, Giovan-Antonio painted a Gonfalon on cloth and in oil, for the Brotherhood to carry in procession, the subject being San Sebastiano, nude and fastened to a tree.