Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/476

468 neither house nor income at Siena, nay, having consumed almost all that he possessed, while he was then become old as well as poor, he departed from the city almost in despair, and betook himself to Volterra. There, as his good fortune would have it, he found Messer Lorenzo di Galeotto de’ Medici, a rich and much respected gentleman, with whom he took shelter, in the hope of remaining with him for a very long time. Thus dwelling in the house of Messer Lorenzo, he painted a picture on cloth for that noble, the subject selected being the Chariot of the Sun, which, having been unskilfully guided by Phaeton, falls into the River Po. But it is perfectly easy to see that the artist worked for his amusement only, and that the painting was executed by mere facility of hand, no thought having been given to any part of it; so insignificant and ill-considered is the whole performance.

Accustomed to a life of freedom, Giovan-Antonio became weary after a time of remaining in the house of Messer Lorenzo, and his abode in Yolterra having also become distasteful to him, he departed thence, and proceeded to Pisa, where he was commissioned to execute two pictures for the Duomo, by the intervention of Battista del Cervelliera with Messer Bastiano della Seta, Warden of that cathedral; these works were placed in the Apsis, behind the high altar, and beside those executed by Sogliani and Beccafumi.

The first of these pictures represents the Dead Christ, with Our Lady and the other Maries; and in the second is the Patriarch Abraham, proceeding to sacrifice his son Isaac. But as they were found to be of no great merit, the Warden, who had designed to entrust other pictures for the same church to Giovan-Antonio, dismissed him, knowing well that men who do not study, having once arrived at old age, are liable to lose that certain something of good wherewith they had been endowed by Nature, and when that is lost, the manner remaining, with such facility of hand as may be left to them, is for the most part but little to be commended.

About the same time Giovan-Antonio completed a picture in oil, which he had previously commenced for the church of Santa Maria della Spina, and here he depicted Our Lady,