Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/481

Rh changes in Florence, this building was left unfinished, as will be related hereafter. The completion of that edifice was subsequently committed to Aristotile, the brother of Giovan Francesco, who had returned to Florence, after having accumulated a large sum of money, under the abovementioned Giuliano Leni, and by pursuing the path which had been laid open to him by Giovan Francesco.

With a part of the money thus obtained, Bastiano was persuaded by his friends, Luigi Alamanni and Zanbio Buondelmonte, to purchase the site of a house behind the convent of the Servites and near to the dwelling of Andrea del Sarto, where he afterwards built a small but very commodious habitation, intending to take a wife and there settle quietly. Having thus returned to Florence, Aristotile, who had given much time to the study of perspective in Rome under Bramante, then seemed to care for no other occupation, although he would now and then take a portrait from the life, and also painted two large pictures in oil, the subjects of which were the Fall of Adam and Eve, with their Expulsion from Paradise: but these he had executed from copies which he had made in Rome, after the works depicted by Michelagnolo in the chapel; for which reason, and because they were borrowed from another master, Aristotile received but little commendation for them.

But, on the other hand, all the works that Bastiano accomplished in Florence when Pope Leo arrived in that city, were very highly extolled, he having among other things erected an Arch of Triumph in company with Francesco Granacci opposite to the gate of the abbey, and this being adorned with historical representations, which were indeed most beautiful. At the marriage of the Duke Lorenzo de Medici in like manner, Bastiano was of essential service in all the preparations, more especially in those required for the dramatic shows, in all which he mightily assisted Franciabigio and Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, who had charge of the whole.

At a later period Aristotile painted many pictures of Our Lady in oil, partly after his own invention, but partly copied