Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/496

488 lie sought to vary and make each one different from the others in all his compositions, and of a truth he frequently gave evidence of much power of design, being fully capable of imitating the good when he chose to do so.

While still very young, Jacone painted numerous pictures of Our Lady in Florence, and many of these were sent to France by the Florentine Merchants. At Santa Lucia, which is in the Via de’ Bardi, he painted a picture of God the Father, the Virgin Mary, and Our Saviour Christ, with other figures in the same work. At Montici, on the corner of the house of Ludovico Capponi, he painted two figures in chiaroscuro, one on each side of a Tabernacle. At San Romeo, also, Jacone painted a picture, Our Lady namely, with two saints.

Having afterwards heard the façades which Polidoro and Maturino had executed in Rome, highly extolled, Jacone, without saying a word of his intention to any one, repaired to that city, where he remained several months, during which time he executed numerous copies, and made so much progress in his art that he was afterwards enabled on many occasions to prove himself a very good painter. The Cavaliere Buondelmonte gave Jacone a house of his, which he had built opposite to Santa Trinità at the entrance of the Borgo Sant’ Apostolo, to paint in chiaro-scuro, and here the artist executed stories from the life of Alexander the Great; these are in many parts exceedingly beautiful, and have been conducted with such excellence of design and so much grace, that many believe Andrea del Sarto himself to have furnished the designs for the whole.

The example which Jacone had given of his ability in this work gave rise to the expectation that he would in time accomplish great things; but as his head was ever running on amusements, and he continually employed his time in suppers and feastings of all kinds with his friends, instead of giving it to labour and study, he was constantly observed rather to degenerate than to make new acquirements. But a circumstance, which I scarcely know whether to deride or to compassionate, is to be related of Jacone: he belonged, that