Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/499

Rh excellent Don Miniato Pitti, who was then Abbot of that Monastery, he found Jacone with the greater part of his band at the corner of the Medici, when that person, as I have since been told, hoped, with some of his useless remarks, uttered half in jest and half in earnest, to hit upon something whereby Vasari might be offended. When the latter, who was on horseback, entered the midst of the troop, therefore, Jacone cried out, “Well done, Giorgio! how goes it with your worship? ” “It goes excellently well with my worship, good Jacone,” responded Giorgio, “seeing that I, who was once as poor as any one of you all, can now count my three thousand crowns or more. You have considered me a simpleton, but the monks and priests hold me to be something better; formerly I was serving among you, but now this servant whom you see serves me as well as my horse. I used to wear such clothes as we painters are glad to put on when we are poor, but now I am clothed in velvet. In old times I went on foot, now I ride on horseback; thus you see, my good Jac.o, my worship does excellently well in sooth. God give you good day, Jacone.”

When the poor Jacone heard all this tirade poured forth in a breath, he lost all presence of mind, standing silent and confounded, as one whose own condition of misery is suddenly brought home to him, and who perceives that the man who intends to be the assailant, sometimes falls at the feet of him whom he meant to assail.

Finally, being much reduced by sickness, while he was at the same time very poor, entirely destitute of aid, with none to nurse liim, and unable to help himself from having lost the use of his limbs, Jacone died in great wretchedness, and with no better abode than a miserable cabin which he had in a little remote street or rather alley called Codarimessa. His death occurred in the year 1553.

Francesco Ubertino, called Bacchiacca, was an industrious painter, and although he was the friend of Jacone, he always lived in a decent manner and like an honest man: he too was an associate of Andrea del Sarto, and was ever much favoured and assisted in matters of art by that master.