Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/506

498 became the friend of Raffaello da llrbino, who, kind and obliging as he was, assisted and favoured Benvenuto greatly, teaching him many things; and if the latter had continued to practice in Rome, there cannot be a doubt but that he would have produced works fully worthy of his fine genius.

But he was compelled, I know not by what cause, to return to his native place; yet in taking leave of Raphael, he promised to abide by his counsels, and once more to repair to Rome, where Raphael assured him that he would supply him with more occupation than he could require, and that in very honourable works.

Having reached Ferrara, and despatched those affairs which had been the cause of his returning thither, Benvenuto was preparing himself to revisit Rome, when the Signor Alfonso Duke of Ferrara, invited him to paint a small chapel in the Castello, in company with other Ferrarese painters, which having completed, his departure was again prevented by the pressing kindness of Messer Antonio Costabili, a Ferrarese gentleman of much authority and influence, who induced him to paint a picture in oil for the high altar of the church of Sant’ Andrea, and that done he was compelled to execute another in San Bertolo, a monastery of Cistercian monks, in which he painted an Adoration of the Magi, which was greatly admired. He was then called on to execute a picture for the cathedral, with two others which were placed in the church of Santo Spirito: in one of these is the Virgin, seen in the air with the Divine Child in her arms, with other figures beneath; and in the other is the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

While Benvenuto was occupied with these works, he constantly thought with extreme regret, nay, even with pain, or his estrangement from Rome, and was resolved that, come what might, he would at once return to that city; but the death of his father Piero taking place at that time, all his plans were deranged, seeing that he then found himself with a marriageable sister on his shoulders, a brother only fourteen years old, and his family affairs in great disorder.