Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/74

66 left the work after all in a state of preparation only, seeing that when it had been ten years in that condition Sebastiano died.

It is true that there was no difficulty in obtaining some portrait taken from the life from Sebastiano: this he did with tolerable ease and promptitude, but with anything appertaining to stories or other figures, it was altogether the reverse. Nay, to tell the truth, portrait painting was the proper vocation of Sebastiano; and of this we have some evidence in the likeness of Marcantonio Colonna, which is so well done that it seems to be alive, as well as in those of Ferdinando, Marquis of Pescara, and of the Signora Yittoria Colonna, which are most beautiful. This master likewise took the portrait of Pope Adrian VI., when he first arrived in Pome, as he did also that of the Cardinal Hinchfort. This prelate afterwards desired that Sebastiano should paint a chapel for him in the church of Santa Maria dell’ Anima in Pome, but the artist put him off “from to-day to to-morrow,-’ in such a manner that the Cardinal at length caused his chapel to be painted by the- Flemish painter Michele, his compatriot, who there depicted stories in fresco from the life of Santa Barbara, imitating our Italian manner exceedingly well. He painted the portrait of the above-named Cardinal also in this work.

But to return to Sebastiano: he also painted the likeness of the Signor Federigo da Bozzolo, with that of some captain, I know not whom, wearing armour: this last is in the possession of Giulio de’ Nobili in Florence; and in the house of Luca Torrigiani, there is a Woman in the Poman habit, by the hand of this artist. Giovanni Battista Cavalcanti has also a head painted by him, but this is not entirely finished; Sebastiano furthermore executed a picture of Our Lady, covering the Divine Child with a veil, an admirable work, now in the Guardaroba of the Cardinal Farnese. Our artist also sketched, but did not finish, a very fine picture of San Michele, standing over the prostrate form of the Devil, a figure of colossal proportions, and this was intended for the