Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/81

Rh work to perfection. When Giuliano had used the head for that purpose therefore, and had finished his pictures, Michelagnolo, who was a gossip of the said Messer Ottaviano, made the latter a present thereof; and certainly, among the many portraits painted by Sebastiano, this is one of the most beautiful. It is besides an exceedingly faithful resemblance, as may be seen in the house of the heirs of Messer Ottaviano, where it now is. This master likewise painted the portrait of Pope Paul, who had been Cardinal Farnese, so soon as he was raised to the Pontificate, and commenced that of the Duke of Castro, son of his Holiness, but left it unfinished, as he did so many of the other works of which he had made a beginning.

Fra Sebastiano had a tolerably good house which he had built for himself near the Porta del Popolo at Rome, and there he lived in the utmost content, without troubling himself further about painting or working in any way. “Itis a great fatigue,” he would often remark, “to expose ones self in age to the necessity of restraining those ardours which artists are induced to excite in themselves by the desire for honour, by emulation, and by the love of gain, although this might be endured in youth and he would add that it was quite as prudent to seek the quiet of life as to consume one’s days in labour and discomfort, in the hope of leaving a name after one’s death, seeing that the labours thus endured, with the works which were the result of them, would alike come to an end at some time, sooner or later, be they what they might. And as he would say these things, so also would he practise and put them in execution to the utmost of his power, seeking the best wines and the most inviting meats that could be found for his table, and ever thinking more of the enjoyments of life than of art.

A friend to all distinguished men. Fra Sebastiano frequently invited Molza and Messer Gandolfo to sup with him, when he would make them right good cheer. The Florentine, Messer Francesco Berni, was also his very intimate friend, and wrote a poem to him; whereunto Sebastiano replied by another, which was not without merit, for,