Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/127

Rh found, when the morning of the Most Holy Trinity had arrived, to have assembled themselves in the above-named Chapter-house. Here, a most solemn festival had been arranged. The tomb before-mentioned being then completed, and the altar so nearly finished that it wanted nothing with the exception of certain figures in marble, which were to be placed thereon.

A solemn mass was then said, after which a fine oration was made by one of the Servite fathers in praise of Fra Giovann’ Agnolo, and of the magnificent liberality which he had displayed in the gift thus bestowed on the above-named Company, conferring on them, that is to say, that chapterhouse, that tomb, and that chapel, wherein, and to the end that they might at once take possession thereof, it was then determined to deposit the body of Pontormo, which had previously reposed in the first small cloister of the Nunziata, but was now to be laid at rest within the tomb in question. High mass and the oration being finished, the Company all went into the church, where the remains of the abovenamed Pontormo had been placed on a bier; this was raised on the shoulders of the younger members, and each man taking a light in his hand, they first passed in procession around the Piazza, and then bore the corpse to the chapter-house, where, in place of the cloth of gold with which it had been previously adorned, they found it all hung with black, whereon were paintings of the dead and other objects of similar character: after this manner was the above-named Pontormo deposited in the new sepulchre.

The Company being then dismissed, it was arranged that the first meeting should be held on the following Sunday, by way of making a commencement; when the laws of the Society were to be examined, a selection was to be made from the best among the members who were then to serve as administrators, and an Academy to be instituted, where the inexperienced might learn, while those already competent