Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/137

Rh Columns of the Temple, he brings that building down upon the Philistines; and the picture was one of such merit that it served to make Francesco known as the most deserving among all the young painters who were then in Florence.

No long time afterwards, the master in clock-making, Benvenuto della Yolpaia, being in Rome, was requested by Cardinal Salviati the elder to find him a young painter, whom he might retain in his house, and who would paint for him such pictures as it might please him to command, when Benvenuto proposed to that Prelate the Florentine Francesco, who was his friend, and whom he knew to be the most capable of all the young painters of his acquaintance; and this Benvenuto did all the more willingly, as the Cardinal had promised him to give every facility for study, and all kinds of assistance, to the young artist who might be selected. The qualities of Francesco as they were described by Benvenuto della Yolpaia, being approved by the Cardinal, the latter commissioned Benvenuto to send for him, and gave him money for that purpose; Francesco was summoned accordingly, and his manner of proceeding in his works, as well as his character and habits, proving agreeable to the Cardinal, that Prelate commanded that he should have apartments prepared for him in the Borgo Yecchio, with a stipend of four crowns per month, and a place at the table of the gentlemen belonging to the Cardinal’s household.

The first works undertaken for Cardinal Salviati by Francesco (to whom it appeared that he had met with a piece of singular good fortune) were, first a picture of Our Lady, which was considered very beautiful; and next the Portrait of a French Nobleman, who is represented in chase of a hind which, being hard pressed, is taking refuge in the Temple of Diana; of this last work, I have myself the drawing by his hand, which I keep as a memorial of Francesco in my book of designs. These paintings being completed.

Cardinal Salviati caused our artist to make the Portrait of one of his nieces in a singularly beautiful picture of Our Lady; this Signora, the Cardinal had given in marriage to the Signor Cagnino Gonzaga, whose portrait was in like manner depicted by Francesco.

Finding himself thus in Rome, Francesco had now no more earnest desire than that of seeing his friend Giorgio Vasari