Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/156

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For the Knight of Rhodes, Messer Donato Acciaiuoli, with whom Francesco always lived on terms of unusual intimacy, he painted certain small pictures, which are held in much esteem; and on a larger panel, the same artist depicted a figure of our Saviour Christ showing to St. Thomas, who does not believe that he has risen from the dead, the marks of those wounds which had been received by our Lord from the Jews. This picture was taken into France by Tommaso Gruadagni, and was placed in the Chapel of the Florentines in a certain Church of Lyons.

At the desire of the above-mentioned Cristofano Einieri and of Giovanni Eozzi, the Flemish master of tapestrywork, Francesco painted all the Story of Tarquinius and the Eoman Lucretia, in a vast number of Cartoons, which, being afterwards executed in cloth of arras woven in gold and silks of various kinds, proved eventually to be an admirable work.

When this came to the ears of the Duke, who was at that time employing the above-named Maestro Giovanni to make him cloth of arras of similar kinds in Florence for the Hall of the Dugento, and had caused Bronzino and Pontormo to prepare Cartoons for the same from the story of the Hebrew Joseph, as we have before related;—when the Duke heard this I say, he commanded that Francesco also should prepare a Cartoon, the subject given to him being the interpretation of the seven fat and the seven lean kine: our artist gave all his attention to the work accordingly, and carefully took into consideration all the peculiarities required for a production of that sort, and which are necessary to the successful imitation of the Cartoon by the tapestry-worker; for these cloths of arras demand considerable fancy in the invention, with figures carefully detached and standing forth one from another, to the end that they may display good relief; they must likewise be cheerful as to colouring and the vestments, also, should be rich and varied.

This piece of the tapestry in question, and the others, having been found to succeed well, his Excellency then resolved to establish the art of making such hangings in Florence, and accordingly commanded that it should be