Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/165

Rh Francesco was the first and best painter in Rome, and that as none could serve His Holiness better than Salviati, it would be well to secure him. As to the favour shown to Daniello by Buonarroti and the Cardinal, this Vasari declared they did out of their friendship for the latter, and from no other cause. But to return for a moment to Vasari’s picture above-named: Vasari had but just left the Pope when it was sent after him to the house of Francesco, who afterwards caused it to be forwarded to Arezzo, where, as we have said elsewhere, it has been placed, after having received a rich and costly frame, in the Decanal Church of that city.

The affair of the Hail of Kings remaining in the condition described above; when the Dukfe Cosimo left Siena to repair to Rome, Vasari, who had accompanied His Excellency so far, very earnestly recommended Salviati to his care, and begged the Duke to do him what favour he could with the Pope, writing to Francesco at the same time, as to the mode in which he ought to proceed when the Duke should arrive in Rome. And now Francesco did in nowise depart from the line of conduct prescribed to him by Vasari; he went to pay his respects to the Duke, who received him with a most friendly aspect, and shortly after mentioned him with so much kindness to His Holiness, that he was at once commissioned to decorate the half of the Hall above-mentioned. Setting hand to his work, accordingly, the first thing Francesco did was to destroy a story which had been commenced by Daniello, an action which caused no small displeasure between them: then the Pontiff, as we have said, employed the architect Piero Ligcrio for his buildings, and the latter had in the first instance greatly favoured Francesco; but Salviati, paying no regard to Piero any more than to others, when once he had commenced his work, caused the architect, from having been his friend to become in a certain sort his enemy, a fact of which manifest evidence was soon perceived. Piero now began to intimate to the Pope that there were many young and able painters in Rome to whom, as he desired to have that Hall off his hands, he would do well to give the separate paintings, one to each artist, and by this means the work would come to an end.

These proceedings of Piero, to whom it was evident that the Pope listened favourably, caused infinite displeasure to