Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/168

156 friend as was Francesco; those by our own hand having been found among the effects left behind him by Salviati.

But all these efforts did not prevent Francesco from becoming angered by the passing events, nor could he form any fixed resolution as to what it would best suit him to do: thus troubled in mind, afflicted in body, and much debilitated by the frequent use of medicines, he finally fell sick of a mortal disease, and in a short time was found to be at the last extremity, while he had yet not given himself time to make any very exact dispositions in respect to his worldly affairs.

To one of his disciples, called Annibale, the son of Nanni di Baccio Bigio, he left sixty crowns per annum, secured on the Monte delle Farine, with fourteen pictures, all his designs, and other effects relating to art. The remainder of his property he left to the nun Gabriella, his sister, but, as I have heard, she did not receive even “the cord of the sack,” as the proverb goes. It is certain, nevertheless, that one picture by her brother must have fallen into her hands; it was painted on cloth of silver, and surrounded by an embroidered border, having been executed by Francesco for the King of Portugal or of Poland, I know not which, and having been given to her to keep in memory of him. All his other possessions, as, for example, the offices which he had purchased with the fruits of all his heavy labours, were wholly lost.

Francesco died on St. Martin’s day, the 11th of November, 1563, and was buried in San Geronimo, a church near to which was his dwelling. His death was a great loss to art; for although he was fifty-four years old, and in very bad health, he yet passed his time in continual labour and study; nay, at the very end of his life he had begun to work in mosaic. He was indeed very fanciful, and had a love for attempting various novelties; had he happened to meet with a prince willing to lend himself to his humour, and who would have given him occupations according to his own heart, Salviati would, without doubt, have accomplished extraordinary things, seeing that he was, as we have said, most richly gifted with inventive power, and abundantly skilled in every branch of his art. Francesco imparted infinite grace to all his heads, of whatever character they might be, and understood the nude form as well as any painter of his time.

He had a most graceful manner in the arrangement of his