Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/29

Rh 1494, a son whom he called Giovanni, and who, while yet but a boy, showed so much inclination to the study of design, that the thing was considered extraordinary; for even while hunting or fowling with his father, he would design the figures of the dogs, the hares, the kids, every kind of animal or bird, in short, which fell into his hands, whenever a halt in the chase gave him leisure, and that to such perfection as to amaze all who beheld it.

This disposition being remarked by Francesco his father, the latter took him to Venice, and put him to learn the art of the limner with Giorgione da Castel Franco. Here, while working with Giorgione, the youth heard so much praise bestowed on the productions of Michelagnolo and Ratfaello, that he resolved to repair to Rome, come what might, and having procured a letter of good will and favour from Domenico Grimani, who was the particular friend of his father, to Baldassare Cartiglioni, Secretary of the Duke of Mantua, and a special intimate of Raffaello da Urbino, he went to Rome accordingly. Having reached that city he was placed by Cartiglioni in the school of Ratfaello, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the principles of his art, which is a matter of great importance, seeing that when the disciple commences by adopting a bad manner, it rarely happens that he afterwards attains to a good one, or in any case if he do so, it must always be a work of infinite ditficulty.

Having passed some time in Rome then, as we have said, and having next acquired a knowledge of the soft, beautiful, and graceful manner of Raffaello, Giovanni, like a youth of good parts as he was, determined to adhere rigidly and by all means to that manner. Wherefore, his genius and power of hand giving good aid to his judicious intention, he made extraordinary progress, and very soon became capable of drawing and painting to such perfection that he rapidly succeeded, at a word, in the successful imitation of whatever