Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/376

364 manner, was judged to have hereby proved that the best hopes of his future progress might reasonably be entertained. Not far from this, and on the same side, a little beneath the organ that is to say, the able Flemish painter, Giovanni Strada, had painted a picture six braccia long and four high, wherein he depicted an event from the period of Michelagnolo’s visit to Venice, at the time of the Siege of Florence. The master is in the Guidecca, a quarter of that most noble city so called; and is receiving a deputation of Venetian gentlemen, whom the Doge, Andrea Gritti, had sent to visit him and make him offers of service. In this work the painter above-named showed much knowledge and judgment, the whole composition and every part of it doing him much honour, seeing that the propriety and grace of the attitudes, the animation of the faces, and the life-like movement imparted to each figure, gave proof of rich inventive power, great knowledge of design, and infinite grace.

We now return to the High Altar, and looking towards the new Sacristy: in the first picture exhibited there, which was that in the space of the first Chapel, was represented another signal favour enjoyed by Michelagnolo, and which was here depicted by Santi Titi, a young man of great judgment, and who had practised painting extensively in Florence as well as in Home. This favour, to which I think I have before alluded, was conferred at the visit paid by the master to the most illustrious Signor Don Francesco Medici, Prince of Florence, when the latter was in Eome about three years before Michelagnolo died. No sooner did Buonarroti enter the room, than the Prince rose from his seat; and, to do honour to the truly venerable age of that great man, he would have him be seated in his own place, although Michelagnolo, who was exceedingly modest, refused to accept that courtesy. Then, standing before him with the utmost respect, the Prince listened to his words with all the reverence and attention that could have been shown by a son to the best of fathers. At the feet of Don Francesco, in the painting of Santi Titi, was a Boy admirably depicted, who held the beretta, or ducal cap, of the Prince in his hand, and around the group stood soldiers dressed in the antique fashion, and executed in a very good manner. But