Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/570

558 my own mind as to satisfy the expectation of so dear and kind a friend. I also (compelled against my will to do so) took the Portrait of Antonio de’ Nobili, Commissioner-general of his Excellency, and well inclined to myself. For the same person I depicted the Head of Our Saviour Christ, painting it after the words in which Lentulus writes of the Redeemer’s countenance; both these pictures were executed with great care, as was also another, similar to that just mentioned, but somewhat larger, which I first intended for the Signor Mondragone, but which is now in the possession of Don Francesco de’ Medici, Prince of Florence and Siena; I having presented it to his Highness on account of his love to our arts, and also that, when looking thereon, he may remember that I love him and am his friend.

I have now in hand, and hope soon to finish, a large and very fanciful picture which I intend for the Signor Antonio Montalvo, lord of the Sassetta, first gentleman of the bedchamber to the Duke, and much valued by his Excellency. This Signor Antonio is likewise so dear and intimate a friend of my own (not to say a superior), that I am anxious to produce a something which shall serve as a pledge of the aflPection I bear him; and if my hand do but correspond to my desires, the result shall be such as to prove how much I honour him, and how dear to me is the remembrance of one so worthy to be respected and so well beloved; while I would fain contribute to make his memory descend to a future time, seeing that his labours are ever willingly given to promote the interests and the progress of all who belong to our vocation, or take pleasure in the arts of design.

For the Prince, Don Francesco, I have lately painted two Pictures, which he has sent to Toledo, in Spain, for a sister of the Signora Duchess Leonora, his mother, with a small one, in the manner of a miniature, which he keeps for himself, and wherein there are forty figures, great and small; the composition, which is a very beautiful one, being his own. For Filippo Salviati I completed a picture, no long time since, which is to be sent to Prato, for the Nuns of San Vincenzio; in the upper part of this work is a Coronation of the Virgin, as having just then arrived in Heaven, and