Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/73

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It is a remarkable fact, that almost all young men who studied their art in the Garden of the Medici, and were favoured by the Magnificent Lorenzo the Elder, became distinguished in their several vocations, a circumstance that cannot be attributed to any other cause than the extraordinary, or rather the infinite, judgment of that most noble person, the true Mecasnas and protector of all men of genius, and who, to the power of discriminating elevation of character and mind, added that of duly promoting and rewarding them.

It thus happened, that as the Florentine citizen, Giovan-Francesco Rustici, acquitted himself very creditably in his youth, not only in design but in modelling in clay also, so by the Magnificent Lorenzo, who readily perceived his quickness of intellect and good parts, he was placed for the purposes of study with Andrea del Verrocchio, with whom, in like manner, had studied Leonardo da Vinci; the youth of the latter gave evidence, as will be remembered, of the rarest ability, and he was early endowed with extraordinary genius.

Now, the fine manner and admirable dispositions of Leonardo pleased Eustici greatly, and as it appeared to him that the expression of his heads and the movements of his figures were more graceful, as well as more animated, than those of any other whose works he had ever seen; so, when he had learned the art of casting in bronze, had obtained some acquaintance with the laws of perspective, and could work in marble, he attached himself to Leonardo da Vinci. This occurrence did not, however, take place until after Andrea Verrocchio had gone to Venice for the execution of the works which, as we have before related, were executed by his hand in that city.

Becoming thus fixed with Leonardo, and serving him with the most affectionate submission, Eustici was greatly beloved by that master, who found him to be upright, sincere, and liberal of mind, as well as diligent and patient in the labours of his art, insomuch that Leonardo would eventually do