sco the upper part of
the tramezzo[4] of the Abbey of Camaldoli, and two panel-pictures for
the lower part; and, wishing to make about these last an ornament in
fresco full of scenes, he would have liked to have Cristofano with
him, no less to restore him to the favour of the Duke than to make use
of him. But, although Messer Ottaviano de' Medici pleaded strongly
with the Duke, it proved impossible to bend him, so ugly was the
information that had been given to him about the behaviour of
Cristofano. Not having succeeded in this, therefore, Vasari, as one
who loved Cristofano, set himself to contrive to remove him at least
from S. Giustino, where he, with other exiles, was living in the
greatest peril. In the year 1539, then, having to execute for the
Monks of Monte Oliveto, for the head of a great refectory in the
Monastery of S. Michele in Bosco without Bologna, three panel-pictures
in oils with three scenes each four braccia in length, and a frieze in
fresco three braccia high all round with twenty stories of the
Apocalypse in little figures, and all the monasteries of that Order
copied from the reality, with partitions of grotesques, and round each
window fourteen braccia of festoons with fruits copied from nature,
Giorgio wrote straightway to Cristofano that he should go from S.
Giustino to Bologna, together with Battista Cungi of the Borgo, his
compatriot, who had also served Vasari for seven years. These men,
therefore, having gone to Bologna, where Giorgio had not yet
arrived--for he was still at Camaldoli, where, having finished the
tramezzo, he was drawing the cartoon for a Deposition from the Cross,
which was afterwards executed by him and set up on the high-altar in
that same place--set themselves to prime the said three panels with
gesso and to lay on the ground, until such time as Giorgio should
arrive.

[Footnote 4: See note on p. 57, Vol. I.]

Now Vasari had given a commission to Dattero, a Jew, the friend of
Messer Ottaviano de' Medici, who was then a banker in Bologna, that he
should provide Cristofano and Battista with everything that they
required. And since this Dattero was very obliging and most courteous,
he did them a thousand favours and courtesies; wherefore those two at
times went about Bologna in his company in very familiar fashion, and,
Battista having prominent eyes and Cristofano a great speck in one of
his, they were thus taken for Jews, as Dattero was in fact. One
morning, th