stone, and placed in the centre of the arch in
the first portico of the Nunziata, which is on the piazza; and shortly
afterwards they arranged that it should be overlaid with gold by the
painter Andrea di Cosimo, and adorned with grotesques, of which he was
an excellent master, and with the devices of the house of Medici, and
that, in addition, on either side of it there should be painted a
Faith and a Charity. But Andrea di Cosimo, knowing that he was not
able to execute all these things by himself, thought of giving the two
figures to some other to do; and so, having sent for Jacopo, who was
then not more than nineteen years of age, he gave him those two
figures to execute, although he had no little trouble to persuade him
to undertake to do it, seeing that, being a mere lad, he did not wish
to expose himself at the outset to such a risk, or to work in a place
of so much importance. However, having taken heart, although he was
not as well practised in fresco as in oil-painting, Jacopo undertook
to paint those two figures. And, withdrawing--for he was still working
with Andrea del Sarto--to draw the cartoons at S. Antonio by the Porta
a Faenza, where he lived, in a short time he carried them to
completion; which done, one day he took his master Andrea to see
them. Andrea, after seeing them with infinite marvel and amazement,
praised them vastly; but afterwards, as has been related, whether it
was from envy or from some other reason, he never again looked with a
kindly eye on Jacopo; nay, Jacopo going several times to his workshop,
either the door was not opened to him or he was mocked at by the
assistants, insomuch that he retired altogether by himself, beginning
to live on the least that he could, for he was very poor, and to study
with the greatest assiduity.

[Illustration: DUKE COSIMO I. DE' MEDICI

(_After the painting by =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Florence: Uffizi, 1270_)

_Anderson_]

When Andrea di Cosimo, then, had finished gilding the escutcheon and
all the eaves, Jacopo set to work all by himself to finish the rest;
and being carried away by the desire to make a name, by his joy in
working, and by nature, which had endowed him with extraordinary grace
and fertility of genius, he executed that work with incredible
rapidity and with such perfection as could not have been surpassed by
an old, well-practised, and excellent master. Wherefore, growing in
courage through this experience, and thinking that he could