do a much
better work, he took it into his head that he would throw to the
ground all that he had done, without saying a word to anyone, and
paint it all over again after another design that he had in his brain.
But in the meantime the friars, having seen that the work was finished
and that Jacopo came no more to his labour, sought out Andrea, and so
pestered him that he resolved to uncover it. Having therefore looked
for Jacopo, in order to ask him whether he wished to do any more to
the work, and not finding him, for the reason that he stayed shut up
over his new design and would not answer to anyone, Andrea had the
screen and scaffolding removed and the work uncovered. The same
evening Jacopo, having issued from his house in order to go to the
Servite convent, and, when it should be night, to throw to the ground
the work that he had done, and to put into execution the new design,
found the scaffolding taken away and everything uncovered, and a
multitude of people all around gazing at the work. Whereupon, full of
fury, he sought out Andrea, and complained of his having uncovered it
without his consent, going on to describe what he had in mind to do.
To which Andrea answered, laughing: "You are wrong to complain,
because the work that you have done is so good that, if you had it
to do again, you may take my word for it that you would not be able
to do it better. You will not want for work, so keep these designs for
another occasion." That work, as may be seen, was of such a kind and
so beautiful, what with the novelty of the manner, the sweetness in
the heads of those two women, and the loveliness of the graceful and
lifelike children, that it was the most beautiful work in fresco that
had ever been seen up to that time; and, besides the children with the
Charity, there are two others in the air holding a piece of drapery
over the escutcheon of the Pope, who are so beautiful that nothing
better could be done, not to mention that all the figures have very
strong relief and are so executed in colouring and in every other
respect that one is not able to praise them enough. And Michelagnolo
Buonarroti, seeing the work one day, and reflecting that a youth of
nineteen had done it, said: "This young man, judging from what may be
seen here, will become such that, if he lives and perseveres, he will
exalt this art to the heavens." This renown and fame being heard by
the men of Pontormo, they sent for Jacopo, and commissioned him