beautiful in the
heads and in every other part, and to be truly worthy of all praise.
Afterwards he executed for Messer Goro da Pistoia, then Secretary to
the Medici, a picture with the portrait of the Magnificent Cosimo de'
Medici, the elder, from the knees upwards, which is indeed worthy to
be extolled; and this portrait is now in the house of Messer Ottaviano
de' Medici, in the possession of his son, Messer Alessandro, a young
man--besides the distinction and nobility of his blood--of most
upright character, well lettered, and the worthy son of the
Magnificent Ottaviano and of Madonna Francesca, the daughter of Jacopo
Salviati and the maternal aunt of the Lord Duke Cosimo.

By means of this work, and particularly this head of Cosimo, Pontormo
became the friend of Messer Ottaviano; and the Great Hall at Poggio a
Caiano having then to be painted, there were given to him to paint the
two ends where the round openings are that give light--that is, the
windows--from the vaulting down to the floor. Whereupon, desiring to
do himself honour even beyond his wont, both from regard for the place
and from emulation of the other painters who were working there, he
set himself to study with such diligence, that he overshot the mark,
for the reason that, destroying and doing over again every day what he
had done the day before, he racked his brains in such a manner that it
was a tragedy; but all the time he was always making new discoveries,
which brought credit to himself and beauty to the work. Thus, having
to execute a Vertumnus with his husbandmen, he painted a peasant
seated with a vine-pruner in his hand, which is so beautiful and so
well done that it is a very rare thing, even as certain children that
are there are lifelike and natural beyond all belief. On the other
side he painted Pomona and Diana, with other Goddesses, enveloping
them perhaps too abundantly with draperies. However, the work as a
whole is beautiful and much extolled; but while it was being executed
Leo was overtaken by death, and so it remained unfinished, like many
other similar works at Rome, Florence, Loreto, and other places; nay,
the whole world was left poor, being robbed of the true Maecenas of men
of talent.

[Illustration: VERTUMNUS FRESCO (DETAIL)

(_After =Jacopo da Pontormo=. Poggio a Caiano: Villa Reale_)

_Alinari_]

Having returned to Florence, Jacopo painted in a picture a seated
figure of S. Augustine as a Bishop, who is giving the