y of the vestments and the invention. Jacopo, having
to paint at the corners of those cloisters scenes from the Passion of
the Saviour, thought to avail himself of the above-named inventions of
Albrecht Duerer, in the firm belief that he would satisfy not only
himself but also the greater part of the craftsmen of Florence, who
were all proclaiming with one voice and with common consent and
agreement the beauty of those engravings and the excellence of
Albrecht. Setting himself therefore to imitate that manner, and
seeking to give to the expressions of the heads of his figures that
liveliness and variety which Albrecht had given to his, he caught it
so thoroughly, that the charm of his own early manner, which had been
given to him by nature, all full of sweetness and grace, suffered a
great change from that new study and labour, and was so impaired
through his stumbling on that German manner, that in all these works,
although they are all beautiful, there is but a sorry remnant to be
seen of that excellence and grace that he had given up to that time to
all his figures.

At the entrance to the cloister, then, in one corner, he painted
Christ in the Garden, counterfeiting so well the darkness of night
illumined by the light of the moon, that it appears almost like
daylight; and while Christ is praying, not far distant are Peter,
James, and John sleeping, executed in a manner so similar to that of
Duerer, that it is a marvel. Not far away is Judas leading the Jews,
likewise with a countenance so strange, even as the features of all
those soldiers are depicted in the German manner with bizarre
expressions, that it moves him who beholds it to pity for the
simplicity of the man, who sought with such patience to learn that
which others avoid and seek to lose, and all to lose the manner that
surpassed all others in excellence and gave infinite pleasure to
everyone. Did not Pontormo know, then, that the Germans and Flemings
came to these parts to learn the Italian manner, which he with such
effort sought to abandon as if it were bad?

Beside this scene is one in which is Christ led by the Jews before
Pilate, and in the Saviour he painted all the humility that could
possibly be imagined in the Person of Innocence betrayed by the sins
of men, and in the wife of Pilate that pity and dread for themselves
which those have who fear the divine judgment; which woman, while she
pleads the cause of Christ before her husband, gazes into