ks he painted a large picture on canvas and in
oil-colours, without straining himself at all or forcing his natural
powers, of Christ at table with Cleophas and Luke, figures of the size
of life; and since in this work he followed the bent of his own
genius, it proved to be truly marvellous, particularly because he
portrayed among those who are serving at that table some lay-brothers
of the convent, whom I myself have known, in such a manner that they
could not be either more lifelike or more animated than they are.

Bronzino, meanwhile (that is, while his master was executing the works
described above in the Certosa), pursuing with great spirit the
studies of painting, and encouraged all the time by Pontormo, who was
very loving with his disciples, executed on the inner side over an
arch above the door of the cloister that leads into the church,
without having ever seen the process of painting in oil-colours on the
wall, a nude S. Laurence on the gridiron, which was so beautiful that
there began to be seen some indication of that excellence to which he
has since attained, as will be related in the proper place; which
circumstance gave infinite satisfaction to Jacopo, who already saw
whither that genius would arrive.

Not long afterwards there returned from Rome Lodovico di Gino Capponi,
who had bought that chapel in S. Felicita, on the right hand of the
entrance into the church, which the Barbadori had formerly caused to
be built by Filippo di Ser Brunellesco; and he resolved to have all
the vaulting painted, and then to have an altar-piece executed for it,
with a rich ornament. Having therefore consulted in the matter with M.
Niccolo Vespucci, knight of Rhodes, who was much his friend, the
knight, who was also much the friend of Jacopo, and knew, into the
bargain, the talent and worth of that able man, did and said so much
that Lodovico allotted that work to Pontormo. And so, having erected
an enclosure, which kept that chapel closed for three years, he set
his hand to the work. On the vaulted ceiling he painted a God the
Father, who has about Him four very beautiful Patriarchs; and in the
four medallions at the angles he depicted the four Evangelists, or
rather, he executed three of them with his own hand, and Bronzino one
all by himself. And with this occasion I must mention that Pontormo
used scarcely ever to allow himself to be helped by his assistants, or
to suffer them to lay a hand on that which he intended to