ci
that he should cause the hall of Poggio a Caiano to be finished.
Whereupon, Franciabigio and Andrea del Sarto being dead, the whole
charge of this was given to Pontormo, who, after having the staging
and the screens made, began to execute the cartoons; but, for the
reason that he went off into fantasies and cogitations, beyond that he
never set a hand to the work. This, perchance, would not have happened
if Bronzino had been in those parts, who was then working at the
Imperiale, a place belonging to the Duke of Urbino, near Pesaro; which
Bronzino, although he was sent for every day by Jacopo, nevertheless
was not able to depart at his own pleasure, for the reason that, after
he had executed a very beautiful naked Cupid on the spandrel of a
vault in the Imperiale, and the cartoons for the others, Prince
Guidobaldo, having recognized the young man's genius, ordained that
his own portrait should be taken by him, and, seeing that he wished to
be portrayed in some armour that he was expecting from Lombardy,
Bronzino was forced to stay with that Prince longer than he could have
wished. During that time he painted the case of a harpsichord, which
much pleased the Prince, and finally Bronzino executed his portrait,
which was very beautiful, and the Prince was well satisfied with it.

Jacopo, then, wrote so many times, and employed so many means, that in
the end he brought Bronzino back; but for all that the man could never
be induced to do any other part of this work than the cartoons,
although he was urged to it by the Magnificent Ottaviano and by Duke
Alessandro. In one of these cartoons, which are now for the most part
in the house of Lodovico Capponi, is a Hercules who is crushing
Antaeus, in another a Venus and Adonis, and in yet another drawing a
scene of nude figures playing football.

In the meantime Signor Alfonso Davalos, Marchese del Vasto, having
obtained from Michelagnolo Buonarroti by means of Fra Niccolo della
Magna a cartoon of Christ appearing to the Magdalene in the garden,
moved heaven and earth to have it executed for him in painting by
Pontormo, Buonarroti having told him that no one could serve him
better than that master. Jacopo then executed that work to perfection,
and it was accounted a rare painting by reason both of the grandeur of
Michelagnolo's design and of Jacopo's colouring. Wherefore Signor
Alessandro Vitelli, who was at that time Captain of the garrison of
soldiers in Florence, having see