of affection that he had
shown, I painted for him, as he had commissioned me, an altar-picture of
the Adoration of the Magi; and when he heard that it had been carried by
me to completion, he sent me a message that to please him, and that he
might confer with me over some thoughts in his mind, I should go with
that picture to Rome, but particularly for the purpose of discussing the
fabric of S. Pietro, which he showed himself to have very much at heart.
Having therefore made preparations with a hundred crowns that he sent me
for that purpose, and having sent the picture before me, I went to Rome;
and after I had been there a month and had had many conversations with
his Holiness, and had advised him not to permit any alterations to be
made in the arrangements of Buonarroti for the fabric of S. Pietro, and
had executed some designs, he commanded me to make for the high-altar of
that Church of Bosco not an altar-picture such as is customary, but an
immense structure almost in the manner of a triumphal arch, with two
large panels, one in front and the other behind, and in smaller pictures
about thirty scenes filled with many figures; all which have been
carried very near completion.

At that time I obtained the gracious leave of his Holiness, who with
infinite lovingness and condescension sent me the Bulls expedited free
of charge, to erect in the Pieve of Arezzo a chapel and decanate, which
is the principal chapel of that Pieve, under the patronage of myself and
of my house, endowed by me and painted by my hand, and offered to the
Divine Goodness as an acknowledgment (although but a trifle) of the
great obligation that I feel to the Divine Majesty for the innumerable
graces and benefits that He has deigned to bestow upon me. The
altar-picture of that chapel is in form very similar to that described
above, which has been in part the reason that it has been brought back
to my memory, for it is isolated and consists likewise of two pictures,
one in front, already mentioned above, and one at the back with the
story of S. George, with pictures of certain Saints on either side, and
at the foot smaller pictures with their stories; those Saints whose
bodies are in a most beautiful tomb below the altar, with other
principal reliques of the city. In the centre comes a tabernacle passing
well arranged for the Sacrament, because it serves for both the one
altar and the other, and it is embellished with stories of the Old
Testament a