over the
Turks as Grand Seneschal of the King of Hungary. But Dello having
written immediately to the King of Spain to complain of this affront,
the King wrote so warmly on his behalf to the Signoria that the due and
desired honour was conceded to him without opposition. It is said that
Dello, while returning to his house on horseback, with his banners,
having been honoured by the Signoria and robed in brocade, was mocked
at, in passing through Vacchereccia, where there were then many
goldsmiths' shops, by certain old friends, who, having known him in
youth, did this either in scorn or in jest; and that he, turning in the
direction whence he had heard the voice, made a gesture of contempt with
both his hands and went on his way without saying a word, so that
scarcely anyone noticed it save those who had derided him. By reason of
this and other signs, which gave him to know that envy was no less
active against him in his own country than malice had been formerly when
he was very poor, he determined to return to Spain; and so, having
written, and having received an answer from the King, he returned to
those parts, where he was welcomed with great favour and ever afterwards
regarded with affection, and there he devoted himself to work, living
like a nobleman, and ever painting from that day onwards in an apron of
brocade. Thus, then, he gave way before envy, and lived in honour at the
Court of that King; and he died at the age of forty-nine, and was given
honourable burial by the same man, with this epitaph:

DELLUS EQUES FLORENTINUS
PICTURAE ARTE PERCELEBRIS
REGISQUE HISPANIARUM LIBERALITATE
ET ORNAMENTIS AMPLISSIMUS.
H. S. E.
S. T. T. L.

Dello was no very good draughtsman, but was well among the first who
began to show judgment in revealing the muscles in nude bodies, as it is
seen from some drawings in our book, made by him in chiaroscuro. He was
portrayed in chiaroscuro by Paolo Uccello in S. Maria Novella, in the
story wherein Noah is made drunk by his son Ham.

NANNI D'ANTONIO DI BANCO

LIFE OF NANNI D'ANTONIO DI BANCO

SCULPTOR OF FLORENCE

Nanni d'Antonio di Banco was not only rich enough by patrimony, but also
by no means humble in origin, yet, delighting in sculpture, he was not
only not ashamed to learn and practise it, but took no small pride
therein, and made so much advance that his fame will ever endure; and it
will be all the more c