wo from death, while the executioner is seen apparelled and
ready to cut off their heads, and very well wrought.

The while that Parri was making this work, he was set upon with weapons
by some of his relatives, with whom he had a dispute about some dowry;
but, since some other men ran up immediately, he was succoured in a
manner that they did him no harm. But nevertheless, so it is said, the
fright that he experienced brought it about that, besides making his
figures bending over to one side, from that day onward he made them
almost always with an expression of terror. And since he found himself
many times attacked by slanderous tongues and torn by the tooth of envy,
he made in that chapel a scene of tongues burning, with some devils
round them that were heaping them with fire; and in the sky was Christ
cursing them, and on one side these words: "To the false tongue."

Parri was very studious in the matters of art, and drew very well, as it
is shown by many drawings by his hand, which I have seen, and in
particular by a border of twenty scenes from the life of S. Donatus,
made for a sister of his own, who embroidered very well; and this he is
reputed to have done because there was a question of making adornments
for the high-altar of the Vescovado. And in our book there are some
drawings by his hand, done very well with the pen. Parri was portrayed
by Marco da Montepulciano, a disciple of Spinello, in the cloister of S.
Bernardo in Arezzo. He lived fifty-six years, and he shortened his life
by reason of being by nature melancholic, solitary, and too assiduous in
the studies of his art and in his labours. He was buried in S. Agostino,
in the same tomb wherein his father Spinello had been laid, and his
death caused displeasure to all the men of culture who knew him.

MASACCIO

LIFE OF MASACCIO

PAINTER OF SAN GIOVANNI IN VALDARNO

It is the custom of nature, when she makes a man very excellent in any
profession, very often not to make him alone, but at the same time, and
in the same neighbourhood, to make another to compete with him, to the
end that they may assist each other by their talent and emulation; which
circumstance, besides the singular advantage enjoyed by the men
themselves, who thus compete with each other, also kindles beyond
measure the minds of those who come after that age, to strive with all
study and all industry to attain to that honour and that glorious
reputation which they hear