to Florence. Having arrived, therefore, before
attempting any other thing, he painted for the above-named M. Alamanno
Salviati a very beautiful picture of Our Lady, which he executed in a
room in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore that was occupied by
Francesco dal Prato, who at that time, from being a goldsmith and a
master of tausia,[19] had set himself to casting little figures in
bronze and to painting, with much profit and honour. In that same place,
then, which that master held as the official in charge of the woodwork
of the Office of Works, Francesco made portraits of his friend Piero di
Marcone and of Avveduto del Cegia, the dresser of minever-furs, who was
also much his friend; which Avveduto, besides many other things by the
hand of Francesco that he possesses, has a portrait of Francesco
himself, executed in oils with his own hand, and very lifelike.

[Footnote 19: Damascening.]

[Illustration: JUSTICE

(_After the fresco by =Francesco Salviati [Francesco de' Rossi]=.
Florence: Bargello_)

_Alinari_]

The above-mentioned picture of Our Lady, being, after it was finished,
in the shop of the wood-carver Tasso, who was then architect of the
Palace, was seen by many persons and vastly extolled; but what caused it
even more to be considered a rare picture was that Tasso, who was
accustomed to censure almost everything, praised it to the skies. And,
what was more, he said to M. Pier Francesco, the majordomo, that it
would be an excellent thing for the Duke to give Francesco some work of
importance to execute; whereupon M. Pier Francesco and Cristofano
Rinieri, who had the ear of the Duke, played their part in such a way,
that M. Alamanno spoke to his Excellency, saying to him that Francesco
desired to be commissioned to paint the Hall of Audience, which is in
front of the Chapel of the Ducal Palace, and that he cared nothing about
payment; and the Duke was content that this should be granted to him.
Whereupon Francesco, having made small designs of the Triumph of Furius
Camillus and of many stories of his life, set himself to contrive the
division of that hall according to the spaces left by the windows and
doors, some of which are high and some low; and there was no little
difficulty in making that division in such a way that it might be
well-ordered and might not disturb the sequence of the stories. In the
wall where there is the door by which one enters into the hall, there
were two large