in supporting
the burden of their labours; so that there are few of that disposition
who do not become excellent in such professions. Even so did Giovanni
Antonio Sogliani, a painter of Florence, whose cast of countenance was
so cold and woeful that he looked like the image of melancholy; and such
was the power of this humour over him that he gave little thought to
anything but matters of art, with the exception of his household cares,
through which he endured most grievous anxieties, although he had enough
to live in comfort. He worked at the art of painting under Lorenzo di
Credi for four-and-twenty years, living with him, honouring him always,
and rendering him every sort of service. Having become during that time
a very good painter, he showed afterwards in all his works that he was a
most faithful disciple of his master and a close imitator of his manner.
This was seen from his first paintings, in the Church of the Osservanza
on the hill of San Miniato without Florence, for which he painted a
panel-picture copied from the one that Lorenzo had executed for the Nuns
of S. Chiara, containing the Nativity of Christ, and no less excellent
than the one of Lorenzo.

Afterwards, having left his master, he painted for the Church of S.
Michele in Orto, at the commission of the Guild of Vintners, a S. Martin
in oils, robed as a Bishop, which gave him the name of a very good
master. And since Giovanni Antonio had a vast veneration for the works
and the manner of Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco, and made great efforts
to approach that manner in his colouring, it may be seen from a panel
which he began but did not finish, not being satisfied with it, how
much he imitated that painter. This panel remained in his house during
his lifetime as worthless: but after his death it was sold as a piece of
old rubbish to Sinibaldo Gaddi, and he had it finished by Santi Titi dal
Borgo, then a mere boy, and placed it in a chapel of his own in S.
Domenico da Fiesole. In this work are the Magi adoring Jesus Christ, who
is in the lap of His Mother, and in one corner is his own portrait from
life, which is a passing good likeness.

He then painted for Madonna Alfonsina, the wife of Piero de' Medici, a
panel-picture that was placed as a votive offering over the altar of the
Chapel of the Martyrs in the Camaldolite Church at Florence: in which
picture he painted the Crucifixion of S. Arcadio and other martyrs with
their crosses in their arms, and t