f others, since, by so
doing, they will gain eternal life both for themselves and for the works
that they leave behind them after death.

Morto restored the painting of grotesques in a manner more like the
ancient than was achieved by any other painter, and for this he deserves
infinite praise, in that it is after his example that they have been
brought in our own day, by the hands of Giovanni da Udine and other
craftsmen, to the great beauty and excellence that we see. For, although
the said Giovanni and others have carried them to absolute perfection,
it is none the less true that the chief praise is due to Morto, who was
the first to bring them to light and to devote his whole attention to
paintings of that kind, which are called grotesques because they were
found for the most part in the grottoes of the ruins of Rome; besides
which, every man knows that it is easy to make additions to anything
once it has been discovered.

The painting of grotesques was continued in Florence by Andrea Feltrini,
called Di Cosimo, because he was a disciple of Cosimo Rosselli in the
study of figures (which he executed passing well), as he was afterwards
of Morto in that of grotesques, of which we have spoken. In this kind
of painting Andrea had from nature such power of invention and such
grace that he was the first to make ornaments of greater grandeur,
abundance, and richness than the ancient, and quite different in manner;
and he gave them better order and cohesion, and enriched them with
figures, such as are not seen in Rome or in any other place but
Florence, where he executed a great number. In this respect there has
never been any man who has surpassed him in excellence, as may be seen
from the ornament and the predella painted with little grotesques in
colour round the Pieta that Pietro Perugino executed for the altar of
the Serristori in S. Croce at Florence. These are heightened with
various colours on a ground of red and black mixed together, and are
wrought with much facility and with extraordinary boldness and grace.

Andrea introduced the practice of covering the facades of houses and
palaces with an intonaco of lime mixed with the black of ground
charcoal, or rather, burnt straw, on which intonaco, when still fresh,
he spread a layer of white plaster. Then, having drawn the grotesques,
with such divisions as he desired, on some cartoons, he dusted them over
the intonaco, and proceeded to scratch it with an iron tool, i