youth, while in the service of Duke
Alessandro de' Medici, I was commissioned, when Charles V came to
Florence, to make the banners for the Castle, or rather, as it is called
at the present day, the Citadel; and among these was a standard of
crimson cloth, eighteen braccia wide at the staff and forty in length,
and surrounded by borders of gold containing the devices of the Emperor
Charles V and of the house of Medici, with the arms of his Majesty in
the centre. For this work, in which were used forty-five thousand leaves
of gold, I summoned to my assistance Andrea for the borders and Mariotto
for the gilding; and many things did I learn from that good Andrea, so
full of love and kindness for those who were studying art. And so great
did the skill of Andrea then prove to be, that, besides availing myself
of him for many details of the arches that were erected for the entry of
his Majesty, I chose him as my companion, together with Tribolo, when
Madama Margherita, daughter of Charles V, came to be married to Duke
Alessandro, in making the festive preparations that I executed in the
house of the Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici on the Piazza di S. Marco,
which was adorned with grotesques by his hand, with statues by the hand
of Tribolo, and with figures and scenes by my hand. At the last he was
much employed for the obsequies of Duke Alessandro, and even more for
the marriage of Duke Cosimo, when all the devices in the courtyard,
described by M. Francesco Giambullari, who wrote an account of the
festivities of that wedding, were painted by Andrea with ornaments of
great variety. And then Andrea--who, by reason of a melancholy humour
which often oppressed him, was on many occasions on the point of taking
his own life, but was observed so closely and guarded so well by his
companion Mariotto that he lived to be an old man--finished the course
of his life at the age of sixty-four, leaving behind him the name of a
good and even rarely excellent master of grotesque-painting in our own
times, wherein every succeeding craftsman has always imitated his
manner, not only in Florence, but also in other places.

FOOTNOTE:

[13] From the word "Morto," which means "dead."

MARCO CALAVRESE

LIFE OF MARCO CALAVRESE

PAINTER

When the world possesses some great light in any science, every least
part is illuminated by its rays, some with greater brightness and some
with less; and the miracles that result are also grea