f Alessandro Vittoria, a sculptor in Venice,
the disciple of Jacopo Sansovino.

But to return to Francesco; while studying in Rome, he set himself to
examine all the ancient and modern works, both of sculpture and of
painting, that were in that city, but held those of Michelagnolo
Buonarroti and Raffaello da Urbino in supreme veneration beyond all the
others; and it was said afterwards that the spirit of that Raffaello had
passed into the body of Francesco, when men saw how excellent the young
man was in art, and how gentle and gracious in his ways, as was
Raffaello, and above all when it became known how much Francesco strove
to imitate him in everything, and particularly in painting. Nor was this
study in vain, for many little pictures that he painted in Rome, the
greater part of which afterwards came into the hands of Cardinal
Ippolito de' Medici, were truly marvellous; and even such is a round
picture with a very beautiful Annunciation, executed by him for Messer
Agnolo Cesis, which is now treasured as a rare work in the house of that
family. He painted a picture, likewise, of the Madonna with Christ, some
Angels, and a S. Joseph, which are beautiful to a marvel on account of
the expressions of the heads, the colouring, and the grace and diligence
with which they are seen to have been executed. This work was formerly
in the possession of Luigi Gaddi, and it must now be in the hands of his
heirs.

Hearing the fame of this master, Signor Lorenzo Cibo, Captain of the
Papal Guard, and a very handsome man, had a portrait of himself painted
by Francesco, who may be said to have made, not a portrait, but a living
figure of flesh and blood. Having then been commissioned to paint for
Madonna Maria Bufolini of Citta di Castello a panel-picture which was
to be placed in S. Salvatore del Lauro, in a chapel near the door,
Francesco painted in it a Madonna in the sky, who is reading and has the
Child between her knees, and on the earth he made a figure of S. John,
kneeling on one knee in an attitude of extraordinary beauty, turning his
body, and pointing to the Infant Christ; and lying asleep on the ground,
in foreshortening, is a S. Jerome in Penitence.

But he was prevented from bringing this work to completion by the ruin
and sack of Rome in 1527, which was the reason not only that the arts
were banished for a time, but also that many craftsmen lost their lives.
And Francesco, also, came within a hair's breadth of losing his