rest, whereupon the Pope, having gone one day to
see the work, asked Andrea what figure that was; to which Andrea
answered that it was Discretion; and the Pope added: "If thou wouldst
have her suitably accompanied, put Patience beside her." The painter
understood what the meaning of the Holy Father was, and he never said
another word. The work finished, the Pope sent him back to the Duke with
much favour and honourable rewards.

The while that Andrea was working in Rome, he painted, besides the said
chapel, a little picture of the Madonna with the Child sleeping in her
arms; and within certain caverns in the landscape, which is a mountain,
he made some stone-cutters quarrying stone for various purposes, all
wrought with such delicacy and such great patience, that it does not
seem possible for such good work to be done with the thin point of a
brush. This picture is now in the possession of the most Illustrious
Lord, Don Francesco Medici, Prince of Florence, who holds it among his
dearest treasures.

In our book is a drawing by the hand of Andrea on a half-sheet of royal
folio, finished in chiaroscuro, wherein is a Judith who is putting the
head of Holofernes into the wallet of her Moorish slave-girl; which
chiaroscuro is executed in a manner no longer used, for he left the
paper white to serve for the light in place of white lead, and that so
delicately that the separate hairs and other minute details are seen
therein, no less than if they had been wrought with much diligence by
the brush; wherefore in a certain sense this may be called rather a work
in colour than a drawing. The same man, like Pollaiuolo, delighted in
engraving on copper; and, among other things, he made engravings of his
own Triumphs, which were then held in great account, since nothing
better had been seen.

One of the last works that he executed was a panel-picture for S. Maria
della Vittoria, a church built after the direction and design of Andrea
by the Marquis Francesco, in memory of the victory that he gained on the
River Taro, when he was General of the Venetian forces against the
French. In this panel, which was wrought in distemper and placed on the
high-altar, there is painted the Madonna with the Child seated on a
pedestal; and below are S. Michelagnolo, S. Anna, and Joachim, who are
presenting the Marquis--who is portrayed from life so well that he
appears alive--to the Madonna, who is offering him her hand. Which
picture, even as it g