elagnolo, and what extraordinary fruits he was likely to
produce when full grown, he could never tear himself away from his side,
and even strove with incredible attention and humility to be always
following that great brain, insomuch that Michelagnolo was constrained
to love him more than all his other friends, and to confide so much in
him, that there was no one with whom he was more willing to confer
touching his works or to share all that he knew of art at that time,
than with Granacci. Then, after they had been companions together in the
workshop of Domenico Ghirlandajo, it came to pass that Granacci, because
he was held to be the best of Ghirlandajo's young men, the strongest
draughtsman, and the one who had most grace in painting in distemper,
assisted David and Benedetto Ghirlandajo, the brothers of Domenico, to
finish the altar-piece of the high-altar in S. Maria Novella, which had
been left unfinished at the death of the same Domenico. By this work
Granacci gained much experience, and afterwards he executed in the same
manner as that altar-piece many pictures that are in the houses of
citizens, and others which were sent abroad.

And since he was very gracious, and made himself very useful in certain
ceremonies that were performed in the city during the festivals of the
Carnival, he was constantly employed by the Magnificent Lorenzo de'
Medici in many similar works, and in particular for the masquerade that
represented the Triumph of Paulus Emilius, which was held in honour of
the victory that he gained over certain foreign nations. In this
masquerade, which was full of most beautiful inventions, Granacci
acquitted himself so well, although he was a mere lad, that he won the
highest praise. And here I will not omit to tell that the same Lorenzo
de' Medici, as I have said in another place, was the first inventor of
those masquerades that represent some particular subject, and are called
in Florence "Canti";[10] for it is not known that any were performed in
earlier times.

In like manner Granacci was employed in the sumptuous and magnificent
preparations that were made in the year 1513 for the entry of Pope Leo
X, one of the Medici, by Jacopo Nardi, a man of great learning and most
beautiful intellect, who, having been commanded by the Tribunal of Eight
to prepare a splendid masquerade, executed a representation of the
Triumph of Camillus. This masquerade, in so far as it lay in the
province of the painter, wa