wearing--velvet,
satin, ormuzine, damask, and cloth--and, over and above those blacks, a
beard of the deepest black, painted in such beautiful detail, that the
real beard could not be more natural. This figure holds in the hand a
branch of laurel and a scroll, on which is written the name of Clement
VII; and in front are two masks, one of Virtue, which is beautiful, and
another of Vice, which is hideous. This picture M. Pietro presented to
his native city, and the people of Arezzo have placed it in their public
Council Chamber, thus doing honour to the memory of their talented
fellow-citizen, and also receiving no less from him. After this,
Sebastiano made a portrait of Andrea Doria, which was in like manner an
admirable work, and a head of the Florentine Baccio Valori, which was
also beautiful beyond belief.

In the meantime Fra Mariano Fetti, Friar of the Piombo, died, and
Sebastiano, remembering the promises made to him by the above-mentioned
Bishop of Vasona, master of the household to His Holiness, asked for the
office of the Piombo; whereupon, although Giovanni da Udine, who had
also done much in the service of His Holiness "in minoribus," and still
continued to serve him, asked for the same office, the Pope, moved by
the prayers of the Bishop, and also thinking that the talents of
Sebastiano deserved it, ordained that Sebastiano should have the office,
but should pay out of it to Giovanni da Udine an allowance of three
hundred crowns. Thus Sebastiano assumed the friar's habit, and
straightway felt his soul changed thereby, for, perceiving that he now
had the means to satisfy his desires, he spent his time in repose
without touching a brush, and recompensed himself with his comforts and
his revenues for many misspent nights and laborious days; and whenever
he happened to have something to do, he would drag himself to the work
with such reluctance, that he might have been going to his death. From
which one may learn how much our reason and the little wisdom of men are
deceived, in that very often, nay, almost always, we covet the very
opposite to that which we really need, and, as the Tuscan proverb has
it, in thinking to cross ourselves with a finger, poke it into our own
eyes. It is the common opinion of men that rewards and honours spur the
minds of mortals to the studies of those arts which they see to be the
best remunerated, and that, on the contrary, to see that those who
labour at these arts are not recompe