built for himself
near the Popolo, and there he lived in the greatest contentment, without
troubling to paint or work any more. He used often to say that it was a
great fatigue to have to restrain in old age those ardours which in
youth craftsmen are wont to welcome out of emulation and a desire for
profit and honour, and that it was no less wise for a man to live in
peace than to spend his days in restless labour in order to leave a name
behind him after death, for all his works and labours had also in the
end, sooner or later, to die. And even as he said these things, so he
carried them into practice as well as he was able, for he always sought
to have for his table all the best wines and the rarest luxuries that
could be found, holding life in more account than art. Being much the
friend of all men of talent, he often had Molza and Messer Gandolfo to
supper, making right good cheer. He was also the intimate friend of
Messer Francesco Berni, the Florentine, who wrote a poem to him; to
which Fra Sebastiano answered with another, passing well, for, being
very versatile, he was even able to set his hand to writing humorous
Tuscan verse.

Having been reproached by certain persons, who said that it was shameful
that he would no longer work now that he had the means to live, Fra
Sebastiano replied in this manner: "Why will I not work now that I have
the means to live? Because there are now in the world men of genius who
do in two months what I used to do in two years; and I believe that if I
live long enough, and not so long, either, I shall find that everything
has been painted. And since these stalwarts can do so much, it is well
that there should also be one who does nothing, to the end that they may
have the more to do." With these and similar pleasantries Fra Sebastiano
was always diverting himself, being a man who was never anything but
humorous and amusing; and, in truth, a better companion never lived.

Sebastiano, as has been related, was much beloved by Michelagnolo. But
it is also true that when the front wall of the Papal Chapel, where
there is now the Last Judgment by the same Buonarroti, was to be
painted, there did arise some disdain between them, for Fra Sebastiano
had persuaded the Pope that he should make Michelagnolo paint it in
oils, whereas the latter would only do it in fresco. Now, Michelagnolo
saying neither yea nor nay, the wall was prepared after the fashion of
Fra Sebastiano, and Michelagnolo sto