the ground a child of poverty much more often than one wrapped in
the ease of wealth. And this Heaven does in order to show how much power
the influences of its stars and constellations have over us,
distributing more of its favours to one, and to another less; which
influences are for the most part the reason that we mortals come to be
born with dispositions more or less fiery or sluggish, weak or strong,
fierce or gentle, fortunate or unfortunate, and richer or poorer in
talent. And whoever has any doubt of this, will be enlightened in this
present Life of Perino del Vaga, a painter of great excellence and
genius.

This Perino, the son of a poor father, having been left an orphan as a
little child and abandoned by his relatives, was guided and governed by
art, whom he always acknowledged as his true mother and honoured without
ceasing. And the studies of the art of painting were pursued by him with
such zeal and diligence, that he was enabled in due time to execute
those noble and famous decorations which have brought so much glory to
Genoa and to Prince Doria. Wherefore we may believe without a doubt that
it is Heaven that raises men from those infinite depths in which they
were born, to that summit of greatness to which they ascend, when they
prove by labouring valiantly at their works that they are true followers
of the sciences that they have chosen to learn; even as Perino chose and
pursued as his vocation the art of design, in which he proved himself
full of grace and most excellent, or rather, absolutely perfect. And he
not only equalled the ancients in stucco-work, but also equalled the
best modern craftsmen in the whole field of painting, displaying all the
excellence that could possibly be desired in a human intellect that
seeks, in solving the difficulties of that art, to achieve beauty,
grace, charm, and delicacy with colouring and with every other kind of
ornament.

But let us speak more particularly of his origin. There lived in the
city of Florence one Giovanni Buonaccorsi, who entered the service of
Charles VIII, King of France, and fought in his wars, and, being a
spirited and open-handed young man, spent all that he possessed in that
service and in gaming, and finally lost his life therein. To him was
born a son, who received the name of Piero; and this son, after being
left as an infant of two months old without his mother, who died of
plague, was reared in the greatest misery at a farm, being suck