t place. Niccolo afterwards painted a picture
three braccia in height of the same M. Baldo Magini from life, standing
with the Church of S. Fabiano di Prato in his hand, which he presented
to the Chapter of the Canons of the Pieve; and this Niccolo executed for
that Chapter, which, in memory of the benefit received, caused the
picture to be placed in the sacristy, an honour well deserved by that
remarkable man, who with excellent judgment conferred benefits on that
church, the principal church of his native city, and so renowned for the
Girdle of the Madonna, which is preserved there. This portrait was one
of the best works that Niccolo ever executed in painting. It is also the
belief of some that a little altar-piece that is in the Company of S.
Pier Martire on the Piazza di S. Domenico, at Prato, in which are many
portraits from life, is by the hand of the same Niccolo; but in my
opinion, even if this be true, it was painted by him before any of the
other pictures mentioned above.

After these works, Niccolo--under whose discipline Domenico Giuntalodi,
a young man of excellent ability belonging to Prato, had learned the
rudiments of the art of painting, although, in consequence of having
acquired the manner of Niccolo, he never became a great master in
painting, as will be related--departed from Prato and came to work in
Florence; but, having seen that the most important works in art were
given to better and more eminent men than himself, and that his manner
was not up to the standard of Andrea del Sarto, Pontormo, Rosso, and the
others, he made up his mind to return to Arezzo, in which city he had
more friends, greater credit, and less competition. Which having done,
no sooner had he arrived than he made known to M. Giuliano Bacci, one of
the chief citizens of that place, a desire that he had in his heart,
which was this, that he wished that Arezzo should become his country,
and that therefore he would gladly undertake to execute some work which
might maintain him for a time in the practice of his art, whereby he
hoped to demonstrate to that city the nature of his talents. Whereupon
Messer Giuliano, an ingenious man who desired that his native city
should be embellished and should contain persons engaged in the arts, so
went to work with the men then governing the Company of the Nunziata,
who in those days had caused a great vaulting to be built in their
church, with the intention of having it painted, that one arch o