olo and Vasari, going one day to visit Tiziano
in the Belvedere, saw in a picture that he had executed at that time
a nude woman representing Danae, who had in her lap Jove transformed
into a rain of gold; and they praised it much, as one does in the
painter's presence. After they had left him, discoursing of Tiziano's
method, Buonarroti commended it not a little, saying that his
colouring and his manner much pleased him, but that it was a pity that
in Venice men did not learn to draw well from the beginning, and that
those painters did not pursue a better method in their studies. "For,"
he said, "if this man had been in any way assisted by art and design,
as he is by nature, and above all in counterfeiting the life, no one
could do more or work better, for he has a fine spirit and a very
beautiful and lively manner." And in fact this is true, for the reason
that he who has not drawn much nor studied the choicest ancient and
modern works, cannot work well from memory by himself or improve the
things that he copies from life, giving them the grace and perfection
wherein art goes beyond the scope of nature, which generally produces
some parts that are not beautiful.

Tiziano, finally departing from Rome, with many gifts received from
those lords, and in particular a benefice of good value for his son
Pomponio, set himself on the road to return to Venice, after Orazio,
his other son, had made a portrait of Messer Battista Ceciliano, an
excellent player on the bass-viol, which was a very good work, and he
himself had executed some other portraits for Duke Guidobaldo of
Urbino. Arriving in Florence, and seeing the rare works of that city,
he was amazed by them no less than he had been by those of Rome. And
besides that, he visited Duke Cosimo, who was at Poggio a Caiano,
offering to paint his portrait; to which his Excellency did not give
much heed, perchance in order not to do a wrong to the many noble
craftsmen of his city and dominion.

Then, having arrived in Venice, Tiziano finished for the Marchese del
Vasto an Allocution (for so they called it) made by that lord to his
soldiers; and after that he took the portrait of Charles V, that of
the Catholic King, and many others. These works finished, he painted a
little altar-piece of the Annunciation for the Church of S. Maria
Nuova in Venice; and then, employing the assistance of his young men,
he executed a Last Supper in the refectory of SS. Giovanni e Polo,
and for the