ised death by
the hand of justice, saying that it was a fine thing to go to your
death in that way; to see the broad sky about you, and all that
throng; to be comforted with sweetmeats and with kind words; to have
the priest and the people praying for you; and to go into Paradise
with the Angels; so that whoever departed from this life at one
blow, was very fortunate. And as he discoursed, he would twist
everything to the strangest meanings that were ever heard.
Wherefore, living in such strange fashion, he reduced himself to
such a state with his extravagant fancies, that one morning he was
found dead at the foot of a staircase, in the year 1521; and he was
given burial in S. Piero Maggiore.

His disciples were many, and one among them was Andrea del Sarto,
who was a host in himself. Piero's portrait I received from
Francesco da San Gallo, who was much his friend and intimate
companion, and who made it when Piero was old; which Francesco still
has a work by the hand of Piero that I must not pass by, a very
beautiful head of Cleopatra, with an asp wound round her neck, and
two portraits, one of his father Giuliano, and the other of his
grandfather Francesco Giamberti, which seem to be alive.

[Illustration: FRANCESCO GIAMBERTI

(_After the panel by =Piero di Cosimo=. Hague: Royal Museum, 255_)

_Bruckmann_]

FOOTNOTE:

[13] See note on p. 57, Vol. I.

BRAMANTE DA URBINO

LIFE OF BRAMANTE DA URBINO

ARCHITECT

Of very great advantage to architecture, in truth, was the new
method of Filippo Brunelleschi, who imitated and restored to the
light, after many ages, the noble works of the most learned and
marvellous ancients. But no less useful to our age was Bramante, in
following the footsteps of Filippo, and making the path of his
profession of architecture secure for all who came after him, by
means of his courage, boldness, intellect, and science in that art,
wherein he had the mastery not of theory only, but of supreme skill
and practice. Nor could nature have created a more vigorous
intellect, or one to exercise his art and carry it into execution
with greater invention and proportion, or with a more thorough
knowledge, than Bramante. But no less essential than all this was
the election to the Pontificate, at that time, of Julius II, a Pope
of great spirit, full of desire to leave memorials behind him. And
it was fortunate both for us and for Bramante that he found such a
Prince (a thing whi