declared that Matteo and Sandro had erred gravely in that matter,
and had fallen into grievous heresy.

"Now, whether this be true or not, let none expect the judgment of that
question from me: it shall suffice me to note that the figures executed
by Sandro in that work are entirely worthy of praise; and that the pains
he took in depicting those circles of the heavens must have been very
great, to say nothing of the angels mingled with the other figures, or
of the various foreshortenings, all which are designed in a very good
manner.

"About this time Sandro received a commission to paint a small picture
with figures three parts of a braccio high,--the subject an Adoration of
the Magi.

"It is indeed a most admirable work; the composition, the design, and
the coloring are so beautiful that every artist who examines it is
astonished; and, at the time, it obtained so great a name in Florence,
and other places, for the master, that Pope Sixtus IV. having erected
the chapel built by him in his palace at Rome, and desiring to have it
adorned with paintings, commanded that Sandro Botticelli should be
appointed Superintendent of the work."

192. Vasari's words, "about this time," are evidently wrong. It must
have been many and many a day after he painted Matteo's picture that he
took such high standing in Florence as to receive the mastership of the
works in the Pope's chapel at Rome. Of his position and doings there, I
will tell you presently; meantime, let us complete the story of his
life.

"By these works Botticelli obtained great honor and reputation among the
many competitors who were laboring with him, whether Florentines or
natives of other cities, and received from the Pope a considerable sum
of money; but this he consumed and squandered totally, during his
residence in Rome, where he lived without due care, as was his habit."

193. Well, but one would have liked to hear _how_ he squandered his
money, and whether he was without care--of other things than money.

It is just possible, Master Vasari, that Botticelli may have laid out
his money at higher interest than you know of; meantime, he is advancing
in life and thought, and becoming less and less comprehensible to his
biographer. And at length, having got rid, somehow, of the money he
received from the Pope; and finished the work he had to do, and
uncovered it,--free in conscience, and empty in purse, he returned to
Florence, where, "being a sophistical pe