r the door of the Company of Cecilia, on the heights of
Fiesole, he painted a S. Cecilia with some roses in her hand, coloured
in fresco, and so beautiful and so well suited to that place, that,
for a work of that kind, it is one of the best paintings in fresco
that there are to be seen.

These works having been seen by the above-named Servite friar, Maestro
Jacopo, he became even more ardent in his desire, and he determined at
all costs to cause Jacopo to finish the work in that court of the
Servites, thinking that in emulation of the other masters who had
worked there he would execute something of extraordinary beauty in the
part that remained to be painted. Having therefore set his hand to it,
from a desire no less of glory and honour than of gain, Jacopo painted
the scene of the Visitation of the Madonna, in a manner a little freer
and more lively than had been his wont up to that time; which
circumstance gave an infinite excellence to the work, in addition to
its other extraordinary beauties, in that the women, little boys,
youths, and old men are executed in fresco with such softness and such
harmony of colouring, that it is a thing to marvel at, and the
flesh-colours of a little boy who is seated on some steps, and,
indeed, those likewise of all the other figures, are such that they
could not be done better or with more softness in fresco. This work,
then, after the others that Jacopo had executed, gave a sure earnest
of his future perfection to the craftsmen, comparing them with those
of Andrea del Sarto and Franciabigio. Jacopo delivered the work
finished in the year 1516, and received in payment sixteen crowns and
no more.

Having then been allotted by Francesco Pucci, if I remember rightly,
the altar-piece of a chapel that he had caused to be built in S.
Michele Bisdomini in the Via de' Servi, Jacopo executed the work in so
beautiful a manner, and with a colouring so vivid, that it seems
almost impossible to credit it. In this altar-piece Our Lady, who is
seated, is handing the Infant Jesus to S. Joseph, in whose countenance
there is a smile so animated and so lifelike that it is a marvel; and
very beautiful, likewise, is a little boy painted to represent S. John
the Baptist, and also two other little children, naked, who are
upholding a canopy. There may be seen also a S. John the Evangelist, a
most beautiful old man, and a S. Francis kneeling, who is absolutely
alive, for, with the fingers of one hand int