n it, had a picture painted for
himself from the same cartoon by Jacopo, which he sent to Citta di
Castello and caused to be placed in his house. It thus became evident
in what estimation Michelagnolo held Pontormo, and with what diligence
Pontormo carried to completion and executed excellently well the
designs and cartoons of Michelagnolo, and Bartolommeo Bettini so went
to work that Buonarroti, who was much his friend, made for him a
cartoon of a nude Venus with a Cupid who is kissing her, in order that
he might have it executed in painting by Pontormo and place it in the
centre of a chamber of his own, in the lunettes of which he had begun
to have painted by Bronzino figures of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio,
with the intention of having there all the other poets who have sung
of love in Tuscan prose and verse. Jacopo, then, having received this
cartoon, executed it to perfection at his leisure, as will be related,
in the manner that all the world knows without my saying another word
in praise of it. These designs of Michelagnolo's were the reason that
Pontormo, considering the manner of that most noble craftsman, took
heart of grace, and resolved that by hook or by crook he would imitate
and follow it to the best of his ability. And then it was that Jacopo
recognized how ill he had done to allow the work of Poggio a Caiano to
slip through his hands, although he put the blame in great measure on
a long and very troublesome illness that he had suffered, and finally
on the death of Pope Clement, which brought that undertaking
completely to an end.

Jacopo having executed after the works described above a picture with
the portrait from life of Amerigo Antinori, a young man much beloved
in Florence at that time, and that portrait being much extolled by
everyone, Duke Alessandro had him informed that he wished to have his
portrait taken by him in a large picture. And Jacopo, for the sake of
convenience, executed his portrait for the time being in a little
picture of the size of a sheet of half-folio, and with such diligence
and care, that the works of the miniaturists do not in any way come up
to it; for the reason that, besides its being a very good likeness,
there is in that head all that could be desired in the rarest of
paintings. From that little picture, which is now in the guardaroba of
Duke Cosimo, Jacopo afterwards made a portrait of the same Duke in a
large picture, with a style in the hand, drawing the head of