a woman;
which larger portrait Duke Alessandro afterwards presented to Signora
Taddea Malespina, the sister of the Marchesa di Massa. Desiring at all
costs to reward liberally the genius of Jacopo for these works, the
Duke sent him a message by Niccolo da Montaguto, his servant, that he
should ask whatever he wished, and it would be granted to him. But
such was the poor spirit or the excessive respect and modesty of the
man, I know not which to call it, that he asked for nothing save as
much money as would suffice him to redeem a cloak that he had pledged;
which having heard, the Duke, not without laughing at the character of
the man, commanded that fifty gold crowns should be given and a salary
offered to him; and even then Niccolo had much ado to make him accept
it.

Meanwhile Jacopo had finished painting the Venus from the cartoon
belonging to Bettini, which proved to be a marvellous thing, but it
was not given to Bettini at the price for which Jacopo had promised it
to him, for certain tuft-hunters, in order to do Bettini an injury,
took it almost by force from the hands of Jacopo and gave it to Duke
Alessandro, restoring the cartoon to Bettini. Which having heard,
Michelagnolo felt much displeasure for love of the friend for whom he
had drawn the cartoon, and he bore a grudge against Jacopo, who,
although he received fifty crowns for it from the Duke, nevertheless
cannot be said to have defrauded Bettini, seeing that he gave up the
Venus at the command of him who was his lord. But of all this some say
that Bettini himself was in great measure the cause, from his asking
too much.

[Illustration: JACOPO DA PONTORMO: PORTRAIT OF AN ENGRAVER

(_Paris: Louvre, 1241. Panel_)]

The occasion having thus presented itself to Pontormo, by means of
these moneys, to set his hand to the fitting up of his house, he made
a beginning with his building, but did nothing of much importance.
Indeed, although some persons declare that he had it in mind to spend
largely, according to his position, and to make a commodious dwelling
and one that might have some design, it is nevertheless evident that
what he did, whether this came from his not having the means to spend
or from some other reason, has rather the appearance of a building
erected by an eccentric and solitary creature than of a well-ordered
habitation, for the reason that to the room where he used to sleep and
at times to work, he had to climb by a wooden ladder, which, af