attention to his beasts and his follies,
would not press the work forward; and therefore, after Raffaello da
Urbino had been brought to Rome by the architect Bramante, and it had
become known to the Pope how much he surpassed the others, his
Holiness ordained that neither Perugino nor Giovanni Antonio should
work any more in the above-named apartments; indeed, that everything
should be thrown to the ground. But Raffaello, who was goodness and
modesty in person, left standing all that had been done by Perugino,
who had once been his master; and of Mattaccio's he destroyed nothing
save the inner work and the figures of the medallions and scenes,
leaving the friezes and the other ornaments, which are still round the
figures that Raffaello painted there, which were Justice, Universal
Knowledge, Poetry, and Theology.

But Agostino, who was a gentleman, without paying any attention to the
affront that Giovanni Antonio had received, commissioned him to paint
in one of his principal apartments, which opens into the great hall in
his Palace in the Trastevere, the story of Alexander going to sleep
with Roxana. In that work, besides other figures, he painted a good
number of Loves, some of whom are unfastening Alexander's cuirass,
some are drawing off his boots, or rather, buskins, some are removing
his helmet and dress, and putting them away; others scattering flowers
over the bed, and others, again, doing other suchlike offices. Near
the chimney-piece he painted a Vulcan forging arrows, which was held
at that time to be a passing good and praiseworthy work; and if
Mattaccio, who had beautiful gifts and was much assisted by Nature,
had given his attention, after that reversal of fortune, to his
studies, as any other man would have done, he would have made very
great proficience. But he had his mind always set on his amusements,
and he worked by caprice, caring for nothing so earnestly as for
dressing in pompous fashion, wearing doublets of brocade, cloaks all
adorned with cloth of gold, the richest caps, necklaces, and other
suchlike fripperies only fit for clowns and charlatans; in which
things Agostino, who liked the man's humour, found the greatest
amusement in the world.

Julius II having then come to his death, and Leo X having been
elected, who took pleasure in eccentric and light-headed figures of
fun such as our painter was, Mattaccio felt the greatest possible joy,
particularly because he had an ill-will against Julius