ar and peculiar field to
portray from life with the greatest diligence that could be imagined,
caused him to paint a portrait of himself, at that time a young man,
fully clad in bright armour, and with one hand upon his helmet; in
another picture the Lady Duchess, his consort, and in yet another
picture the Lord Don Francesco, their son and Prince of Florence. And no
long time passed before he portrayed the same Lady Duchess once again,
to do her pleasure, in a different manner from the first, with the
Lord Don Giovanni, her son, beside her. He also made a portrait of La
Bia, a young girl, the natural daughter of the Duke; and afterwards all
the Duke's children, some for the first time and others for the
second--the Lady Donna Maria, a very tall and truly beautiful girl, the
Prince Don Francesco, the Lord Don Giovanni, Don Garzia, and Don
Ernando, in a number of pictures which are all in the guardaroba of his
Excellency, together with the portraits of Don Francesco di Toledo,
Signora Maria, mother of the Duke, and Ercole II, Duke of Ferrara, with
many others. About the same time, also, he executed in the Palace for
the Carnival, two years in succession, two scenic settings and
prospect-views for comedies, which were held to be very beautiful. And
he painted a picture of singular beauty that was sent to King Francis in
France, wherein was a nude Venus, with a Cupid who was kissing her, and
Pleasure on one side with Play and other Loves, and on the other side
Fraud and Jealousy and other passions of love. The Lord Duke had caused
to be begun by Pontormo the cartoons of the tapestries in silk and gold
for the Sala del Consiglio de' Dugento; and, having had two stories of
the Hebrew Joseph executed by the said Pontormo, and one by Salviati, he
gave orders that Bronzino should do the rest. Whereupon he executed
fourteen pieces with the excellence and perfection which everyone knows
who has seen them; but since this was an excessive labour for Bronzino,
who was losing too much time thereby, he availed himself in the greater
part of these cartoons, himself making the designs, of Raffaello dal
Colle, the painter of Borgo a San Sepolcro, who acquitted himself
excellently well.

Now Giovanni Zanchini had built a chapel very rich in carved stone, with
his family tombs in marble, opposite to the Chapel of the Dini in S.
Croce at Florence, on the front wall, on the left hand as one enters the
church by the central door; and he allot