assist the three sisters and two younger brothers left to me by my
father, I placed myself with a goldsmith. But not for long, because in
the year 1529, the enemy having come against Florence, I went off with
the goldsmith Manno, who was very much my friend, to Pisa, where,
setting aside the goldsmith's craft, I painted in fresco the arch that
is over the door of the old Company of the Florentines, and some
pictures in oils, which were given to me to execute by means of Don
Miniato Pitti, at that time Abbot of Agnano without the city of Pisa,
and of Luigi Guicciardini, who was then in that city. Then, the war
growing every day more general, I resolved to return to Arezzo; but, not
being able to go by the direct and ordinary road, I made my way by the
mountains of Modena to Bologna. There, finding that some triumphal
arches were being decorated in painting for the coronation of Charles V,
young as I was I obtained some work, which brought me honour and profit;
and since I drew passing well, I would have found means to live and work
there. But the desire that I had to revisit my family and other
relatives brought it about that, having found good company, I returned
to Arezzo, where, finding my affairs in a good state after the diligent
care taken of them by the above-named Don Antonio, my uncle, I settled
down with a quiet mind and applied myself to design, executing also some
little things in oils of no great importance. Meanwhile the above-named
Don Miniato Pitti was made Abbot or Prior, I know not which, of S. Anna,
a monastery of Monte Oliveto in the territory of Siena, and he sent for
me; and so I made for him and for Albenga, their General, some pictures
and other works in painting. Then, the same man having been made Abbot
of S. Bernardo in Arezzo, I painted for him two pictures in oils of Job
and Moses on the balustrade of the organ. And since the work pleased
those monks, they commissioned me to paint some pictures in
fresco--namely, the four Evangelists--on the vaulting and walls of a
portico before the principal door of the church, with God the Father on
the vaulting, and some other figures large as life; in which, although
as a youth of little experience I did not do all that one more practised
would have done, nevertheless I did all that I could, and work which
pleased those fathers, having regard for my small experience and age.
But scarcely had I finished that work when Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici,
passing t