scuring the face of the Sun, and Diana that of the Moon. In the
landscape, all darkened by that gloom, some rocky mountains, shaken by
the earthquake that was caused by the Passion of the Saviour, are seen
shivered into pieces, and certain dead bodies of Saints are seen rising
again and issuing from their sepulchres in various manners; which
picture, when finished, was not displeasing to the gracious judgment of
the greatest painter, sculptor, and architect that there has been in our
times, and perchance in the past. By means of that picture, also, I
became known to the most illustrious Cardinal Farnese, to whom it was
shown by Giovio and Messer Bindo; and at his desire I made for him, in a
picture eight braccia high and four broad, a Justice who is embracing an
ostrich laden with the twelve Tables, and with the sceptre that has the
stork at the point, and the head covered by a helmet of iron and gold,
with three feathers of three different colours, the device of the just
judge. She is wholly nude from the waist upwards, and she has bound to
her girdle with chains of gold, as captives, the seven Vices that are
opposed to her, Corruption, Ignorance, Cruelty, Fear, Treachery,
Falsehood, and Calumny. Above these, upon their shoulders, is placed
Truth wholly nude, offered by Time to Justice, with a present of two
doves representing Innocence. And upon the head of that Truth Justice is
placing a crown of oak, signifying fortitude of mind; which whole work I
executed with all care and diligence, according to the best of my
ability. At this same time I paid constant attention to Michelagnolo
Buonarroti, and took his advice in all my works, and he in his goodness
conceived much more affection for me; and his counsel, after he had seen
some of my designs, was the reason that I gave myself anew and with
better method to the study of the matters of architecture, which
probably I would never have done if that most excellent man had not said
to me what he did say, which out of modesty I forbear to tell.

At the next festival of S. Peter, the heat being very great in Rome,
where I had spent all that winter of 1543, I returned to Florence, where
in the house of Messer Ottaviano de' Medici, which I could call my own,
I executed in an altar-piece for M. Biagio Mei of Lucca, his gossip, the
same conception as in that of Messer Bindo in S. Apostolo, although I
varied everything with the exception of the invention; and that picture,
when fi