of love for me to buy a very large property in land,
called Frassineto, in Valdichiana, which has been the salvation and the
greatest prop of my house, and will be the same for my successors, if,
as I hope, they prove true to themselves. That portrait, which is in the
possession of the heirs of that Messer Luigi, is said to be the best and
the closest likeness of the infinite number that I have executed. But of
the portraits that I have painted, which are so many, I will make no
mention, because it would be a tedious thing; and, to tell the truth, I
have avoided doing them to the best of my ability. That finished, I
painted at the commission of Fra Mariotto da Castiglioni of Arezzo, for
the Church of S. Francesco in that city, an altar-picture of Our Lady,
S. Anne, S. Francis, and S. Sylvester. And at this same time I drew for
Cardinal di Monte, my very good patron, who was then Legate in Bologna,
and afterwards became Pope Julius III, the design and plan of a great
farm which was afterwards carried into execution at the foot of Monte
Sansovino, his native place, where I was several times at the orders of
that lord, who much delighted in building.

Having gone, after I had finished these works, to Florence, I painted
that summer on a banner for carrying in processions, belonging to the
Company of S. Giovanni de' Peducci of Arezzo, that Saint on one side
preaching to the multitude, and on the other the same Saint baptizing
Christ. Which picture, as soon as it was finished, I sent to my house at
Arezzo, that it might be delivered to the men of the above-named
Company; and it happened that Monsignor Giorgio, Cardinal d'Armagnac, a
Frenchman, passing through Arezzo and going to see my house for some
other purpose, saw that banner, or rather, standard, and, liking it, did
his utmost to obtain it for sending to the King of France, offering a
large price. But I would not break faith with those who had commissioned
me to paint it, for, although many said to me that I could make another,
I know not whether I could have done it as well and with equal
diligence. And not long afterwards I executed for Messer Annibale Caro,
according as he had requested me long before in a letter, which is
printed, a picture of Adonis dying in the lap of Venus, after the
invention of Theocritus; which work was afterwards taken to France,
almost against my will, and given to M. Albizzo del Bene, together with
a Psyche gazing with a lamp at Cupid, who