ds Pontormo, that he was forced always to look
kindly upon him, and to love him as a son. The first works of account
that Bronzino executed, while still a young man, were in the Certosa of
Florence, over a door that leads from the great cloister into the
chapter-house, on two arches, one within and the other without. On that
without is a Pieta, with two Angels, in fresco, and on that within is a
nude S. Laurence upon the gridiron, painted in oil-colours on the wall;
which works were a good earnest of the excellence that has been seen
since in the works of this painter in his mature years. In the Chapel of
Lodovico Capponi, in S. Felicita at Florence, Bronzino, as has been said
in another place, painted two Evangelists in two round pictures in oils,
and on the vaulting he executed some figures in colour. In the Abbey of
the Black Friars at Florence, in the upper cloister, he painted in
fresco a story from the life of S. Benedict, when he throws himself
naked on the thorns, which is a very good picture. In the garden of the
Sisters called the Poverine, he painted in fresco a most beautiful
tabernacle, wherein is Christ appearing to the Magdalene in the form of
a gardener. And in S. Trinita, likewise in Florence, may be seen a
picture in oils by the same hand, on the first pilaster at the right
hand, of the Dead Christ, Our Lady, S. John, and S. Mary Magdalene,
executed with much diligence and in a beautiful manner. And during that
time when he executed these works, he also painted many portraits of
various persons, and other pictures, which gave him a great name.

[Illustration: BARTOLOMMEO PANCIATICHI

(_After the painting by =Angelo Bronzino=. Florence: Uffizi, 159_)

_Alinari_]

Then, the siege of Florence being ended and the settlement made, he
went, as has been told elsewhere, to Pesaro, where under the protection
of Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino, besides the above-mentioned
harpsichord-case full of figures, which was a rare thing, he executed
the portrait of that lord and one of a daughter of Matteo Sofferoni,
which was a truly beautiful picture and much extolled. He also executed
at the Imperiale, a villa of the said Duke, some figures in oils on the
spandrels of a vault; and more of these he would have done if he had not
been recalled to Florence by his master, Jacopo Pontormo, that he might
assist him to finish the Hall of Poggio a Caiano. And having arrived in
Florence, he painted as it were by way of pastime, f