les, and movements of those figures, and of the
reasons that had caused Buonarroti to depict certain difficult postures;
in doing which he would speak slowly and sententiously, with great
gravity, so that a company of able craftsmen gave him the name of
Aristotile, which, moreover, sat upon him all the better because it
appeared that according to an ancient portrait of that supreme
philosopher and confidant of Nature, Bastiano much resembled him.

But to return to the little cartoon drawn by Aristotile; he held it
always so dear, that, after Buonarroti's original had perished, he would
never let it go either at a price or on any other terms, or allow it to
be copied; indeed, he would not show it, save only as a man shows
precious things to his dearest friends, as a favour. Afterwards, in the
year 1542, this drawing was copied in oils by Aristotile, at the
persuasion of Giorgio Vasari, who was much his friend, in a picture in
chiaroscuro, which was sent through Monsignor Giovio to King Francis of
France, who held it very dear, and gave a handsome reward to San Gallo.
This Vasari did in order that the memory of that work might be
preserved, seeing that drawings perish very readily.

In his youth, then, Aristotile delighted, as the others of his house
have done, in the matters of architecture, and he therefore gave his
attention to measuring the ground-plans of buildings and with great
diligence to the study of perspective; in doing which he was much
assisted by a brother of his, called Giovan Francesco, who was employed
as architect in the building of S. Pietro, under Giuliano Leno, the
proveditor. Giovan Francesco, having drawn Aristotile to Rome, employed
him to keep the accounts in a great business that he had of furnaces for
lime and works in pozzolana and tufa, which brought him very large
profits; and in this way Bastiano lived for a time, without doing
anything but draw in the Chapel of Michelagnolo, and resort, by means of
M. Giannozzo Pandolfini, Bishop of Troia, to the house of Raffaello da
Urbino. After a time, Raffaello having made for that Bishop the design
of a palace which he wished to erect in the Via di S. Gallo at Florence,
the above-named Giovan Francesco was sent to put it into execution,
which he did with all the diligence wherewith it is possible for such a
work to be carried out. But in the year 1530, Giovan Francesco being
dead, and the siege of Florence in progress, that work, as we shall
relate,