f an altar-piece containing the
Conversion of S. Paul for the Church of S. Spirito in Rome. And Salviati
was very well disposed towards Francesco di Girolamo dal Prato, in
company with whom, as has been related above, he studied design while
still a child; which Francesco was a man of most beautiful genius, and
drew better than any other goldsmith of his time; and he was not
inferior to his father Girolamo, who executed every kind of work with
plates of silver better than any of his rivals. It is said that Girolamo
succeeded with ease in any kind of work; thus, having beaten the plate
of silver with certain hammers, he placed it on a piece of plank, and
between the two a layer of wax, tallow and pitch, producing in that way
a material midway between soft and hard, and then, beating it with iron
instruments both inwards and outwards, he caused it to come out in
whatever shapes he desired--heads, breasts, arms, legs, backs, and any
other thing that he wished or was demanded from him by those who caused
votive offerings to be made, in order to attach them to those holy
images that were to be found in any place where they had received
favours or had been heard in their prayers. Francesco, then, not
attending only to the making of votive offerings, as his father did,
worked also at tausia and at inlaying steel with gold and silver after
the manner of damascening, making foliage, figures, and any other kind
of work that he wished; in which manner of inlaid work he made a
complete suit of armour for a foot-soldier, of great beauty, for Duke
Alessandro de' Medici. Among many medals that the same man made, those
were by his hand, and very beautiful, which were placed in the
foundations of the fortifications at the Porta a Faenza, with the head
of the above-named Duke Alessandro; together with others in which there
was on one side the head of Pope Clement VII, and on the other a nude
Christ with the scourges of His Passion. Francesco also delighted in the
work of sculpture, and cast some little figures in bronze, full of
grace, which came into the possession of Duke Alessandro. And the same
master polished and carried to great perfection four similar figures,
made by Baccio Bandinelli--namely, a Leda, a Venus, a Hercules, and an
Apollo--which were given to the same Duke. Being dissatisfied, then,
with the goldsmith's craft, and not being able to give his attention to
sculpture, which calls for too many resources, Francesco, having